Our family of 5 adults, 3 teens and 4 kids love going on road trips in Malaysia together! We went to Ipoh, Genting, Port Dickson & Melaka in 2022 and Kuala Lumpur in 2023!
This year, our 10D9N itinerary was as follows:
Singapore >> Ipoh (Cameron Highlands day trip) >> Club Med Cherating Beach >> Desaru >> Johor Bahru >> Singapore
We agreed to meet at 5.30am so that we can cross the causeway early. However, I barely slept the night before as the Littlest had woken me up at 1am and I had trouble returning to sleep after waking up. By the time I was finally in dreamland, it was time to wake up! I was so exhausted! 🐼😵
We loaded our boot with all our luggage and piled into the car. Thankfully, we managed to clear customs very quickly as there was no queue at the Tuas Checkpoint!
.JPG) |
We headed straight to Restoran Dim Sum Jinbo for breakfast. The journey there was surprisingly fast as there were no road works or traffic jams! We arrived at around 8.30am 😁
.jpg) |
| Restoran Dim Sum Jinbo address: 89 & 88, Jln MPK 2, Taman Bukit Kepayang, 70200 Seremban, Negeri Sembilan |
.JPG) |
| Menu |
We ordered a variety of dim sum to try and enjoyed the food! 😋
.JPG) |
| Full spread! |
We finished our breakfast and continued our journey. Seremban was a good pitstop as it was the halfway point of our route to Ipoh and Jinbo was located right next to the expressway (for easy exit and entry)!
Traffic to Ipoh was smoother than expected and we arrived at 1.30pm, earlier than planned! We had lunch at our favourite Tuck Kee Restaurant.
.JPG) |
| Tuck Kee Restaurant address: 1-3, Jalan King, Jalan Pasir Pinji, 31650 Ipoh, Perak |
As we were not that hungry, we only ordered the restaurant's famous dishes!
.JPG) |
| Famous Ipoh bean sprouts |
.JPG) |
| Roast duck |
.JPG) |
| Crispy melt-in-your-mouth roast pork belly! Yum 😋 |
During lunch, our accommodation host, VERVE management, Whatsapp me with the details of our check-in. As we could only check in at 3pm but we had finished lunch early, we stopped by Jaya Grocer at Ipoh Parade for groceries.
After shopping, we headed to the 5-bedroom landed house we had booked via Agoda because our previous accommodation at Octagon (also managed by VERVE) was not available. The 1-storey, 2000 square metres house cost about $240 per night, which was value-for-money!
We arrived at a white house with grey trimmings and classy black gates. The huge front yard could easily fit both our MPVs, with room to spare! Having ample parking space for both cars was a key consideration for choosing this accommodation.
.JPG) |
| Our home in Ipoh |
The check-in process was easy as VERVE provided clear instructions on how to retrieve the remote for the gate and unlock/lock the main door's automatic lock.
The sofa in the living room was huge and comfortable; it was extremely popular with the kids every evening.
.JPG) |
| Living and dining |
There were 3 bedrooms in the main house and 2 bedrooms in the annex next to the courtyard. Each room had at least 1 queen bed and some had additional mattresses to accommodate more people.
.JPG) |
| Main house bedroom 2 |
.JPG) |
| Main house bedroom 3 |
The 3 rooms in the main house had sheets that didn't feel clean to us. Some of us resorted to covering the sheets with our own clothes/towels in order to sleep.
The main house also had 2 toilets side by side, which was unique and really useful for our large family!
.jpg) |
| Side by side toilets |
The full-sized pool table was placed outside the 2 toilets, next to sliding doors that led out to the courtyard.
.jpg) |
| Pool table and courtyard |
The 2 bedrooms at the annex in the courtyard were accessed through sliding doors. Both rooms shared 1 toilet, which can be convenient or inconvenient, depending on how you look at it.
.JPG) |
| Annex bedroom 1 |
.JPG) |
| Annex bedroom 2 |
Surprisingly, the bedsheets in both Annex rooms were clean and we generally had no issues, other than the loud whishing from the airconditioners (thankfully it didn't bother us).
The kitchen was not as well-stocked as the house in Blue Mountain, and the utensils and sponges were very old. We were prepared for this as seasoned travellers, and brought our own sponges, cloths and rubbish bags! 😀 The saving grace of the kitchen was the water dispenser and working washing machine (which we used every night to wash our clothes)!
.JPG) |
| Kitchen |
The key highlight of this house was definitely the relatively large private pool in the courtyard!
.JPG) |
| Private pool overlooking the mountains |
After we had settled in, the adults headed out to buy dinner back for the family. I stayed behind to watch the little kids swim while the Eldest Girl took a nap.
.JPG) |
| Playing in the pool |
.JPG) |
| Took me forever to blow up the unicorn float |
The kids were extra rowdy that day and I had to shout more than usual to ensure their safety. I had to constantly separate fights or make sure no one did anything dangerous like running on wet tiles. By the end of the afternoon, it became clear that I have lost my voice from all the yelling! 😭😖😫
It was so hot that I soon joined the little kids in the pool while my older nephews played at the pool table!
.JPG) |
| Pool table was a hit with the Dads and teens! They played every morning and night! 🤭 |
The other adults finally returned after getting our dinner from Ipoh Restoran Tuck Kee (address: 61, Jalan Yau Tet Shin, Taman Jubilee, 30300 Ipoh, Perak) and Funny Mountain Soya Beancurd. We had dinner and chatted about our plans for the next day.
I was so sure that I would retire early for the night after I got my Littlest to sleep. However, I ended up sleeping later than expected as I had to hang the laundry! 😅
When my head finally hit my pillow, I slept soundly 😴 It had been a long day!
