Centara Grand Mirage Pattaya

IN CELEBRATION OF CHANGE

Dad said it was time to celebrate Mum’s new position. After one year and three months of Mum’s dedication to kids at their early ages, we decided that our family is ready to support our working Mum to resume her career from the 1st of July 2011.

In celebration of the good news, we packed our bags with all necessary things and headed to Pattaya.

 

SELECTING THE PLACE TO STAY

Yet another trip to Pattaya, since we had only one night, Pattaya was the best choice due to the limited time  to make reservation and to stay.

The main reasons why Centara Grand Mirage Pattaya was in our mind were its room type and its water park.

Rak and Rome liked climbing up and testing bunk beds at furniture showrooms. It would be a good idea to see whether they really want to  have  bunk beds at home or they just enjoy playing them from time to time. Actually, to our knowledge, there are at least three hotels in Pattaya providing rooms with bunk beds: Pullman Aisawan Pattaya, Birds and Bees Resort, and Centara Grand Mirage Pattaya.

The latter has an extensive water park, lazy river and waterslides for Rak and Rome. Usually, both of them have swimming class two times a week at our village’s swimming pool. They enjoy playing in the swimming pool, like other kids. That led to our final decision on the destination of this trip.

In order to spend as much time as we could at the hotel, we requested an early check-in at twelve o’clock. Unfortunately,  the late check-out possible for us could not be later than one o’clock.

While Mum checked in at the reception, Rak and Rome could not wait any longer to explore the surroundings. This was our second time at this hotel. The first visit was in June 2010. Once we arrived at the hotel, Rak asked where the big elephant was. Dad and Mum were surprised by his memory. Once again, we realized we could never underestimate kids’ brains.

 

EXPLORNG OUR ROOM

The room comprises a separate kids room with bunk beds, a living room with a dining table, a master bedroom, a walk-in closet, a spacious bathroom with an extra deep bathtub and rain shower. There were  two separate toiletries in separate bags for kids too. Our room is a corner room with 3 private terraces, which we used to dry our wet clothes only. It was either too hot or rained, so we did not use the sunbeds at all.

Once the bellboy opened the room’s door, Rak and Rome went straight to the bunk beds, climbed up and down, and jumped over and over again. Rak hurriedly occupied the upper bed, which was quite safe because it was surrounded by a railing to prevent Rak from falling out. In fact, Dad and Mum were not worried about Rak because he always sleeps soundly. On the contrary, Rome normally wriggles all night. Fortunately, there was an additional drawer bed that we could slide out to support Rome, in case he rolled down the bed.

Rak and Rome played in their room quite a while. Then they changed their focus toward a DVD player. This time they chose Mickey Mouse DVD. A few minutes later, the living room has turned to a movie theater with unlimited snacks spread over the sofa, center table, and the floor. Both of them did not go back to the bunk beds anymore.

During bedtime, Mum had to stay in the lower bed with Rome until he fell asleep. As for Rak,, he slept in front of the TV. Mum and Dad had to carry him to the upper bed before we could move to the master bedroom.

 

MAKING EASY DECISION

We actually booked the room with one king-size bed but at the time we had an early check-in, that room was under preparation and we did not want to wait. That’s why we got the room with two queen-size beds instead. The next day, Rak and Rome woke up at 3.30 am. They came to see Dad and Mum and did not go back to their room anymore. That means we definitely can suspend, for a while,  the idea to buy bunk beds for them.

 

WALKING AROUND

On the day we arrived the hotel, there was no sunshine. However, the following morning brought us the clear sky.

Since Rak and Rome woke up so early, Dad was nominated by Mum to look after them until 7 am, or until Mum woke up. Then, it was Mum’s shift at the morning beach, while Dad was in bed again.  We walked around and had a great time on the beach for an hour without a camera. Rak and Mum worked together to build a very big sand town with many houses, buildings, an airport with airplanes and railroad tracks with trains, while Rome was smilingly asking whether he could pour water onto those constructions. Actually, he did not want an answer. He just did it happily.  After an hour, we went back to call Dad to join us at the lazy river.

 

SLIDING DOWN

Last year, Rak and Rome were too small to drift along the lazy river. So we only played in the main swimming pool, at the kids area. They had a chance to play kids waterslides as well. The big  waterslides were for Dad who was encouraged by Mum to try the highest one in the resort. Yes, Dad had a great fun.

This year, both Rak and Rome could slide down the kids waterslides by themselves, having Mum and Dad waiting at the end of the slides. Kids plus water plus slides equaled happiness. However, our great time did not stop at the waterslides. Since Dad and Mum introduced Rak and Rome to the lazy river,  their water playtime suddenly became an infinite version.

 

FIRST TRIAL

We were very well prepared, actually it was an over preparation in regard to all necessary inflatable equipment. Rak and Rome had armbands, life jackets and small rubber rafts. The river was too deep for them but Dad and Mum could easily walk  at a depth of 120 metres.

For the first trial, they were fully equipped with all the afore-mentioned devices, which made us have a clumsy round.  At first, both of them were a little bit nervous and transformed themselves into gluey geckoes to Dad and Mum. They also tried to avoid waterfalls and caves all along.

In the second round, Rak and Rome were braver to passed the waterfalls and entered the caves.  They asked Dad and Mum to  go upstream which made Mum very tired and got  a headache. So, from the third round onwards, they went with Dad and drifted along non-stop until Mum said it was time to eat.  See Rome’s reaction on the next page.

 

DINING

On Saturday evening,  a wonderful seafood and international buffet was served at Oasis restaurant. Last year, we had a wide variety of food of a high quality.

This year, instead of letting Rak and Rome run wild, Dad and Mum decided to have dinner in our room, in order to avoid any unexpected situation.

As a result, we had a quiet and happy dining hour in room with kids under control, well in front of their favourite cartoon movie. Dad and Mum could really have a calm evening. After dinner, they went to bed quite early because of very long hours in the lazy river and their expectation to play on the beach and have more rounds early in the following morning.

 

RUSHING BREAKFAST

The following morning, after more than two hours on the beach and in the lazy river, we had to rush to Oasis restaurant to have our breakfast at 9.30 am and we had only 30 minutes left to finish our meal.

We could manage to have sunny-side up, omelet, soft-boiled egg, ham, bacon, bread, pancake, seafood boiled rice, fried rice, milk, cornflake, fruit juice, sweet, fruit and others.

We were full and left completely bare dishes, bowls, cups and glasses on the table.

 

RAK’S IMPROVEMENT

Rak’s writing and reading have improved a lot. During the trip, he was interested in reading signboards displayed in front of shops, buildings and along the way to Pattaya. He could read more and more. The most important thing was that Dad and Mum had to make the reading game fun for him.

Besides, Dad also encouraged Rak to read the numbers on car registration plates. Sometimes, Rak had to add those numbers together to get the total or answer Dad’s mathematical problems, which was Rak’s favourite activity.

Once we got bored with academic games, we just changed to a simple game such as counting the number of gas station. Each person had to choose the brand of the gas station first. The person, who could count the highest number of his selected brand of the gas station that we passed before we arrived the destination, would be the winner.

Rome was also pleased with all snacks and fruit juice we packed for this trip. Eating was his favourite activity. We are looking forward to the time when Rome is at the same age as Rak, hoping that all the activities during travelling will be more fun and that our travelling style can be changed to the more adventurous ones.

 

IMAGERY: Centara Grand Mirage familygallery and Centara Grand Mirage resortgallery