brought not two but three kids who were excellent company, with nary a whimper or complaint despite the slightly schizo weather and long, snaking queues.

20- to 90-minute queues for 3-minute rides! we ended up on most of the kiddy rides, as you can see.

we had the most fun at Shrek’s Far Far Away land, especially the 4D show. and what’s with everything going 3D these days? saw a whole set of fairy tale books at Times the other day with 3D glasses, i mean, what’s next, assessment books in 3D?!

anyway, aniq and adam had their first taste of the rollercoaster. a junior one, short but thrilling nonetheless – and i think they were fairly traumatised. no tears but a little dazed at the end, and when asked if they wanna go on a rollercoaster again, they unanimously went “DOWAN!”. dem wussies, i tell you.

so we were wondering, with the current hype on Shrek 3, all the wonderful details in Far Far Away land, and obviously a lot of money poured into building it, will our Universal Studios be stuck with this theme forever after? the Jurassic Park theme already feels dated, the last movie was what, almost 10 years ago?, and even the merchandise weren’t so compelling (except for that $15 dinosaur tumbler thingy we bought – with our free voucher of course – similar to one my parents got me when we went to Universal Studios in LA a loooong time ago! #relivingmychildhood).

look, Gingy and 2 donkeys! (Gingy’s my favourite character, btw. he just looks… delicious.)

Ancient Egypt, where i could not help but ogle at the model on stilts with perfectly smooth and sculpted washboard abs, and OH, that pelvis (if it were a Greek theme, he’d be Adonis). the other highlight was the Revenge of The Mummy ride, which was the only adult ride izad and i managed to go on while the kids were in another queue. tip for mums and dads – strategise your rides!

2 of the Battlestar Galactica rides in Sci-fi City were down, which was probably why we were compensated with all those free vouchers. i’m quite a sucker for rollercoasters, so it was quite a bummer. but the kids loved this one, an updated version of the spinning teacup.

feeling New York…

and Hollywood…

the rides and shows end at 7pm, which was about the time we came back to the starting point. you’d think the kids would be pooped by now…

but nooo, especially when there’s a Hershey’s chocolate store outside. and the wonderful smell of Garrett’s caramel popcorn!

some points:
- i liked that most of the restaurants are certified halal, so we didn’t need to lug around a picnic basket, and with active and perpetually hungry kids, the food joints were convenient for a quick meal on the go or while waiting in queues.
- wish the rides were generally longer, but i suppose if they were designed longer, waiting time would double, and besides, sentosa’s too land-scarce as it is to build any bigger backlots. but perhaps they could do tram ride tours or something to ease the queues?
- i hear that you can enter from 7pm-9pm for $2 on fridays and saturdays, just to walk around, eat and shop. that sounds like a cheap yet fabulous date! coz it’s quite nice at night, lively and scenic.
- ouh, parking at the place itself, while convenient, was costly. goodbye $20 from our cashcard, lol. and that didn’t include the $7 entrance fee at sentosa. there are shuttle buses, of course, but we were too lazy to lug around the kids and stroller, etc up and down buses. SPOILT lor!
- i’d probably go again. maybe without kids the next time. :p

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1) was misled into believing from their FB site that there’d be bellydancing. ok, nevermind, maaaybe we read or processed the information wrongly. fine.
2) the music was blasting from the moment we sat down, and continued to blast despite our repeated requests to turn it down. fine.
3) the air-con was also blasting, and continued to blast despite our repeated requests to turn it up. by now, we’re like, helloooo, mr foreign-waiter-with-no-expression-and-didn’t-seem-to-understand-us!
4) the food looked good when served (plus we were starrrving by the time it reached us), but discovered that it lacked… oomph after a few spoonfuls. only this appetiser platter wasn’t too bad. we would’ve been sufficiently filled up by sharing this between us and forgetting about the main dishes.

even the birthday girl who treated us left with a “takde dua kali lah tempat ni”. BUT! it was a cosy enough place since we were practically sprawled out in a corner, it wasn’t crowded despite a friday night, and the neighbouring tables pretty much weren’t bothered by our mak-budak-tak-sedar-diri antics and the two children spotted scampering around the place making themselves at home. and yes, we even appointed these two children to be our unofficial photographers. (bagus jugak ada anak.)

(taken by aniq. i’m not kiddingggg.)

(evidence of child labour.)

aaand happy birthday to the eldest mak budaks among us. THIRTY FREAKIN’ THREE OMG.

<3 <3

(april babies galore!)

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it’s been a while since the clan met.

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uh oh, i sense a cliche coming now —> “how time flies!”

it’s become a yearly routine and this being his third visit, he knows the drill, so to speak – come in, play with toys, talk to the doctor, sit in the reclining chair, open mouth, scrape, spit, brush, choose a reward from the treasure box.

of course, it helps that he gets HEAPS of praises from the friendly doc for his good teeth and behaviour. sheesh.

his canines have this greenish stain which we can’t remove with a toothbrush despite our nightly attempts. apparently it’s common among kids (actually, even more common are blackish ones instead of what doc described as aniq’s more ‘textbook’ green), and simply genetically inherited. case in point: his cousin, adam, came in right after, and was found to have the exact same green stains on his teeth. sooo, it just HAS to come from my chlorophyll-rich side of the family tree. (by the way, adam would need braces some day, coz his mouth is so small, his teeth would be overcrowding. braces! so cute, right?)

but the stains were easily removed with the right tools (doc said to DIY with a toothpick next time). the ‘gappy’-ness of his teeth makes it hard for food to get stuck in between, so they’re generally easy to clean. remember when you aunties called him ‘madonniq’? turned out to be a good thing after all, heh.

pronounced as cavity-free, his good-as-new, post-polished teeth (i’m not kidding, they look awesome, sigh – dear aniq, please pleaseeee don’t ever mar them with smokes and coffee in the future) were photographed by the doc, and then it was auni’s turn.

okaaay, so ALL the doc managed with our wriggly worm of a girl was count her teeth (16) and made her promise to let mummy or daddy brush them every night (to which she nodded in a very ‘macam paham’ way), before she successfully made like a slippery eel and slid out of her daddy’s clutches on the reclining chair, and ran off to play in the wendy house at the waiting room.

better luck next year, doc.

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M: auni, tadi makan apa? (what did you eat today?)
A: asi! (nasi = rice)
M: lagi? (some more?)
A: eeken! (chicken, obviously, duh) ayam! (she has, as at last check, on 3 feb 2000hrs, decided to answer this instead of ‘eeken’.)
M: lagi?
A: opok! (keropok = fish cracker)
M: eh? sedap? (nice?)
A: dap!
M: pandai! (clever)

and when asked the various body parts in malay, she will obligingly twitch or point accordingly. yesterday, she saw her oma half-undressed and went, “eh, tak alu!” (no shame!).

ah. there is hope yet for you, my young padawan.

=========

M: aniq, ‘fish’ dalam melayu apa? (what is ‘fish’ in malay?)
A: …
M: (prompting with first syllable of ‘ikan’) eeee…?
A: eeee… er san!
M: O-O <--- (talk about culture shock.)

=========

in any case, they're both smitten by upin & ipin, you know, identical twin pre-schoolers who are the cutest cartoon characters, like EVUH, hailing from a fictional kampung in malaysia. (well, there was Lat the Kampung Boy back in the days - remember him? - but upin & ipin are so... arrrgh, DEM CUTE, and there are two of 'em!) the husband and i totally approve of the series, more so since the dialogue's so chuckle-worthy and in malay, and, i mean, WHO NEEDS TO LEARN SPANISH LAH, RIGHT?

so smitten by the characters and their antics, that even the little one has taken to mimicking the dialogue. a particular one that stuck to her was where the token effeminate youth in the kampung insists that his name's not Salleh but Sally, and attempts to spell it out: "S-I-L-L-Y", dismissing his misspelling with a flick of his limp wrist, "apa jer lah, tak kuasa aku." ("whatever!" - another thing about the beauty of localised humour - the english version simply does not translate sufficiently. right? betul betul betul?)

maybe i should send them to a kampung in malaysia, if anything, to brush up on their malay.

speaking of kampungs, the other night, in one of my meandering discussions with the little boy after an episode of upin & ipin, i described to him how in kampungs, they have no toilets with a flushing system, and potty business had to be done in an outhouse or behind bushes in the forest. (AS IF i know anything about rural life, hah! but mothers being mothers, must sound convincing and knowledgeable lah, right? betul betul betul?)

M: ingat tak, citer upin ipin, kawan cucu tok dalang sakit perut, nak pegi toilet tapi dia takut pasal dah malam abih tempat dia jauh? ahhh.
A: why??
M: ye laaah. kat kampung takde toilet.
A: why??
M: ye laaah. macam gitu. abih ingat tak, kawan cucu tok dalang nak berak, dia sembunyi belakang semak-samun? (at this point, even i can’t believe i just said ’semak-samun’, an almost archaic word for thicket/undergrowth.)
A: why??
M: ye lah. pasal takde toilet!!

you can imagine how this conversation went on – endlessly.

like this bridge we trekked last weekend, in our attempt to bring the children close to nature.

well, as close as we could get to the semak-semak, anyway. no potty business going on here, though. it’s as sterile as everything typically singaporean is.

and mummy – again, ever-convincing and knowledgeable – explained away the many whys. sometimes with more than a “ye laah”.

yes. trees and branches may fall. take care.

berhati-hati di semak-samun, kenak-kanak.

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bali happened for us on 14th dec, an impulse holiday decision, just because mummy needed a distraction. :p

it was our kids’ second flight, the first being earlier this year to kota kinabalu. on their way to become seasoned travelers, hopefully?

we did the touristy thing – rode on the horse-cart, got excited at finding familiar brands at the mall (there was a Topshop!), looked out for the famous Hard Rock Cafe, strolled along a very crowded and hot Kuta beach, ate….

the intercontinental resort bali where we stayed was fabulous, and HUGE! doesn’t look so from outside, but everytime we walked the length from the lobby to our rooms, we’d exclaim in amazement at the vastness of the resort. it was vair pretty at night, with candlelights flickering all along the walkways. we’d even brainwashed aniq into bringing his “wife” here next time and taught him to say that the hotel is “romantic”. coz it was! and he should!

more touristy stuff on day two – our reliable travel companions, len & ren, hired a driver and a small minivan to bring us to the market at Ubud.

a lot of interesting hand-carved wood works and handicrafts…

had Padang food… which wasn’t that great here, unfortunately. we thought our own padang food in singapore was better. (sg patriots we are, see?)

but the kids had fun. yes, aniq, must marry first, then bring her to the “romantic” hotel, ok. and check out the name, heh. (we missed you, baby Natra!)

we’d heard so much about the factory outlets there that they practically became our holy grail. but we didn’t manage to find many, and the few that we managed to discover along the way, were not as sale-worthy as we’d imagined. mostly surf gear and beachwear, and since i couldn’t fit into a bikini (hurhur) and am not a regular beach-goer in any case, no damage was done.

we were also told about the seafood at Jimbaran bay – some said not to bother, some said it was worth a try. and being the tourists that we were, we tried it. so happens that it was energy-saving night, where the government imposes blackouts on a regular basis in the effort to conserve energy (and money). so everywhere was almost pitch dark, save for the moonlight and generator fluorescent lights flickering away where we had our dinner, along the windy, sandy beach. we gotta give it to the ambience, it was pretty romantic, with entertainment in the form of children performing traditional dances on stage. but the seafood, sadly, was not up to our standard (compared to the wonderful spread we had at kinabalu), and the bill had us admitting that this was indeed a ‘tourist trap’.

the husbands had gone off for a massage at one of the many spas nearby on the first night, so the third day, it was the wives’ turn. (we’d brought the kids to the in-house kids’ club, Planet Trekkers, where we paid around $8 per kid to play for an hour before bedtime to tire them out when the daddies were out.)

len and i left the kids after breakfast in the good hands of the daddies, and headed out to a spa just across the resort for a full-body balinese massage. meanwhile, the kids enjoyed their pool time.

so much that some crying was inevitable. LOL!

ahh, this is the life, yes, chewren? (they’re bored coz they’re waiting for their beloved mummy to come back, heh.)

refreshed!

back in town, we had the best meal of the trip – at bubba gump shrimp & co.! yes, how unlikely, but we’re spoilt singaporeans that way, we like good service, good food, comfort, kid-friendly… and the bill came up to the same as our jimbaran seafood meal, so it was definitely worth it, since everyone (including the kids – yes, our eczema-prone kids!) lapped up the delicious shrimps and desserts.

back at kuta, we hunted for bargains. some tshirts, little dresses and knick-knacks for the kids, and souvenirs for those at home. none for myself, again. the markets are pretty much like those in bintan, lombok, kinabalu (where we’ve been), so there’s nothing terribly novel or exciting to buy.

i was determined to spend SOME time at the beach (seemed that there just wasn’t enough time, when the beach was RIGHT THERE), so on the final morning, we woke the kids up and shooed them there, unbathed (coz if they set foot in the hotel room’s bathtub, they could take all day!). like in KK, the sun rises really early, so we always woke up to a very bright morning even though our watch showed that it was still early. the resort, being the kid-friendly one that it is, had beach toys for sharing.

we attempted to bake in the sun (not very successful, since we had so little time) and had a bit of a swim. the waves were pretty good, although when we went that morning, it was low tide. i wouldn’t say that the beaches we saw in bali were fantastic – i believe thailand probably still has the better ones in the region? – but i don’t know, despite the beauty of the place, i could somewhat feel the environmental repercussions of its tourism.

yes, us tourists. in the big fancy (but damn nice) resort.

i think 4 days weren’t enough (!!) to fully experience bali, but thanks to our great company, it was a worthwhile one and time well-spent bonding with the kids (who had the most fun, in the water, heh).

and so that wraps up our trip to end the year. what will 2010 hold for us wanderlusts?

*hums ‘empire state of mind’*… (yeah, right!)

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rendra waiting for the bite that never comes!

the prawns were nothing to shout about, they were of decent size but the pond’s water looked rather clear so we could really see the prawns swimming along, haha!! anyway, we just prawned for an hour each. we got to choose our rods and were also given powdered bait which i suspected were dried worms. we tried the baits for a few minutes but it seems that the prawns were not biting. finally we got the live worms that they sell at the counter. and these worked like a charm! among us we caught around 11 prawns in an hour, not bad for beginners like us!

happy with our catch of the day!

anyway, we decided not to barbeque the prawns there as lenny offered to make sambal prawns
we ended the day with dinner at jalan kayu instead. for more pictures check out my flickr!

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and i thought i was never gonna taste the slurpy eggs anymore in my lifetime, when a trip to batam reunited me with one of my childhood comfort food.

like a lost lover found, the taste was all too familiar, memories of my childhood kept flooding back as I took large slurps of the runny egg. some may enjoy it while others just detest the slimy texture and taste but i belong to the former.

we used to buy them every time my family goes for our weekly marketing at geylang serai which is now just a distant memory. i guess, i was like aniq’s age when my dad gave me a taste of the telur penyu. maybe we were trying to save the turtles from extinction when the government totally ban the selling and buying of this delicacy. But for whatever reasons, if you feel like tasting the good ‘ol telur penyu and reliving your childhood, it’s just a ferry ride away.

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we traveled up johor bahru to check out the night scene on a sunday evening with my dad and brothers. since we half expected the woodland causeway to be jam pack, we decided to go by tuas instead. luckily, traffic was a breeze there. wanted to go jusco but tesco attracted us with kenny rogers. the place was so-so, perhaps more suitable to the local clientele. got my ayamas and ramly fix in tesco before heading to the main destination.

pandan city is located just south of jusco, the place is a hive of activity, kindda like the geylang bazaar but at least 4 times bigger. tried out the famed “gearbox tulang soup” which aniq loved and got a nice ramly burger special with cheese for myself. the rest bought sate, ikan pari bbq and roti john. didn’t really explore much as monday is a working day. it was rather chop chop but aniq and auni seems to enjoy the journey especially little auni who finally bonded well with her grandpa

click on pictures for an expanded view. more pictures at our flickr site!

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