You know your baby has grown up when he can tell that mummy and daddy are arguing and will actively get in between us to stop us! He would constantly make random noises, and even up his voice to interrupt! And if we kept going.. he would start to cry until we stop! That’s where Ethan is right now. I guess now we know who’s the boss of the house! Apart from that, he’s comfortably progressed from pushing little carts at home, to walking around independently a lot more, although he does tend to rush a little too much and fall a lot.
Anyway.. since my last post 3 months ago.. here’s some updates on what we’ve been up to..
Gardens By The Bay
Perhaps it was around 3rd August, where he had the first taste of sand in his hand at Gardens by the bay. Funny how we never really come here apart from once/twice with visitors since we moved to Singapore. Now that we have Ethan.. suddenly the garden just seems like THE PLACE to be…
Weekend Getaway to Jakarta, Indonesia
Daddy decided to organise a quick weekend getaway on the weekend of 14th August to watch a badminton competition where he could catch a glimpse of Lee Chong Wei before he retires (presumably not too far away). Mummy got to stay in a nice hotel and shop (Hotel Kempinski attached to Grand Indonesia), baby got to explore a new kids playgrounds and a giant bath, while daddy got to go watch the Total BWF World Championship. It was the first time to Jakarta for us all, and a win-win-win situation 🙂
We found a surprisingly tasty cafe serving genuine Indonesian food located right in the Alun Alun department store at Grand Indonesia, called Warung Kopi.. Highly recommended to anyone if you are staying in Jakarta. Yes it’s more expensive than the food on the side of the street, but it’s sure a hell of a lot more comfortable in air condition…
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a trip where we took a lot of photos. Not much to show for it. All I could remember was that we had lots of ayam bakar, some ‘bebek’, hanged out at the pool, the shopping centre, watched a full day of badminton, plenty of hanging around kids playground, and we were back home. 🙂
Oh.. perhaps it was worth noting that it’s the first time Ethan slept on Daddy’s head, which happened at the Jakarta airport…
Weekend Getaway to Pattaya in Thailand
No shortage of travelling for this baby, we made another quick getaway on the weekend of 11th September, while the Singaporeans had to stay behind to vote for the general election. I don’t recall getting a public holiday just for the citizens to go voting in Australia! 🙂 For foreigners, it was the perfect excuse to get away for a quick break!
We chose Pattaya to avoid staying right in the centre of Bangkok where a bomb just recently went off (But we did it anyway on the last night). It was meant to be a quick and cheap holiday anyway and funnily enough when I told my workmates about going to Pattaya, some were giving me funny looks. Yes…. perhaps it wasn’t the best choice for a family. Nevertheless, we had a fun stay at the family oriented Holiday Inn hotel right next to the beach..
Baby enjoyed his first ride on a tuk-tuk! I would describe it as a pickup truck with a cover over the cargo area and some benches.
And.. not so long ago.. he started to emulate mum and dad pretending that he knows how to use a phone..
Oh.. we did have a bit of fun at Art In Paradise located just a couple of minutes walk near our hotel. The weather was rather hot that day, so we just went with the ‘air con’ option…
Mummy enjoyed some ‘outlet’ shopping nearby too, and we even did the famous Pattaya Walking Street where a lot of ‘manly’ bars and foreigners hangout. It wasn’t quite child friendly, and baby slept through it the WHOLE time.
On the last night, where we stayed 1 night at Pathumwan Princess hotel, attached to the famous MBK shopping centre. We only had a day to shop here, so maximum time spent in MBK, and nearly shopping centres, i.e. Paragon. Definitely tasted some damn good local Thai food..
And that basically sums up this short little trip!
Weekend Getaway to Penang, Malaysia
Around the weekend of the 24th September, we took yet another getaway to take advantage of the Hari Raya Haji long weekend. For me, the last time I went there was when I was still in primary school (not that I remember exactly when). I do recall the bridge from main land to the Penang Island wasn’t even completed then! We really didn’t put much thought into where the hotel and the particular weekend we went. We learnt that the hotel we chose (Holiday Inn) at Batu Feringghi, is the favourite of Arabs holidaying here. At least my impression was that we were the only Chinese there! A taxi driver told us that the government in Saudi Arabia actually pays their citizens to come here, so that they could use their homes near Mecca to host Muslim pilgrims from around the globe for the Haji festival. Pretty eye opening for us to know that. We did meet a nice couple though who Ethan seemed to fell in love with….
Yes.. you would think that babies at his age (i.e. just over 1) wouldn’t know the difference between a pretty girl or not. But i swear Ethan does. We bumped into the Saudi lady a few times (first at the swimming pool) and Ethan would approach her as if to say hello!!
Anyway, Batu Feringghi was a tad far away from town though, so we had to make almost daily trips out to town to discover the more popular sights like the Penang art streets, the street market, the famous chendol and of course Gurney & Paragon shopping centre.
Whilst I really don’t remember much of Penang when I was little, I did recall the steep ride up the Penang Hill railway. Except when I did it, it was the old style ‘slow’ rail (the red ones). Now it’s all modern.. and FAST!! Baby had fun in front row seat!
The top of the Penang Hill was also fun for Ethan, with plenty of smiles…
Overall, if I had to pick the most enjoyable getaway this quarter .. I would have to say Penang was most ‘fun’ for me. The year 2015 had so far been made up of a lot of short getaways. This shall be the last one until the end of the year.
