Lumut (Malaysia) & Ipoh (Malaysia)
26 - 29 December 2025
Planning travel is one of life’s
great joys for me. I’m the kind of person who can look a year ahead, organise
finances, coordinate logistics, plan experiences, and research every detail to
ensure a smooth, well-considered trip. My wife, on the other hand, is perfectly
content to show up and be guided. After nearly ten years together, I think she
has enough confidence in me to know that our holidays will mostly run smoothly.
What’s more, I can carry the excitement and anticipation from the moment the idea
is born right through to boarding—think of me as your travel energy drink
keeping the momentum and enthusiasm alive every step of the way. Certainly, I
involve Inga in decision making, and she is across any of the major decisions
when I need an opinion as to what will benefit us as a collective, case in
point, day 1 of our Malaysia, Sri Lanka & Maldives trip.
The start of this excursion we
were going to be based in Malaysia, mostly so that we could be based on Kuala
Lumpur for the NYE fireworks, it was simple as an idea as that. In advance of
our KL stay, we had wanted to spend some time outside of the capital and maybe
have a fairly ‘light’ and ‘breezy’ kick-off to out end-of-year R&R.
Having had some liberties
bestowed upon me for my willingness to plan, I also have the ability to
construct travel around some of the things that I enjoy, for example, targeting
locations that have a Hard Rock Café, and in Malaysia, there really is an abundance
of riches, for example, Penang, Melaka, Genting Highlands, and Ipoh, to name a
few. We’d already been to Penang, so the other three were options and
thoroughly dependant on how I constructed our travel motion. What our destiny
became therefore, for the first few days as least, was the construct of how we
could get to the Ipoh HRC (after the Genting option was defeated in a close
call), by also being able to enjoy some water parks on the way, an imperative
for Aiden (and also for Inga and myself, if truth be told).
As Genting Highlands morphed into
Ipoh, so my scanning of the West Coast of Malaysia became clearer with each
passing Google Maps search. Influenced by my desire to find a comfortable
relaxing hotel, within striking distance of Ipoh, and one that could occupy
enough of our time in period from Boxing Day to the 29 December, I landed on
the lovely Double Tree by Hilton, Damai Laut resort, in Lumut, as our first
port of call. Underpinned by some lovely scenery of the nearby Pangkor island,
which sat relatively close to the western Malaysian shoreline in the Melaka
Strait, this looked like the right place for all of us to start absorbing those
holiday vibes. What’s more the mini on-site water park, looked like a treat for
Aiden too.
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Now recounting my steps back to
somewhere in the middle of the year, I recall asking Inga whether upon landing
in Kuala Lumpur whether we bunk down for a night at the nearby Sama Sama hotel
next to the airport, catch some sleep which was stolen in transit, and then
drive up to the hotel, OR, whether we just harden up and accept the
3-4hr drive from KL airport on day 1 as simply, ‘paying the price of entry’. Believing that the holiday excitement vibes
would likely carry us through day 1, we opted for pushing the pedal to the
metal and gunning it out of the city.
On reflection, this was our only
dubious call of the trip. We did this. We drove out into the KL morning
traffic, and out of the city, and then we drove, and drove….and drove
through landscapes of perpetual blandness. For all of what Kuala Lumpur is, and
for all that it still yet to discover about it, the drive from KL to Lumut was
soul destroying. Near (5) hours of road with not much to show on the experience
to time scale. Relief only came upon our arrival at the Double Tree. But sure
enough, dropping our bags in our room was our entry pass to holiday
fulfillment. This place was just the tonic we needed. Not overwhelming but more
than pleasant enough for us to unfurl our blankets of adult accountability and
tension, and lay them nicely on a sandy beach bathed in gold sunshine.
The Damai Laut resort was lovely
and obligated us to do not much more than decide upon when we’d head to the
pool, when we would need to acquire drinks and when we should consider having
meals. An enjoyable start to the vacation without being overwhelming.
Our three days at the resort
honestly did feel enough by the time we left, but neither do I think that we
overstayed. As we exited on our last day we made our way north-east to Ipoh, a
town in approximately the centre of the western side of Malaysia, with a
population of nearly 800,000. Located between Kuala Lumpur and Penang, Ipoh has
become both a major transportation hub, and recently, a city that has started
to attract a number of inquisitive tourists. For mine, the drawcard was of
course being able to add another random HRC (Ipoh) to our list of HRC
conquests, and additionally, for Aiden (only lol), was being able to visit the
fabulous Lost World of Tambun waterpark (https://sunwaylostworldoftambun.com/),
which is a Sunway property (apparently significant and well known in Malaysia).
Driving into Ipoh, it felt like
we were in the midst of a revisit to Penang. The same traffic, the same heat
and equivalent type of architecture. The Ipoh HRC was relatively close to the
centre of the city and certainly became a checklist item, without being a
standout. Still, we can say that we’ve been there. Indeed, our visit to the
centre of Ipoh was fairly limited and we only really got to spend some time on Concubine
Street, which was an enjoyable hub of market, café and restaurant activity in
the centre of Ipoh.
After our stop we made our way to
our accommodation for the evening at the nicely appointed Ipoh Sunway Onsen
Suites & Tambun Guesthouse, which literally overlooked the Lost City of
Tambun waterpark. A great property, with an epic swimming pool, this place had
the best ‘bang for buck’ on the trip, with the room rate working out at
approximately $87.50 for one night, which provided us with a 2 bdr apartment,
with cars space, balcony overlooking the park, full kitchen, an ensuite for the
main room. If anyone is looking for a great deal in Ipoh, I certainly recommend
this place.
The next day was spend a full day
at the Lost City waterpark and it was fabulous! Not the biggest or most
impressive waterpark but enough to maintain our interest, and certainly enough
to make Aiden fall in love with a large waterpark that was filled with all
sorts of exhilarating slides – which was the real point. When your child develops
their own sense of exciting for something you also enjoy, well that’s just a
really enjoyable feeling.
With a full day of water bound
excitement already formulating its own pleasant memories, we headed for Kuala
Lumpur. Our small side detour aside, we were returning to the big Capital C to
see out the last few days of 2025, and to experience the count down and NYE
fireworks from the Traders Hotel in KLCC.
Having experienced a NYE
fireworks display at the Traders once before, I knew that its proximity to the Petronas
Towers and its prime vantage point would set us up perfectly for the 2025
finale. So driving down the busy stretch back to KL, there was already a lot
more to be looking forward to!.
