19 Jun 2015 - Port Dickson Day 2: Blue Lagoon Beach

My original plan was to walk to the beach that is just beside Lexis Hibiscus.  However when I looked at beach condition, I turned back because it was still under construction.  There were even cranes parked on the beach which made me feel very unsafe.

In order not to disappoint the kids, we quickly googled for other nearby beaches.  With the help of google and my GPS, we arrived to a beach (below).  Once again this beach was not ideal as the sand was pretty coarse and most importantly, there was no shade.  All of us will get serious sun burnt under the hot sun.

During my research prior to this trip, I recalled there is a beach called the Blue Lagoon.  And this beach was actually just round the corner, a 5 mins drive.  As we stepped out of our car, we immediately knew that this IS the beach!

First of all, there are plenty of trees that provide the much needed shelter from the hot sun.  Furthermore, the sand is clean and the sea is calm.  In fact the sea water is very shallow which is a result of the bay's naturally deep recess and sandbanks that protect the Blue Lagoon from strong tides and currents.

I can actually walk very far out into the sea.  Try locating me in the following photo.  If you cannot see me, try enlarging the photo.

The sea here reminds me of Yin Yang sea in Taipei whereby there are different shades of colors.  Somehow I find it nicer here......  :-)

As a matter of fact, we actually came to this beach before during our last trip to Port Dickson three years ago.  However in my memory, this beach was very crowded and dirty.  It was definitely not the case this time round.  Probably it's because we came here during weekday and at this hour (around noon).  It's as though we own the entire beach as we are the only people around.

I would highly recommend this beach to anyone who will be visiting Port Dickson one of these days.

19 Jun 2015 - Port Dickson Day 2: Exploring Lexis Hibiscus

Our plan for today is to bring Jerlene and Javier to a beach.  However when we woke up, we were "greeted" by a sea of rain cloud over the villas.  As such, we decided to stay within the vicinity for a while to see if the cloud will disperse later.  In the meantime, we called for the buggy service to bring us to the hotel lobby.

At first, we thought of taking the lift to the top most floor of the hotel so that we can have a good view of the entire Hibiscus villas.  However, as the guest rooms are still not ready, we can only walked around the first two floors.  At the moment, only the meeting rooms are ready.

As we explored further, we went into a room where there is a table tennis table, 4 table tennis bats and 2 ping pong balls.  Jerlene and Javier were very excited and immediately picked up the bats and started hitting the ball.  Before today, they had only played table tennis on Wii and XBox Kinect.  This is the first time they got to experience the real game.

Though they spent most of their time picking up balls from the floor, they still enjoyed the game very much.  Unknowingly, we spent about an hour in this room.  As I saw the sky was getting clear, I told the kids it's time to go.  Initially they were quite reluctant to stop the game but when they heard that we will be going to the beach, they quickly put down the bats and left the room.

Going to the beach is another activity that Jerlene and Javier had been looking forward to in this trip.

18 Jun 2015 - Port Dickson Day 1: Dinner at Weng Yin Seafood Village

By the time we all finished washing up after the swim, it was already 9pm.  We decided to go somewhere nearby for dinner.  Weng Yin Seafood Village is just a 10mins drive from the hotel so that's where we went for our dinner.

As it was already pretty late, there is no more white rice.  That's ok for us because Jerlene, Javier and mommy don't really like rice anyway.  Below are the few dishes that we ordered.

Minced Meat Tofu

Butter Crayfish

 White Hor Fun

Sweet and Sour Pork 

Fried Baby Kailan 

The total bill for the above dishes was RM62, which is about SGD22.  Food is really cheap in MY after the currency conversion.

18 Jun 2015 - Port Dickson Day 1: Premium Pool Villa, Lexis Hibiscus

We were back at Lexis Hibiscus around 6pm and we got our room key immediately from the reception.  Our room is a Premium Pool Villa which is located at one of the petals of the hibiscus.  As it is quite a distance from the main lobby, we had to take the buggy service to our room.

The room is very huge with two king sized beds.

Even so, there is still plenty of walking space in the room.

That's not all.  From the room, there is a door that leads to another section of the villa.  Here is like a walk-in wardrobe cum vanity area.  Of course, there are also a toilet and a shower cubicle.

On the floor, there is a glass panel for us to view the marine life below.  However, as the water in Port Dickson is never clear, it's very unlikely that you will see anything.

Finally, as we walked outdoor from the vanity area, we came to our private pool, which is what the kids are looking forward to.

Next to the pool is a Steam Bath room, which is what Mommy is looking forward to.  While Jerlene, Javier and myself were swimming in the pool, mommy will do her hot yoga in the steam bath room.

Even though the pool is not very huge, Jerlene and Javier were still enjoying themselves very much.

We spent more than an hour in the pool till the sky turned dark.  We had a very nice sunset view of the surrounding villas.

18 Jun 2015 - Port Dickson Day 1: Alive 3D Art Gallery

We finished our lunch at about 2:30pm.  As our room will only be ready after 4pm, we decided to explore some interesting places in Port Dickson before heading back to the hotel.  When we did our research on Port Dickson prior to this trip, we were surprised that there is an attraction called the "Alive 3D Art Gallery" in such a small town.  It is similar to the Trickeye Museum that we went previously in Seoul as well as the one at Resort World Sentosa.

After we purchased the admission tickets, we have to rent a locker to keep our shoes.  Yes, shoes are not allowed in the gallery.  We were glad that we came here on a weekday because there were very few people around.  At every camera spot, we were able to take our own sweet time for photo shooting without any stress of people waiting in line.  From some of the reviews on the internet, this place can be very crowded during weekends and public holidays.

Below are some of the photos that we took at the gallery.

Beware of the Octopus, Kids!

 Where's your parachute, Jerlene?

 "Roar", Javier the Giant is here!

 Be careful, Jerlene!  Daddy's coming to get you!

 Hey!  Who shrunk mommy?

 Children, help me to carry Tower of Pisa home!

 Let's meet the new additions to Jia Jia and Kai Kai.  They are Jer Jer and Jav Jav.

 Nice ride, daddy!

Mommy accidentally pours the water out of this picture!

 Javier:"Be careful, I'm going to light the bomb now!"

 Isn't this a familiar scene in a movie?

 OMG, his is HUGE!

 Kids, you can stop pumping now, they are already floating!

 A scene in Avatar, the movie.

 Practising Kungfu with Po and Master Shifu.

 Tai Tai having afternoon tea with Monalisa.

 Daddy is trapped!

 So it's not the manhole that blows up Marilyn Monroe's skirt.  It's Jerlene using a hairdryer!

Let's meet our pet T-Rex.

 Javier, watch your back!

 Daddy needs help!

 Treasure hunting adventure in an ancient pyramid tomb.

 Mommy is so hungry that she's eating sands.......

 Jerlene:"Javier, hurry up, get all the gold coins!"

 There's more treasure behind this picture!  Quick tear it apart!

 X-Boy, the new evolution!

 ATM that dispenses unlimited cash!

 Surfboarding champion in action!

 Jerlene:"Here are my pet dolphins."

 Daddy:"Help, I can't hold it any longer!"

 Nice split, mommy!

 We are at the top of the world!

 The wind is strong up there, must hold the pole tight!

 The youngest Cliffhangers in the world.

 Poor Santa!

 Jerlene holding a huge mirror.

 Javier in Venice!

 Let's break through the wall!

 Here's your Teh Tarik, Jerlene!

We spent about 2 hours at the gallery.  As we left the place, we saw a group of visitors arriving.  Glad that we came and left at the right time.  Before returning to our hotel, we decided to go to a nearby Giant Hypermart to buy some snacks and drinks.

In the evening, this place gets very crowded as there were Pasar Malam stalls being setup around the perimeter of the mall.