Headed to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a 9-day eat-venture while the husband was on business.
I was previously in a job where I had to travel a lot because the events that my company was organising were mainly based in the Asia Pacific region. KL was one of the cities that I often flew to for meetings but I never had the chance to properly explore the place and enjoy its local eats and street food.
Needless to say, I was pretty excited to finally be able to do so on this trip. Well, if I wasn’t in my hotel room blogging on my laptop, I would be out hunting for food, lol. How nice indeed. And that was basically how I spent my 9 days there which was totally stress-free and super therapeutic.
Since both my grandmothers passed away earlier this year in February, I really struggled. I told myself to leave everything behind and go away temporarily just so I could find peace again. I was glad I did. KL isn’t an ideal place for a relaxing getaway because it’s such a hectic city but this trip was special to me because I took the first step and it was a right move.
As I’m writing this post, I’ve also booked 2 more holidays to Vietnam and Thailand. My goal is to travel and eat the whole of Asia and I hope these experiences will further inspire my cooking when I return. I’m still trying to find light at the end of the tunnel but I just want to treat myself better while I heal. And I’m sure that’s what Gran is hoping I will do from now on.
When I travelled previously, I would almost always charge all my flight/hotel purchases and retail spend to my AMEX Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer credit card because the miles (+ bonuses) earned could be credited directly into my KrisFlyer account. I had flown many times on Singapore Airlines (it’s my preferred choice of airline for long-haul flights) so I managed to accumulate a lot of miles that I had redeemed for return flights to UK and Asia. Another perk that I like about the card is that when I have clocked enough miles to be upgraded to a KrisFlyer Elite Gold member (for 12-month period after which would need to clock miles again to re-qualify), I can have priority check-in, extra baggage allowance and I can also gain complimentary access to the KrisFlyer Gold Lounge (available at T2 and T3) which offers a better atmosphere and wider spread of food than this lounge I’m writing about now. So yes, if you intend to make SIA and its partners your primary choice of airlines, then it’s worth applying for the AMEX Singapore Airlines Krisflyer credit card.
As I’m thinking of exploring more of Asia in the time to come, flying on budget airlines would be the most economical option for short-haul flights. I thought I would try out a new travel credit card and so I applied for the ANZ Travel Visa Signature Credit Card as it provides pretty decent benefits for travellers such as –
- complimentary access to airport lounges worldwide
- complimentary travel and accident insurance coverage (when air tickets are charged to the card)
- earning Travel$ to redeem for airport limousine transfers or to offset hotel stays and flight tickets
It’s probably more worth it if you often travel on Qantas and Jetstar or spend money while on holiday in Australia and New Zealand as you can earn bonus air miles.
To be honest, I was just keen on the complimentary airport lounge access, lol.
My flight to KL was a Jetstar one so that brought me to Changi Airport Terminal 1.
Before ANZ recently changed the terms and conditions for the travel card, accessing airport lounges was as easy as showing the receptionist your credit card and boarding pass. Well, I shall write more about the changes later.
So anyway, the Airport Wellness Oasis Lounge is located in the Departure Transit Lounge East on Level 2 near Gate D. It’s hidden between The Times Bookshop and the escalator. This lounge is open 24/7.
It’s a small lounge but it’s still cosy enough to take a rest in.
This lounge is more like a spa place where you can rest and rejuvenate with a foot reflexology, neck & shoulder massage, body massage, fish spa and more. All are chargeable at additional costs.
There are two fish spa pools here. After seeing how much algae there were in the pools, I just lost interest to go for it. Really wondered if the pools had ever been cleaned. Yikes.
Food spread for breakfast was quite small. This was just everything that was there.
On the table in front, there were sliced bread, banana cake, pandan cake, packaged Swiss rolls, cup noodles, cereals and tidbits.
And at the back, there were cream of chicken soup, hard-boiled eggs, waffles, hash browns and frankfurters. There were also cheese sandwiches and salad in the mini fridge below.
Beverages included coffee (from machine), tea, canned Coca-Cola and green tea, some orange cordial or juice and water.
Well, the food was mediocre and looked really pathetic – nothing to shout about. And what made it worse was that they were all cold except for the soup that was kept warm.
The only thing that I liked was the Ritz crackers which I dipped into my mocha.
Miserable breakfast that wasn’t worth the calories. But since I had so much time left before boarding, I still spent my time here playing games on my iPad (there’s free wifi – stable & fast speed) and enjoying my cuppa in total privacy and peace as there were only 1 or 2 more persons in the lounge when I was there.
If you’re interested to visit this lounge next time, you may check out their website http://www.myfootairport.com.sg for more details.
From September 2016, ANZ’s terms and conditions for airport lounge access had been altered. Previously, the card gave us unlimited access to all Veloce airport lounges worldwide and there wasn’t any pre-requisite to enjoy the complimentary access so you just need to produce your credit card and boarding pass and that was it. Now, ANZ has partnered DragonPass and cardholders would need to meet a minimum spend of S$10,000 per calendar quarter to be able to receive 2 complimentary airport lounge access passes which can then be redeemed via the DragonPass mobile app. That means we can only have 2 passes per calendar quarter up to a maximum of 8 passes per calendar year.
Meh. ?? Time for my ANZ card to retire.