The last day started early, just like any other day since Jr. came along. Woke up to quite a few mosquito bites on Jr. and my wife, apparently the mosquitoes had found a good food source. Unlike in Bintan where there was a mosquito net over the bed, the beds here were exposed and there weren’t any anti-mosquito fragrance.
After feeding and cleaning up, we proceeded to breakfast at the Spice Market restaurant near the reception. It was filled and we were told to go over to the Meritus club instead for the breakfast, where the similar buffet was set up. As we entered the classier setting and cushier seats, I felt that the buffet on offer had slightly less offering than the main buffet. After breakfast, we returned to the room for our final preparations, which included preparing baby meals, storing the expressed milk and bathing the baby. Of course we couldn’t complete these in time and so we overstayed for a good 30mins. The recept had to call us to remind us and asked if we needed a buggy, to which we said yes. The buggy was here in a flash, the fastest I have seen the 3 days we were here. Still we took some time before finally leaving the villa.
Brought a fridge-to-go for us to bring back the expressed milk. These we couldn’t bring along during the afternoon trip, we left it at housekeeping which they said could help us store in freezer, along with the luggage that was left with their temporary luggage storage.
Drove the car back to same location as the night before and parked just at the entrance of the Underwater World building. Purchase the tickets for 40RM per pax and entered the building, thankfully airconditioned. As Jr. had yet again pooped, we walked through the exhibits at the front swiftly, seeing some marine life along the way. When we reached the nursing room, we found it run down, without any facilities except a sink. It was a far cry from the beautiful nursing rooms we had in Singapore but this was expected. We quickly changed the diapers on Jr. by the sink (whom by the way made a mess by peeing while we were changing the diapers) and proceed on with the rest of the exhibits. Wife thought that the place was going to be huge so we rushed through the remaining half of the Underwater world, only to realised that it wasn’t as big as we thought and then we made a U-turn back to Eden cafe to have lunch.
There was quite a few stuff on the menu but what was really available was only Nasi Lemak. We bought for 2 of us and some nuggets to supplement the main dish as it didn’t looked filling. We had planned for my wife to pump at the nursing room while Jr. and I wait for her. This plan was quite important so as to ensure that there was enough food for Jr. for the whole afternoon out till we arrive back in Singapore, and also for my wife to relief herself. So she left for the unimpressive room while I brought Jr. to the hexagonal tank. This was particularly amusing as he could see many large fishes swimming everywhere and it kept him amused for some time until he got cranky and I had to feed him.
After 30mins, I went back to meet up wife and we left the Underwater World, exit led through a huge store selling souvenirs and food stuff. The visit was only so-so though I did saw a few other marine life that I thought I saw for the first time.
I drove back to the Nasi Kandar coffee shop and we ordered some Roti Canai to eat, having already digested the Nasi Lemak for lunch and also remembering the delicious Roti Canai from the dinner the night before. It was a short tea break before we left for the hotel to pick up the luggage and the milk and also to use the restroom. When the resort staff returned with the milk, it wasn’t frozen. It was disappointing but at least it was a little cool. This meant that the milk had to be taken soon after arrival in Singapore.
Drove to the airport about 10mins away and went into the carpark and parked near the departure hall. Called up the number that was on our rental sheet and went on to shift stuff from day bags to luggage for checked in a while later while wife and the baby went into the airport first. The car rental company staff arrived while I was still doing the packing and the handback was settled really quickly.
Went into the airport and had to go through the Xray machine first before going to the counter at Tigerair. There was quite a queue going on with 3 counters opened. However, we chose the right queue that had 2 counters serving the queue and checked in was done. Went through to the departure gate thinking that there should be some shopping at the waiting area but was seriously mistaken. Immediately after the gate, was the immigrations officer and thereafter was the waiting area, with a single shop serving F&B mainly. Therefore we couldn’t get anything else after that.
As we were one of the front few to board, since we were seated near the front and had a baby in arms, the boarding took some time to complete. However, the plane left on time and even arrived early in Singapore. The whole journey was quite ok, except that we felt the uncomfortable ear pressure much more than the Airasia flight and that could be the cause of Jr. crankiness for awhile. We gave him milk and he fell asleep for most part of the journey. Wife had to carry out some pumping on the flight itself. Otherwise, it was quite a easy flight home.
After touching down, unlike the past where we would almost zoomed past immigration with the auto gates. It was different this time and we had to queue to get through. There was a Singaporean line but was as long as the all passports line, difference being only that it was a tad bit faster – 10 mins to clear. We had no duty free allowance since we came back from Malaysia and so we got through the arrival gate after retrieving our luggage, meeting my parents have had came to fetch us back, the perks of bringing their grandson out for a trip.
This trip gave us the experience of having a baby on the flight with us which we deemed a nightmare, having sat through a few non-stop crying from angry babies. Now that we were on the other side of the scenario, this gave me a different perspective altogether. But this didn’t change my thoughts for crying babies, I still disliked them though I knew what was it like to be parent of one.
Learning from the last overseas trip, this trip was actually more enjoyable, having to be able to move about more and see more stuff. Maybe it was because the baby became more manageable, logical. Maybe because the wife was more mobile and compromised on pumping outside rather than limited in the hotel. Maybe because Langkawi offered more to see than Bintan. Still this gave us more confidence in venturing out with Jr. the next time. Next on the list would be during the long weekend holiday for the SG50, looking forward to it.