From Changi to Bali

We haven't been posting for a long while and as a result we have a whole backlog of posts to catch up on. I've promised myself that I'd get this done, slowly but surely, and hopefully it's not going to be more and more like doing homework. 

It's becoming more urgent to do this now because our memories are starting to fail us. We've always wanted to record and document our journeys anyway, more as a personal 'diary' for ourselves. I keep imagining both Nee & I as old farts 30 years from now looking back at our old blog posts thinking, 'Did we look hot way back then?'. And if the answer is Yes, then it will clearly be because of the weather. 

Anyway, here's a post about our love for Changi.

We did our very first Bali trip during the beginning of this year, on the second day of the Chinese New Year celebrations. We took the Airasia KCH-SING-BALI route. Cheap wasn't the main reason, although it was cheaper than the KL route. Changi was the honey cos we wanted a comfortable transit for Kay; and if you have an active toddler with 4 hours to kill, KLIA is not going to be your option.

Changi has always been our first preference (if we had a choice), and we knew it was a good place from the way Kay took to it like a rabbit to the fields. There's just so much to see and do, and the space is just awesome for a toddler; miles of thick carpets to run and fall safely on. 

We were there during CNY and it was a delight to see the effort they had put into the CNY festive landscapes & this sort of made up for the celebrations that we left behind in Kuching.

Of course this went down very well with Kay cos she started this Love for Lanterns phase. She would make redundant sentences about lanterns every time she encounters one, 'Look. So many lanterns. This one is small. That one is big. This lantern is on. That lantern is off.  Why is this lantern off? Daddy switch on the lanterns!'

Much like a mini-Singapore, Changi had mostly what the city state has. It's like a sampler. 
There were mini art galleries which pleasantly pop up at random places.

These were the Birds in Flight by Baet Yeok Kuan. 

Kinetic Rain were made of 1,216 computationally controlled bronze raindrops; which has since become Kay's eternal association with Changi: Raindrops = Singapore airport.

Mommy & Baby sculptures; Mother & Child by Han Meilin

This reminded me that Kay needed a diaper change; Thanks to my extra-sensory paternal hormones.

M&Ms with a durian (& a hedgehog).

Free art activity for kids; this one Daddy like.

 

 

Note to diary: Kay pooped at this point.

If your kids haven't had enough of Angry Birds on your iPads, Changi had them also.

Angry Birds Planet, to be exact.

I'm thinking this would make a giant bad-a** omelette.

Have you ever wondered how the eternal flow of the Qi energy looks like?

Yes, like this.
Kay becomes the physical manifestation of that when she's at Changi.

Except for when she's up against older kids. Then she pulls the brakes & exercises extreme caution & stillness.

And then to Kay's delight, there was also the Koi fish pond.
 

And next to this was a butterfly farm, which I didn't have a picture of. Can you believe that? I mean the farm, not the picture.

 

Train shuttle rides between the three Terminals.

 There's shopping for mommy.

Like all things in Singapore, Changi is very well thought out. Unlike the colder KLIA, Changi feels warmer, safer, and much more comfortable to be in. Everything you need is there, and in abundance. Free phone charging stations. Sleeping Lounge area. Free 4-bar WIFI (he-llo KLIA!). Free internet consoles, without the waiting. Lots of seats, and lots of everything.

Oh, there's more. If you're a hardcore gamer, you might appreciate the XBOX KINECT, XBOX 360, PLAYSTATION 3 and movie theatre at Terminal 3.  You can play till your blood vessels pop cos they're all free.

With all that, four hours was easy to kill. And we're pretty sure Kay had some new neurons connected and synapses fired up within that short span of time. So if you need to transit, remember, Changi is the honey. 

KLIA, I think you'd better up your standards. Think FREE. Think abundance.

Singapore Trip 2009: Day 2

We know you guys can't wait for the Taipei postings, so we'll finish the Singapore ones pronto. Sorry, we just have to get this out of the system before we can start new ones. It's like detoxing.

A Singapore trip is never complete with the Orchard Road experience, especially when it's near/during Christmas. We were there a week before Christmas and the festive decors and lighting were already up.

In Singapore, one can really feel the festivities of Christmas albeit it being rather commercial. But this work of creativity is worth the walk.

This was one of the newest shopping malls on Orchard, The Ion.

We didn't really explore much inside cos we thought it felt like any other typical shopping mall. Plus, Nee wasn't really on a shopping spree this time around. WHEW.

This one's for NEE. I couldn't believe it but somehow I knew, she enjoyed the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic on the plane ride to Taipei recently. 

It was a whirlwind tour of Ion, something like a snap-we-were-there kinda thing. (Whoever heard of a mall tour before?) We had to rush off to this place at Suntec City 1 cos it had a Japanese buffet lunch & it ends at 2.30pm. Why does our trip feel like The Amazing Race?

This was Kuishin Bo upon Terri's recommendation. And we trusted Terri's thumbs-up! So we just cannot miss it even though we only have something like 50 min before closing.

This place did not disappoint us. They did not scrimp. It in fact beat any local Kuching hotel buffer in terms of food and price. For S20.90/RM50 not including taxes, there were generous portions of sashimi laid out & waiting for us, even though it was near closing time.

Faced with such time limitation, we piled our table with as much as we can, out-kiasu-ing the Singaporeans. NEE: There were salad and cold cuts counters; sushi counters with assortment of sushis, makis and temakis; teppanyaki section where they cook fresh the ingredients you choose; hot food sections and chawan mushi sections and not to mentioned Greg's favourite desserts counters.

I loved the desserts. You can pick anything with your eyes closed & it's good. Loved the cream puffs. Had double-triple helpings. I love you Kiushin Bo!

We then headed back to Orchard for some lighting views and ended the day with real Singapore Chicken Rice in Singapore. Dinner was with Nee's ex-uni-mates at Boon Tong Kee. Also mentioned in Terri's blog.

I think we ordered to many kinds of side dishes that night. You might not want to do that when you're here cos the other dishes can overpower what's supposed to be the highlight, pure original unadultrated roasted/steamed chicken. NEE: It could well also be we finish the kiasu-stuff-ourselves-silly lunch at 2 30 and started dinner around before 7 pm.

Nee felt that the chicken, especially the skin, was excellently smooth. I couldn't discern much of it cos having too many dishes on the table was confusing.

The secret to having a good Chicken Rice meal is to keep it simple. Just chicken & rice. That's why kids love it. But it does go well with smaller helpings of sides like tofu, kailan & bean sprouts.

NEE: A good place for chicken rice alright but the other dishes are quite average really.

Singapore 2009 Day 1

Singapore has never really been one of our to-go places. Maybe it's because of the cultural similarity with Malaysia or because its just too near & within reach geographically. Or maybe it has always given us the impression that it wasn't very authentic, that everything was artificially constructed for the purpose of tourism.

Nevertheless, we've been over to Singapore a couple of times in recent years, more so for flight stopovers, & for meet up with old friends, rather than for an actual holiday. This time around, it was another stopover before we headed for Bintan island.

But this time we had more time on our own & were able to explore the Esplanade for the very FIRST TIME. I know. That is really so very the sua koo (mountain auntie). Some people like you probably have been there like 10 times already & we've never even seen the Merlion before. So very the sad.

We didn't really know what this building was. I just thought it looked good to photograph. By the way, all the photos in this post was taken handheld. So if they're not good enough, please be kind to me.

Oh, I forgot to mention that this was also the very FIRST TIME that we saw the Esplanade Theatres on the Bay a.k.a. The Big Durian.

It definitely looked like an expensive mega project that came out of Malaysia but the only difference was that things like this are always put to good use in Singapore.

Across the Bay, opposite from the Esplanade, were the three towering gargantuans which would soon be the Sands.

Strangely, they reminded me of the Macross alien ship that landed on earth. And at any time, Ultraman can just step into the picture & start fighting giant monsters.

Walking on the esplanade made us realise that Singapore was truly an international city & that Malaysia was 20 years behind time in terms of development (in policies, government, administration, economy & mentality of the people).

Tunku Abdul Rahman probably knew that he could never catch up with Lee Kuan Yew so he kicked Singapore out. And he was right. Right about not being able to catch up that is.

And finally, after more than two decades of growing up, I have come face to face with the Merlion once again, & wished that history could have been different for Malaysia.