I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside (But Not For Too Long)

Every time I have gone on a beach vacation, I have ended up feeling somewhat bored and wishing I was back home because lying on a deck chair and staring at the horizon isn’t my kind of holiday. Give me a city vacation any time, I grew up in the concrete jungle (okay, KL wasn’t as concrete then as it is now) and I just love walking around in big cities exploring mall after mall.

Two weeks ago, I was invited to join a group of media for a trip to Avillion Port Dickson. My last trip to good old PD was back in the 90s. I don’t remember much of it other than that food was kind of difficult to find outside of the resort I was staying in. I’d heard much about Avillion thanks to my hairdresser who makes annual trips there every Chinese New Year.

The pick-up point was MidValley at 9am. Our group of 15 arrived punctually and we boarded the bus around 9.15am. It took 1.5 hours to get to Avillion. I didn’t realize it was quite so near. Imagine how much faster you’d get there in a car! I didn’t even have time for forty winks and we’d arrived at our destination.

Avillion is exactly how I pictured a beachside resort to be, plenty of chalets surrounded by coconut trees. It’s a 3 storey resort with the highest storey being the main entrance and lobby. The conference rooms and souvenir shop as well as Crow’s Nest coffee house are on the 2nd floor while the 1st floor is where you’ll find the 2 swimming pools and 240 chalets and villas. It offers 23 acres of coast scenery, rather picturesque if you like that kind of scene. I understand that the resort is full on weekends. It has a reputation as being one of the best or perhaps the best resort in PD, hence its popularity.

When we arrived, we were ushered to a lounge where welcome drinks are served to newly arrived guests. You can see the swimming pool and some of the chalets from this lounge where newspapers are available. This is a nice quiet place to relax and chill out.

The centre of activity of the resort is the Village Swimming Pool, popular with families. I felt like going for a swim too but we had a presentation to attend and a visit to the spa followed lunch. Too bad I cannot reveal what the brand or products are until July but I can tell you that some of the products are very interesting and innovative.

Doesn’t the pool look too inviting? I would have liked to just remain immersed in the water because it’s such a cool respite from the intense heat. There weren’t that many guests in the pool either, I do so dislike a crowded pool. There’s a poolside café and guests basking in or by the pool can order a snack and/or a drink.

This is a resort where a lot of walking is required, by city slicker standards of course. Although our luggage was delivered to our respective rooms, when we checked out, I brought my luggage to the lobby which meant walking across the adults’ only swimming pool, pet farm, poolside café, up some steps and to the lift which brought me to the lobby. For exercise, skip the lift and walk up the flights of stairs. There’s a small souvenir shop selling swimwear, beachwear and tidbits but I couldn’t get a reload card for my mobile phone from there.

Shimmering in the sunlight is a lone white building and that’s Avillion’s Avi Spa, floating in the azure blue waters. Okay not quite azure but I am trying my best here to make it sound good. Actually, the interior is quite lovely with comfortable spa beds on which you recline while you enjoy your spa session and this we did as we tried some of the products from the brand which was our host for the trip.

Ah, this is the life! Think of nothing and just lie back for some pampering. This is my first media trip out of town and I hope it won’t be the last. It’s certainly nice not to have to think of having to drive home in heavy traffic after the session, to know that there’s a room waiting for me.

Outside the spa, there’s this blue sofa which can seat more than a dozen people overlooking the water. Great spot for some posing but as you can see, this isn’t a selfie. It was very, very hot on that day and it was much cooler outside than in the spa’s café where the air-con wasn’t functioning which led to a headache even before I was assigned my room.

We had 3.5 hours to rest before dinner time. With so many chalets which all look identical, it can be confusing finding your room but there are plenty of helpful staff around. I found my room by walking through a meandering wooden walkway. The brand’s new products were waiting for me on the four poster king-sized bed and next to it is a queen-sized day bed so this is a very spacious room indeed. The air-con took some time to cool down the room, it was such a humid day.

But what’s this on the bed? Yikes! It’s a pareo for me to be creative with. I have a better chance being creative with make-up but a pareo? No way Jose! Might as well ask me to do flower arranging or paint, neither of which I have any skills for. I don’t have a single creative bone in my body for tying a pareo which led to me being a little stressed and fretful out for the next few hours until dinner time as I posed in front of the mirror trying to figure out how to tie the piece of cloth. Maybe I could feign illness and skip dinner? After all, I genuinely had a headache from being cooped up in the spa’s café. Oh well, I just had to improvise and no, I don’t have a photo of myself in my terribly uncreative pareo because I don’t want any memories of it. Maybe in a group shot but I’m not looking at it. When I saw all the other ladies in their pareos, I realized that I could have won a prize for most uncreative pareo but sadly they weren’t giving any prize for that category. I have to watch some youtube videos on tying pareos, you never know when such skills will come in useful.

Let’s move on to the bathroom which is also very spacious. There’re two showers, one in the bath tub and one is a rain shower as you can gaze up at the sky as you shower. You can hear the water below from the bath room as there’s an open space next to the rain shower where you can look down at the water so be careful not to drop anything down there otherwise you’ll never find it again. The toilet itself is within its own room next to the bath tub.

Very well stocked where toiletries are concerned as there’s shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, shower gel, soap, tooth brush, emery board. There’s more than enough for my one night’s stay. They need to improve on the housekeeping though as I found some hair in the bath tub. Gross, I know. I would rather not think about it.

That night’s dinner was a prepared barbecue which means there was no one standing over the grill. All the food was already in the containers in the café by the poolside. The best fare was probably the chicken satay which went very quickly and had I known that they don’t replenish, I would have grabbed a few more sticks since the rest of the fare was really not up to the mark especially the “otak-otak” which looked and tasted like a piece of wood as it was so overcooked and dry.

Since I didn’t have enough satay and the rest of the fare was so-s0, I went for the desserts. The sago gula Melaka was the best and I had 3 cups of these since I didn’t want to go hungry during the night and have to order room service or be forced to make a late night visit to the souvenir shop.

A unique feature of this resort is that it has a pet farm and on this farm, there are chickens, peacocks and rabbits running or in the rabbits’ case, hopping around gleefully with one another. This particular peacock likes to hang around the adults’ only swimming pool and isn’t it a gorgeous fella? I wonder if they all have names? During breakfast, there were chickens walking around the tables and I sincerely hope none of them ended up on the buffet table.

Perhaps Avillion is a popular beach resort because of its proximity to KL. There were several other corporate groups during our trip there. It was the ideal location for the host brand because their new products are all about hydration. I hope I am not giving too much away here.

Thanks to the spaciousness of the resort, there was never a claustrophobic feeling even though walking to my room at night, I kept looking over my shoulder. I didn’t have a sound sleep only because I kept thinking my safety was a bit vulnerable due to the absence of safety features on the windows. Can’t blame me for being paranoid since I was all alone. There are several look-out points around the resort where you can sit on a deck chair and chill with a book. This is a beach resort to come to if you want to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life for a day or two. I don’t mind a stay of a night or two but any more than that and I get fidgety. I have to be surrounded by retail, maybe I am too much of a city slicker!