We booked the ticket through LivingSocial at the price of RM198/2pax. We purchased 2 tickets that includes one night 2 rooms with breakfast and dinner for 2. We went 7 persons in total with 4 adults and 3 kids under 12 years of age, so the kids need to buy their meal voucher, with the exception of Louis because he's not more than 90cm, he he he! All of us made ourselves comfy in one big heavy monster.
Inside, I folded one of the 3rd row seats for loading luggage. With the available space at both boot and seat folded down, it swallowed all luggage for 7 people, plus a handful of swimming floaters and food. The powerful 6 air-con vents cools all passenger and kids had fun time playing around with the roof-mounted DVD.
As we take off, the Exora's acceleration is smooth and silky, albeit a bit slow in pick up. Proton Exora is truly meant for family usage because the way its chassis and engine were tuned towards slowness and stability. So people who loves strong acceleration in an MPV would not be happy with this type of tune.
This is a real MPV with decent accessories. It comes with a full-fledged 2-din head unit, 4 speakers with good sound quality, plus a roof-mounted DVD player capable of playing USB, SDCard contents. Talking how slow it picked up the speeds, it still had no problem keeping up with cars inroad. I was told by my brother-in-law that his Toyota Unser with 1,800cc is not doing well either under such load.
Speaking about the fuel consumption, throughout the trip the running cost was about RM0.23/km as per current RM2.10/litre price, while I was told the Toyota Unser cost RM0.30/km. I used to pump at Petron/Esson for better mileage and power compared to other pumps. In conclusion, Proton Exora manual's fuel consumption is really not bad!
The place we were heading to was Gold Coast Water Theme Park Resort, Morib, Selangor. Morib is a outskirt coast of Selangor neighbouring Tanjung Sepat and Port Dickson shores. It is near to Banting town and located in the district of Kuala Langat. Morib is famous for its historical seashore here, called Pantai Morib.
The journey takes roughly 1:30 hours. We took Cyberjaya route and exit Dengkil. By the time we reached there, it's only 12:45pm still 2:15 hours away from check-in time.
It was a sunny Sunday we found a lots of people start queuing at the counter to register. Since the day still young we decided to swim for a while, plus the girls Bonnie and Connie already cannot wait to dive into the pool. So we quickly headed up to the theme park and start swimming.
We checked in the room after 3:30pm, took a deep rest in the airy room and wait for dinner time. The room is big enough with all branded electronics. Its bathroom is fully equipped with glass-bounded shower room and modern water tap and sinks. It provides sews, combs, shower caps, cotton buds, tooth paste and brushes, and it even came with a private Jacuzzi! But the shortfall is that it lacked of bath towels supply!
Gold Coast Resort deserve it's cleanness and nice theme park, but one thing to complain was about the lift. The lift was too narrow and could hardly fits users with more luggage. Because of this we were force to use staircase climbing to 3rd floor.
The buffet dinner starts 6pm and ends 10pm so after a short rest we went to the beach for a short stroll.
Inside view of Gold Coast Water theme park Resort, Morib, Selangor
The beach behind Gold Coast Resort was really dirty. We noticed there are plenty of bubbles along the shore, sort of like the residuals of chemical reaction with the sea salt being washed to the shore. There were also rubbish everywhere. We notice there are huts built on the shore. They supposedly meant for relaxing romantic dining, but all spoil by the filthy seaside and its terrible smell. The beach is closed to Port Klang so I thought may be it is the reason why the place is so queasy.
See the color of the sand? It's gray in color. But feels good to stand on it, my son has tested it
Step step step!
And we found a living Hermit Crab
My little one Mr. Louis is having fun time walking in sand
We then took our dinner at about 6:30pm. FYI their buffet dinner is no wow factor. I heard shrimps and grilled mutton are not served like past during Hari Raya. Nevertheless, we sat there all night long gradually swallow all types of food into our stomach. We went for a short walk at the surrounding area after the dinner.
On the second day, we went back to the theme park again and start sliding. My little Louis was excited. Totally different from the first day where he cried and ended eating biscuits on the bench.
Chen Chen in swimsuit with his whale cruiser
Some more knows how to post lo, this guy...
After checking out the hotel, we when to Hai Yew Heng - the renowned Pau maker in Tg. Sepat. We tried their Sang Yuk Pau and it was marvelous! We then ta bao some pau and went straight to Baywatch Seafood Restaurant. And frankly, the seafood there at Baywatch is "featureless" and the price is not cheap too! In the meantime, we also tried the peddler's fish balls who sells from table to table - and the fish balls were no special either.
Some photos taken from Baywatch Restaurant
On the road trip back to Seri Kembangan, we were directed by the GPS to enter SKVE highway via the Teluk Panglima Garang Toll Plaza. This new South Klang Valley Expressway cuts through Klang, Shah Alam, Subang, Puchong and all the way to Putrajaya. The entrance starts from Pulau Indah interchange stretched all the way to UNITEN exit. This highway consists of some sloppy terrains and curves. Here the Exora had easy time to cope with them.
The reason I said so is because, even with its puny engine, Exora had been tuned to have enough "momentum" keeping the car going. I don't want to say how much power it produced because Exora is not about power, acceleration etc. It is a comfort cruising machine. On the road it seems it was capable to maintain the built-up speed with the final gear, there's seldom need for me to switch gears on the uneven roads.
Proton Exora's likes to be drove sedately. To compensate the tiny horsepower with such heavy load, its strokes were made longer than the similar CPS engine found in Proton Waja to produce more low-end power. The result is, while the car is taller and wind restrictive, it surprisingly still have good pulling power and good momentum to keep the 1.4 tonnes car in spins. This car does not have a good top speed due to the similar fact. At 100km/h the RPM already pointing at 3,000RPM. Then I found it hard to reach even 110km/h. It takes a plenty of time and patient to be there. I once achieved 130km/h with 7 on-board going downhill, but that took a lot of effort. At that speed the engine screams louder and harsher causing the noise intruding into its quiet cabin. So to lower stress and anxiety, cruise at the best speed of between 90-100km/h.
We reached home safely at about 4pm, and all people were satisfied with this trip.
So adios, and until next time!
I live the way you tell the story about the car. Interesting & easy to understand especially for ladies who hard to understand about engine etc...
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