Asia Archives - Page 11 of 22 - Escapes From The Little Red Dot

Bali 2016 Day 2 – Stay in Villa, swim in pool

Posted on July 14, 2016September 22, 2019 by ziyi

It wasn’t a smooth night as baby K was fussy and had been crying. He wasn’t happy with his runny nose and cough but we couldn’t do much except giving him the meds, which he took already before bedtime.

I woke up to a light peeping through the curtains and was surprised as I had set the handphone alarm for sunrise. Checked and sure enough the alarm was on but I couldn’t hear it. I must have been too tired.

Went back to sleep as baby K had not woken up. The next thing I knew we were only up at 10am and an hour from the end of breakfast. Quickly got changed and with a cranky baby asking for bread, we took off for the same restaurant where we had dinner the night before.

It wasn’t a buffet table but a order as you liked, as much as you want Ala Carte breakfast. Got ourselves an Egg Benedict, Mie Goreng and chicken porridge. Also had yoghurt and fruits and coffee and fruit juice and bread. Filled up so much that we didn’t need to eat lunch. Again the staff were extremely friendly and were happily distracting baby K as he was extremely fussy.

Went back to our rooms and did a research on how we wanted to spend our next few days. Wanted to book a tour with the popular private tour provider Agus travel but was informed by the resort that the room phone couldn’t be used to call out. I tried calling thru my handphone but was met with an unavailable message so I dropped a Whatsapp but there wasn’t an immediate response.

We got ready to go out and went to the recept to enquire. We were informed that they also could offer drivers for the day albeit more expensive, as expected. We were interested in visiting the Ulun Darun temple and the Tanah Lot for the sunset and but was told that it would take a whole 10hrs for the trip and costs US$130. The half day would cost only US$70. Don’t want to trouble ourselves further and agreed to that arrangement.

Then we were off on the resort vehicle to the Bali Collection, a shopping area that had the feel of an outlet village. Baby K was asking for milk on the 5mins drive there. After we arrived, he continued to finish the milk while the driver stopped the vehicle at the entrance waiting for him to be done. Then unfortunately he also fell asleep soon after he was done. On seeing this, we decided to go back to the resort, a bad decision regrettably.

After arriving back at the resort, once I carried him from the seat, he woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep. It was plain frustrating as he didn’t nap long enough and we had a wasted trip to and from the shopping area. Went back to the room and we changed into our swimwear to have a dip in the pool. Thought that by going for a swim he would feel sleepy later on.

The pool actually had water that wasn’t cold, really nice for a dip especially with baby. Had earlier blown up the airplane float and ball for baby K to play in the pool and baby K had fun, walking on the step and at the water supply and also with me bringing him around in the 1.3m deep pool.

After the shower in the tub, I attempted to get baby K to nap by reading him stories, fruitlessly. Then I brought him out to the beach when he dozed off on the hip seat. Brought him back to the room immediately after but once I put him down on the bed, he woke up again! Tried the beach strategy again but he was not relenting. Mommy brought him out and finally he fell asleep. This toddler’s napping inconsistency could be a problem when we go on our long trip coming Sept.

Then with mommy incapacitated as she carried baby K in her arms ( and he would just wake up if left on the bed), I took over the chef’s hat and continued to cook baby K’s soup and salmon. By the time I packed everything and was ready to move, baby K woke up fussy again, asking for biscuits. Quickly got him a few and moved him to the restaurant where he made a ruckus in an otherwise quiet atmosphere, so bad I had to bring him out to calm him down. The runny nose was really irritating him.

After a few minutes out, we finally managed to sit him down on his high chair back at our table and gave him a handphone to look at his photos before dinner can proceed without more whining.

Ordered green curry and mushroom pasta and some juices to go along. Dinner was always a rushed affair, mostly spending the time feeding baby K rather then enjoying the food itself. I guessed the food would have tasted great if we had focus on it.

We got back to the room after the meal with the whiny baby and he slowly became better behaved where I bathed him and read him storybooks. We gave up going to Seminyak and even the supermarket as it was late.

There was a short moment of excitement as we hear fireworks in the distance. Rushed to the beach only to see glimpses of the fireworks before it ended, even before I was ready to take a shot.

10pm and we all went to bed. Better to get some needed sleep and be prepared for a tour tomorrow morning because we had to wake up early, which was challenging with a toddler in tow.

Bali 2016 Day 1 – Arrival in Bali

Posted on July 13, 2016September 22, 2019 by ziyi

Woke up at 6am in preparations for our trip to Bali, a flight at 925am on SQ. We had to beat the weekday traffic so leaving early was the strategy. Our bags were mostly packed and with a toddler in tow, we needed a 28″ minimum and a smaller 25″ for the 5 days trip.

Baby K was nursing a cough that developed over the weekend (with fever on Monday and Tuesday) and was snoozing all the way till we were about to leave the house. Once carried he wouldn’t go back to sleep.

On the car, we chose the PIE route and had slow traffic till Toa Payoh, thankfully. Managed to check in by 8ish but was disappointed to find out that I had forgotten to order the post weaning meal when I called in to reserve bassinet seats. We managed to arrange for the one on the return at the separate SIA sales counter near the check in counters.

Weren’t much time left after I purchased some syringes at Guardian pharmacy for feeding baby K his meds and mommy bought bread from the cafe and we cleared immigrations. Wanted to have some coffee at the newly opened Ya Kun while baby K munched on his bread but the queue was horrendously slow that we gave up and proceeded to boarding.

Boarding the plane was done rather quickly and we settled down after placing all the carryon bags at the overhead compartment, luckily space was available. As the plane took off, baby K fell asleep, having not gotten enough of it since feeling unwell the last few days. Parents rest time with the rare moments of watching a movie on board a plane since baby K’s birth. It was short lived though as baby K woke up 1hr later.

He wasn’t feeling well and had showed signs of throwing up. Wonder if he was beginning to able to feel air sickness. The journey was otherwise pretty smooth and he only showed uneasiness as the plane descended in altitude and pain in his ears (and he was being stubborn and not wanting to drink any water).

We arrived at a large modern airport to our surprise as we didn’t remember it the last time we came here. There was a small nursery room where we changed out baby K. The luggage was really slow at arriving as we had to wait for about 40mins before finally picking it up (clearing immigrations was like 5mins).

After exiting the hall, we were trying to identify our airport transfer driver but couldn’t find my names amongst the hordes of white cards. Had to make a call to Royal Santrian while they call the driver. In the meantime we just stayed around and take photos of the airport.

The driver came shortly after with my name and showed us to the car park where he parked the vehicle. From then it was pretty much 5 stars treatment with the cold Aqua and cold towels to the luggage handling. Upon arrival at the entrance after 20mins on the road, we were given a chance to participate in a Balinese ritual and blessing before entering the resort. It was interesting and fun to see baby K with a flower on his ear. Checked in was done at a sofa and we were shown how the welcome drink was made.

The staff then showed us to our huge villa and all the amenities there were. I was in awe by the size and the number of beds where we could just sit around and chill (am not the frequent resort tourist so was easily awed). Baby K was just walking around enjoying the new environment.

Bathroom with bathtub, shower and toilet.

Minibar area with wardrobe and vanity desk.

After resting for a bit and feeding baby K some milk, we went to the recept to ask for directions to the nearest supermarket. We were told that there was a resort shuttle that could bring us to the local Hardys mall and back for free.

We boarded the same vehicle as earlier airport transfer and was sent to the local supermarket just 10mins drive away. We told the driver that we would probably take 30mins and he would pick us up again. The building was huge and the supermarket was just a portion of it. There was a section for meat and seafood but we settled for frozen salmon. Bought some milk too and left.

We also got ourselves some lunch over at the fast food My Dea Fried Chicken counter within the same building (didn’t checked out the 2nd floor where I suspected there might be a food court). My Nasi Goreng wasn’t exactly fast. There was an indoor game arcade where I brought baby K to pass time waiting for the food.

At Hardy's supermarket. — At Hardy’s supermarket.

My Dea Fried chicken fast food restaurant.

The driver was already there when we exited the building and we were sent back to the resort. Had our fast food lunch and I brought baby K out to the beach in an attempt to get him to nap.

At the beach, there were some huge lounge beds where baby K and I chill and watched the activities going about in the sea. He couldn’t nap and worse still, was climbing around. After sitting around for half an hour, I then brought him nearer to the waters. As there was a breakwater far away, the waves coming in were very gentle. The only issue was that the sand was extremely soft and I kept getting my feet sink into the sand.

For a while, I strolled close to the waters and as baby K still didn’t sleep, I started walking back to the villa. Soon he fell asleep, probably the sounds of trickling water from all the pool villas made him sleepy. No matter what it was a good thing, left him on the day bed and went to wash off the sand on my feet, weird that I couldn’t find any washing point at the entrance to the resort (which there were, I realized later in the next few days).

Mommy was taking a bath and had an issue with hot water as it never seemed to be heated up. Called the resort staff and when she turned up to check, the hot water came. It took really long (which we realized also later that during the initial introduction we were mistaken to believe that the right tap was for hot water but in fact it was vice versa).

The awesome staff at the resort then brought over a small cake and a large roses arrangement to the room. They couldn’t sing a birthday song since baby K was sleeping but it was a nice gesture. They had to leave in a fog when the fogging of mosquitoes took place at that time of the day.

Baby K slept till 7ish (with me beside him as he woke up half way) and we left for dinner at the resort hotel with our portable steamer with food cooked for baby K. There weren’t anybody at the restaurant when we arrived and we chose to be seated inside the aircon area to avoid mosquitoes. Baby K was given a high chair and throughout dinner, he was slightly fussy. Thankfully for the good service of the staff, they were keeping him entertained while we ate.

Food was ok and price was as expected of a resort restaurant but wasn’t really very expensive comparative to Singapore standard. At the end of dinner, the staff switched off the lights and came back with another birthday cake! This time with a birthday song as well! It was a lovely sight as baby K clapped along with the tune!

After dinner we went back to the room under a blanket of stars and only could wish to just watch them twinkle out on the day beds but didn’t as we didn’t want to risk getting bitten by mosquitoes.

Back at the room, bathed baby K at the huge tub (hot water was topped up manually with boiling water) and washing of the bottles and cutlery began. The tap water was slightly salty and we had to drink from bottled water ( which was free and there were 10, so were all the drinks in the minibar). After all the washing was done, we got off to bed, with a lot of light switches to turn off.

Escape plan to Bali July 2016

Posted on July 12, 2016June 24, 2020 by ziyi

A brief summary on the itinerary

Escape Plan to Bali 2016:

Total duration 5D4N
Singapore is in the same time zone as Bali.
Flight time is 2hrs 40 mins on SQ from Singapore to Bali. Return is just 2hrs 20mins from Bali to Singapore.

Morning flight on 13th July at 925am and arrival in Bali at 12:05pm.
Return flight is on the 18th July at 13:05pm and arrival in Singapore at 3:45pm.

Day 1 Arrival at Bali
Day 2 Stay in Villa, swim in pool
Day 3 Day trip to Ubud Monkey Forest, Ulun Danu Temple and Tanah Lot sunset
Day 4 Bali collection and Nusa Dua dinner
Day 5 Home Sweet Home

This escape plan was planned as a short escape to a beach resort to celebrate wifey’s birthday with a toddler in tow. It was planned as a relax holiday to just enjoy the luxurious villa and a bit of sightseeing.

Budget nature: For a luxurious and comfortable villa, it will not be cheap.

The resort accommodation was not cheap but we felt like royalty while staying at the resort (only maybe poorer after the trip). But seriously the staff was amazing with the services, especially when they tried to entertain my toddler as he got fussy. The butler was always there when you need attention. And 2 birthday cakes, thumbs up!

Complexity: Easy

We had airport transfer which was not cheap again. We also booked the driver direct from the resort albeit somewhat more expensive then what could be found outside.

Mactan Island, Cebu 2016 Day 4 – Home Sweet Home

Posted on May 24, 2016September 22, 2019 by ziyi

Again the same cycle repeated as yesterday, only difference was I managed to see some illumination through the clouds at sunrise. Imperfect but no choice, it’s our last day in Mactan Island. Back to bed and woke up at 8am.

Left for the buffet at 9am and for the 3rd day consecutively, the food was not getting more interesting already. Still we had our fills (baby K started liking cereals, munching on them) before leaving for the room to get ready for our last pool visit. We asked for a room extension and was given to 1pm to check out and also reserved a spot for the airport transfer that had scheduled timings (130pm was ours).

We brought the ball that we bought at the shop the night before but baby K quickly lost interest quickly, preferring to play at the pool. Since mommy joined, baby K tried to the pirates ship slide. First attempt was good but on second attempt he lost balance and started turning around on the slide and by the time he reached the end of the slide where mommy tried to catch him, he was slightly shocked. It was really funny though.

Still he continued to play in the pool after and mommy had to go cook lunch for baby K and I went around the pool on the donut float with baby K. The structure at the kids pool was still out for maintenance but the wave pool seemed to be working as waves started crashing against the land.

I made one last look at the beach and probably due to the nice sunny weather, the waters seemed prettier.

Beach was beautiful with the sunny weather.

Back at the room, we rushed to clean up, not because of the check out timing but due to a notice telling us that the entire block will be out for maintenance. That also meant that we couldn’t clean up the porridge cooker as it was still cooking. That kinda sucked as we were on late check out.

After the porridge was cooked and packed, we proceeded to check out at the busy reception. We had to pay for our dinner that we charged to the room, the in room dinner and our airport transfer (150 pesos per head per way) but was informed that our old notes couldn’t be used anymore (demonetization) and had to be exchanged at the banks. This was not the first time that it happened during the trip but we would have expected the resort to have just accepted for us. These notes we got it from the forex in JEM and didn’t know that it would be a problem. I paid by card instead.

We waited a while more for the shuttle to come and this time around, the bus was pretty crowded with many Korean tourists. Baby K fell asleep enroute to the airport which was about a 30mins drive through mostly small roads.

At the departure hall, before we could check in, we had to go through X-ray scanners and that caught us by surprise. Had to shift some hand held luggage and valuables and during that motion, baby K was woken up.

After the check in, we had to go pay 750pesos per head terminal fee, another surprise (didn’t know, should have done more research). However the good thing was that the old notes were accepted and we managed to get rid of them.

Terminal fees to be paid before departure.

After immigrations, which was moving pretty fast compared to the busy domestic flights, we went to one food center to get some drinks while baby K ate his porridge. Time flew past quickly and after shopping for a bit, it was time to board the SilkAir flight home.

For the return trip, we had the bassinet seat and sharing the third window seat with a single passenger. It was a pity that she had to sit through the entire flight without going to the loo as the bassinet was there and also to deal with baby K ruckus (He only fell asleep on the final hour before touch down). I guessed people really do preferred the wider leg space with the risk of meeting a baby in the process.

This escape was meant to be a water park resort away from home to spend time with my kid. There wasn’t really time to explore the other areas of Cebu and to do any water activities even though there were plenty. For all 4 days, we were enjoying what the resort could offer and it was nice. More planning would be required to coordinate the cooking timing and the napping timing in order to “do more”. It would indeed be challenging when we embark on our Europe trip on September.

Mactan Island, Cebu 2016 Day 3 – JPark pool and night entertainment

Posted on May 23, 2016September 22, 2019 by ziyi

The day started with an earlier than alarm clock time when baby K cried for milk and I had to get up to make him some. After about another 15 mins of snoozing, my alarm clock rang and I got up to the balcony to a cloudy morning. There was not a single bit of sun ray and so I went back to sleep.

The next time I woke, it was already 9 am and we all quickly got ready to go to breakfast. It was a pretty late start at the buffet as it would closed at 10. Wife had a spa appointment at 11 and we had to move quickly to meet the timing.

Got back to the room with baby K at 1030am and while mommy cooked for baby K, we watched tv. She left at 11am on the dot as the spa was just 1 floor underneath our floor.

I also got baby K ready to go to the pool by 12 noon and as the clouds continue to shroud the sun, it turned out to be a cooling day at the pool. We went to have a look at the beach, which was having a high tide now and the beach that we saw yesterday was totally submerged in meter deep water! Had some photos before we went to the pool.

We got ourselves onto a big donut float and with baby K on my tummy, we went around the pool going under bridges that had water spray, wetting those going underneath them. After one round, I brought baby K back to the toddlers pool and the pirate ship area and he had some fun climbing up and down the ship. Unfortunately we couldn’t go down the slide together.

The crowd was substantially lower since it was a weekday, but that also meant that one of the structure had to be shutdown for maintenance.

By the time we were done playing, we went to the concierge to ask about the free shuttle to the 3 shopping malls. We were informed that the shuttle bus was fully reserved and to get out to the malls was going to be difficult as the bridge linking Mactan Island and Cebu city was under construction and a single lane traffic was expected.

We got back to the room to clean up and baby K had his lunch before we proceeded to the Olive restaurant to have ours. While waiting for our orders to arrive, I brought baby K to the marine center and on the way back, he dozed off.

Once back at the restaurant, the waitress on seeing the napping baby, quickly brought 2 chairs together to form a makeshift bed and tie them together with towels. Baby K that slept on the chairs the entire time we had our lunch. How thoughtful!

We wanted to try Filipino cuisine and ordered some soup, fried pork knuckles and fries seafood noodles. The portions were massive and we couldn’t finish eating! Wasn’t able to appreciate the taste to start with so we had quite a bit of leftovers.

As I carried baby K, he had already woken up slightly and by the time we returned back to the room, he woke up already.

It was coming to 4 pm and we didn’t have much choices and where else to go. Went to the Metro supermarket to buy dried mangoes and Otap to bring home, as Cebu was well known of these foodstuff.

Cebu goodies - Otap and dried mangoes. — Cebu goodies – Otap and dried mangoes.

Once back at the hotel, we went to the Jlounge to claim our final welcome drink and buy a fresh mango juice and Halo Halo, a Filipino version of our ice kachang. It was great for cooling down.

Back in the room, I didn’t stayed long and brought baby K out again while mommy prepared baby K dinner. Time seemed to fly with baby K around. We wanted to check out the small playground and while on the way there, we stopped by the center pool where there was some singers belting out songs at the center stage of the pool. Stayed a while before heading to the playground which seemed more for bigger kids as it had steep steps, a wall climbing section and a steep slide. Baby K didn’t like it and after a round or two on the slide and meddling with the hard to reach steering wheel and a turn on the swing, we went back to the center stage to continue watching the concert, lounging on the chairs.

Wife joined us after she was done with the cooking and we went to the shop at the arcade to buy a beach ball since baby K was kinda liking it. We went back to the room after that and as we have left baby K Pororo water bottle in the shop, I had to go back to retrieve it.

The night entertainment at the center pool had escalated into a fire dance show and I had to stop for a bit to watch. They were very skillful and I thought it was one of the best that I have seen so far. So many variations of fire torches.

Back at the room, it was about dinner for baby K, as he walked around having his dinner, and us calling in room service for some chicken (really had enough of pork!) and tomato soup. Then it was bathing and off to bed. The adults continued with the washing up and catching up online and by 1130pm, we off to lala land.

Mactan Island, Cebu 2016 Day 2 – JPark pool and beach

Posted on May 22, 2016September 22, 2019 by ziyi

I awoke at 515 to find the room illuminated by daylight. Peeking out I saw the skies in an orange hue, sun was about to rise. The clouds were blocking so I chose to return to bed without the sunrise shot.

Woke up again at 8 and surfed some net before baby K woke. Changed his diapers which was slightly leaking and concluded that the pants diapers were not as high capacity as the tape ones for overnight usage. Then we proceeded to breakfast at The Abalone.

Baby K had his own baby seat at breakfast. Baby K had some bread and cereal with milk and was satisfied while his parents chose from a wider variety of food. As baby K became bored and fussy, wife brought him out of the crowded restaurant for a stroll and back to the room to change to swimwear while I waited forever for my cappuccino which never came.

Went back to the room without my caffeine boost and found baby K all ready. He was not impressed that I have to change and became fussy again until we both stepped out of the room. Couldn’t waterproof my camera in time and so had to make do with the iPhone.

We first got out towels from one of the towel exchange huts then we proceeded to the “shore” that we saw yesterday. It was in fact a shore for people sitting in their inflated donut float to come out from the moving stream to disembark. It wasn’t a good place for toddlers since it got deeper so I brought him to the basic toddler pool where there was a rain mushroom and a small slide.

Played there for a while and we went to the bigger kids pool where there was a pirate ship, a big structure with slides and a rain mushroom. It was easier in the day when not many people were around but as it got crowded, I had to bring baby K out the pool. Furthermore the slides could only be taken by kids under 12 and so I couldn’t slide down with baby K. I had to leave the iPhone before entering the area to prevent it from drowning but that meant that I had to go back to the towel hut to put it into the locker which had a password lock.

Toddler pool with a kids Pirates ship theme. — Toddler pool and a kids Pirates ship theme pool in the background.

After all the fun in the sun, I returned to the room with baby K and gave him a bath before we again tried to get him to nap. Wife cooked lunch but baby K refused to nap. So we left the room to buy some drinks from the Metro supermarket and called room service to carry out housekeeping.

We bought more bottled water, a beer, fresh milk (limited variety) and some drinks before returning and baby K fell asleep in mommy’s arms.

Returned to the room and lay baby K on the bed while we ate the other packet of pork, microwaved, with a bottle of not-so-cold beer, upon returning from the supermarket. Thankfully baby K napped a lot longer.

Baby K woke up after 2 hrs whereas both daddy and mommy had a quick shut eye too. Things didn’t go too well as baby K became very cranky, wanted to play with water from the kitchen tap. After some scolding from mommy and trying to feed him porridge which he only had some, we decided to bring him out for a walk to the beach.

First we went to the Jlounge to pick up our welcome drinks with the vouchers, and it turned out to be tropical mixed fruits drink. It was too sweet to taste like real fruits though.

After that we proceeded to the towel hut to exchange for towels again and went to the beach. On first look it was pretty disappointing. The available sand near the water was a small space and the one where the sun decks were had a large space reserved for a company event. Baby K had to settle for the sand, which wasn’t smooth sand but a mixture of other stones, to play with.

The sea water wasn’t turquoise like Boracay but was clear and only mostly knee deep for quite a distance. There wasn’t much to see though except for a couple of silver fishes which was very hard to see sometimes. Baby K was fascinated by the water parachute in the distance and the low water level as he squats to splash the water.

A view of the beach standing in the waters.

We left after some time and proceeded to the arcade to utilize whatever tokens he had left to take the train and boat rides while I bought a frappe (Jlounge) to cool down from the heat. After that we got back to the room until dinner time.

We went to the Korean restaurant Maru just at the ground floor of our block. We ordered grilled chicken which was not too bad and they had quite a couple of sides. However the waitress misunderstood with out orders and didn’t send the pancake. Luckily the main dishes was filling enough and they made up by giving us another pancake side dish and some tropical juices.

Back at the room, I bathed the baby and soon enough he was calling for nap time. That was nice as it gave us some rest time for this trip. Got to catch some TV (managed to catch Antman on HBO) before going to bed.

Mactan Island, Cebu 2016 Day 1 – Arrival in JPark Island Resort and Waterpark

Posted on May 21, 2016September 22, 2019 by ziyi

Woke up at the same time as a normal working day on Saturday to prepare for the trip to Cebu. Just some more follow up packing such as bottles, milk powder dispenser and toddler’s home cooked food, electrical stuff like bottle warmers, electric chargers and extension cables, daily necessities like shavers.

Baby K really slept till the 11th hour and I had to gently wake him up with some Pororo music before rushing him to change out without getting him frustrated.

We arrived at T2 for the SilkAir flight and was surprised by the lack of counters as all had bag drops only and there were automatic stations to do check ins. However we skipped those and proceeded straight to the counter since there wasn’t really a queue and was checked in quickly. Had a quick brekkie at the Arrival hall and packet some bread for baby K to munch on before going thru immigrations.

Changed his diapers at the convenient nursing room and proceeded to the gates, baby K was terribly excited to see the planes along the way, as he became aware of aeroplanes and how they would fly in the skies.

The flight to Cebu was long, with a technical stop of 45mins at Kalibo, only arriving at Mactan Island at 300pm, on a 10am flight. It was a small plane and therefore didn’t had screens per passenger and relied on passengers’ own electronic devices for entertainment content. Our seats were booked on ones just behind the bassinet ones as those were fully booked out and it was not very comfortable with a hyper toddler on our laps and with the aisle seat taken up by a huge Caucasian. Baby K napped only an hour and we managed to keep him happy with books and toys and him moving about and food till we arrived, thankfully earlier than expected.

Islands, from the view enroute. — Islands, the view enroute.

At the arrivals we had to submit a handful of forms – a health declaration, the usual immigration form and finally a customs form at 3 different stations. But the line moved quickly before we picked up the luggage already on the belt and exited the small airport. Walking out, a representative from JPark resort was waiting and confirmed our names before a medium size bus came and picked us up, the only customers.

It was about a 20mins ride to the resort with slow traffic on a single line road. Again baby K was walking around on the bus when it stopped and just messing around with the curtains all the way. Nothing much on the roads interest him, he couldn’t see the difference yet between Cebu’s developing towns compared to the modern Singapore that we came from.

Modern looking new town, so different from the rest. — Modern looking new town, so different from the rest of the area.

As we arrived and got off the bus, our luggage was taken care by the bellboy and we just went to the very busy check in counter. As mommy did the check in, I brought baby K for a walk. The weather was as warm and humid and baby K seemed excited to see the pool.

We were given a spa room, which meant a room that had additional 2 beds within the shower room that had a non working jacuzzi and a separate shower and a toilet. The room was big with a separate space for sofa and daybed and a pantry. The pantry had adequate space for food preparations, and also came with a microwave.

Pantry with enough space for food preparations.

On first thought, it seemed like an upgrade but the arrangements of the only sink in the pantry meant that all the washing of hands and brushing of teeth had to be done in the pantry.

Gave baby K a bath where he pooped into the tub and got him ready for nap time as it was almost 530pm. However, the lack of a sarong, loud music from the outside and probably the excitement of overseas trip made him unable to do so. We brought him out instead as we wanted to buy fish for his meal.

We walked to the main street not too far from the resort and went to the Metro supermarket, in a Korean “biased” Shangs Island Town center mall (this island/resort was especially popular with Koreans, literally thought I was in Jeju). There was no fish there and so we decided to walk down the street where baby K dozed off. 15mins of walking in the super congested street, we arrived at Savemore supermarket, a much bigger one.

Shangs mall opposite the entrance of the resort.

Crazy crowded single lane street. — Single lane street.

We looked around but there weren’t much fish for sale, ended up buying pork. As we exited the place, we were approached to take a ride on a small motortricycle back to the resort. The quote was 40 per head which was 80 total so we got on. The tout was a different person from the rider and he followed us on the trip. Along the way, we stopped by a roast pork stall to buy some Lechon as it was recommended to try by my colleague. However the last bit was “reserved” and so we went on to another stall. It was not stated specifically and we thought it was just roast pork and so we bought it. However, the tout had asked the stall seller to give us 2 portions instead of 1 and my wife not knowing had to fork out 600 pesos for them. I thought we had overpaid as we saw 150pesos written on the front of the stall though. The stall was also just in front of our hotel entrance and so we just paid 200pesos to the rider and the tout as tips and left for the hotel, now the sky had already turned dark.

Motor tricycle that we took to return back.

Back at the room, my wife started cooking for baby K who had woken up from his nap at the pork store and I gave him a quick bath. Then we spent the rest of the night on TV and eating the roast pork and feeding baby K, occasionally looking out of the window with the fireworks up the in skies, though we don’t know what’s the celebration about. There were some music blasting below with some dancing going on but that didn’t last very late.

After his meal, I brought baby K out to check out what’s around. There was a kids club that included a indoor playground and games arcade beside it where baby K spent some tokens riding the static rides. There were some shops available for shopping but we weren’t interested.

On the ground floor out in the open, there was a main pool with a center pool bar. As we walked around, we also saw a mini golf and other pools. It was already 10plus at night so everything was closed. We went back to the room.

The day was concluded with washing of all the utensils and boiling some hot water to store in the flask for baby K’s middle of the night feeding and then lights out. Knocked out easily with so much being done for the day.

Escape Plan to Mactan Island, Cebu May 2016

Posted on May 20, 2016June 24, 2020 by ziyi

A brief summary on the itinerary

Escape Plan to Mactan Island, Cebu 2016:

Total duration 4D3N
Singapore is in the same time zone as Cebu.
Flight time is 4.5hrs on Silkair from Singapore to Kalibo with 45mins technical stop before another 30mins flight to Cebu. Return is just 3.5hrs on Silkair direct from Cebu to Singapore.

Morning flight on 21st May at 10am and arrival in Mactan Island at 3:30pm.
Return flight is on the 24th May at 4:15pm and arrival in Singapore at 7:40pm.

Day 1 Arrival at Mactan Island
Day 2 JParks waterpark and beach
Day 3 JParks waterpark and night entertainment
Day 4 Home Sweet Home

This escape plan was planned as a short escape to a beach resort nearby with a toddler during the long weekend (Vesak Day on a Saturday). Though Cebu was more well known for the water activities such as diving and jet skiing, etc, we didn’t do all those. We spent the entire time just in the resort in the waterparks so that the toddler could enjoy the facilities within.

Budget nature: Relatively cheap.

The resort accommodation was not cheap but it wasn’t over the top like other 5 stars hotels. We didn’t spend a lot due to the fact that we weren’t doing a lot in the first place. Prices of food in the restaurant were within expectations, we brought SGD$400 and spent it all and probably overspent by SGD$70 with a spa included.

Complexity: Easy

Especially when the only travel we did was from the airport and back, using the airport transfer. There were other places to go to, such as in Cebu city and the natural attractions but we didn’t.

Hong Kong 2016 Day 6 – Home Sweet Home

Posted on January 31, 2016June 2, 2020 by ziyi

I woke up at 2am to clean up the bottles and pots and prepared milk for baby K before going back to sleep.

7am sounded and I couldn’t get up. Snoozed for some time before getting up while wife got ready for cooking. Baby K slept till 10am while we had got ready the food and packed most of the items into the luggage and had bread for breakfast.

Wife went out to shop at the Esprit outlet the last time while I took a walk around ISA boutique that sold branded goods, and a wide range of items from clothings to shoes to bags and accessories, and were at huge discounts. Didn’t get anything though.

By the time we returned to the hotel, it was already 1145am. Last minute diaper changes as baby K chose to poo poo and thereafter we left the room to check out. The line to check out was incredibly slow at that time as the counters dealt with both incoming and outgoing guests. We only checked out by 1230pm.

Walked to the taxi stand just on the next tower entrance, a couple shamelessly overtook us while the door staff was checking with us on our destination for the taxi and took the only taxi waiting there! Had to wait for another one which arrived rather quickly and the taxi driver was exceptional in his service, helping us to load up the luggage and then the stroller at the front seat.

300hkd and 20mins later, we arrived at the airport. The taxi driver continued with the good service, advised us on the counter for the check in and also asked me to pick up a luggage trolley so that he could load it up.

Checked in at the counter with a short queue but didn’t see the priority queue we enjoyed the previous time we were there. As baby K began to fall asleep we chose to not check in at the counter for the stroller. Little that we know that baby K didn’t sleep long enough to fully utilise the stroller.

As usual, we had some food at Tsui Wah before going through departures. There was also no priority queue so we had to go through the normal queues. Luckily there were new counters opening and we proceeded quickly to these to clear.

The gate was at a separate building so we had to take the train transfer. By the time we had arrived it was almost 15 mins before boarding. Luckily a queue was still going about where we quickly went to toilet and also got the diapers changed out at male toilet.

While on the plane, we were at the bassinet seat but weren’t given a bassinet. On the flight to Hong Kong we had to asked for one too. Don’t know if this was related to just Cathay Pacific flights or not. Otherwise it was the usual entertaining baby, letting him sleep and eating and alternating the care with mommy.

This trip to Hong Kong and Macau was primarily to visit the historical places we missed during our last trip there. We wanted to visit the big buddha and the Victoria peak during this trip but couldn’t due to the bad weather. However, we made the visit back to Ocean Park, something we did when we were a lot younger and that felt good, because now as parents, we were bringing my baby boy instead. There were bad moments such as the lost of my tickets that cost 80SGD and the weather but overall it was nice experience.

Hong Kong 2016 Day 5 – Ocean Park

Posted on January 30, 2016June 2, 2020 by ziyi

The day started awesome as the sun rays peeked through the clouds, an indication of an improving weather condition, perfect for an outing to Ocean Park.

Rays of hope of good weather. — Rays of hope of good weather early in the morning

Woke the usual early plus a little snoozing on the alarm and we were up slicing and dicing some foodstuff to prepare baby K’s porridge. Had new ingredients since we bought some from the supermarket the previous night but preparations were no issues with the small chopping board and folding knife that we purchased from Daiso.

We were all ready at 930am and left for the MTR, having learnt that the easiest one for us to get to for about 15mins of walking was Tsim Sha Tsui MTR. 10hkd per person to Admiralty station and off we went, going through the lift that was made for people with needs.

After getting off, we proceeded to the exit B where the bus stand for bus 629 was. En route, we saw a tourism info counter where they offered tickets at discounted rate, about 40hkd off, so we purchased 2 adults while baby K goes in for free.

Before going to the bus ticketing booth on the outside, we saw a hawker stand where mineral water was sold for 7hkd and on their signboards they also indicated that water of the same would cost 25hkd in Ocean Park. Bought 2 bottles and proceeded to the booth to buy return bus tickets for 10.20hkd per way.

Went to the back of the snaking queue, long queue there probably because it was a Saturday, and found that I have lost one of the park entrance ticket. Couldn’t find it after back tracking and gave up and boarded the bus. Although there was a long queue, it cleared pretty quickly as the buses came fast and furious too. We got a seat but had a hard time bringing the stroller up the bus as the walking space within the bus was not a lot.

It was quite a fast trip there, taking less than 20 mins and we were already at the escalator to the park entrance. There was a new Ocean Park MTR station there but not yet in service.

After queuing up for about 5 mins, I went to the counter to enquire if they could do something about the ticket. They said it was not possible to track that one purchased from the MTR so I bought another one.

Entering the park through the entry point for strollers and wheelchairs on the left, we went to the info booth to get 2 pamphlets, one for shows timing and the other for the park map. At almost 11am, we proceeded to the first show at the Asian animals and it was a small group of people performing juggling and stuff in animal costumes. Not really interesting though.

Proceeded to the panda enclosure and saw the pandas sleeping. The red pandas were rather active, moving around constantly. This place kinda reminded us of what we have in our Singapore zoo. On the way out, there were exhibits of goldfish and otter, where one get to have a close encounter with otter while the staff talked about it.

For lunch, we popped over to the Panda Cafe. We ordered duck and Char Siew rice and a minced meat rice, each came with a small Haagen Daz, but each for a whopping 168hkd and 140hkd correspondingly. The duck rice was bad and the minced meat rice was so so.

We went to the toilet with with diaper changing station and changed diapers before trying to get baby K to sleep. We wanted to get baby K to sleep so we walked a bit will we ventured to Whiskers Theatre, where a show was about to begin. Baby K didn’t sleep and ended up watching the show. The actors of the show actually got really close at some point to interact with the kids. The kid next to us even had his head bitten by the dolphin mascot, which was really funny.

After the show, we made our way towards the cable car. En route, we passed a small street that was designed in the style of old Hong Kong. As nostalgic old music was played along the street, baby K fell asleep.

There were two queues for the cable cars towards the Summit, the other bigger section of the park where all the rides were. The queue was not too long and we were soon boarding the very limited space of the cable car, sharing it with another family. I initially had some issues bringing the stroller onboard as the wheels kept getting stuck.

The view from the 15 mins ride was pretty good, especially as the weather was better at the other side of the mountain. Baby K continued to sleep through the ride though.

As we got off, the staff helped, thankfully, with my stroller as I struggled again. Immediately on the left of the cable car exit was the restaurant with a good view but we could get the “free” view near its entrance. Expectedly it was packed with tourists snapping away.

We proceeded to the poles expedition exhibits, one with the seals and walrus and the other with penguins that was pretty cold as we were sharing the surrounding temperature with them. It was amazing to see a walrus for our first time, swimming around. However we struggled a bit on pushing the strollers, constantly looking out for lifts to take as baby K was snoozing in it and we couldn’t risk taking the escalator. Near the exit of the souvenir shop was the discrete entrance to the exhibit for the snow fox. There were a couple of them but all were asleep.

We bypassed all the roller coasters and proceeded to the Shark exhibit. The strollers weren’t allowed in it and we had to park it outside. It was then baby K awoke in time for the visit as he loved to look at fishes. The area was quite a walk with various sections, one where we could view from top of a open pool, one from the sides, one from below looking up and one floor to ceiling kind of enclosure. Of course it couldn’t be compared to the one in Singapore in terms of size but this was only for sharks. There were a couple of types, I recognized the hammerheads easily.

One of the roller coasters, Hairraiser. — One of the roller coasters, Hair Raiser.

Exiting the shark exhibits, baby K had milk and then we walked through the many thrill rides and a short stretch of empty road before reaching the Marine Mammal Breeding and Research Center, where the dolphins were kept when the ocean theatre was closed during winter without shows. We watch the dolphins swimming in pools from behind a clear panel and the staff feeding them but nothing else. It was amazing to see the dolphins actually leaped out of the water within such a small space.

Marine mammals breeding and research center.

Walking back was rather tiring as it was an uphill climb and almost 15mins of that. We were all exhausted when we finally arrived at the Ocean Express train ride back to the Waterfront section. Initially wanted to change diapers for baby K but the one and only room near the shark exhibit was occupied and was informed by a nice dad outside that breastfeeding was in progress and would take up another 10mins.

Thrill mountain, mostly rides based entertainment.

There was a priority queue for strollers for the train ride but it had the longest queue. And funnily not all waiting had a stroller. Luckily we could all get onboard the large train. The ride was a slow moving train but seemed to be faster than the cable car, maybe 15mins? During the journey, there were screens to simulate our journey going through water and depths of earth and stuff, entertaining the kids inside the train.

Back at the waterfront, we went back to the first diaper changing room. Then we went to take another photo with a shark mascot at the booth (previously was a panda) and proceeded to the aquarium, our last attraction for the day. There was no queue also and we managed to take the lift to the top level where the exhibit starts.

In this aquarium, there were similar arrangements but was bigger than the shark ones. Again baby K was excited about looking at marine life, of which we saw the usual nemos and Alaskan crabs and starfish and seahorses. There was also nice exhibit of schools of fishes swimming together and a large octopus.

After this visit, we left the park at 6pm after mommy bought some memorabilia from the shop near the entrance. There was supposed to be a light and fountain show but we gave it a miss as that was at 7pm. Imagine if we had to take the thrill rides, a day out didn’t seem enough. Expectedly, the bus queue was long and we had to wait awhile before getting on the bus, having the same struggle as the day. The evening ride back took longer than the morning one due to the traffic jam. Baby K fell asleep on the ride.

Back at Admiralty we took the same route back to TST and the 20mins walk back to the hotel. Back at the hotel, we quickly cooked dinner for baby K and got out to Harbour City Cafe de Coral for dinner.

Shopping started after dinner and the shops only mostly closed at 10pm. Some had extended hours due to CNY and we stayed till then, leaving the Toys R Us at almost 1030pm.

Back at the room, we only managed to get baby K to sleep and we followed suit falling asleep, leaving the utensils unwashed.