Wednesday, 18 July 2018

Travel Log: Glamping for the Witless Urbanites

Destination: Ipoh, Malaysia
Duration: 2 Days 1 Night (Jul 07~Jul 08, 2018)

Glamping – Glamorous Camping has been a niche business for quite some time. For someone who grows up & stays in city all his/her life, glamping may actually be a great experience to sleep under the stars without having to go through ‘Camping for Dummy’. Lost World of Tambun offers glamping package for 2pax/4pax with theme park entrance & breakfast (link) with reasonable pricing. If timing is right, one might actually finds more discounts in Agoda or other booking website.

Day 1: Camping & BBQing for Dummies
We arrived at Lost World Hotel at around 1pm+ and the hotel reception helped us to call the glamping reception. Lo & behold – a cute little buggy showed up to fetch us all the way to the glamping site located deep inside Lost World of Tambun theme park. We were given choices to choose the camp we wanted as we were the last one checking in and they still had more than 1 camps available. We ended up choosing the corner camp beside the swings. I think it was a popular choice as it seemed like the previous camper just checked out and it was still pending for housekeeping.
Ready to start our Glamping!!! 
Giant Alligator?
Work in Progress!
The glamping reception explained our package in detail to us. Our package was entitled to 2 days theme park entrance, breakfast for 4paxs with complementary flying fox & kayaking (which we never utilized – what a shame!!!). The service there was really exceptional and everyone was so helpful. We booked our BBQ dinner with the reception to be at 10pm (anytime from 7pm onwards per the PIC). Since our camp was not yet ready, we left our luggage with the glamping reception to get some food at an old style café at Tin Valley. We had soft-boiled egg, toasted bread & curry chicken before walking back to get into our camp.
Let's take a picture of the landmark!
Meeting with Tribes!
Lil one has an idea for his future career! =P
Riding on an Elephant!!!!
Soft Boiled Egg! Our Favourite!
Very Thick Toasted Bread with Yummy Curry!
Our campsite was really beautiful with picnic table surrounded by well planted landscape. There were 1 king size bed & 2 single beds inside. All of us were really impressed by our camp. The only con was the common washroom was some walk away. After some cam-whoring, we quickly changed into our swimsuits to explore the parks.
Finally our Camp is ready!!! Hooray!!!
Lil ones quickly claim their territories! 
The Families also claimed their Territories!!!
Amenities 
View from our Camp...
It was a cloudy day thus we were not scorched by the sun. We went to the amusement park to get on ride and lil ones seemed to like them. It was quite a small park with short queue thus we got to ride multiple times per attraction. There were also some tiger feeding show where the poor tiger kept falling to catch the food – of course it was the tiger’s fault! =P
At the Tin Valley
On Lupe's Adventures!
Bird & Tiger Show - see the tiger at the back? 
Merry go Round!!!
Locomotive to go around the park!
Giddy Galleon
After the rides & show, we finally went to the water park – we were stuck at “Kids Explorabay” for a long time since lil ones were obsessed with it. I must say we did not try the more adventurous water park activities such as Tube Raider & Cliff Racer. The wave pool did not have any wave at all when we went there – perhaps due to after 6pm. Btw, it seemed like swimsuit was not really compulsory - jersey type clothing would be acceptable as well.
At Kids Explorabay!
Ship Ahoy!
The 43°C infinity pool was definitely a treat as one needed to do some double-take before stepping fully into the hot water. There was a steam cave in the middle and it was really difficult to breathe inside due to all the steam. The cave also led to the foot spa path. We didn’t take any pictures though but I think the infinity pool was definitely the most soothing pool in the park.
Stole this picture from the website of the infinity pool & steam cave - didn't see the Geyser though...
We bought some Ipoh hor fun along the park’s Ipoh street and ate it right beside one of the pools. After food there were more pool dipping again in the 38°C. Saphira’s Lair since hot spring as 43°C seemed to be too hot for the lil ones. There were some fire shows starting at 9pm but we just continued to dip in the water.
Lazing in the water near Ipoh Street
Duckie is about to be eaten!!!
Time to enjoy hot spring!
We finally left the water park at around 9.15pm to get to Luminous Forest to have the ‘avatar’ experience before walking back to our campsite. We took turn to get to the washroom when our BBQ was being setup.
At the Luminous Forest!
Avatar?
Poisonous Flowers to lure the victims?
The Throne!
Giant Caterpillar!
There were tons of food being served (2 tubs of fried rice, 1 tub of salad, 6 chicken wings, 6 skewers & a giant fish) and we suspected the package was for 6pax. Needless to say, we were not able to finish the food! Anyway I’m definitely not one for BBQ – with the price of RM113, I preferred to have my food cooked and served! LOL!!! We ended up with burned food and spilled drinks all over with lil one complaining why we couldn’t just stay in a proper hotel! There goes the camping experience for witless urbanites! *facepalm*
Walking back to our campsite...
Nice view at night!
FOODssss!!!
Uncooked Foods!!!!
Ready to be Burnt!!!!
By the time we settled everything, it was already 12midnight and lil ones had fainted without any prompting. Gosh! Thankfully the weather was really cooling and for some reason there was no mosquito in sight!
KO!!!

Day 2: Trapped in the Rain
We woke up in the morning feeling tired and had to walk over to the washroom to clean up with heavy feet. The glamping reception fetched us to the breakfast area with buggy and the driver told us to call them after breakfast since it was a long walk back to camp. Breakfast was at Garden Terrace located at the theme park’s entrance. The food was alright but the outdoor seating we had was surrounded by flies & mosquitoes! UGH!
The Washroom!
Quite a walk from our Camp...
Lil one is obsessed with this tiger plushie...
Good morning from our Camp!
Finally at the Theme Park Entrance!
Breakfast time!!!
After breakfast, we did not call for the buggy but walked to Petting Zoo instead. One could buy some items to feed the animals there for a small fee. We ended up feeding the raccoon, Guiney pig, rabbit and baby deer (fawn???). Lil ones definitely loved every moments of it and kept asking for more. There were also other animals there but the highlight was definitely the cute ones that we fed. =P
Walking through Ipoh Street
The HotSpring...
Long Walk to Petting Zoo
Is this a horse or a donkey? *facepalm*
Look at that Raccoon!!!
Feeding the Guinea Pig
And the Rabbits!!!

Look at the Raccoon!!!
And the Cute lil Deer... Awww....
Giant Spider at the Tarantula Valley... i think this is much smaller than Shelob...
We walked back to our camp to pack for checkout as it was already near 12noon. Since our theme park passes were for 2 days, we kept our luggage with the reception and continued on to the “Kids Explorabay”.
Some Giraffe & Camel...
Finally back for packing..
More fun at the Pool...
Man down!!!
There was also some wave pool party at the time so we moved to the wave pool instead. There was definitely wave this time and all of us were enjoying the strong waves along with the music & performance. Lil ones were bugging us for cotton candy thus we went to Ipoh Street to get some.
Wave Wave Wave!!!
Lil one got his Cotton Candy...
Finally Happy!
We finally discovered the 40°C hotspring Jacuzzi but the drizzling had started. We ignored it as it was quite negligible but after a while it had become heavy downpour! Everyone was running for cover as the lifeguard started to ask the guests to get out from the pool due to lighting & thunder.
The Jacuzzi is at the top!
Lil one soaking his leg in Hotspring Jacuzzi..
Oh dear! Heavy rain!
The heavy rain continued for 2 hours and we were trapped as our camp site was quite far away. Thankfully the rain was getting lighter at around 5.30pm and the people there helped us to call our camp buggy to fetch us back to campsite. We finally showered and changed before being fetched to our car with buggy again. I must say the glamping crew was really great and their service definitely exceeded our expectation. We were treated like super VIP for the 2 days here. =)
Lil one tries Selfie!!!
Goodbye LWOT!!!
It was dinner time so we’d decided to drive to Ipoh old town to grab some dinner at Tuck Kee. Thankfully there was not much patrons when we arrived. The food was still as nice as we remembered! Yay!!! By the time we left it was already around 8.30pm and we ended up reaching Penang at around 10.30pm. What a day! All in all, a fruitful 2D1N stay (minus the rain) but we did feel that lil ones seemed to be too young to enjoy the glamping experience. Personally the stay was definitely special to me – my 1st time camping since high school! Perhaps we should come back after few years when lil ones had more anticipation for camping. ;)
Nuggets
Fries!
Finally some 'Proper' Foodssss!
KO again!

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