Continues from here.

♥Dec 5th – Rain♥
We planned to do sight seeing today, taking the Pingxi (Pingshi) Railway Brunch Line (平溪線鐵路) which will bring us through sleepy mining towns which are famous for sky lanterns. Alas it was raining!

We thought since we’ll be taking the train, maybe we can still see some sights and with some luck, the rain might stop, so we stuck to our original plan.

After breakfast (of ham and cheese sandwitch, the standard breakfast Windsor B&B offers), we took the bus from Jiufen to Ruifang station, bought ourselves a Pingxi Railway all day pass (平溪線一日週遊券), which is TWD52 for adults and TWD26 for kids. The pass will allow us to hop on and off the train at the various stops along Pingxi Railway Line.

Despite the rain, the spirit was high.

We chose Qingtong (Chingtung, 菁桐), the last stop on the Pingxi Raiway Line as our first stop.

The rain was quite heavy, so we only managed to walk around the station. Spotted a pagola hung with lots of bamboo wishes

We dropped by a restaurant across the station, thinking of grabbing a quick bite. However, there was only 1 person working there, and he took time to make the drinks as well as cooked our pasta, making us miss our train. We had to wait for more than an for the next train.

In the rain, we really couldn’t do much. We had to kill time in the small station.

Zara did drawings after drawings (she’s well prepared).

It was pure time wasting. By the time the train arrived, it was turning dark. We decided to go to Shifen (Shrfen, 十份). Our last stop. The rain was even heavier, but since we saw some sky lantern upon arriving, we went to search for the location where they were releasing the lanterns.

There were lots of shops along the rail way track providing such servies. You can purchase the lantern, write your wish on it, and then they will help you light it up so you can release it. We saw some Korean getting theirs done. .

3 of us getting back to the station (that was how we travelled the whole day)

We didn’t stop at Pingxi, and headed back to Ruifang for a simple roadside dinner (asked around and were told there was no restaurant near the Ruifang station), then took the bus back to our B&B in Jiufen.

It was a wasted day in my opinion due to the rain. Hmphh!

♥Dec 6th – Drizzle♥
The rain has subsided to a drizzle, which was good news to us. As we planned to go to Jinguashi (金瓜石) a small town notable for its historic gold and copper mines, about 10mins bus ride from Jiufen.

After breakfast, we checked out and left our bags at the B&B and then took the bus to The Gold Ecological Park (黃金博物園區) at Jinguashi.

The park has several attractions. The first we went to was The Japanese Style Residence (四連棟) which housed Japanese officials during WW2.

The Restaurant at the Park to is themed. It’s called the Miner’s Canteen. You can get Miner’s lunchbox here, which is pork rice in a tin box with a set of cutlery wrapped in a scarf.

We had something Western. Nuggets and smiley fries for the girls.

Spagetti with a kind of watery pesto sauce (quite unlike our pesto) for Daddy.

Horrid testing sesame chicken mee-sua (wheat noodle) for me which I didn’t finish.

To give visitors an experience of being in an actual mining tunnel and understand the working conditions underground, the old Benshan Tunnel No 5 (本山五坑) was opened to public. We paid TWD50 to get a miner’s experience.

First you put on the hygience cap,then the hardhat.

Listened to some instructions then off we went to the tunnel.

Then it was out for more adventure.

We have our hands on Gold Panning (淘金體驗) as well for TWD100 per head.

The Gold Ecological Park has huge grounds, and pretty scenic, with an old rail track serving the tunnels.

(Little one trying to hold her breath when we wanted to take a photo of her)

What we missed was entering the Museum Of Gold, which you can actually touch and try to lift a 220kg 999 pure gold ingot.

The surrounding area of Jinguashi is very hilly.

There was a nice cafe around that area, but becasue it was quite far we gave it a miss.

Instead we have dou-hua/taufu fa (豆花) instead at the park.

It then started to rain again, by the time we got back to Jiufen, it was pouring. Our plans to go to Keelung (基隆) has to be changed. We headed back to Taipei instead.

We decided to have a nice dinner, and selected a restaurant recommended by my guidebook.

Upon arriving at the Zhongxiao Fuxing (忠孝復興) metro station (where the restaurant is located), the girls were so happy to see all the various art works at the station.

3D art work showing all the famous Taiwan Snack.

They were so attractive, Zaria requested photos to be taken.

The restaurant Sashimiya, better known by its Chinese name, 三四味屋, was a good choice, as the whole family loves Japanese food.

Here are some of the things we had. Chinese Yam (山藥) chips.

Girls love the chips!

Fried prawn.

Grilled chicken wings (for the little one, a chicken fan)

Grilled Onigiri

We were back at Li Yuan Hotel for another 2 nights stay.

(continues from here)

♥Dec 4th – Cloudy♥
After breakfast, we checked out of Li Yuan Hotel, stored our baggage there, and headed to Taipei Main Station (台北火車站) using the Metro. We bought our tickets to Ruifang (瑞芳), our transit point to Jiufen (九份). Adults and kids ticket with numbered seats cost NTD76 and NT38 respectively.

Train was comfortable, and took us about 40mins to arrive Ruifang.

Ruifang Station Underpass was turned into a photo gallery

Girls were not interested in the photos, but the ‘sparkly’ pebble washed wall. o.O”

This girl will use the disable ramp instead of stairs; and climbing through barriers, instead of just walking passed it.

And she’s always eager to do something dangerous. o.O”

We wanted to have lunch at Ruifang. We walked through the street market but could not find a place to eat.

Pork sausages.

So we got a bus and headed to Jiufen (九份), a picturesque town which used to be a prosperous mining town.

The moment we arrived, signs of minsu (民宿) or homestay is every where.

Using the directions sent to us by the minsu owner, we found our minsu, Windsor B&B/溫莎堡景觀民宿, easily.

The entrance to the reception area of Windsor B&B or minsu.

We got room no. 3 for our first night. Girls love the spacious room we got. With 2 queen beds; a balcony; bathroom with wooden tub; separate living and dining area (although cooking is not allowed); and a little attic with floor to ceiling window, which the girls loved the most. Zaria called it the ‘secret’ room, and everytime we got back to the room, she would ask us to go there to share secrets.

Our room balcony.
Jiufen’s main attraction is the old street, filled with eateries, and shops selling food stuff. It was good place for us to get some snacks as late lunch.

Instead of pop corn, there’s pop rice (a crisp made from puff up rice)

This stall stinks, but it serves extremely tasty fried stinky tofu.Don’t miss it if you were in Jiufen. The shop name is Jiufen 1st Shop (九份第一家).

We actually went back for another serving of this stinky tofu before we left 2 days later.

While we had stinky tofu, girls had the fishball there (not bad too).

This is a very famous snack in Jiufen. A dumpling made with red yeast and pork or Hongzao Rouyuan (紅糟肉圓).

A group of workers making the dumpling.

Boiling them in water.

And this is how they look like.As it’s filled with pork, we didn’t try any.

Yam/Taro Balls or Yu Yuan (芋圓) is another famous snack in Jiufen. This is the balls that you get in your Snowflake dessert.

Business is brisk for this famous Taro Balls shop Lai Apo (賴阿婆). Tourists buy them raw to bring home as souvenir..

Making of taro balls in Lai Apo

Most people would just buy a bowl and eat in the shop. (we’re not most people, instead we went to another shop for Taro Ball Dessert o.O”)

Vendor selling various stew dishes.

Signage of a herbal tea shop.

Shaved peanut brittle with ice cream (花生捲冰淇淋) is another popular snack. A big block of peanut brittle is shaved, and laid on top of a springroll wrapper, 3 scoops of ice cream is added, and then topped with some coriander leave and wrapped up. We had one without ice cream. The coriander and the crunch of shaved peanut brittle was a nice combination.

Jiufen has some ‘traditional’ toy shops which of course attracted the girls.

Jiufen is a place to sip tea, relax when enjoying the view, so the old street is lined with tea houses with fabulous view. Jiufen Teahouse (九份茶坊) is probably the most posh one.

Love the way they boiled water for tea brewing.

After checking how much it cost to have some tea here (~RM300 for the whole famiy), we thought better of it. What more, Zaria was touching everyhing, and I was worried she might break something.

We continued walking came to a cafe (988 Cafe).

Zaria decided to hang around and try out riding on a bike while Zara and me went into the cafe to get a table with a view.

The cafe didn’t serve nice drinks, but the view was spectacular.

We can see other cafes or tea houses along the old street.

As well as Keelong town far away.

After sunset, Jiufen is still very picturesque.

The restaurant street of Jiufen in the night.

Looking up at the restaurant street.

We took dinner hopping from one stall after another while the girls took the onigiri from 7-11 (which they loved and had it a few more times the rest of our trip).

To be continued.

(Continues from here)

♥Dec 2nd – Drizzle/飘雨的台北♥
My collague, Teresa, came to the hotel to meet us. Somehow, Zara and her ‘clicked’, and the rest of the day, they were glued together (oh well, Teresa was looking after Zara for me).

Because it was drizzling, our plan of going to the zoo has to be changed. We went to the National Palace Museum (故宮博物院) instead which was packed with tourists who came in bus load.

Zara showed lots of interest in the artifacts, reading the didactic to learn more about them, not Zaria though.

However, both were intrigued by this longish painting from 1085-1145, which is 528cm long capturing the daily life of people from the Song period at the capital. It’s called Along the River During the Qingming Festival (清明上河圖).

You can view the animated River of Wisdom, to see why it’s so interesting for the girls.

(No cameras are allowed in the museum, so no photos of the artifacts)

Teresa bought us a simple lunch at the Museum Cafe (delicious!) and then we went to Shinkong Mitsukoshi. The Taipei Station branch there was having an aniversary sales, and I don’t know why, I didn’t buy anything even with the good discount. o.O”

Teresa bought us dinner as well in Shinkong Mitsukoshi, and got the girls some presents. The girls said Teresa took care of them like their Gu-ma(姑妈), and called her their Taiwan Gu-ma. o.O”

In the night, after we parted with Teresa, we went to Shida Night Market again (師大夜市) since it’s so near the hotel.

Trendy boutiques to cater for university students are every where. This one has some rocking horses at the shop front.

Another funky shop.

The display window.

Bubble tea is sold everywhere, this one has miniature samplers.

A nightmarket can’t do without some stalls selling food. This old man was burning grilling some corn.

Eww. Pig’s blood cake.

Tangyuan (Glutinous rice balls) shop where we had 2 bowls of tangyuan from. Maybe because they do tangyuan with pork too, the sweet tangyuan we had tasted a bit porky. o.O”

♥Dec 3rd – Sunny/放晴♥
After a day of drizzling, it was sunny. Lucky for us, because we’d made plans to meet up with my collagues at Bali (八里), a seaside town near Tanshui (淡水).

We took the metro to Guandu (關渡), one of my colleagues, Iris, met us there, and then together, we took a cab to To House (兔子餐廳), and met up with the rest of my collagues.

To House (八里兔子餐廳) is a theme family restaurant with a compound housing lots of rabbits.

Healthy looking rabbit in To House.

Besides rabbits, there are other animals too, i.e. Parrots.

There’s also a pig!

Girls spent the whole time petting and feeding rabbits. Coming in only to have their lunch. Leaving me lots of time to catch up with my collagues whom I was meeting for the first time.

Deco around To House.

We left the place only at about 3pm with Iris, we took the bus and went to Bali Ferry Port.

The Streetfood, mainly selling seafood, around the Ferry Port, attracted lots of customers.

Salted eggs are supposed to be famous here as well.

And in Taiwan, Stinky Tofu is sold everywhere.

Guess what? We didn’t buy anything from these stalls, except a stick of squid cake. We were too full from lunch, and I didn’t feel good everytime I wanted to get something, Iris rushed to pay.

We took a short Ferry ride to Danshui.

Over at Danshui, it’s the same, food stalls are everywhere and each one of them were very crowded.

This is the famous Amah’s sour plum drink, but we didn’t really like it.

Danshui street.

Catching the sunset is one of the main attraction, but the evening was gloomy.

Girls found a new game of throwing pebbles into the river.

Riverside Living Statue.

There are lots of streetfood available too.

As the only pork eater at home, she has the honour of having a stick of famous Taiwan grilled sausage.

There are grabbing game machines again.

And other games.

Once we got to the Metro station, Iris, left us to run her own errands.

Outside the metro station, we caught a puppet show.

Lottery icket seller outside the Danshui Metro Station.

Busker crooning Jacky Cheung’s hit.

We had BBQ buffet dinner at Danshui before taking the metro back to the hotel.

To be continued.

When we suggested for a holiday further away from Hong Kong, Zara made some noise, “What’s the point of going for a holiday when all we do is walk walk walk?” “It’s so boring taking the plane.” “I have ear problem, and you still want me to take the plane” etc etc.

We gave her 2 options, either go with us, or stay home with Jelly. Of course, she chose the former.

Daddy’s airmiles could cover 4 of us to either Perth, or Taiwan. Looking at the AUD exchange rate, we therefore decided to go Taiwan instead. We have to time our trip according to flight schedules claimable by airmiles and to make sure I’m in town on December 9th because I have bought tickets for Jacky Cheung’s concert. Hence, the trip was made during the wet season in Taiwan. Sigh.

♥Nov 30th♥

We arrived at Taipei about 7pm+, it was already dark. Upon arriving at the hotel, a package from my Taiwan colleague, Teresa, which consisted of a Taipei Guidebook and 2.5Kg of Taiwan rice welcome us.

Our hotel for the next 4 nights will be Li Yuan Hotel (儷園飯店), a small hotel located near Shida (師大) and 1 minute walk from Tai Power Metro Station (台電大樓站).

We got a family room with 2 queen beds. The room is small but functional and clean.

Soon after we checked in, we went straight to Shida Nightmarket (師大夜市) for dinner. We picked a restaurant which specialises in herbal chicken soup, 龍涎居雞膳食坊. We were too hungry to take any photos, but Daddy who’s not a chicken eater claimed they serve one of the best chicken soup he’s tasted.

We did some walking about the nightmarket after dinner, and then headed back to rest.

♥Dec 1st – Gloomy♥
We woke up late and missed the hotel breakfast and had to eat out.

Our first destination after breakfast of road side pao and bubble tea was Bo Ai Road (博愛路), the Taipei Camera Street, to get a lens Daddy was eyeing (he did the research before arriving and knew exactly which shop to go to. o.O”).

We spent sometime in Ximending (西門町), for lunch, to glance through some of the small shops.

Shops and stall at Ximending :

菓風小舖, the sweet shop where we spent most time in.

Roadside Sweet Potato Ball Seller

Girls kept asking for money for these ‘games’, but I didn’t let them.

Lots of shops have dogs at the door front, this is one of them.

上海老天祿 stewed duck wings

The Red House (西門紅樓), Taiwan’s first public market now a theater.

Girls were fascinated with the many costume shops across the Red House.

Besides getting some sweets from the sweet shop, we didn’t buy anything else in Taipei’s shopping street. o.O”

As Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (中正纪念堂) is nearby, we thought we’ll visit it as well. Not knowing we’ll spend so much time there. As it’s surrounded by a big park, lots of locals walk their dogs, do team practice for various events etc etc.

We saw a brass band practice in the park.

Zaria spent so much time chasing after pigeons.

School team practicing march.

Li Zhen’s Sculptures (李真雕塑) were exhibited in front of the Memorial Hall.

Girls wanted to take photos of the sculptures.

And wanted to be photographed with the sculptures.

Inside the Memorial Hall, the girls could not believe the still guards were real, and not human.

Zaria asked who the statue is “Is he the King of Taiwan?” o.O”

As we were there in the evening, instead of change of guards, we managed to catch the flag lowering ceremony (at 5pm).

As night fall, they started lighting up the whole park.

Li Zhen’s sculpture.

That night, recommended by my Taiwan colleague, we went to the Eslite flagship bookshop (誠品信義店). A bookshop with 8000m² of floorspace! Heaven for me!

We even had dinner there at their food court, then just glanced through the various floors.

We love the 杏仁燒, an almond dessert with grass jelly, peanuts, red bean and tosted almond chips from this dessert shop Summer Tree Sweet (夏樹甜品) at the food court. (sorry no photo).

(To-Be Continued)

Continue from here.
♥August 30th♥
We were supposed to check out on this day. However, the girls didn’t want the holidays to end so soon, and asked if we could stay for an extra night. There was still rooms available for the night, so we extended another night.

In the morning, the girls went swimming with Daddy after breakfast while I went to the market again.

Our plan was to skip lunch and then head on to Siam Road again for char kuey teow (the stall is opened from 3pm to 8:30pm) for tea. We arrived 3:15pm and there was already a large group waiting.

It was a hot and sunny day, and the wait (at the coffee shop oposite the stall) was loong.

When our plates of kuey teow finally arrived, it was a bit too spicy, and of course wasn’t as good as the night before.

As we still have the whole afternoon free, Daddy thought we should take a drive to Balik Pulau. There was no destination in mind, but we somehow ended up in Hai Boey Seafood Restaurant 海尾海鲜 (29 MK 9,
Pasir Belanda, Teluk Kumbar, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang).

It was 5pm+, only a few tables were occupied. What attracted us was not the restaurant but the beach the restaurant was facing. The restaurant has set up some lazy chairs at the beach, probably for customers to laze about while waiting for their food.

The girls have a fun time playing at the beach.

And I just enjoyed the breeze while watching over them.

We drove off before sunset, when throngs of customers started arriving, filling up all the tables. We thought we’ll see if we can find a better and similar restaurant.

We passed Good Friend Seafood, a few KM away (driving towards Bayan Lepas), it was smaller and so crowded, we thought we’d better go back to Hai Boey.

Alas, Hai Boey by then was in full swing. All tables were occupied, with many more customers standing waiting for a table. We thought we would have to have chai boey (菜尾, whatever scraps left) at Hai Boey. Luckily most of the customers came in big group, and we got a small table for 4 after about 10mins wait.

Food was quite good, and reasonably priced. No wonder the restaurant was so crowded.

There was some prayers being held opposite the restaurant, and we thought since the night was young, we would go check out what was going on at the prayer hall. What a gem we found.

A Chinese puppet opera show, (the locals told me it was called Char Kah Lay in Teow Chew), put up by the locals for the ‘God’ Tuah Pek Kong (大伯公). We didn’t know what the script was all about because it was all in Teow Chew, but we stayed to watch for ~20mins.

The locals were so friendly, they came up to talk to us, asked us to join in their little dinner party of catered food and roast pork. They told us it was the first time they have hired the puppet opera troop for Tua Pek Kong’s birthday, so we were lucky to catch it.

We stayed till almost 10pm before we left for the hotel.

Back in the hotel, Grammy Awards 2011 was showing, and girls and I watched till way passed midnight. It was the last day of their holidays, so I just let them stay up late.

♥August 31st♥
After lunch, it was more swimming for the girls, and then it was off home.

Staying in town where everything is easily accessible (compared to staying in Batu Feringgi) made the holiday more relaxing and enjoyable.

We’ll be there again next year.

The girls get along perfectly most of the time. Enjoying the same TV shows, playing the same iPad games, singing the same songs, playing the same silly self created games.

There are times when they tease or annoy each other, especially on long car journeys. And common complaints we get are :
“Maa, jiejie is annoying me.”
“Maa, jiejie spit at me.”
“Mum, Zaria doesn’t want to share the arm rest”
“Mum, Zaria copying (immitating) everything I say.”
I normally ignore them, until they get physical with each other, and start punching each other pushing and shoving.

For every movie that they watch together, they like to identify who is which character in the show. E.g.
Powerpuff girls.
Zara : Zaria, Jiejie is Blossom, you are Butter Cup because you always frown.

Alice In Wonderland the movie.
Zara : I’m the White Queen.
Zaria Jiejie said I’m the Red Queen.

And then sometmes they cannot agree with each other.
Zaria : Why jiejie always want me to be the villian
Zara : Ya.. because you always get angry.

Zara is also constantly reminding Zaria she’s the jiejie. E.g.
Zaria : (asking me) Why you didn’t buy for Zara?
Zara : It’s jie jie ok. not Zara.. you need to call me jiejie.

I like listening to their conversation with each other, it can be quite entertaining. I caught these few.

The girls were reading about Sleeping Beauty, and this version started with the King inviting 12 wise women to the party to celebrate the birth of the pricess.
Zaria : (referring to the picture in the story) How come there’s only women in the party and no boy except the King?
Zara : Have you heard of men being wise? Only women are wise, that’s why there are only wise women to invite.

Zara was meant to go to MIL’s place while Zaria was attending Yamaha JMC class, but she decided she wanted to stay home, so she called MIL.
(MIL speaks only Cantonese and Mandarin)
Zara : (on the phone) 我不要去你的家了。我要在家做我自己的东西 (I don’t want to go to your house, I want to stay home to do my own things). Bye bye.
Zaria : 再见 (zai-jian), you should say 再见 (zai-jian). Bye is English. Mama cannot speak English.
Zara : Every body can understand bye ok? Even if you don’t understand English.
Zaria : (enlightened) Oh

Zara joined in the school Bahasa Malaysia singing contest and got 2nd place, so she brought home a silver trophy.
Zara showed Zaria the trophy and told her about her contest.
Zaria : Wah. Jie, good…. you got a trophy.
Then she continued : But jie, how come your trophy is silver and not gold?
Zara : Because I got 2nd place. If you get 1st place, your trophy will be gold.
Zaria : (another enlightenment) Oh

But the 2nd day, when Zara is not around.
Zaria : Ma, you know, I don’t like jiejie’s trophy. Jiejie’s trophy is silver.. I like a gold one
Me : Next time when you are standard 1.. you go to jiejie’s primary school.. you go on stage to sing and get the gold trophy ok?
Zaria : I’ll go on stage.. but I won’t sing.. I’ll snatch the gold trophy from the 校长 (headmaster) o.O”

If only every day is like this.. (the littlest one is my bestie’s daughter Maya).

At 4+, Zaria is still gullible enough to believe the lies I told things I said.

When I told her I was giong out with Aunty Dinah (Jazzmint‘s farewell), and kids were not allowed.
Zaria asked, “Why? They serve only beer in the restaurant? They serve only sambal?”
I lied answered and said Yes to those questions, and she said, “Oh, then I better don’t go too.”
Phew.

I bought 2 tickets to Jacky Cheung’s concert (Yippie), and I was planning to bring Zara with me (or maybe just go with Daddy).
Zaria cried when I told her I only bought tickets for Zara and myself.
I lied told her there was a height limit, and because she’s below 120cm, they wouldn’t sell me the ticket; also taking the opportunity to tell her she has to eat well to grow taller.
Zaria told me after she stopped crying, “I have an idea, you can buy me high heel shoes. And when I wear the high heel shoes to the concert, I’ll be tall enough.” o.O”
I told her that the tickets have been sold off (which is the truth), and no way I could get another ticket.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My girls have better sense than some racist goons out there.
I asked Zaria one day, “Mei Mei, do you know what race you are?”
Zaria replied, “I’m human race.”
(Best ever reply!)
When Zara got back home, I asked her the same question.
Zara replied, “You mean my culture?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zaria came back from school one day and told me, “Mummy, Aidan scratched my eye with his shoe. Can you report to the police?”
I told her ok, I’ll call the police later.
After 1 minute, she came back and told me, “I think better you don’t call the police, you tell his mummy, so that his mummy will beat his bumbum.”
(at least she has some compasion)

Zaria saw one of her stickers on Zara’s book.
Zaria : Maa, jiejie took my sticker without permission.
Me : So what should we do about that?
Zaria : Send (give) her to another family.
Me : Do you really want to do that?
Zaria : Actually I do not want to do that, but the only way to teach her is to punish her. o.O”

One day Zaria refused to do her Chinese reading, and I had to push and push her. She then declared, “I wish I have no mommy!”
The following day when I picked her and her carpool friend from school, she told her car pool friend “You know, if your mommy is fierce it’s actualy good. It’s to teach you good things you know.” o.O”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zaria saw the neighbour went topless watering his plant.
Zaria : “Eeeeyer Mum, why is Uncle P not wearing his clothes?”
Me : “He’s hot I think… If mommy is hot can mommy take off my clothes?”
Zaria : “Eeeyer.. no mum, because you are a big breasted lady.” o.O”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On another day.
Zaria : Mom, you should put a Y in my name. Now it’s Za-ri-AH. If you put a Y, then only it becomes Za-ri-YAH.
Me : So how should your name be spelled?
Zaria : You should spell my name as Z-A-R-I-Y-A. o.O”

It seems I’m slacking in blogging. I find I barely have time with a full time job, all the chauffering (kids to school and to activities), home work and revision with a school going kid and lately another item has added to the to-do list, i.e. completing a course for career development by year end.

Anyway, this post is not about how busy I am, but the trip we made to Singapore during the school holidays.

Before the trip, I asked Daddy to get us a GPS, as I could foresee navigating with a map in Singapore, there’ll be lots of stress in the car. The El-Cheapo He went to Daiso and bought a compass instead; he thought a compass would at least tell us which direction we’re going without a GPS. o.O” Thank goodness I shared this joke with my neighbour, and she loaned us her GPS for the trip!

♥4th June, Saturday♥
To keep up with Daddy’s (dilly dallying) track record, we left the house after 11am (we’d never left the house earlier than 11am on any driving holiday trips we made), and got stuck on the North–South Expressway.

It seems everybody was heading towards Melaka for the weekend. It took us more than 4hrs to get passed Melaka. By the time we reached our hotel in Singapore, it was 6pm.

We stayed in V Hotel Lavender, a newly opened hotel located in Lavender housing area. We got very good rate for a room with 1 queen and 1 single beds. Although the room is a little small, it is comfortable, and best of all, its location is super. The Lavender MRT station is on the basement of the building, and around the hotel, there are lots of small eateries, and also a few small HDB food courts.

Not wasting any time, after checking in, we headed straight to Orchard Road to shop, as well as to have dinner (at the Ion Food Court). With the exchange rate of S$1 to RM2.50, every thing seemed extremely expensive even during the Great Singapore Sales.

♥5th June, Sunday♥
The original plan was to go to Singapore Zoo, but it was pouring in the morning, and we have to change our plans, it was to Singapore Science Centre instead. Tickets were : $9 for adult, $6 for children (3~16yrs)

I prefer Petrosains, as there are more things for kids to ‘try’ out there. Still, we spent a 4hrs there, *yawn* watched 2 shows, The Tesla Coil Show and World of Insect Show.

In the evening, after a rest/nap in the room, we took a taxi to Marina Sands Bay, to watch iD by Cirque Eloize at the Grand Theatre. It’s a colourful Hip-Hop Circus act from Montreal, with lots of music and dancing. Girls of course loved it.

What more, we met our neighbour and her girls, who are the girls’ age and their best friends, visiting Singapore and watching the same circus!

They played together during intermission, and also after the show, went to explore Marina Sands Bay and had supper together.

♥6th June, Monday♥
Girls said they had already been to the Singapore Zoo on our last trip, so they wanted to go somewhere else instead. Sentosa Island was the somewhere else we chose.

We took the MRT to Harbour Front, and took the cable car ride (Tickets were : $26 for adult, $15 for children round trip), there was a promo going on where Malaysian tourists only need to pay half price, but because we didn’t bring along our passports, we had to pay the hefty full price. 🙁

We took the cable car to Mount Faber first, spent some time there.

Then took the cable car to Sentosa Island.

If you are going to Sentosa Island, plan your trip well so you can save some money buying combi tickets or play passes. We only went on 3 activites, and spent quite a fair bit because we didn’t know about this.

We watched the 4D Magix (girls screamed and shouted, and they said they didn’t like it at all because the ‘visual effect’ was too real) and went on the Extreme Log Ride (a ‘roller coaster’ rides with high-definition wide-screen projection, which the girls loved but I didn’t like it at all). (Combi Tickets were : $29.90 for adult, $17.90 for children)

We had dinner at Sentosa so that we could catch the Song of the Sea show (Tickets were $10 per person), a show which uses fountains, lasers, projection to tell a story. Now seriously, I don’t think Song of the Sea is worth the money, as you can get a similar show in Marina Bay Sands for free (read on).

After the show, we walked back to the cable car station, as there were long queues for the free monorial and bus ride.

We didn’t go to Universal Studio this round as there are lots of rides Zaria cannot go on due to her height. We’ll do that the next visit.

♥7th June, Tuesday♥
Girls pleaded with Daddy to stay in the hotel with them, as they wanted to spend time in the pool. So, the first half of the day, Daddy spent time with the girls at the hotel pool, and I went shopping on my own.

In the evening, we went to Marina Bay Sands (MBS). We took the MRT to Promenade Station, and then took a 10min walk via the Double Helix Bridge to MBS. It is a very scenic and pleasant walk, there were some local joggers jogging, but mainly foreigners enjoying the view as well as to take photos.

Daddy spent so much time there snapping photos, the girls got pretty impatient and in the end, I had to bring them into MBS first while he continued shooting away.

We have dinner there at the food court (we had almost all our dinners in the food court this trip, so sad), did some shopping, and then headed to watch the show at the Promenade. It’s a similar fountain and laser show like the Song of The Sea, except this is free, and we find more entertaining (no cheesy dialogues).

We then walked back to the Promenade MRT station the same way. The night view from the double helix bridge (and from the Promenade at Marina Bay Sands) was spectacular.

♥8th June, Wednesday♥
The last day of our trip, we only did shopping around Orchard area, and then it was home.

Zaria asked if she could stay in Singapore forever on our way back. And when we asked the girls which event/activity they liked best, they both claimed the morning they spent in the pool was the best. o.O”

Their holiday, we probably should just book a hotel nearby with a pool for them.

Zara and Daddy falling asleep in the LRT

Here is a typical conversation you can hear when I’m doing revision with Zara.
“Are you paying attention or not Zara? Did you see what was the question?!”
“Can you write properly, they are different words, make sure there’s space, when it’s one word make sure the letters are together!”

Here is a typical conversation you can hear when Daddy is doing revision with Zara.
“Dad, don’t even say the ‘R’ word ok? I don’t want to hear it.”
“Dad, I’d done this so many times, did you pay attention to what revision you did last time or not?”

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When I ‘play’ with the girls, normally we do building blocks, cooking (I’m always the customer so I can just sit there with my book while the girls served me), or beading together.

When Daddy ‘plays’ with the girls, he’ll be the horse they ride on, he’ll be dancing ballet with them (imagine 6feet tall and tippy toe-ing with his girls), or he’ll run after them when they cycle.

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When I’m the one tucking in the girls, if we started reading at 10:15pm, I’ll rush through the book, and by 10:30pm, lights out, girls sleep.

When Daddy is the one tucking in the girls, at 11pm when I peeped in, he’ll still be reading.
I tell him, “Hello, lights out by 10:30pm. They have to go to school tomorrow ok?”
He’ll reply, “But they are enjoying the book.”
o.O”

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And this happen one day during breakfast.
Daddy having bread and jam and a cup of tea. He left his tea bag from his cup of tea on his plate.
When he wasn’t looking, Zara tore open the tea bag, sprinkled the wet tea dust on Daddy’s bread.
When Daddy bit into his bread, he spat everything out, and shouted for me to see what Zara did.
He then laughed and said, “You tricked me yeah?!!”
Then Zara, Zaria and him had a good laugh.
Imagine, if she did that on my bread….what’s going to happen?

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So besides not knowing what time the girls have to go to bed, what time their school starts or ends, what activities happen on what day, what medicine they should be eating (if they fell ill), whose cup is whose, or whose toothbrush is whose, and besides occasionally being his girls’ Knight in Shining Armour;

Daddy is more fun and Mummy is uptight.

“Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) hosted the 12th Raptor Watch event at PNB Ilham Resort, 10th Mile Tanjung Tuan, Port Dickson on the 12th and 13th March 2011.”
It is a festival to celebrate the return of the migratory birds of prey or better known as raptors on their journey back to their breeding grounds in the northern hemisphere.

Thanks to Daddy (who likes this sort of outing), we are glad we joined in the fun, on 13th March, the Sunday the school holidays began.

The grounds in Ilham Resort has been set up with tents, with different companies either selling goods, or promoting their club. Monoculars and binoculars were at various booths where we can use to watch the raptors when they flew passed.

They were for all to use, and free!

We were actually a bit afraid the girls may break the thousands of dollars binoculars, but nobody seemed to be as worried as us.

It’s not a guarentee that you may get to watch the raptors, but we were lucky, they were circlying above when we arrived, and appeared again later in the evening.

(That’s what our camera could take. Well, Daddy thinks he should get a zoom lens for these kind of shot.)

When the raptors appear, the real bird watchers whipped out their own equipment.

There were face/body painting as well, all contribution will go to MNS. Of course, we all, except Daddy, went for it.
Isn’t the owl cute?

The event being held next to the sea, the girls were so eager to move on and play at the beach. It was 3pm, HOT! But nothing is going to deter them.

It was low tide, very suitable for the girls to splash about (we were not really prepared for the trip, it was kind of impromptu, that’s why the girls didn’t get changed into swimming costumes).

Zaria seemed to like getting dirty wet.

There were crabs to be found as well.

Besides the beach, we explored a near by hill, with a 20min climb, got us to the lighthouse in Tanjung Tuan.

View from the hill.

Although it was a hot day, we all had fun! This might just become our yearly event.