TRAV N BOOK : April 2014

This may sound as if I have nothing to put as a blog entry this time but the truth is that I am testing this photo mosaics. The best way to do is by writing one entry. And at the same time, I have a little story to tell on how to look for items in IKEA whether or not they have the items in store.

Our little messy kitchen

I agree it's messy. So I reckon we have to set up one area for dining, so we need table here. Need to go to IKEA again, and now visiting IKEA has become our weekly routine. I am sure this blog has followers from Kinabatangan and Cheruk Tok Kun (no offence aaa, just joking), so I better describe what is this IKEA all about [I owe you a book review here].

http://www.ikea.com/

IKEA is owned and started by Ingvar Kamprad from a small village called Smaland in the Southern Sweden. He started selling matches when he was five. That was in 1920. Needless to say he became more interested in selling furniture and the company IKEA expanded globally ever since. IKEA opened its outlet at Mutiara Damansara in the year 1996.

Now let's have the same ambition as Mr Kamprad shall we. Let's start selling something, of course not matches. Maybe smart phones will do.

Where is Mutiara Damansara?

The best is to drive, but when the MRT is completed in 2016 (can they be on schedule this time?) you can take the MRT right from South Kajang town or North Sungai Buloh to Bandar Utama station. We are looking forward to that time.

The section of interest.

Back to our story. So I figure a high table with two chairs would be nice. And in fact, our kitchen can only accommodate two chairs.

Found this nice rack. Good to display our souvenirs.

We were distracted by the nice-looking CD rack, and we want to convert this to be souvenir rack instead. Take photo, so that when the time to find these items, you can refer to the rack number and section. In IKEA, you have to do everything yourself, it's self-service concept here. Look for the furniture yourself as well, but for bulk items, you just make the payment and collect the items from the collection centre outside of the store.

Finally we found what we are looking for.

Oo ya by the way, all IKEA products have names, so the one we are looking for is named as BJORKUDDEN, maybe in Malay it is called MEJA KUDIN.....hahahah.

This name is important because later when you search for it in the warehouse, you just look for the rack number, section, and the name. Just like looking for your lost kids I suppose.

The matching chair is named FRANKLIN

We have found the table named BJORKUDDEN, what about its matching chair? We can choose from two options, the chair with backrest named FRANKLIN or the square stool-type named BOSSE. I prefer FRANKLIN, but wait a minute, there are two different prices for FRANKLIN, one with RM95 price tag, the other with RM99. Oooo I see, the cheaper one is the younger brother just 95cm tall, but the elder is 103cm. I need the taller one to suit the table. Now I am addressing those items like human being. That's what happen if you name furniture.

The younger brother of FRANKLIN.

Stool-type.

Now that the table has only wood birch, but I have bought from previous visit, the intended matching wall-mounted drop-leaf table named NORBERG in white finish, this will not match anymore. It should match with birch named NORBO.

NORBERG that has been bought earlier

Ahaa solution found. This weekend another trip to IKEA to exchange NORBERG with NORBO.
The good thing shopping in IKEA is that even after buying things from them, and you suddenly change your mind, you can just return those products within 100 days, and you will be refunded in full so that you can buy that new product. In fact, if you only want to get back your money in full, they will not question anything.

Have we done that? Of course we did, we bought an item with the wrong price information, or in other words, we thought that item was cheaper, so after paying, we went to the redemption counter and return the product. At another case, we bought a glass shelf and found that the glass had shattered, so we return back and got the full refund. IKEA is great in that.

The matching NORBO

Enough said, now is the time to find those items based on the rack and section number. We walked to the warehouse, just before the payment counters to find those items we have identified.

AND........................wuallllaaaaaaa.

Mr BJORKUDDEN is out of stock............................. Serious, its OUT OF STOCK!!

What about Mr FRANKILN?

FRANKLIN is arrow down.

YES FRANKLIN is IN STOCK.

But since we could not buy the table, we hold from buying the chair for now. Who knows it could be out of stock for a longggg time. So I approach the sales / store personnel asking if I can order our table, and he answered that they order products everyday, but customers cannot order. I was comparing with ordering books, you can order books that is out of stock, and they will inform you when the stock arrives. Not for IKEA. Why? I have the answer later.

So you remember the rack I found earlier? That rack happen to be stocked just next to the table, so I grab this instead.

Put on the trolley.

Slide into the car

Assemble and mount it at my favourite wall.

Later on removed to the opposite wall.

Apparently she has different idea. Better idea?

Back to those missing link on how to avoid the hassle of going to IKEA only to be disappointed by the product OUT OF STOCK? Ooo come on this is the internet-age. Yes check online before buying unless you want to be in that crowded and traffic-jam prone area for dual purposes like shopping at THE CURVE and bring the kids to KIDZANIA.

Here is how to check the product availability online.

Again, go to: http://www.ikea.com/my/en/store/damansara/indexPage

Fill up the NAME of the product you are looking for e.g. BJORKUDDEN

Highlight the selected product and select save to list

Go to 'MY SHOPPING LIST' and you will see this page. Take a look at 'In stock?'

As you can see, the product that I am looking for named BJORKUDDEN is Not available.

For your products? Good luck.

All this while we can only see log houses when watching western tv series or reading western magazines. Log houses always look cool and unique.

Now you can have the chance to live in a log house for real, maybe for few days, and this is the story of our two days one nite stay in a log house.

It started off from looking for a weeeknd retreat but the location should not be too far. I don't like driving that much. So we go back to our friend AGODA

http://www.agoda.com/

and we found this cool-looking place called PHILEA RESORT and SPA at AYER KEROH MELAKA

https://www.phileahotel.com.my/

All set. Time to depart.

But then......................

Very heavy rain.

Don't get me wrong, rain is always welcome at this time of the year. We need to increase water level at the catchment area. This should do the trick, I reckon.

Luckily the weather forecast says Melaka is dry in the morning.

The RM 140mil Philea Resort and Spa is opened in 2010. We are not the first customer obviously, but I feel I have seen the billboards on this resort while going to work everyday, but paid little attention. Now when I drive pass this billboard, I make sure I take a look.

The otak otak (brain brain?) at Ayer Keroh RnR is much fatter than KL.

The resort is very conveniently located next to the butterflies park, turning left just after the Ayer Keroh toll. After that left turn, take the right into the resort.

Turn right to Philea, straight to Butterflies Park.

Decoratively high ceiling lobby.

Flinstone-era furniture

Time to ride that buggy. Check my video here.

This five-star resort is so cosy, but we had problem with the air-conditioning unit that is not functioning. No, don't jump into conclusion yet. When the maintenance brothers checked the unit, they showed me a trick to get rid of that blinking led that causes the air-cond unit to malfunction. Just take out the room card and put back. This sort of resetting the supply to the house and wuaallllaaaa the air-cond unit is on and running. Why didn't I try that myself.........

It is time to walk to the SPA.

Customers-in-waiting

Serene and secluded.

See you later......

In the meantime, let's check the swimming pool.

Enjoy also the video around the pool.

The view at night time is not less beautiful. What are we going to do at night? There is a buffet at the ground floor of the lobby. We somehow decided to drive to the city and have local seafood. Overall, the food price is cheaper than KL, again.