MGM Grand Sanya (Hainan)

Sharing some pics of my stay at MGM Grand Sanya back in April :)

Beds are not as comfy as Sheraton's beds (duh) but chose to stay at the MGM as it was one of the newer hotels. Also, the cab driver had no idea what I meant when I said "MGM hotel," I had to give him the Chinese name of the hotel. I would have thought it was easily understood since MGM is just like alphabets put together?

The hotel's private beach. Sounds so posh, amirite? Each of the hotels along that strip on Yalong Bay has its own private beach. In fact, I think you actually have to pay to enter the beach on Yalong Bay, not unusual in Sanya, where you have to pay for practically everything. Pay to enter an attraction, pay more to use a facility in the attraction, you get my drift. But you can avoid paying by strolling into one of the hotels and entering the beach through the hotel.

Sunset from the room.

Went out to La Floret, the only mall within walking distance of the hotel, for dinner.

Pork (?) dumplings.

Ordered pork dumplings but it tasted and smelled like mutton? Did not want it to go to waste so just ate it and prayed it wasn't dog meat or something lol.

Nothing except a supermarket and restaurants in La Floret, so went back to the hotel after dinner.

 

Anyone fancy a late night dip in the sea? ;)

Next morning, my favorite part about staying in a hotel, the breakfast buffet!!!

Mmmm, carbs...

 

2 of my favorite things, waffles and pancakes, right next to each other. I gasped. The waffles were heavenly. And they even had CINNAMON BUTTER to go along with it. *crying* I need to have this again :'(

WTF they even had my favoritest dessert ever, bread pudding, are they trying to kill me? Most perfect breakfast buffet EVER! I think I ate a whole week's worth of breakfast here.

The stay cost about $300 a night but I think it's highly worth staying for at least one night. It was the highlight of the trip for me. Everything else was meh in comparison.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Skypark

Some photos I took back in April but was too lazy to upload...

The room:

View of the Gardens by the Bay from the balcony. I think it was still under construction at that time.

Loved the room! Very spacious, nice, big bathroom and amazing views.

My cousin at the kiddie pool.

One major gripe I had was how crowded the pool was! It doesn't look like it in the shot above but it was actually really crowded, like a community center swimming pool. But I suppose it can't be helped given how many guests they have at any one time.


The Skypark:

At night:

The infinity pools at night. This was after they just re-opened the pools. They had to close it earlier due to the rain. But yeah, I think the pools are much less crowded in the evenings.

Paris Day 1 - Hotel Niel & Chanel Avenue Montaigne

Have been wanting a Chanel for a while now but since the recent price increases (yes, plural!), the prices here in SG have become even more atrocious than ever. The price in Paris is more than SGD1000 less and that is NOT even accounting for VAT refund! Figured that I might as well use the SGD1000+ I'll be saving by buying from the Paris store rather than the SG one to take a short trip in Paris.

Landed in Paris at around 2.00 pm and immediately headed off to the hotel to drop our bags. I wanted to book Hotel de Rouen, the hotel which we stayed in the last time we were Paris, but I couldn't contact the hotel, even after trying both emailing and calling them. So we stayed in Hotel Niel in Ternes, which was pretty close to Champs-Élysées. The rates were pretty good, about EUR90 per day, and the rooms were pretty good for a 3-star hotel. Apparently the walk-in rate is EUR190 for a twin room.

3 beds! Rach, wish you were here lol.

The bathroom was pretty big, too, for Paris standards anyway. But one major gripe was the lack of a shower curtain for the bathtub! It's something so cheap and easy to install, but it makes such a huge difference. When we wanted to take a shower in the morning, we had to take special care to try not to have too much water splash out to prevent the place from flooding.

View outside the room.

Once we put our luggage down, it was off to hunt for some Chanels! First stop was the rue Cambon store, since there were 2 other Chanel stores nearby in case the store didn't have what we wanted. And guess what, NONE of the stores had what I wanted, it was sold out everywhere apparently, CURSES *shakes fist*

Some sights on the way...

Went to the newly renovated Avenue Montaigne store to try our luck...

As expected, they didn't have it either. In the end, after much deliberation in the store and 'help' from the SA (I say 'help', cos I ended up spending a lot more than I intended to, the SAs were actually really nice!), decided to get a classic item instead.

My first Chanels: Reissue 224 and a small Classic Flap \o/