Rawa Island 2018 Day 3 – Aeon Mall and Home Sweet Home

There were a few instances of sleep talking otherwise all seemed fine. I woke up with the alarm sounding off and prepared milk for K before going out to take a jog. Remembering that there was a sunrise viewpoint, I jogged in that direction. The route was initially normal but later I came to an extension that didn’t looked complete. Walked carefully to the edge and found that there wasn’t any view at all. Reversed and made my journey upwards the same route we took to the cactus garden the day earlier. Again, the steep slope killed whatever stamina I had. Eventually I just walked upwards and passed the owl house yesterday.

While on the way to hilly viewpoint I saw the same ladies I met yesterday, while passing them they also commented “it’s you again”. There weren’t anything much to see at all and the steepness wasn’t helping in jogging, going downhill was just as difficult as climbing. Made the steps to the viewpoint and was shown a cloudy sunrise again. Went downhill and was disappointed to see the main restaurant still closed. We were running out of water in the room and I couldn’t get more from the unopened restaurant. Without much of a choice, I strolled back to the room.

Once back, I stayed at the patio to watch the sea life in the incoming high tide. Managed to see a stingray and even a shark (wasn’t fast enough to take a shot). Then I tried bullet time again, for the last time before leaving the Island – still not epic.

Once I entered the bathroom to wash up, I was met with an army of mosquitoes swarming around. I swore I killed at least 5 while in there. I tried to smack as many as possible while brushing my teeth.

Had to wake K up at 8 to have an early breakfast so as to give time for digestion before hitting the seas on the speedboat. It was not too difficult to get him out today and we were at the restaurant in no time. The breakfast was similar with the exceptions of Nasi Lemak which I had some. K had a good amount of breakfast before he met up with L at the pinball machine. There was a couple of fun play, running around, and they tried playing the pinball machine as a team (50cents per play, changeable at the reception) before we went back to the room to pack.

I was informed at the reception that we could leave our luggage outside at 10am so we packed and left the luggage only at 1015, at which time the buggy had also arrived coincidentally to load up. We settled the bill of 136RM at the reception by card, picked up our passports and stayed in the airconditioned kids room 5mins before schedule.

We boarded the speed boat with a few families, amongst them L’s family. The boat trip was no drama and soon we arrived back at Mersing. K and L spent their last time together before going to the toilet and then leaving.

Drove towards Aeon mall, 1hr45mins drive and K felt asleep while on the way there. By the time we arrived, it was already 1pm. The carpark was quite packed and thankfully there was underground parking to avoid the hot sun.

We first went to the top floor Japan Village to have ramen for lunch, at Ichiban Ramen. Ordered tomato beef ramen and the original one and some drinks. K was throughly entertained by playing Pogo and ate to his fill. Paid around RM70 and left to get some pastries at the bakery opposite.

Later we spent some time at Padini Concept store and while mommy bought something for herself, we also managed to get K some clothing, that was pretty affordable.

We left paying the 1RM carpark fees and we drove towards Woodlands causeway. Pumped petrol at Shell, bought a new touch n go card (maybe that’s why I had issue coming in the first time around) and then some 10mins drive into an abhorrent traffic jam. It was so bad that my wife could walked to the toilet at the petrol station some hundreds of meters away and come back with the car moving only inches.

The lanes converged to only 2 lanes and eventually, we cleared the Johor immigrations by 745pm and later, another but smaller jam at the Singapore side which we only cleared by 8ish. 4hrs of life, wasted.

The birthday getaway brought us to an exclusive island with beautiful beach. The lack of suitable activities for family with young child made the place boring, coupled with the lack of WiFi and TV, empty kids club and no pool, plus the room wasn’t luxuriously comfortable, the destination felt more suitable for young people going for dives and/or families with older children who could utilise the giant slides. Costs wise, it wasn’t too bad though the accommodation is a tad too expensive for the value of return.

The bloody jam at bridges is just utterly frustrating and I didn’t know why so many Singaporeans still choose to cross over to Malaysia to get stuck in a jam. 4hrs of waiting equals an flight equivalent to Hong Kong or at my jogging speed, probably 30km equivalent. This is the main reason why I loathed going over to Malaysia, albeit being an affordable place to go to. I would rather fly then to waste my life with the rest stuck in this ugly traffic mess.

Insta360 gave really nice 360 videos but I found little chances to use it, due to the lack of pretty 360 views or simply too lazy to bring them out. However, loaning this equipment from Leasany (a newly established company that does travel rental, such as 360 camera rental) allow me to get a taste of how this works, gave me some videos that I would like to keep and spare me the cash and storage for this equipment if I don’t utilize it every time. It would be nice to see what else is on *offer!

*For a limited time only, you can get 20% discount for rental service if you use this promo code “escapesfromthelittlereddot”. Valid till 30 Apr 2019.