Asia Archives - Page 7 of 22 - Escapes From The Little Red Dot

Seychelles 2018 Day 1 – Transit stay Negombo, Sri Lanka

Posted on February 9, 2018March 3, 2018 by ziyi

Our CNY trip started late Friday afternoon, a first for us as normally we would have optimized the day for real traveling at the location rather than wasting the day away on the plane. The difference this time was an irresistible deal that Sri Lankan Airlines had in December for some good discounts and one of them was for flights to Seychelles, via a transit at Colombo. We got the tickets for 2 adults and a kid for SGD3300 all in. As the transit for both directions were more than 12hrs, we get free accommodation (though not fantastic ones) at Negombo too.

Our Grab car arrived on time and we had managed to squeeze 2 x 28” luggage into the Avante luckily ( driver didn’t respond to our big luggage question) and SGD26 and 30 mins later we were at Changi T3 checking in at the counter.

Since ours was a transit flight, we packed a separate haversack for us to last through the 15hrs at the transit and we found that out only at the counter itself, being informed that the luggage will go direct to our final destination (fortunately we did most of the packing at home because Sri Lankan Airlines were really slow in responding to my email enquires about this and their outsourced Colombo call center didn’t bother to call back when I missed their call). The bags were checked in after we took out some items that we had missed and we proceeded for our late lunch with sandwiches and pastry at Pret-a-manger before going to the toilet to get K into new diapers.

Upon reaching the gate just 20mins before flight time, we realized we were one of the last few to board, quickly we got to our seats and settled in, K totally comfortable as long as there was TV. I was thinking to myself about the upgrade bids that the airlines was promoting and am happy that I didn’t go for it as it didn’t seemed worth it from what we saw walking past. There was just more leg space and that was about it, nothing luxurious about the seat though. No wonder the prices were also cheaper than the normal.

The flight took off on time and soon we were enroute towards our first destination, Sri Lanka. The entire was ok without much drama and food was nice for the non-Sri Lankan one ( as they were not too spicy). The good thing was they served the child’s meal first and so by the time K finished his, ours then arrived. The rest of the flight was pretty much movies and snoozing, K snoozed an hour and a half before resuming his videos of my Little Pony and Teletubbies. I managed to watch the front part of Thor Ragnarok that I missed in the movie previously and the whole Kingsman movie.

We touched down into Sri Lanka on time, at around 420pm and landed with quite a bump. We then moved through the warm bridge, heated up by the hot weather, to the arrivals and went to the transfer counter and handed over our next flight tickets and my email indicating the room reservation of our accommodation by Sri Lankan Airlines. She then provided an official letter and asked us to proceed to Visa payment before going through immigrations. Singaporeans didn’t require Visa and thus we went to just pick up the immigration papers to fill up and went through the immigration quickly.

Confirmation voucher from the transit counter.

Once through, what greeted our eyes after the counters looked more like the insides of Sim Lim tower rather than the usual duty free stores. There were stores selling electrical appliance like TVs and refrigerators, totally things I wouldn’t imagine getting from an airport! After using the restrooms, we proceeded to walked out of arrivals and exchanged some SGD to Sri Lankan rupees at 112:1 SGD at Thomas Cook after seeing the same rates for all the other counters. Then we walked to a Sri Lankan Airlines Colombo stopover counter and handed over the form that we just gotten and in return, he gave us a voucher indicating a free transfer to the hotel, a dinner for 3 persons and a room. That was pretty good deal!

Sri Lankan airlines transit counter in the arrival hall.

We waited at the sitting area in the crowded area and it was also quite warm, from the weather and the crowd. I went to the second floor food court to get a bottle of mineral water for 150rupees and then also used the restrooms. We waited for almost 30mins before the staff signaled for us to go to the transport that would take us to the hotel. We were concerned that they didn’t know where to find out and had went to check at the counter again and was reassured to wait at the sitting area. K played with his own camera the whole time and like a normal curious kid, was moving about most of the time.

The outside was hot and humid and was quite crowded. We only had a couple of haversacks and that made moving around easier. A saloon car arrived shortly and we sat at the back of the car, sharing with another passenger who took the front seat. The drive was about 30mins going through the small roads to Negombo, through the busy shopping streets where we saw a couple of churches before arriving at Catamaran Beach hotel.

The reception immediately checked us in and informed us about check out the next morning at 5am to bring us back to the airport. We didn’t know why the need to go that early since we didn’t have to check in at the airport anymore. It was just immigrations to go through and that was it but they argued that it was airline policy to be there 3hrs before flight.

We were brought to the room with 3 beds and a tiny TV. It was a pretty run down place but decent enough for a nights rest, and came with a lounge area at the corridor. I wouldn’t be interested to lounge there since I would be left exposed to mosquitoes which were huge and rampant. It was almost 630pm and was just in time for sunset. I was impressed by the huge yolk of the sun touching down at the horizon. Wanted to walk to the beach and didn’t know there was a staircase near where the bar was and walked back the length of the corridor twice before reached the beach. By then the yolk was gone. I spent some time on the beach while mommy and K had earlier returned back to the room for dinner that mommy had prepared in Singapore. Took some photos of the sea and the surrounding where some people were playing beach soccer.

An Angmo lady in bikini chatted with me saying that she wanted to go into the water but found it too dirty, looking at the seaweed washed up ashore. She mentioned that the water temperature was warm though and I went to check it out myself, true enough it was nice and warm. Later on a local was pandering some stuff from his bag of goodies and the angmo lady said she wanted durians. There was some nego between them so I left to join my family back at the room after a short detour to the reception to get the WiFi password and asked for toothbrush which I was informed to get from nearby local stores.

After K finished his dinner of soup, I quickly gave him a rinse with water ( his shower gel was in the luggage) and we changed to get ready for our free dinner. I thought it was supposed to start at 7pm and found the dining area empty, and a schedule saying that dinner start at 730pm. We decided to walk the streets to find a store that sells toothbrush and toothpaste. Not long before we saw the worlds’ smallest Carrefour. It wasn’t really Carrefour but a local store decided to call itself that. We bought what we needed and return back to the room.

745pm after a bit more TV for K, we walked down again and was surprised to see the place still empty. Seeing one of the chef, he told us that the dinner was actually at the bar on the second floor. K even followed the chef to the kitchen as he tried to lead him away holding his hands. We need to work on his gullibility.

The bar near the swimming pool was set up for dinner and there were tables at the bridge where we saw the sunset. But the overall area was too dark even though the stars were shining their hardest above our heads. We shifted to somewhere next to the brightly lighted bar (since the bar area was full) and proceeded to get from from the buffet. There weren’t many choices and I chose the conservative non-spicy food since it was the start of the holiday and a upset tummy was a sure way to ruin it. Other than white rice and veggies, there were some grilled chicken and fish, thin cream of chicken soup and ultra sweet deserts and some fruits. Not fantastic but ok. It’s free anyway.

We all returned to the room after dinner with a mosquito bite on my hand. It was only 930pm Sri Lankan time but the body clock was at 12midnight and so we all fell asleep relatively quickly. Good as it was a hell of an early start the next day.

Escape plan to Seychelles February 2018

Posted on February 8, 2018June 23, 2020 by ziyi

A brief summary on the itinerary

Escape Plan to Seychelles 2018:

Total duration 12D11N
Singapore is 2.5hrs ahead of Sri Lanka and 4hrs ahead of Seychelles.
Flight time is 4hrs on Sri Lankan Airlines from Singapore to Colombo and 4hrs on Sri Lankan Airlines from Colombo to Mahe.

Afternoon flight on 9th Feb at 3pm and arrival in Sri Lanka at 420pm followed by a transit duration of 15hrs 25 mins.
Morning flight of 8am on 10th Feb and arrival in Seychelles at 1035am.
Return flight is on the 19th Feb at 535am and arrival in Colombo at 1120am followed by a transit duration of 13hrs 40min.
Morning flight of 1am on the 20th Feb and arrival in Singapore at 730am.

Day 1 Transit stay at Negombo
Day 2 Arrival into Mahe
Day 3 Anse Interdence, Anse Royale town and Maria’s rock cafe
Day 4 Ferry to La Digue
Day 5 Anse Source D’Agent beach and Giant Tortoises
Day 6 Valentine’s on Praslin
Day 7 Valle de Mai and the Coco de Mer
Day 8 Curieuse island, Giant Tortoise and Anse Lazio beach
Day 9 Mahe and The Magic Circus of Samoa
Day 10 Beau Vallon beach
Day 11/12 Home Sweet Home

This escape plan was to utilised the long weekend from the Lunar New Year to get away for some R&R. Since during this period of time, the northern hemisphere would always be cold and we did not want to go to Australia (again!) and coupled with the irresistible airlines deals offered in December by Sri Lanka airlines, we decided on a visit to Seychelles for CNY.

Budget nature: Very expensive due to costly hotels and food.

Most of our budget was spent on food as each restaurant meal can turn up to about 60SGD per meal. Accommodation was overall costing higher than those we normally take in other parts of the world but these were pretty close to the beautiful beaches/waters. Although fuel price was comparable to that in Singapore and Seychelles islands being relatively small, we did not spend a lot of pumping gas. Activities and trips were not cheap and were offered in Euros.

Complexity: Easy to get around in a car.

It was easy to drive around in a car as the islands were served by a single lane road most of the time. However, in order to get from the east to west coasts, we had to cut across the hills by going through curvy hilly roads that might be difficult in terms of road sickness and also at night due to the lack of lights.

Hong Kong 2017 Day 5 – Home Sweet Home

Posted on November 28, 2017June 2, 2020 by ziyi

Final day before returning home and the morning was spent in bed. Our flight was at 210pm and thus we had to leave by 11. We initially wanted to visit the Kowloon park to let K enjoy a little bit of playground before going home but it was not to be, as K slept all the way till 930am. By the time he woke up, got prepared and all, it was almost time to check out.

After packing all our shopping goodies into a pumped luggage, we checked out at 1055am. The staff informed that we could get a taxi to the airport for a fixed fee of HKD230, which was a pretty good deal and so had them arranged one for us, while we would go check out Heritage 1881 which typically would have nice Xmas deco.

It was a brisk walk there and we weren’t disappointed by this years theme of rocking horses and beautiful display of a traditional western building. Took some quick photos and K even managed to ride on one of the rocking horses before we proceeded back to the hotel just in time before the taxi arrived at 1120am.

Again because of the busy street, we had to move quickly to prevent a jammed up situation and reduce the horning on the road. Other wise it was a slow drive out of the main city and a total journey of 45mins to the airport.

Checked in at the SQ counter and then we proceeded to Tsui Wah restaurant, like we always do before leaving Hong Kong. This time we had some pork noodles and hor fun for brunch with K sharing our food, though he didn’t really liked it.

After paying HKD230 for the meals with HK milk teas, we went to window shop a while, mommy buying some HK snacks while K and I visited some of the toys shops there. Then we proceeded to go to the gates, and it was all pretty smooth as it wasn’t really busy at that time. Had a little time at Zara though we didn’t get anything before boarding the A380 back to Singapore, an older plane compared to the one we took to Hong Kong.

The programs on the plane were slightly more updated and a little different. The flight back had a few turbulence but was nothing major. K even took a nap of an hour before we landed in downcast Singapore.

This was a short getaway to Hong Kong, mainly for the purpose of visiting Disneyland as a way to celebrate our boy’s birthday. Overall it was kinda rushed as time literally flew while we were there. I guessed a lot of time was spent waiting and thus the timing of the activities could have been better planned. Overall it was still enjoyable, very tiring and we missed out the food this time around.

Hong Kong 2017 Day 4 – Shopping Day Esprit outlet @ China Hong Kong City, iSquare

Posted on November 27, 2017June 2, 2020 by ziyi

Shopping day started late, everyone overslept and worst was K who only woke up at 930am. But it was ok since that was the only item on our itinerary. I had gone downstairs to the bakery to get some egg tarts and bread and we had these for breakfast before getting ready to visit the malls.

The place where we stayed was just so close to everything else, we strolled towards Harbour City where we visited the last time, nothing much changed except that there wasn’t a sale going on now. After depositing one of the bags at the available rental lockers, and short window shopping later, we then moved on to China Hong Kong city, where there was a outlet Esprit outlet store where mommy spent most of the time there. K and me got ourselves comfortable on the seats outside as we watched videos that I had taken and played Pogo, till my battery was not having much power left.

Then it was time for lunch and we went back to retrieve the bag that costed another HKD10 but there was a change machine so it was good. We googled and Yum Cha came out to be one of a recommended restaurant for dim sum. It was near too, and thus we walked 15mins to that location. Along the way, we stopped by iSquare to take a photo with its Xmas deco that had a Lego theme to it and K doing his heart shape pose with the heart shape deco there.

Upon reaching Granville road, we couldn’t really find the entrance as it was on the 3rd floor and found it to be part of a hotel called attitude on Granville. The restaurant was beautifully decorated, out of our expectations thinking that it was supposed to be another type of old style Hong Kong dim sum place.

Mommy placed order for 6 items and the buns were really cute to say the least. The Cha Siew bun were in the shape of a pig and the custard bun had eyes. Generally the food was tasting great, just not the traditional taste that we were familiar with dim sum. Probably these were more fusion taste. The bill was quite high too, HKD430..

BBQ chicken and lotus chips and carrot cake

We left for the iSquare to visit the supermarket and mommy also splurged on some cutely designed expensive chocolates to try, by Lucullus.

By the time we returned back to the room it was already past 4. K took a dump and down a packet of milk before 2 storybooks and was knocked out 5mins on the bed. The parents also rested the time K was sleeping.

Before we knew it, it was already 630pm and while I had initially proposed to visit a certain Sino Center (retro stuff could be found there according to some forums) to see if we could buy cheap DVDs of Disney cartoons, we felt too lazy to go that far and settled for visiting HMV back at iSquare again. Took a short walk back to iSquare (in fact it was much shorter on land than taking the underground route), and went up one floor, after taking some photos at the Xmas display now lighted up.

HMV was a huge store with lots of selection, guessed it was one of the few surviving ones left as online digital world killing retail all over. There was a couple of selections of Disney films and we got Frozen for HKD140 something. It wasn’t cheap but at least we could watch it in the apartment. Later, on the return, we bought some snack food of fish balls and egg pastries for dinner, as we didn’t feel too hungry for a proper meal.

Back at the apartment, we tried to used the DVD player and couldn’t turn it on. Got the hotel staff and assist and he managed to turn it on after changing the batteries on the remote. Thankfully this worked if not it would have been a waste for the DVD purchase.

The night was spend in front of the TV, getting K associated with the characters since he liked the song. The usual routine of clean up and story books and bedtime follow after, seemed like a short night but still late getting into bed.

Hong Kong 2017 Day 3 – Ngong Ping and Citygate Outlet Mall

Posted on November 26, 2017June 2, 2020 by ziyi

Third day in Hong Kong and we slept in a little more. It was much more tiring than I thought, underestimating the effect of the growing K against overestimating my capability as I aged. We only woke up at 8ish and K at 9am, after switching on the TV for some time and letting the cartoons wake him up naturally.

Everything was pretty smooth up to the point where he wanted to watch more TV instead of leaving. Whined and cried until we had to leave him in the room to force him to obey. We could have stayed longer if there was the luxury of time.

We walked outside to explore the external facilities and found deco that mimicked a scene of Hollywood, with the famous sign. We took a photo with the ocean behind us and took K to the playground that instantly removed his grouch from the morning while I went to do the check out. It was pretty quick since there was no queue and we got to keep the door cards for remembrance.

Entertainment for the young at hotel lobby

Back at the playground K finished his round of slides, tremendously happy and we went to the shuttle bus to bring us to the train station. There was a UNICEF run that morning and thus the roads were blocked with a line of traffic built up. Thankfully there wasn’t much of an impact and we were soon at the MTR, paid a HKD15 per person to Tung Chung.

It was already 11am by the time I checked in my bags into lockers at Citygate outlet malls (HKD10 for 2 hrs, first 6hrs and subsequently doubled after that). There was only payment by notes and I paid HKD20 for it.

Went back through the MTR station to buy some breakfast from a bakery and proceeded to exit B on the other side, in the direction of the cable car station. Had our bread out in the open before a short stroll up the escalator and joining the queue at the prebooked line where again I have gotten my tickets from Klook. Since we had to redeemed at the counter, we had to wait again for almost 25mins before we got our tickets. Again it was a combination of a popular destination plus Sunday that summed up to the waiting time.

The cable car line was again long but because the cable cars were coming in fast and furious, we cleared the line in no time, in about 10mins. Luckily we didn’t take the crystal cabin as it took a much longer time since the frequency of the cable cars were much lower but the line was long. We shared the cable car with another 2 groups as each one could take up to 10 people. Just before the cable car left the station, the staff would take photos for each group.

The journey took about 25mins crossing seas and climbing mountains. Along the way we saw trekkers taking the footpath making their way up. The view would have been awesome if not for the mist that shrouded the skies, blurring everything. We saw the Big Buddha seated on top a hill and we knew we were almost there, arriving at the station at about 1225pm.

Much shorter queue for standard cable car

Big buddha and temple seen from cable car

Walking through the modern ancient Ngong Ping village, we quickly used the restroom there before heading towards the Big Buddha for the arduous climb up many flights of stairs to the top. It was a lot of hard work especially carrying a 11kg load on my shoulder. Took a few photos along the way, enjoyed the scenery for a bit before descending down, equally challenging and quite painful for my ankles which was probably inflamed due to gout.

Walking through the village theme street

Then we wanted to visit the Wisdom Path, a place where the running man visited when they were in Hong Kong (a scene mommy remembered but I didn’t have a clue). The sign indicated a 15mins walk which shouldn’t be far. We saw a few free roaming cows along the way and then it was a footpath through the forest. We reached a clearing and then on the right were many tall pillars with inscriptions on it. Frankly I liked the majestic view of it and the nice weather and blue skies made walking there very much worth it. A short rest later, we took the return journey, distracting K with finding small sticks for him to break so that he could walk himself, which he did amazingly all the way back to start of the path.

We skipped the visit to Po Lin monastery since it was already 140pm. Went into a Ngong Ping 360 shop to get some souvenirs before going to a wishing board to hang a wish tag (given by the shop). Then it was lunchtime at Zen Noodle cafe, where we ordered fried rice and ramen plus a big plate of xiao bai chai so that K could have some vegetables, at a price of HKD250.

By the time we left for the station for the return trip down, it was already 250pm, and the line was much shorter. This time round the crystal cabin cleared faster too since there was a much shorter queue. So the better idea was to take a standard cabin up and a crystal cabin down, if anyone would like a taste of the crystal cabin. It didn’t matter to us and again it was with 3 groups when we boarded the cable car.

The mist had cleared revealing the the blue of the skies and the nice scenery around. K was just as excited going down as when he was going up, talking really loudly and really chatty.

Back on the ground K was beginning to feel tired so we tried entering a restaurant with long cushion seating to get him to sleep but he didn’t want. We decided and we would carry him till he dozed off which happened really quickly and then returned to the same Urban city diner and let him lay on the seat while I had some coffee and mommy carry out her shopping first.

There wasn’t free WiFi so I relied on my data roam to keep me entertained until mommy came back, half an hour later. She had a pair of jeans that she wanted to get and would combine with mine for an additional discount. Then placing K’s head on a rolled up jacket, I left for my shopping time.

As the website of Citygate mentioned that there was free handphone charging so I went to the counter whom advised that the charging station was across the bridge at the other building. I proceeded to walk to the other building as approached the information counter there, expecting to see some lockers with charging cables. But when the staff brought me there, I was disappointed to see that it was an open area with 4 miserable cables, all fully utilized. Waste of time, I went back to start my shopping.

A sucker for jeans, the Evisu outlet was the store that I spent a lot of time there, and I scored a pair of jeans with 70% off plus a 10 that mommy wanted to get ( only thing was I had to return to check with her if that was the pair she left at the counter). After paying, I returned to the restaurant as K had woken up. We paid for the drinks and went to the 10th floor where 10th Avenue was, the entire floor dedicated to shoes.

As I was looking for both a pair of running shoes and a pair of shoes for the new year, we all bought at least a pair from there. After K changed his diapers, we went to Hugo boss where I got myself some shirt (the cheaper ones, they were really comfortable). That was the end of my shopping experience but it had already added up the weight to lug back to the hotel.

Claiming the bag left in the locker, I had to pay an additional of HKD50, in which I paid 60 as I didn’t have a 10 dollar note and there was no change given. Bought the tickets back to TST station for HKD19.5 each and we were on an hour journey back, including the long walk within the station (so thankful for the travelators as my back was breaking). We went to iSquare to visit a Maxim cake shop to get a small piece of cake for K as it was his actual day birthday and then returned to Citadines. Checked in was quick as the staff knew who we were as we had initially stayed there and gave us the keys.

This time around, we were one floor higher but with the exact same design. We put everything down, rested a bit while K watched a video and then proceeded to a diner called Sweetheart Garden restaurant just across the street for dinner. Although mommy wanted to visit a Cha Chan Ting, we had to settle for this since it was almost 9pm already. Mommy ordered a sumptuous pork chop with fish and fried egg rice and a black pepper pork chop served on a hot plate. K shared the rice with mommy and I took pork chop.

Halfway through, mommy and K returned to the room first as he said that he wanted to go poo. Left myself to finish whatever was on the table and paid around HKD 216. Retrieved our luggage and from reception and also our delivery from Door Door, super delicious nougat shop, and brought everything back to the room.

Went to reception to borrow a lighter for lighting up Ks candles but was informed that there wasn’t one available but the staff could lend it to us as she was a smoker. Went to get it from the reception was told to return it only at check out, a nice gesture. Back at the room, we sang a birthday song for K and he blew out the 3 candles after multiple attempts, the 4th time this month he was celebrating (school, and with the grandparents). After a few mouthfuls of cakes, it was bath time, storytime and bedtime.

My ankles were still painful after taking some pills but the tiredness overtook the pain and drove me to dreamland quickly, a eventful day at Lantau island.

Hong Kong 2017 Day 2 – Disneyland

Posted on November 25, 2017June 2, 2020 by ziyi

Woke up early as my bodily clock didn’t change even overseas. Spent some time jotting and completing the travel memories from the day before and spent some time on Pogo, which was having a thanksgiving event.

Mommy woke up when her alarm sounded at 730 and she started preparing the soup and pasta for K. K woke up at around 830am, also around the same time he usually wakes up back in Singapore. Though he looked a little tired, the thought of visiting Disneyland made him excited again.

After having our pastries that mommy bought for breakfast, and a little TV, K got changed and was ready to go, even chasing his slow poke parents to hurry up – it was a first!

We finally checked out at about 930ish and left our main luggage at the hotel as we would be back the next day. Walked to TST MTR and bought 2 tickets costing HKD46 in all to Disneyland. It was a short ride back to Central, a 10mins walk and then around a 20mins journey on the orange line. Then finally a changeover to a dedicated pink line in which a Mickey Mouse design train arrived and picked up the passengers. Even the interior was different and felt a little more atas then the usual one. K was amused!

Interior layout was different from the standard trains

We arrived shortly at around 1030am, 30mins after park opening and already there were hordes of people around. After a few quick shots at the fountain, we proceeded past the bags check which took a while as the security was a little slow and unsure, then straight to the entrance as we had already purchased 2 adult tickets on Klook. Having already downloaded the voucher on the phone, we entered using the QR codes and were given 2 physical tickets at the gate itself.

Disneyland MTR station looked like a fantasy train station

Using the HK Disneyland app which was just really useful, we could locate all the services we needed. So mommy went to get a stroller for rental cos we knew K wouldn’t walk that long and the park was huge and I went to drop off my heavy haversack at the locker rental. It was HKD100 for the stroller rental and similarly for the locker rental too.

Panoramic view the spacious Disneyland resort

As there was a show about to start, we went straight to the Fantasyland and entered a huge theatre. It was almost like a real musical and the effects were pretty fascinating. There was also fake snow and ending had falling confetti which wowed the crowd. Songs from the Disney movies such as the Little mermaid, Tangled and Brave and of course Frozen entertained all. But K wasn’t impressed and wanted to return to the hotel, maybe because he hadn’t seen any of the movies and had no connection to them, except “let it go”.

After the show ended, we popped next door to the “it’s a small world” and K actually changed his mind about taking the boat ride. However, we got him on the slow boat ride and he was amazed by the different displays that brought him through different continents complemented with Disney characters. He then wanted to go one more round! After we exited and mommy went to the toilet while we took some photos of the castle outside, did I convinced him to go check out other stuff, such as visiting Tinklebell at the fairytale forest. He wasn’t even interested in taking the flying dumbo rides or the Cinderella carousel.

We entered the forest that had an interesting display of Disney’s princesses’ stories from Rapunzel, Beauty, Cinderella and Snow White. Different displays all had a fake winding mechanism that K like to wind. He went through it all without asking to be carried which was good. However he was disappointed he wasn’t able to find Tinklebell at the location, there wasn’t even a time schedule so we just told him that she wasn’t around at the moment and we could try later.

We proceeded to lunch at Clopins festival of food after we saw a long queue at the Royal Banquet Hall. It was around HKD 112 for a set meal of main and a soft drink, which mommy bought a BBQ chicken set and I got myself a huge bowl of Wanton noodles. K gobbled up his pasta and even had a bit of my noodles, all the while kept entertained by his pencil tablet.

We got K to change his diapers at the restroom and tried the fairytale forest one last time after our lunch and found out after exiting from the staff that Tinkerbell would only be there at 3pm, a little late already. So mommy brought K and boarded the park train while I brought the stroller back to the rental location as the stroller cannot go up the train. Met them at the main train station and as I parked the stroller back at the rental store, promising to return later after Ks afternoon nap, and retrieve our haversack, mommy went to the store for some shopping.

Spewing volcano for an adventurous boat ride

K wanted the bubble making toy and broke down crying and whining for it and only stopped after I brought him outside the store and ignored him. Down the Main Street people lined the sides waiting for the parade to start at 3pm. K then requested to enter to store again, this time being more obedient, knowing that he couldn’t have the bubble toy until much older and settled for a interesting Lightning McQueen cup instead.

Met mommy who was still busy shopping for stuff (HKD600 ish spent) and have her paid for the cup while I brought K out of the store to see huge display mobiles on the street, where dances with music were performed by people and costumed characters. It was frankly quite impressive and even K thought it was nice. However it was short lived as it was already at the end of the parade and they were already moving off.

Back at the store, mommy was still in line. After the payment, we exited the park with invisible stamps on our hands for reentry, already 4pm. Thought that the resort was nearby so I made the decision to walk, and it was about a 10mins walk. Felt difficult as I was carrying the day bag and K on my shoulder. We entered the Disneyland hotel only to find out that I booked the Hollywood hotel via the reception after lining up for my turn. I forgotten I booked the cheaper option, it was no wonder the original Disneyland hotel looked more grand. Boarded the shuttle bus just outside and alighted at the right one, 2 stops away.

Check in done and we were up to the top 2nd floor. There was a nice birthday cake display and a greeting card for K which he was happy about it. The accessories were also nice and even had nice room slippers, a pair for K. We quickly changed his diapers and gave him a packet of milk, read a story and he was then fast asleep. The parents took the time to nap as well before I woke up to write up this blog. Before I knew it, K was awake after 2hrs of nap time.

We left the room at 7pm and caught the shuttle bus back to the park. The skies were already dark and the streets were illuminated with lots of lights overflowing with the Xmas feels. Though these were essentially the same things in the day, it looked nicer in the night.

We went through the security again after some photos at the fountain and even though there was a priority queue for hotel guests, it made no difference as there weren’t many people entering the park at this time.

We couldn’t find one of our tickets but because we had the stamp on our hands, we were allowed reentry thankfully. Made a beeline to reclaim our stroller while K and mommy went to the giant Xmas tree to take some pictures. Then proceeded in the direction of Iron man expo, in the hope of using a priority pass that hotel guests were given.

As we hit the Main Street, we found many people seated along the kerb – the parade was about to begin and I had forgotten about it. We walked the furthest we could and stopped to watch the parade instead. It was a better idea as it was awesome!

The street lights were dimmed for the parade and then from a distance, we could hear music as big display mobiles and street dancers headed our direction. The dazzling lights on both the dancers and the mobiles wowed the crowd as they strolled past us, entertaining people young and old. I thought it was way better than any parade than I have seen, like Chingay, only much more dazzling. One by one, K’s favorite character turned up, starting with the flying Tinklebell, and a red hot Lightning McQueen and his huge disco container truck. Mickey was last but had one of the most eye catching moving display, suited his wizardry theme and many others in between.

As the parade ended at almost 8 and people cleared the street, we could finally walk to the Ironman expo. We had to walk back from theatre to Tomorrowland after I mistaken where I thought it was. K was pretty hyped to go see Iron man but were left disappointed when we found that there was height limit. Checking back on the app, the one applicable for all ages was the Heroic encounter instead of Ironman experience. The heroic encounter was closed unfortunately.

We then decided to return to it’s a tiny world to take the boat since he liked it in the afternoon and also agreed to go there instead. Then a brisk walk later, we found it closed, a 2nd disappointment, and K was close to tears. Consoled K a bit and we then went around to look for dinner. Went past the other side then we missed completely in the afternoon and found most of the areas closed already. Ended up at the USA streets and in the Plaza Inn restaurant, thinking that since it was $$$ in price, we could most likely get a seat. Dead wrong, there were in fact 15 more people waiting in front of us, according to the queue number.

We walked again, this time back to the place that we had lunch in the afternoon and found it closed. The staff pointed us to the Royal Banquet Hall and the second time we pass through the brightly lighted carousel ( one of the few attractions on OT), we entered the impressive Beauty and the beast medieval theme hall and got a seat while mommy went to buy food.

She came back with a trolley of 3 meals, HKD130 each which was too much for 2.5 people. There was meatball spaghetti, baked rice and curry chicken rice and K was ok having the spaghetti and fish from my baked rice. I couldn’t finish the spaghetti as the baked rice was huge enough for myself already.

We ate till 855 and then we rushed outside to catch the fireworks, which was back at the USA street. This meant we actually made two rounds around the park in that night alone! The main space in front of the famous Disney castle was already packed and we tried to get as close as possible. The spectacle was about to begin.

Music and snippets of Disney movies begin to show, using the castle as a screen. Then later, small teasing fireworks shot up the sky. Both music and movie complemented the buildup in intensity of the fireworks, much like telling a magical story, which was a similar concept that we saw the entire day in the park. Soon flames and spotlights also came in and gave the night sky canvas a beautiful combination. It was a pity that we were slightly too near to the action and too sideways to see the entire view but still fireworks were always nice to watch. K felt a little scared and wanted to leave but I tried to calm him down, telling him that it was ok while seated on my shoulder.

The 15mins show ended and then it was a mass movement of people towards the exit. Slowly but surely we took baby steps to get out, passing through the USA streets that by now was snowing (foam). Incredible Xmas feelings warmed the heart, K having fun seeing snow falling on mommy’s head. With the Xmas tree in the middle, we tried to get a family selfie.

Returned the stroller quickly and exited the park, with Santa Goofy singing some Xmas tunes with singers at the main train station. Went back to the shuttle bus station and I thought we had to wait since there were so many people leaving, but the clever management anticipated the huge influx of leaving crowd and catered additional buses to ferry the guests back the hotel so we didn’t have to wait. 5mins ride and we were back in the hotel.

Visited the hotel shop to get a gift for nephew and after a while, we returned to the hotel room. I was physically tired and had to rest a little before giving K a bath in the tub while K was playing his all new remote control Lightning McQueen car. He spent some time in the tub, like all kids loved, changed to pyjamas, and later watched Disney’s cartoons (those I remembered watching before when I was much younger). His parents bathed, cleaned up the containers and bottles and packed for the next day. Made K a bottle of milk and 2 storybooks later, it was lights off, mommy alone on her queen bed and K sharing it with me on another.

Hong Kong 2017 Day 1 – Arrival at Hong Kong and visit to the Peak

Posted on November 24, 2017June 2, 2020 by ziyi

K’s birthday trip to Hong Kong started early on Friday morning. To catch that 955am flight, the parents woke at 630 ish while K had the slightly luxury to wake 15mins later. Having down a bottle a milk, getting dressed dazed but knowing that he was going to get on a plane helped get him out of bed way faster than a normal school day. Dad drove us to the airport taking the PIE, and while we were aware that K might puke in the car, he didn’t – traffic was light and we got to the airport in slightly more than half an hour.

We helped ourselves with the printing of the luggage tags and drop the luggage at the new hi tech looking bed drop and then we were through the departure and the immigrations. Sat ourselves at Pret A Manger (been a while since we visited) for some drinks while K had his chiffon cake for breakfast and plane watching for entertainment. We were also given by the Changi staff a airplane-neck pillow, which K enjoyed playing with.

Before proceeded to the combined gates (A1-A5 I think) area, we changed his diapers at one of the diaper changing area. Older now, he initially chose to lie on the koala fold down table and to buckle up but later we got him to stand up since he was going to use diaper pants.

Boarding happened soon after and there was a long line to the plane. We settled quickly before K started his marathon viewing of Baby First, something he remembered where he was watching it on another flight before. There was a water spill incident at the seat in front of us and the passengers in front had to be reseated somewhere else, good because K was always kicking the seat in front.

The child food came after K downed a 250ml but his appetite was a little surprising as he munched down the entire bread with butter plus a big amount of the egg omelette. We had to stop him from eating some more fearing that he would vomit everything out if he didn’t feel well. The fear was for nothing as he managed well, even though he didn’t sleep at all.

I managed to catch Pirates of the Caribbean Dead: Dead Men Tell No Tales, and K had the baby TV and his scribble pad, and a change of diapers at the seat later, we had landed in the cool (literally) country of Hong Kong, 20mins late (since we took off 25mins late due to the busy flights at Changi).

We got to the immigrations and there was a long snaking line that took about 15mins to clear. There was another passenger with the same name as K at the next counter which we found amusing as we didn’t know it was that common. Picked up the luggage at the belt immediately after clearing the immigrations and my “reservoir” and we were outside trying to hunt for voucher booklet but didn’t see any. Later we boarded the urban taxi heading towards Tsim Sha Tsui, HKD306 and 45 min later, we arrived at the narrow one way street for our accommodation, Citadines Ashley.

One of the staff on seeing us struggling, me trying to keep the change that the driver gave me and at the same time negotiating with 2 luggage, came out to help. Showing the voucher I had in my iPhone wallet, check in was easy. Before we knew it, we were at the 18th floor of this hotel.

K who was awoke after getting off the taxi, drank a packet of milk before we went back to napping. Both parents rested too but it was a short nap before mommy got up to cook soup and went downstairs to get some egg tarts while I lazed in bed. Eventually, K woke at about 510pm and had some snacks before we left for our first attraction of this trip, the Peak.

Having bought the tickets on Klook, we were supposed to meet up at exit K at Central MTR. If was 10mins walk from our accommodation to Tsim Sha Tsui station and then a short 5mins ride to Central. It was peak hour and as the ticketing kiosk was crowded, it was challenging to get tickets, someone even tried to cut out queue which we told them off, only to find the machine’s notes “eater” faulty. To make it easier, we went to the counter which had a queue but was at most a 2 mins wait.

The MTR wasn’t packed like a sardine even though it was busy, there were even seats. We got to exit K in no time and it was easy to spot the 2 guides holding small orange Klook flags. Getting behind a queue, I gave my phone to the guide that returned me with 2 ARV tickets (A adults, R return and V for train and sky terrace). Since K was under 3 I didn’t get him one. There was 3 groups of people segregated by languages, biggest being Chinese (unsurprisingly), and English and Korean, making it a 100 people crowd. At 615pm ( the last time slot for group booking on Klook), we started walking to the Tram station.

Klook group at the entrance with the orange flags

This was when it started to become a bad idea. When I booked the tickets (SGD 17 each), I forgotten that it was a Friday evening. This was peak time for the Peak. The short 5mins walk to the station became 10mins as the street was packed with people and cars with tourists and people getting off work. We got to bypass a few buildings like the HSBC bank building and Cheung Kong center (owned by the richest man in Hong Kong) before we found ourselves lining behind a very long snaking queue alongside garden Road.

Office of the richest tychoon in Hong Kong

The wait was as long as 1hr and I immediately regretted going on this trip, wondering when K could have his dinner. From about 640pm I stood in the queue while mommy and K walked about at the fountain and joined later as we were about to go into the station itself, and finally only boarded at about 740pm. And it was chaotic, even though we had a kid and people were reminded not to push, there was still a lot of pushing. Mommy managed to get onboard first and chope seats while I came up slightly later with K, after pushing through the crowd past the small doorway of the tram, feeling disgusted of the lack of civil mindedness but wasn’t surprised at with a predominantly big group of Chinese tourists.

Getting off at the station, we went through the “market” place and then getting info from the guide, we went in search of food. There was Madame Tussaud that we didn’t get tickets for and a free “trick eye museum” of sort that we bypassed, a Jap restaurant, Bubble Gump and Hard Rock that we saw but ended up at Chinese restaurant called Lu Feng which didn’t have a queue and most likely have fried rice that K could have with his soup.

We were brought upstairs that revealed a nicely designed interior and had beautiful views of the city but were told that it was fully reserved. Ordered Ying Yang fried rice (2 flavors on the same plate) and a beef fried hor fun. I thought it tasted pretty good and K had a bit of both but was quick to give up eating saying he was full. As usual, I had to eat up the leftovers but it was quite nice in my opinion.

After some fussing in the restaurant for not wanting to walk while i paid for the HKD340 ish dinner, we proceeded to use the locked toilets (key to take from counter) before heading to the topmost 6th floor where the tickets were once again used for entry to Sky Terrace 428. At that time it was again crowded and we had to wait for our turn to move closer to the balcony to take photos. I had never learnt to take a photo for people with a brighter background, and the flash just dimmed the view behind. In the end, the shot came out with very grainy mommy and K, worse without a stand. Taking the view was fine but funnily the iPhone was not able to shoot well.

After a short walk around and a photo of K doing the heart shape pose (his fave pose currently with all his birthday poses being the same) in front of a heart shape display, we left the chilling winds and proceeded to another round of waiting for the tram back to ground level. This time the queue was much faster and in about 40mins, we were on the tram, again after much shoving. We couldn’t get a seat but a nice tourist offered some space to share with K, which he took unwillingly after mommy made him sit.

The steep descent made us had to hold on tight and since the tram was facing one direction throughout, the seated people were moving in the backwards direction, slided back into the seat.

We went back to the same way we came, now the streets emptied of the crowd and it was a quick walk to Central MTR. We boarded an empty train as the previous one just left and arrived at TST station on a crowded train as passengers boarded at the stop in between. Went to iSquare mall to the Supermarket by Jason’s to buy meat and vegetables for making soup the next day, the supermarket was still busy – 10pm and people were still going in to buy stuff. Paid about HKD130 and we walked back to our hotel, going through the busy street that had probably only getting started for the Friday night.

Once back, I rested a while and had a free can of coke from the fridge. Carrying K on my shoulders made my shoulders kinda sore. Bathed K in the bathtub before he was watching a bit of discovery channel, drank his milk and played his pencil tablet while the parents prepared the day bag for Disneyland the next day and bathed.

It was 12mn before lights off, K didn’t even asked for story book and soon we were all off to lala land.

Escape Plan to Hong Kong November 2017

Posted on November 23, 2017June 23, 2020 by ziyi

A brief summary on the itinerary

Escape Plan to Hong Kong 2017:

Total duration 5D4N
Singapore is in the same time zone as Hong Kong.
Flight time is 4hrs on Singapore Airlines from Singapore to Hong Kong.

Morning flight on 24th January at 955am and arrival in Hong Kong at 155pm.
Return flight is on the 28st January at 210pm and arrival in Singapore at 610pm.

Day 1 Arrival at Hong Kong and visit to the Peak
Day 2 Disneyland
Day 3 Ngong Ping and Citygate Outlet Mall
Day 4 Shopping Day – Esprit Outlet at CHKC
Day 5 Home Sweet Home

This escape plan was to get away from Singapore to celebrate our son’s birthday by bringing him to the nearest happiest place on Earth, Disneyland! It was also a good time to visit, given that the weather near the end of the year was nice and cool.

Budget nature: Slightly expensive due to costly hotels and Disneyland, but offset by outlet malls savings.

We had chosen to stay in a apartment close in Tsim Sha Tsui close to Harbour City for most of the days and accommodation in TST are priced higher slightly. The 1N stay in Disneyland was expected to be expensive, even on advance purchase with free upgrade. However, it was just worth it to experience this luxury once in a while

Complexity: Easy to get around with the MTR.

The places we covered were very accessible as every tourist would probably go. Plus the fact that the hotels we chose was in an accessible place, it was easier comparatively. We chose to take the taxi for both trips from and to the airport, just for convenience’s sake.

Nikoi Island 2017 Day 2 – First Time Fishing and Home Sweet Home

Posted on November 6, 2017June 20, 2020 by ziyi

Sunday morning started with a cloudy morning. The lack of curtains made the room bright even as early as 530am. I was woken up by my body clock and spent some time in bed writing up the happenings (not much in fact) the day earlier and even had time to wash the milk bottle and the utensils that I missed out washing the night before.

As mommy and K laid sound asleep, I decided to explore the island by myself, walking around barefooted like an islander. Proceeded past the usual building of the bar and then past the bigger villas, meant for families and further through a forest to the swimming pool. Dipped my foot in the slightly chilly water and took a couple of photos before heading back to the main beach. Took in the powdery sand with gentle turquoise waters view and returned to our villa, to find mommy and K downstairs, awake already.

Bad news was, K was having a fever. Worse news was, we forgotten to bring the paracetamol and we had to return home today, one day shorter than the planned. Obviously this meant that we had to forgo the SGD480 per night room plus ferry tickets to be paid for changing of time. What a bummer.

Went to the reception to borrow a comb and thermometer but they didn’t have at that time so I returned to the villa and together with mommy and K, we went to the dinning place to have our breakfast.

One set of Indonesian and one western, plus K had a bowl of honey stars, out of a choice of 4 giant glass jars. I ordered omelette, tomato and sausage and they delivered more than one plate of omelette, a mistake that they admitted later on. For Indonesian, there was some curry flavoured stuff, some kueh lapis and donuts. There was also toast with butter and a fruit platter to finish off. Fruit juice and coffee were the drinks. Very filling.

We broke the bad news to the staff when they asked how we wanted our lunch. The orders were changed to just rice and some bread so that we could take those away. The staff helped to make arrangements for our sudden need to depart and managed to find the ferry arrangements. We were then due to leave on the 1pm boat from the island, checking our at 1230pm.

Wanted to try fishing and so we proceeded to where the makeshift fishing rods were and asked the staff at the bar for some fish baits. The staff came back with the squid fish bait and showed us how to attach to the hook. Walked to the pier and started to fish. As soon as the bait went under the surface of the water, we could feel the rod shaking as fishes attacked the bait. Then as I picked up the rod, we saw a fish trying to shake itself off the hook. We caught a fish!

Quickly took a few photos to mark this momentous event when we caught a fish and then tried to remove the fish so as to release it back into the waters. Tried a few more baits later only to find the bait totally eaten without catching any fishes. I guessed they learnt.
As we were trying to lure the fish, I noticed something fell into the water making a splash. I asked if mommy had dropped something, like her handphone and it was! It slipped from her pocket when she sat down. I immediately informed one of the staff who was on the pier and he quickly jumped into the water and attempted to retrieve it. Through the clear waters, I directed him to the location and he got it back for us.

We returned back to the villa after returning the bait to the bar. Mommy put her handphone into the bag of uncooked rice that we have packed for the trip, initially meant as dinner for K. Since the kitchen cooked for K, we didn’t use it.

While mommy cooked soup for K, I did whatever packing there was. Then we went over to the reception to ask for the staff who helped us retrieve and handphone and gave him a small appreciation of SGD50. Later we visited the kids club for a while and K tried the old free house which he despised after climbing a little and went over to the new but not yet opened tree house to take the swing and cross the bridge. Mommy took some time off to explore the island later joined us at the kids club.

Back at the villa, K started to have lunch first and so I returned to pick up the meals which was already ready at the bar. After k finished his lunch, both mommy and I quickly took turns for a quick bath before the resort staff came to pick up the luggage.

We did our checkout at the same bar, mommy paying the meals for SGD200ish, a price mommy found steep which I thought was expected since it was quite delicious and supply was a monopoly. We also had to pay for the transfer that didn’t come with the hotel booking and it was another SGD200ish. We waited until it was time to go and proceeded to walk to the other jetty, as it had left choppy waters there. Other than us, a couple of other families were also leaving the island. Boarded the fast craft and not long later, we were waving goodbye to the staff on the pier and the boat sped across the waters, creating water splashes that interested the kids seated at the back.

K was not as active as he was, probably due to the fever and also nearing afternoon nap time but he didn’t puke. 20mins later, we were at the same private pier and onboard the MPV by ourselves, each families getting their own. While on the road, K fell asleep real quickly and both his parents follow suit soon after.

The journey back to the terminal was uneventful and as the car stopped for us to disembark, K woke up. One hour of nap time wasn’t enough, evidently as his activity level stayed low. We went to the ticketing counter and mommy paid additional SGD78 for the change in tickets. The economy option was an additional SGD60 so it was not a bad deal to just settle for the Emerald, in return for priority embarkation and disembarkation, lounge use with free drinks and more comfy seats.

After using the restroom, getting a free drink and getting online with the free slow WiFi, we were called to board the ferry. There was no need to rush since we had allocated seats and sat comfortably, except that my chair was automatically in inclined position upon resting my weight on it. Got a free drink onboard as well. K though constantly being sponged by us was enjoying the early bits of the onboard show of Alvin and the chipmunks (again, patience too short to last the entire movie). And before we knew it we were disembarking, going through immigration and one of the first few in line and waiting for the luggage on the small belt. Carpark fees was SGD42ish.

Trip was a nice return to nature, a getaway true to its name. While physically we were away from the day to day familiarity in the form of electronics and online games (no Pogo monsters on the island) that created time for bonding, such as fishing and playing sand. However, as unpredictable as life itself, the trip was abruptly shortened due to a fever and we weren’t prepared like we were used to, having forgotten to bring along our paracetamol, a lot of money spent wasted and value of traveling time under utilized. Nikoi Island could have been fun, evidently family oriented as observed by the number of families there but expensive due to its exclusivity. Our boy may have been too young to enjoy it all, and we would probably not be back anytime soon, considering other more convenient places available.

Nikoi Island 2017 Day 1 – Arrival in Nikoi Island – experience of private island

Posted on November 4, 2017June 20, 2020 by ziyi

The weekend getaway started with a feverish morning originating from a sore throat. Coupled with a lack of precheck on the boarding timing, we started to move fast when we knew from the email booking that we needed to be there 1.5rs before our 1110am departure.

Quickly I continued to pack the last minute items while mommy cooked the lunch to be packed for the journey to Nikoi Island. We were all set to move by 910am and drove about half an hour to Tanah Merah ferry terminal. Parked at carpark A, we went to check in behind a long line of people checking in for the Bintan Resort Ferries. I quickly went over to the forex to exchange SGD50 at rate of IDR9400 for 1SGD before we getting our tickets and checking in the luggage at the next counter, without additional charge.

We proceeded to go through the checks and immigration which was quick and entered a crowded waiting area with snaking queues for boarding. We had about an hour left to boarding and so we went to Killiney for breakfast, sat at one of the few tables that weren’t cleaned up, probably because of the crazy amount of people there. People sure loved to cruise out of Singapore on a weekend.

This was a different experience we had since our last trip with K as we had booked the Emerald class and had a separate lounge to sit in and did not have the problem of looking for space to sit. As K was almost 3, we didn’t think that we had to pay that much more for space and settled with joisting for space, like the rest of the public.

Mommy took the job of ordering food while I kept K company at the table with his new Lightning McQueen toy. He had an episode of wanting to go to toilet to take a dump that I had to leave the bags at the table quickly as mommy was still in queue but when we arrived at the toilet bowl, he said no more.

After our breakfast of toast with kaya and butter accompanied with the boost of caffeine from the coffee, mommy went to line up while K and I went to sit at the waiting area seats. It was indeed a good strategy as we were one of the first few to board and had the chance to sit right in front where we could see where the ferry was heading and the giant screen in front.

The seas were pretty calm thankfully, reducing the numbers of up and downs, and K had drank up a bottle of milk. There were puke bags available and I was having it on standby for fear of puking incident. We didn’t have to use it although he managed to burp instead of puke. Alvin and the chipmunks were on TV for that short ride to Bintan island and K took the last 10mins of the ferry ride walking around the vessel.

After disembarking, we realized that we were going to queue for a while with so many people in queue, much unlike the last time in Emerald class where they had the priority to get off first. Luckily for us, there was an express option for people going to Nikoi Island as a lady staff stood with a sign to Nikoi Island brought us to the front of the queue of immigrations and even waited on our behalf at the belt for our checked in luggage while we go through the security checks. We had the chance to use the lounge for free mineral water and restroom before our ongoing drive, which was meant for the Emerald class. This was not a bad deal.

It was a seamless transfer as we were handed over to the driver whom brought us to a MPV for our 1hr drive to the next jetty. Having given K his smelly smelly, he soon fell asleep on the 1hr car ride (when he didn’t on the ferry as the smelly smelly was inside the luggage and he needed that to go to sleep). I took the opportunity to catch some shut eye since I was busy with K on the ferry whereas mommy had her rest on board already. The car, as far as I knew, went through uninteresting areas of vegetation and small villages made up of sparsely spreaded short concrete houses before hitting the coast. I had my data roaming on, as I had subscribed the night earlier, with the concern that there was no WiFi on Nikoi Island. The data roam package wasn’t overly expensive as I had initially thought it to be, 3gB for 30days usage for SGD30, and since we have another trip at the end of the month to Hong Kong, we could still utilize it. I was looking forward to some Pokémon Go action, but was seriously disappointed with the lack of gyms and pokestops being few and far between.

Our private transport to the Nikoi Ferry

Not long before we drove into a private boat pier. K woke and was a little dazed while I quickly used the restroom before boarding a big speedboat, 20mins trip to our final destination. The speedboat went quickly on the water, going past some floating houses before powering through the small waves. K was ok throughout and we disembarked with a lovely welcoming sight of the white sandy beach.

Fishermen fishing while being away from the shore

Floating houses seen on the way to Nikoi

The staff immediately escorted us to the bar where we had a cold towel and a welcome drink and did the check in and getting information on what was available in this tiny private island. K had the liberty to go around playing sand (it was almost everywhere) and we proceeded to the lunch area afterwards.

Mommy didn’t booked the full board, as it was quite expensive, about SGD100 per person per day and was expecting to order a la carte but there wasn’t such options. We had to pay the set meals option anyway since there were no other restaurants around. The lunch consisting of appetizer and main course of fish which was very tasty, and definitely of a restaurant standard. There were however many flying insects that went around, something expected when staying close to nature. We had also informed on what we wanted to have for dinner if we didn’t want what was offered on the menu, and they could make adjustments. They could even prepare for K something different and we ordered steamed fish, broccoli and rice for him, thus reducing the need to cook.

Appetizer made of chicken and vegetables

We were escorted back to our villa and it was a double storey open concept villa with 2 toilets. The ground floor was totally opened without any doors, had its own hanging bed and sun decks and another bed shed facing the sea while the second floor had another toilet, a balcony, 2 side beds and the main bed in the middle. It was simple yet luxurious. There weren’t any TVs and air conditioning and the electricity was powered by solar. But there was WiFi, pretty strong one and it was throughout the island.

We spent pretty much of the time in the villa, K lazing around at all the beds there were, especially liking the hanging one. I seen a large monitor lizard lurking as it headed towards the sea. K then proceeded to play sand as we had brought the scoops and shapes and he made a mess of himself throwing sand everywhere. There wasn’t a telephone (totally forgotten that the staff could been reached via Whatsapp) and so I had to walk to the bar to request of ice so as to have them placed in the ice box to keep some of the vegetables that we brought cool.

The second floor was particularly unsafe for kids and we had to keep a watchful eye on him. The balconies and the side walls were low and falling was possible if kids climb over them or could slip if they got too close. We kept reminding K to stay away from the balcony.

He spent the remaining daylight hours playing his Lightning McQueen toy, preference over going to the Kids club which I had the chance to pop by to see when I was out looking for ice but there wasn’t any activity ongoing then (next activity was treasure hunt). That we went to bath for K, a little challenging with only the rain shower that didn’t have a high water pressure and trying to get rid of the fine sand in his hair.

Mommy cooked some soup for K before taking a bath when K suddenly had to pee, and peed in his pants before we could get to the toilet. Gave him a quick wash before putting on diapers for him and then we went out for dinner.

It was only 630pm Bintan time and it was already dark. We brought along a hand torch from the room and because there weren’t any street lamps, the paths were lighted by oil torches but wasn’t bright enough. The hand torch helped and we made our way to the dining place at no time.

Dinner was served and again the food didn’t disappoint, only grouse was the black pepper on my medium well was a little too much for my throat to bear. K had his broccoli and fish mixed with the soup mommy cooked and mommy had chicken fillet that was more that she could finish. We ended the dinner with strawberry ice cream dessert, K didn’t like it surprisingly.

We went over to the beach where there was supposedly a bon fire happening where kids could go over there to heat up their mashmellows but then it started to drizzle, disappointingly. We borrowed a huge umbrella and proceeded to the kids club where there was a movie screening happening at 730pm. Kids could then gathered in front of the screens on giant bean bags. We sat there for a while but K wasn’t that interested and we headed back to the villa after some 20mins.

Turn down service was done for our villa where the mosquito nets were set up and the mosquito coil burnt. I didn’t really felt the threat of mosquitoes the whole time I was here though. The night routine of cleaning up pots and pans followed by bathing. K again bumped his head against the wooden rounded railings around the villa while losing his balance when jumping on a pillow.

I went over to the bar to get some hot water as the flask cover was broken and we couldn’t boil any. The issue was immediately resolved and housekeeping brought a new flask over, minutes after I arrived back at the villa. It was initially hard to get to sleep as it felt a little warm, even with a small fan just above our bed, within the mosquito net. Then before we knew, we were all snoozing.