I really should rename this blog to ‘Life with A Baby’ because that’s what I’m busy doing these days… Spending time with baby, and not putting time aside for this blog! Having said that, I’ve gotta keep this blog alive.. so resorting to ‘summaries’.. and here’s some highlights from April/May 2015.
Boracay Philippines
2015 apparently has the largest number of long weekends in Singapore, so what better way to kick off our second ‘long weekend’ (first one was Chinese New Year) holiday than a trip to Boracay. Looking back at my photo archive.. it was April 2006 when I last visited Philipines! So it has been 8 years since I did the 1 month trip around the country famous for its thousands of islands! It’s a different trip this time round, focusing on just 1 island that I didn’t get to go last time (Boracay), with a baby and a wife, staying for just 3 nights (compared to a month), in a single resort (Shangri La). It’s not about exploring the country, but rather a time that me and Wai Kuan can spend together, partially without the baby. Yeap, it was a trip aimed at ‘ditching’ the baby 🙂
It was totally worth it though. The nanny service provided by the hotel (which wasn’t very expensive by the way) allowed wifey to go get a much needed massage, and some daddy/mummy ‘alone’ time (talking about kayaking and snorkelling here). In that time, I discovered just how good my wife is at this basketball game.. consistently scoring better than I did!
The nannies loved Ethan anyway, and he seemed to have enjoyed the whole time away from us too! Whilst we had our short time apart, there were plenty of family time as well, exploring town namely D’Mall at Station 2.
There were plenty of obligatory foods that we had to try, such as Jonah’s milkshake, bulalo, BBQ baby back ribs, calamansi muffin etc etc. Highly recommend Smoke restaurant, which serves some damn good filipino food for very very reasonable prices. It was a bit ‘smoky’ though as you expect (from the BBQ and smokers).. so not too good with kids. And of course hanged around for the famous sunset..
Having said that, we spent most of our day at the resort itself typically laying by the pool..
And even managed to fit in a theatre session, to watch ‘Frozen’.. not that baby enjoyed it.
We tried massage at the hotel as well, which was rather expensive (as you would expect), and dined at Sirena where you could enjoy seafood and watch the sunset.. just plain chilling around the resort!
I’ve heard plenty of mixed experiences from colleagues about Boracay. The hotel we chose to stay at, probably helped a lot with the good experiences we had at Boracay, even though Boracay wasn’t particular famous as a family destination. It had a pretty steep price tag to boot, but in this case, you do get what you pay for!
Boracay ain’t Maldives, in my opinion, but the waters of Boracay definitely beats that of Bali. For this trip though, I don’t mind coming here again, just for the nanny service!
Kuala Lumpur Weekend
It’s the second time this year that we went to KL. Whilst the last one was about Chinese New Year and visiting family, this one was short and focused on shopping. We chose to stay in a hotel this time (Traders Hotel) located right next to KLCC, with a pretty nice view of KLCC as well!
As usual, baby does his obligatory crawl on the bed and seems to have given his thumbs up!
So what did we end up coming home with? Just a bunch of badminton rackets, clothes and baby stuff that we don’t need! Being next to KLCC, we did most of our shopping there. Whilst KLCC wouldn’t typically be your ‘cheap’ shopping destination, it’s where me and Wai Kuan found most of our bargains!
It’s not all about us of course. Ethan got his firsts tastes of a ‘moving’ wheels at the arcade (1Utama mall) and just won’t get off it!
Whilst the trip was short and sweet, it was also a trip that included some time with Wai Kuan’s mum and dad as well.
First Mother’s Day
2015 marks the first year that wifey celebrates mother’s day as a ‘mummy’ herself. We didn’t celebrate anywhere fancy though because Singapore restaurants everywhere were packed and booked out weeks earlier. We just ate sushi at ‘Sushi Tei’ on top of City Hall where the crowd wasn’t too packed.
Baby is starting to take on a lot more solid food now, so plenty of ‘first taste’ of whatever mum and dad are having at the table. For this round, he had his first tastes of avocado and inari!
It may not have been ‘fancy’.. but the spirit of Mother’s Day was there (I think).
Pulau Ubin Day Trip
It isn’t the first time we’ve been to Ubin Island, but it is the first time we’ve been there with my parents along with baby Ethan! I actually deliberately took a day off work on a Tuesday for this, so the island was a lot quieter than usual. It was a lot of ‘firsts’ for baby, which included riding a bum boat, riding on a bicycle and tasting coconut!
It’s probably not the coolest time of the year to go though. Plenty of sweating!
Ethan even fell asleep on the bike. Fortunately, the island isn’t all that big, so I did manage to walk around a bit just carrying him while he had his nap. Not a bad place to come to lose weight without much effort, I say!
Singapore Zoo
We noticed how much Ethan likes animals, so how more appropriate than visiting a zoo where there are a ton of animals to see. Except, at the tender age of 9 months, he probably likes to see animals up close and be able to touch them, rather than caged up animals far far away. Instead the highlight of the trip was actually the kid’s pool where he seemed to have a ball of fun (for daddy as well).
The most fun he had was encountering the otters, and perhaps the little peacock that roams around freely around the area.
We’ll definitely have to revisit this zoo again once he’s a bit older. For now, it’s just another splash pool!
It’s now nearing the end of May, and there’s another major trip coming up! This time we’ll be heading to Greece, specifically to Athens and Santorini! Looking forward to that! Ethan is starting to be able to stand ‘steady’ as long as he’s holding on to something, and crawl around a lot faster. Hope all goes well!
