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We had a choice between the Singapore Science Center and Jurong Bird Park. Both I heard were equally good. My hubby had 1 day off on Labor day, so we could only go to 1. After much discussion with him, we pick Singapore Science Center, at least it is in door and the children can learn and have fun with Science.

Singapore Science Center is located in Jurong East, you can take MRT to Jurong East Station on East West Line and transfer to bus no 335. We took a cab instead.

We made the right decision, there are so many things to play, learn and have fun. We started with the Omni-Theatre, a dome shape IMAX theater that gives a 4D effects movie. We learnt about the human body.

There is also a mini water park for children to have fun. If we knew about it, we would have bought an extra change of clothes. My children just love playing with water. The place is huge, we could only cover the Atrium, even that we didn’t finished all the science stations. We didn’t go to the Snow City.

Entrance fee is $6 for adult and $3 for child, for IMax theatre $10 for adult and $5 for child, per movie. We bought the special package $12.80 per adult and $6.40 for child. Food wise, there are not many places to eat, only 3. McDonalds, a buffet lunch or Rocks café. There were a crowd in all food places since it was a public holidays, even the buffet lunch have to make reservation. We ended up in McDonalds. I must say that the kid’s meals are healthy, not the nuggets but they serve milk drink and fresh apples, instead of oily fries and soft drinks.

The most interesting thing we saw was the Lightning demo or experiment, my hubby recorded it for you to watch. Don’t worry, there is no thunder but an explosion at the end.

More pictures on how fun and educated the day was.

Lightning Experiment

I just got back from Singapore, touch down today at 6pm. I missed the Penang Asam Laksa. Sorry, this round, there are no professional pictures taken as my hubby didn’t carry his bazooka there. Just some A80 quality pictures.

Let’s talk about SIA, I must say they really give good service to mother with children. *Applaud to the stewardess serving SQ196* As I was traveling back from Singapore, I was alone with Tim and Emily. Hubby took the later flight. I get to board first with the first class or business class people because I am with 2 VIPs, my children. They put me with good seats too, not too far from the door. After I boarded the plane, smiling air stewardess came with gifts for the children, I didn’t need to ask. I requested my hubby to pre-order the children’s meal. They get their meals first. By the way, if you want to be kiasu and get your meal first, pre-order your meal when you purchase the tickets. Halfway through the flights, a stewardess came by asking me if I need a bio break, she can look after my children. Wow, what a service. I told her I am fine, as if Emily will let me out of her side.

It was a week of relaxation, we didn’t go to many places but enjoy the stay in our hotel room. Emily called it “New House”. She loves it so much, every time we go out, less than 1 hour, she requested us to go back to the “New House”. *faint*

My hubby booked the Singapore Grand Hyatt Hotel from my recommendation. It is right in the heart of Orchard Road. Of coz, the thing that kept my children happy in the room was the big plasma TV. There are 2 cartoon cable channels that supply 24×7 cartoons. Next best thing on their list is the bath tub. They will request endless round of bathing time because they love playing with water.

The housekeeper comes to make the room twice a day, providing fresh towels, toping up the toiletries and making our bed. Call me crazy, look at my collection…muhahahaha. 2 x 4 bottles each day.

However, the hotel doesn’t have a children pool. They have a swimming pool, but a little too dangerous for my children, so they just played by the pool. Next, I will share with you the places we went…stay tuned.

It is not even Friday yet and I got the same tag from Jess, GiddyTigers and Angeleyes. I want to go to a lot of places. Here is a picture of where I want to go. Get it?

I want to go around the world and visit the wonders of the world, now I think there are more than 7. So far, I have been to Great Wall of China and Grand Canyon. I would love to visit the Pyramids, Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower, Niagara Falls, the Great Barrier Reef and many more. Countries that I have visited are China, US, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan and Singapore. I love to visit Europe and New Zealand. Opps sorry, I am a little too ambiguous but I just love to travel and see how wonderful God has made his creation to be.

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**Start Copy**

Proposition : Where do you want to go Next, OUTSIDE OF YOUR COUNTRY, for tourism, work , study, whatever.

Requirements: Find some info about the place, itinerary etc, pics if possible so you get MORE Traffic coming in, and maybe some people can find somewhere to go to. Excludes your NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOUR, ie Singapore,Malaysia,Brunei, a country that borders yours.You must register for MyBloglog so we can blogwalk ah…..get it?

Quantity : FIVE PEOPLE.

Tag Mode : Chain Link. 15 of them.
You leave 15 people and their DEEP LINK of their Blog Name and TAGGED POST and hit out for five more. So it will look like

Azrin going Down Under

MaRLinda in Disneyland Paris

Athira Baby and her Balamory Antics

Msau to Japan

Shoppingmum to Europe

Angeleyes off to Bora-Bora

Giddy Tiger snorkelling in The Maldives

Jess to Europe

**Add in the blog you got the tag from and tagged post.** (In this case, for example, you should add “Mybabybay wants to go Round The World“) 

Extra Rules: you cannot Tag another person who has performed the Tagging Rights to Travel. Check yr commentators.
You MUST PASS this tag within 7 days of receiving it , or lose a day’s worth of Blog Revenue or $10 to charity. Can?Makes it interesting anyway.So no Lazy Tags running about, and yeah, eventually, there will be less than a 1:3 chance you can’t tag that someone. And pay those people in the list a visit, you never know if you can pinch / recycle some ideas for your next entry!

**End Copy**

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This is the first time I am tagging people:

Zara’s mama – Since she loves to go places.
Julian
Shooi
Annie-Q
Chanel

My sister recommended that we visit the Petrosains rather than the Pusat Sains Center. I took my family there. It is at the KLCC Suria top floor. If you haven’t visited, you should go. It is RM12 for adult and RM4 for 5-12. Children below 5, it is free.

There are lots to see and play for children. First we start off with a ride in the dark with lighted screens and beautiful artificial rainforest. There are over 70 stations for children to learn and discover, from energy, petrojaya displaying wayang kulit (shadow play), dinosaur, science & petroleum, exploration on how to drill oil, science play, helicopter ride, oil platform, products that uses oil with F1 ride, molecule nano technology, metre city, fun with atoms & molecules, mini theatre show with 3D effects and dark ride again to exit. Lastly the souvenir shop. We spend almost 2 hours there and we couldn’t finish all the stations. The children were tired and hungry, we headed for lunch at the Spring Garden restaurant. It has a pretty high tech wireless service button on the table to call for service, bill or water.

I built my very first snowman. It was a small snowman. I got help from my colleague. I had difficulty in building the head. The snow just doesn’t like my hands. Here is the snowman, just for some of you who wanted me to do so.

Man, it is cold and freezing. I went to Garden of the Gods on Saturday. It was not a good day because it was windy. I almost got blown off. Sunday weather was better. Anyway, I got to see a lot of rocks. The rocks appear in the center of nowhere. It has millions of year’s history. According to geologist, the place was an ocean, land, volcano and land again.

After that, I drove to Castle Rocks where the factory outlets are. I did some shopping there. You cannot believe it, that place is having a sale. Most of the stuff was on 30-70% discount. I got a few GUESS wallets for a great deal, almost half the price of what is selling back home. I got Timberland shoes and Osh Kosh Children’s wear. I cannot buy too many stuff because I will be taking a train in San Francisco. However I will do more shopping there, hopefully they have sale there.

On Sunday, I took a train up to the mountain in Manitou Springs. The air up there is very thin, it didn’t affected me there and then. However after I came down to ground level, I felt tired, maybe lack of oxygen up there. It was a good view from the top. Too bad the place does not have a viewing area to take good pictures. No doubt it is beautiful up there. It took 2 hours to go up and come down.

The Garden Of The Gods:

The Kissing Camels & The Balancing Rock

More Rocks

Manitou Springs – Top Of The Peak

Snow and more snow. Even my car is covered with snow. Every morning I have to scrap off the snow from the car and heat up the car before I can drive. At first I didn’t know what the scrapper or brush in my car was for. I was about to throw it out of the window. Fortunately I didn’t. It is freezing out there, below double digit in the night time and below single digit at day time. Let’s hope it is sunny during the weekend for me to drive to see some local attractions or shopping.

I took some photographs near the place I work. The place is beautiful with mountain peaks covered with snow. The place is near Pikes Peak, a range of rocky mountain. It just brings me to think how great God’s creation is. For those who do not think that God exists, think again. It will not be coincident that all this appears just like that. Some one has crafted it from above. It is just some food for thought.

Hey I finally arrived in Colorado and the snow welcomes me. YES it is snowing! Wow, I survived 15 hours flight. First stop was Singapore, Changi Airport. I was pretty frus because last 1 hour they change the departure gate. It was from 1 end to the other end. My legs were pretty tired. I found this free foot massage by the departure gate. It was fun and after the massage my legs felt better.

Next stop was LA, I was so tired. If not, I could just pop by Disneyland and get some gift for my children. No I didn’t. I slept in the hotel. No Jet lag for me. I had a morning flight out to Colorado. In the LA airport, things were done efficiently. They have so many rows of DIY check in counter. All you have to do is punch your confirmation flight number and a ticket will be printed out. 1-2 staff will go around, putting tags on your bag and carried it to the conveyer.

My dinner – Baby Back Ribs – Simply Delicious

DIY Checkin Counters:

Snowy Airport:

When I arrived at Colorado Springs, it was snowing. I was worried because I had to drive to my hotel. Yeap, I had to pick up “right hand” right here. It was aright as I arrived to the hotel safely, was about 30 mins away from the airport. I didn’t get lost, shows that the GPS was working.

Wow, I stayed near to the Pikes Peak. The view of the snowy mountains is simply beautiful. I will post more pictures here when I have the chance to take it. Now I wish my family was here. By the way, my husband just returned from US last monday and I had to fly on Tuesday. It was a back to back trip. Next time, we will plan for the entire family to go. May my wish come true.

Today avoid going to the south side of Penang. Predicted to have a massive jam. Maybe it is the 1st of December, there are 3 big events.

1. Opening of the Penang Queensbay Mall.
2. PESTA Penang Opening for the year-end fun.
3. PC Fair

What is in the Penang Queensbay Mall? A few new outlets has landed in Penang, Jaya Jusco, TGIF, Borders, New Zealand Natural Ice Cream, Sa Sa and lots more. Click here and here.

Lastly not forgetting people rushing to go home from the factories, as it is a FRIDAY.

Happy jamming. I will be staying at home.

We embarked the ship in Singapore and head to check in to our hotel in Chinatown.

Hotel

We got a dirt cheap hotel in Duxton Rd, near Chinatown called Berjaya Hotel. My hubby’s friend is a Berjaya Vacation Club Member. He sold 3N to us for RM80 per night. I asked the front desk how much it cost for an extra bed, he told me with 15% additional charges it cost SGD50, more expensive that the room. :sc: However the room size is just nice but a queen size bed. Daddy long legs have difficulty fitting in.

The hotel is a near to MRT stations and Chinatown. I took a stroll in Chinatown to get some cheap souvenirs while my children were having a nap with daddy. I bought 2 nice Chinese blouse.

Clarke Quay

We took MRT to Clarke Quay for a stroll. Beautiful night view. We dine by the river. I ordered Peking duck, something I miss for a long time. The food in Singapore has improved tremendously. I believed they imported quite a lot of overseas chef. There were a lot of varieties of food to choose from.

Duck Tour

We went to Suntex City for a duck tour. From the picture you can tell why it is called a duck tour. Basically it is a boat that can travel on land and river, like a duck. It took us around the Singapore River, we can see the Merlion, the Theatre on the Bay (MIL called it The Durian), Singapore City Skyline, City Hall and Supreme Court. There is a guide to tell us all about Singapore. At the end of it, he will give out a duck whistle (sound more like a fart rather than a quack) if anyone could answer his question.

By the way, I knew what his first question was, so I won a duck whistle for Tim. The question was, Where is papa merlion? The answer is the title of my next title.

We also got to taste the Singapore “new water”, recycle water from the sewage. My children love it because the bottle has a picture of a duck and they think it is duck water. It has some kind of taste, maybe it was psychological.

Sentosa Island

We are tourist right, so next spot will be Sentosa Island. Tim was very excited about the cable car. I thought he will be afraid but he was fascinated when he was on it. I was a little phobia on the height. He saw the cable car souvenirs sticker and next thing, he asked us to buy from him. It cost SGD7.90 and we didn’t get any. :giggles:

I got some discounted tickets from Matta Fair that cover return cable car rides, sky tower, butterfly farm, 4D Magix, Images of Singapore, Cinemania, Merlion, and Images of Singapore.

The images of Singapore improved with meaningful story line about how Singapore was formed. It has a magical show in the beginning. It was very well done.

The underwater world was just ok. I was so disappointed with the Musical Fountain as I was looking forward to it. It turned out to be a laser show instead of musical fountain. When I was young, I remembered how the fountain dances with the music. It was splendid. However it has all changed. Just too much laser and techno stuff. 😡

They changed the monorail system to bus system which was very chaotic. In the bus, Tim made some teenagers laugh. A bunch of young student teenagers came up the bus. They were very noisy and discussing where to go next. Tim took out his duck whistle and blow a few times. All of them laugh, one gal commented, hey X (one of the boy’s name), please don’t fart. 😆

Cab Stories

As we were riding on the cab, the cab men told us stories of their life. Many dislike the government and half the time complaining about it. However a cab man told us that he left his 15 years of vegetables wholesales job to become a cab man. Reason is the previous job took away all his quality time with his son and family. He quit for the family. He said that no point to earn so much and no time for the family. He is so right. :clap: He is also an expert in knowing how to see the freshness of the vegetables. It is such a waste and his knowledge can really make him a guru.

Singapore Custom

As we were exiting from Singapore, we need to get our passport stamped by the Singapore custom. The young lady officer looked at us sternly. She gave me a weird look that is very annoying. Anyway, I kept quiet. It took her so long to clear all the passports. Lastly she asked me how come my girl has IC number. I told her, now all birth certs will have IC number determined. She didn’t understand. What’s her problem? I am getting out of your country, what harm can I do to Singapore? :wall:

However when we came to the Malaysia custom, they just allow us to pass without any problem. It is so weird!

Dead Rat

I opened my back porch door, pungent smell came on. I walked to my washing machine and asked my hubby. Maybe there is a dead rat in the drain or something. Little did I know the dead rat was just behind me! Fortunately I didn’t step on it. I am not a person who would scream at dead animals. Anyway, I ask my hubby to take a pair of chopsticks, dump into a double plastic bag and throw it away. After that, I cleaned the floor with dettol. My hubby found another one at the corner. It must be the stupid cat who always climb in to my back porch and chased after them.

We went on a 3N Singapore-Phuket-Langkawi cruise (won from a contest) and spent 3N in Singapore. It was a great experience and bumpy vacation too. I am back, now I need a week’s MC to recover.

Logistic

My family flew down to JB on dirt-cheap AA flights on Sat night. The schedule was changed a week before departure to 1 hour earlier. Thank goodness for that, otherwise we will have to check into JB hotel nearing midnight.

We arrived JB about 9pm, checked in to Pan Putri, a nice spacious hotel. Next morning we took a cab directly across Singapore. There are certain licensed cabs that can enter Singapore. It cost us RM50 per cab. With family, it is better to take a cab, as we do not need to exit for custom clearance. Everything is done in the cab. The cab can only go direct to Queen St in Singapore and from there you can take the Singapore cab to anywhere. We went to Harbour Front to embark our ship Super Virgo.

A limousine cab is very costly from airport to Singapore. There are also bus rides from Senai Airport to Singapore. However with bus ride, you need to queue for custom clearance. If you want to save some money, it is better to take the airport taxi to any nearby hotel and from there, ask the hoteliers to call a cab to go to Singapore.

Similarly on our way back, we took a cab to Singapore Queen St -> Senai Airport (SGD55).

By the way, in this trip we went on cab, ship, MRT train, Sentosa cable car and buses.

Timothy

Tim started bad. He was fine when we arrived in JB. Next morning he had motion sickness as we were travelling to Singapore. He felt like vomiting and lost his appetite on the ship. He refused to take lunch. If he continue to refuse food, with tummy acid filling up, he will become worst. Mummy had an idea to coax him into eating.

Guess what make him alive? We went to the ice-cream bar and got him some banana split. How can anyone refuse a banana split? 😀 After that, he was back to normal. :clap:

By the way, Tim got 3 free Sentosa souvenir buses from special mystery draws. One for himself, one for Emily and one for his cousin brother.

Emily

Emily was worst. She has flu a week before we travelled and I thought she would be fine. Hey she finished a course of flu antibiotic, should be strong right? Nope, she had a bad urine infection. Totally lost her appetite, no breakfast, lunch and dinner. Occasionally after much persuasion she will take her milk. I have to feed her when she wants to eat. Worst is that, we cannot take any restaurant food into our cabin. We did sneak some muffins in. 😆

At Phuket, I did get her a bunch of banana, which she took. When we reached Langkawi, we took her to a nearby clinic. There wasn’t any paediatrician around in Langkawi and the ship doctor is hopeless, as he didn’t have any children medication. After visiting the Langkawi doctor, she seems a bit fine. She was sticky to me and always wants me to carry her, not the daddy. 🙁

When we reached Singapore, we took her in to the famous KK Children hospital, as she was not getting any better. After the examination, she told me that it was not serious and changed her antibiotic. It cost me SGD 65 for medication and consultation. The pharmacies that gave us the medication got confused with the doctor prescriptions. I was frustrated as it was late and the children haven’t had any dinner yet. After the doctor verified, we left without checking further. Later in the night as I was about to give Emily her medication, her new antibiotic was double (8.2ml) her normal dosage (4ml). 😯 If you were me, what will you do?

I didn’t give Emily her new antibiotic as her appetite came back after we saw the doctor. It was like magical. I continued her old antibiotic and she recovered. Thank God for that.

Super Virgo Cruise

The cruise was a great experience on a very beautiful ship. However most of the fun activities were around adult centric like gambling, disco, pubs and topless shows. First day, we had to get familiar with the places. It has from 4th – 13th floor. It is HUGE.

There were 3 restaurants where we can dine for free, Mediterranean International Buffet, Pavilion Room (Chinese) and Bella Vista (Western). The rest, we have to pay. There are Japanese, Italian, Chinese, Indian and Asian Bistro restaurant. There is plenty of food but most of the food is not appetizing to children. We went to the restaurants at odd hours to avoid the rush.

The ship was packed with people from all races, a huge percentage were Indians. There were many older folks and I bet they are on board because of gambling. I overheard some conversation on how their betting went in the casino. There were also BINGO running on certain hours and the jackpot was SGD24,000. I forgot to tell you that I don’t gamble, although I like to sit through a bingo game and watch people win.

There are tours which you can take when the ship embark in Phuket and Langkawi. Most of the tours are costly and in SGD. In Phuket, there is a shopping tour that cost 18SGD per pax. You can also book your own cab with a bargain to those places but make sure you are back before the ship leave.

There were free movies on board in the Picture House such as Chronicles of Narnia, Memoirs of Geisha, King Kong, Four Brothers and Fun With Dick & Jane. At the Lido, there were special gymnasts & dancers show called the Kingdom of Kung Fu and Tropicalia. They mixed dancing (samba, mambo & tango) with kung fu gymnast. Excellent. My children enjoyed it. Tim made a funny remark on their dressing, he said “Papa, power rangers”.

I brought the children to play at the children pool called the Neptune Wet & Wild. Funny the pool was with warm water. There is also a spa pool for adult. If I am not having my PMS (sigh), I probably will jump right in.

Fine Dine

Everyone is invited to a Gala Dinner on Tuesday night with a choice of 2-4 restaurants. We chose to do a fine dine in Bella Vista Western Restaurant with 3 course meal. Everyone Some will be dressed with formal attire. You probably think I am crazy to bring 2 children to do a fine dine. It turned out to be a great experience, except they didn’t use the right spoons or fork.

They were so well behave that the couple that sat behind us came over and complimented them. :clap: At least we didn’t disrupt their evening. They were from Australia.

More about our trip (Sentosa Island, Clarke Quay & DuckTour) in the next post….stay tune & enjoy. :dance:

Map of the Cruise Super Virgo Ship:

More cruise picture here.