Alila Cha-Am Resort, Thailand : Day #2

Rise and shine at Alila! Personally, I love the first morning of an overseas trip. A good night’s sleep followed by a sumptuous breakfast – nothing could be better. Someone was having a good nap, too.

By default, breakfast is ala carte at the Motion restaurant. At times when there are more guests at the resort, Alila will revert to a buffet-style breakfast instead. Well, this happens to be today! (and the next two days actually)

We were rather surprised to see that Motion was packed when we got there. Seemed like the restaurant do serve guests who do not stay at Alila? We managed to get ourselves seats without much effort, and started to grab some food and take some photos!

Shifted our seats outdoor when we got the chance =) That’s Thailand’s English newspapers on our table. Below is the juice station, with three choices to choose from every morning. Today, its orange, bell-fruit (I think?) and guava.

Stuff at the salad station where you can make your own salad. Delicious quail eggs and bacon bits! Didn’t manage to take a picture of the pastry area though.

Cooked food are available outdoors – we get to choose from Thai style breakfast or Western delights. The specialty was the eggs station – request for any type of egg and we get it prepared right on the spot. Hard-boiled, sunny-side up, scrambled or omelette? We chose omelette!

Some of the stuff we eventually had for breakfast. Yep, we are pretty much carnivores here at Alila, skipping all the greens and fruits available.

Soya bean drink that was freshly prepared, and without sugar. It was too late by the time I realized I’d forgotten to add the sweet syrup. Cute butterfly-shape fried dough fritter, eh?

After a fulfilling breakfast, it was finally time to indulge in a nice swim. Prior to our trip, we were kind of worried about the weather in Thailand. Every single day, the weather forecast icon was permanently stuck at “cloudy” or ‘thunderstorm” state. Rather depressing, I have to say.

Lucky for us, lady luck must have been on our side once again as we were treated to a clear and sunny day! Sun-burn protection!

Dumped our figurines into the water for a little dip as well.

Remember the coffee machine from the earlier post? Prepared ourselves a poolside coffee – perfect for a morning swim.

Had lots of fun with a film/toy camera too! Took some more random photos again before calling it quits. Our favourite travel companions made it to the pool for a little sun =)

Nothing really on our list of things to do today, so we were happy to just relax and pretty much do nothing. We even found time to catch a couple of movies on Apple TV!

We find ourselves back at Motion restaurant for lunch, having had our breakfast there only hours earlier.

Bottled water is not free! We ordered ourselves a variety of drinks during our stay at Alila Cha-Am. Some mocktails, some cocktails, mostly we simply can’t remember the names.

Yet another of those complimentary bread/pastry before every meal.

Sun-baked baby squids which were delicious – they are supposed to be a Thai snack. Looked like bugs, don’t they?

Curry soft-shell crabs with curry powder, and truffle-oil spaghetti, al dente style.

Satisfied from stuffing ourselves with food, we started to roam around Alila to check out the facilities. First, we headed to Clouds Loft, the other restaurant at Alila. It was located right above Motion.

Seats, or rather day-beds at the front of Clouds Loft, facing the beach area. Sitting on them at night, you will get a wonderful view of the starry sky. That’s the Active Pool down there, overlooking the ocean.

The library is located beside Motion, and is essentially a small cozy corner to get some books and novels, or use their iMac computers. Free internet, and free use of their printer.

I want a full-height bookshelf like that too!

Okay, you get the drift. Some more of lazing around and pure relaxation at Alila. Even got time to catch a little afternoon nap. It gets dark here pretty early! By 7pm, it was already pitch black.

Dinner photos were a disaster.

Clouds Loft was amazing, and felt totally different from dining indoor at Motion. More intimate with candle-lights and natural breeze.

There was a little issue with mosquitoes for me though – regretted not using the bug-repellent provided by Alila. Shan was well protected by her mosquito patch. My advice? Be very generous with the bug spray. Mosquitoes aren’t a problem at the villa, but I can’t say the same for the entire vicinity of Alila.

The menu is different from that of Motion, but we could request for Motion’s menu if we wanted to. Clouds Loft’s menu is Mediterranean, and slightly pricier in comparison.

Because it was so dark, Alila’s staff gave us these cute little clip-on lights to illuminate the menu.

After making our orders, complimentary bread/pastry came to us presented in another style with butter balls and olive oil dips. A bite-size morsel of chicken surprised us.

In the mood to indulge, we had duck breast for appetizers.

Seafood casserole for myself, and grilled chicken breast for the missus. We enjoyed a complimentary glass of white wine because we ordered from the Mediterranean menu.

Gave up trying to take photos of our drinks as it was too dark. Are we done for the night? Nope. We had one last place to visit for the day – the Red Bar.

Made our way to the Red Bar, and there was quite a crowd, surprisingly. Not long before we realized it was the final race of the Formula One season.

Peanuts to go with the Chang beer. Cookies for the hot chocolate.

The main public pool of Alila, the Chill Pool, gets lighted with snazzy blue lights at night! The room there at the opposite end is Spa Alila, which we will be visiting tomorrow. Guess this picture below is a sneak preview for our Day #3 at Alila Cha-Am then?

Alila : Surprisingly Different