Trip to Cherating: Day 1 (Part 2) - Juan Or Met New Friend

After buying keropok lekor and some dry fish crackers, we headed to Cherating Impiana Resort where we will be spending the night and of course the faculty meetings.We reached the hotel at around 11.30am.

Just when we thought we were the earliest to arrive, apparently one colleague and his family had already arrived there since 10.30 am or so. So turned out we were the second earliest to arrive.


While waiting for our room to be ready for check-in, Papa took the opportunity to surf the internet using the wi-fi facility (which is only available at the lobby area) while Juan Or occupied his time by watching his Tom and Jerry DVD cartoon (Mommy brought two laptops along for that purpose!).

While the boys were busy with the laptops, Mommy took the opportunity to look around the hotel lobby area. This was how the lobby area looked like.

Then somewhere around 12 noon plus, Mommy received SMS from the main troupe that those who had already arrived at the hotel can go ahead and have their lunch first at the hotel's restaurant. It was a buffet lunch with a humble spread of Malaysian dishes - about 4 or 5 main dishes and a soup, plus desserts and ulam (Malay version of salad). It was at the restaurant that we met the other colleague's family who arrived earlier than us. There was where Juan Or met a new friend, Jonathan Tennant, who is 3 to 4 years older.


Juan Or did not immediately click with Jonathan - yes, Juan Or has always been shy with unfamiliar faces, but eventually with Jonathan constantly looking and smiling at him and with Jonathan's mum inviting Juan Or to join them at the hotel's swimming pool and playing water gun, plus Mommy constantly asking Juan Or whether he wanted to join Jonathan Koko or not, Juan Or eventually opened up. What's more, both of them loved looking at fish swimming in the pond overlooking the restaurant, so much so both of them became good friends with Jonathan putting his arm over Juan Or's shoulder!

Here's another 'good friend' pose! ^_^

Here are two more of Mommy's favourite photos of the day!

Later at about 2 pm, then only did the main troupe arrived. They had their lunch while Mommy had just finished lunch while Papa who had already finished his lunch much, much earlier (Papa's a fast eater!) went ahead to unload our luggage from the car to our room.

This was how our room looked like.

See the window at the top right hand corner of the photo? That's the bathroom's window. Hehehe....that's for you to peep at who's taking bath! ^_^ Supposedly that's for the bathroom's ventilation, right? Hehehehe.......as soon as Papa sensed Mommy going in to do a big business, Papa immediately closed the window and the window remained closed for the rest of our stay! Hahahahahaha! This is a classic example of how sometimes some things may look nice in interior designing terms, but actually it's not practical! ^_^

On the other hand, Juan Or seemed to get himself comfy with the room immediately. He immediately liked what he saw and started jumping happily on the bed (it was a king-sized bed!)! He was also able to drink milk without hesitation in the new environment considering he had previous history of drinking-milk-problem in places other than the babysitter's house. Here he was, drinking milk at the indoor verendah-like bench.

The faculty's general meeting was scheduled to start at 3.30 pm and then immediately followed by Foundation in Science Annual Programme Review meeting at 5.00 pm (this was the meeting which was chaired by Mommy), so Mommy quickly took bath of Juan Or since he had substantially dirtied himself during lunch and after that Mommy took bath as well. Then Mommy left the room for the meetings while Papa and Juan Or stayed in the room to rest and enjoy themselves.


Finally the meetings ended at 6.30 pm, Mommy went back to the hotel room and found Juan Or fast asleep. According to Papa, not too long after Mommy left for the meeting, Juan Or konked out and slept like a log - too tired perhaps. So even if Juan Or accepted Jonathan's mummy's invitation to play water gun in the late afternoon, Juan Or still would not be able to make it because of his tiredness. ^_^

We went for dinner at the hotel's restaurant, went back to the room and watched television and slept early. Mommy was surprised too that Juan Or was willing to sleep early. Otherwise had he been in own house, he wouldn't want to sleep early, he would still want to play and play and play. Mommy reckoned it was probably due to the hotel room's dim lighting which gives you the sleepy and lazy feeling....hahaha! So that night, Mommy got to sleep early - as early as 9.30 to 10.00 pm - never before in Mommy's life after Juan Or came into the world, and indeed a good and ample rest too! Call it luxury sleep! ^_^

That sums up the end of our first day at Cherating.

To be continued......