Previously: Part 1 – KL

Background

Our original honeymoon was book-ended with KL and Singapore, with most of the time in the middle spent at a beach hotel in Penang. We came to love one particular restaurant on Batu Ferringhi, but also discovered that we’re not really beach vacation people. So this time we changed things a little, with more time in both KL and Singapore, and a brief break in the middle at the Banjaran Hotsprings Retreat.

Getting there

I considered taking the train from KL Sentral to Ipoh, but there was no service offering nicer seats; and a mundane train could have been the low point of an amazing trip.

We could have also just booked a cab from KL to the Banjaran, but that would have been a bit boring. So to make things more interesting I worked with Ipoh based Jaies Chauffeur Service to put together a combined transfer and tour itinerary. Our driver Rames picked us up right on time and then took us to a whole selection of attractions in the Ipoh area, including caves, Kellie’s Castle and temples. We also stopped off for some great local food, and explored some of the colonial architecture of Ipoh Old Town.

Hotel

The Banjaran is unlike any place I’ve stayed before, as the ‘rooms’ are all standalone villas. We picked a ‘water‘ villa, which had its own hot tub and pool.

The resort also had plenty of places to get wet (and hot) outside the villa, but the villa was so nice it was super tempting to just hang out there. At one stage we just sat on the balcony by the water reading our books (with occasional interruptions from local wildlife).

Ratings:

✓ Accessible HDMI
✓ Good WiFi [1]
✓ Bedside power
✗ Human interaction free Room Service
✓ Tea making apparatus

For 4 Bodils

White Lotus potential: oh yes!

Food

The resort markets Jeff’s Cellar as a ‘gourmand’ destination, and it didn’t disappoint. The venue inside a beautifully lit cave is amazing; the ‘inception’ tasting menu was delightful; and the service was tremendous. Certainly one of the tastiest and most memorable meals of my life.

For our second evening we went with their ‘in private‘ in room BBQ as something different and special for Rachel’s birthday. It also proved to be handy as we could watch the Women’s World Cup final whilst we ate (in style). Once again the food was tremendous. It’s just a shame we didn’t have room for all of it – there was easily enough for four, maybe even six.

Attractions

We didn’t leave the resort during our time there, as there was plenty to do, and it was just too nice. Maybe if we’d stayed another day we’d have joined one of the walks to the Lost World of Tambun attraction next door.

Getting around

On arrival we were taken to our room in a golf cart, and treated to a tour of the various caves and pools and restaurants etc. We saw other guests being ferried around in golf carts, but chose to just walk.

Next: Part 3 – Singapore

Note

[1] The WiFi was really good for regular surfing, but struggled to keep up with streaming the football over an SSH tunnel. There was a wired connection outlet in the living room, but sadly it didn’t seem to be connected to the switch in the utilities cupboard.