Every day after breakfast, we would hit the beach for a few hours. Since the sun rose from the east and the beach was facing west, the mornings and early afternoons were the best time to be by the water and not get terribly sunburnt. Also, the water would be a high tide by 10am and get into low tide by 5pm and you will see pics on this in a minute. The beach is also shared by the Datai resort but it was under construction at the time we were there and was scheduled to be open for business by the beginning of June.

There were various paths along the stretch of the ground floor providing access to the beach.

The entire beach was covered by a canopy of trees. The ground staff would come every morning to cleanup leaves from the beach and give it that picture perfect look.

The house reef was near the tiny island you see here. Not easy to swim there but there was a variety of equipment available to use to get there (snorkel, canoes, paddle boats etc) from the equipment shop and everything was free to use with the exception of the hobbycat.

Staff members were positioned throughout points on the beach. Whenever a guest used the beach chairs, they would come up with towels, lay it out over the chair and provide glasses of water.

Around noon, a staff member would come around with a menu and check if we wanted anything to drink or eat.

Some shots around 5pm.

Low tide reveals everything underneath.

One of the restaurants on the property. We would have dinner here one night and it was a Malaysian/Indian theme. More on this to come in a bit.

The beach bar over to the left and Jala restaurant off to the right. Again, we had dinner one night at Jala and it was seafood night.

Note to self (and future guests) – don’t walk on the beach at 5pm with the sun beating down on you like Thor’s hammer. Also, the seaweed and moss smells in the heat. 🙂

This is where the Datai property started and I could make out the beach villas.

Beat a hasty retreat back the loving embrace of our room with the cold AC to get ready for dinner at 7:30pm.

Can’t beat that sunset view.

As mentioned above, we headed to Jala for our first dinner night and it was located next to the beach bar. We were the 2nd couple to walk in and were seated closest to the beach.

The waiter presented us with a menu but also informed us that we could select from the fresh catch bar where price was charged by the gram.

We started off with a shared app – Signature Jalaksa. The deep fried items plus noodles and garnishes were placed in the bowl when it was delivered. The soup was then poured at our table into the bowl. Tasty but quantity would be slightly more.

From another angle.

We both ordered the slow cooked sea bass. The fish itself was tasty but the presentation was just too much fluff and no substance. The risotto was flavourful but was not a fan of it being al dente.

We were totally unimpressed with the food and level of service. We were the 2nd pair to be seated at the restaurant and yet our mains were delivered after 4 other guests (who came later on) started their mains. Given that it’s a restaurant on the beach, I expected the food to be more rustic rather than trying to pass off as an upscale restaurant.

The next night, we went to Tepian Laut.

There was an ice cream cart outside the entrance and Mrs.I wanted to skip right to this course! LOL.

We were seated almost upfront. 😉

We also had a good view of the outdoor kitchen where wonderful BBQ smells (and smoke) emanated from.

After looking through the big book of wonderful Indian/Malaysian dishes, we settled on a tasting hodge podge of the following:

Gulai Ayam (Malaysian Chicken Curry)

Tandoori chicken. Luckily, this was dark meat and was so good. It brought back memories of Sind Punjab tandoori chicken in Dubai. All you Dubai folk know what I’m talking about. 😉

Tandoori Veggies (mix of cauliflower, broccoli and peppers)

Roti Canai

This night was definitely better than the seafood night. Everything was tasty and downright simple.

On our last day, we just explored the resort.

Fishies!

The Japanese restaurant that was closed during our stay.

Down by the pool area.

The area used to host the Happy Hour for SPG Gold/Platinum members. This was hosted by Vijay and other members of the wait staff. They were highly engaging to talk to and listen to their passion for working for the Andaman. Some of them have been working there for 20+ years.

Yummy mojitos.

Our 3 nights at the Andaman was absolutely fantastic. Despite the small issue with one of the dinner nights and the reservation screwup, everything exceeded our expectations from the location to the staff to the food. It also helped that we came during the “low” season and you never saw a lot of people in one particular area. While we decided to just lounge on the beach for our stay, keep in mind that there are activities to do on the resort and on the island.

Our flight was at 11am on the 4th day and we checked out at 9am. The resort provided us with their own van to take us back to the airport and charged us the same as a regular taxi whereas the regular rate would have been 150 MYR. With no traffic, we reached the airport in 30 minutes. Check-in and security was a breeze and we were extruded into the mass waiting area.

Our flight and the connecting flight were delayed 20 minutes but didn’t have an effect on us.

Two hour transit in KL.

MH’s shiny new A350.

Back in the SG.

Next up – 5 days in Singapore exploring and binge eating.