Taipei Trip 2011 - Part 1

Finally! After all the waiting, I'm finally going on a ladies only shopping trip with my Sister. We have never travelled together alone before, so this could be fun! But honestly, I was having mixed feelings. As excited as I was, I have NEVER felt so hesitant to go on an overseas trip. I have never been seperated with Jolie for so long and so far apart before, how would she manage? How would I manage? I promised to be strong, but I almost choked when I checked on her before I left the house at 4.15am. Yes, you read right, 4.15AM. Anyway, she had rolled onto the floor, but she was still sleeping! Haha, I quickly put her back to bed, gave her a kiss, whispered goodbye and left before I started to cry!

OMG it's my 1st time flying on my own, I should be elated! But I was all moody in the cab, and hungry! So after I checked in, I quickly found food. It's so early that even the stores weren't opened yet, so the whole place was so quiet except for a few passengers having breakfast.



That's my plane! By the time it took off, the sky was lighting up.



The four hour trip was pretty good. The seats were just as squeezy, but lucky me! I got the whole row of seats to myself! Whoo Hoo! So while everyone was being uncomfortable, I was stretching out my legs and watching movie on my netbook. It's like first class! I think God was consoling me for feeling bad earlier. :)

Reached Taipei and met up with sis at the airport. The bus tickets to our hotel was sold out, but the lady gave us waiting tickets. Heng ah, there was empty seats, so we managed to get to the hotel via the bus. The bus interchange was just below the shopping centre that was next to the hotel! And the MRT station is there too! Talk about AWESOME location!? Our hotel was called W Hotel!

When we checked in, there was this sign on the counter.



Sis and I were giggling to ourselves, saying that maybe we should have dressed like SPGs (Sarong Party Girl) and we'll get special treatment or something. Well, apparently it meant Starwood Preferred Guest lah...

So we went back to the hotel room to put down our luggage. OMG the place is so cool and stylish! We felt kind of out of place in our sloppy clothes, but we imagined we were in a J.Lo MTV inside the ultra cool lift.



The room was just so awesome that we didn't want to leave! But after settling down and a short rest, we headed out! It's already way past lunch time, and that last time I ate was 5.30am, so you can imagine how hungry I was!!! So Sis brought me to 度小月 for some 擔仔麵. Sis said that usually the place would be packed with customers, but since it was almost 3pm, the restaurant was nice and quiet while we munched on our VERY late lunch.



After a very yummy lunch, we've only got half a day left, so we went to 西门町(Ximending)!



I've been to Ximending so many times, but never alone with a female companion, purely for SHOPPING!!! It was great, we just went shop to shop, buying all sorts of trinkets for ourselves and also for Jolie. I wanted to buy a pair of jeans, but Sis recommended that I invest in a good pair from a brand called Big Train. I can't find the website, but their jeans and clothing line are super cool. The female jeans line is called Victoria, and I love the crystal studded designs on the back. :)

So after a few hours of shopping we headed to 士林夜市 (Shilin Night Market) for dinner. Sis knows a store that sells cold noodles, and wanted to bring me there. We were quite tired after a long day, and we promised to just go straight to the stall, eat and return to the hotel. But the place was a non-stop distraction of shops and delicious food!

So we finally found the stall. What a great idea to eat some cold noodles on a warm Summer evening! The stall is called 好朋友, which means good friends. The place was packed with customers and I can understand why! It's delicious! It's nutty, spicy and yummy and I love the cool and crunchy cucumber strips mixed with the noodles. Shiok!



After dinner we decided to hop on to a taxi to go back to the hotel. Unfortunately, the stupid uncle didn't really know where our hotel was and dropped us off at the wrong hotel! DUH~! We had to hop onto another cab to get us back. -_- OMG~ it's so good to be back to our wonderful room!

So I let Sis shower 1st cause then I got the chance to take a BUBBLE BATH! What a great way to sooth the aching muscles! After that we relaxed and watched GLEE on our 42"LCD TV. (Sis have GLEE in her iPod) Triple shiok!



By the way this was our "kill" of the day! Looking forward to the next day!

Lion King The Musical

I've been wanting to watch The Lion King even before it came to Singapore, but somehow we just didn't get to see it until one Saturday. So as usual, we dropped Jolie off at Mom's place and headed to Marina Bay Sands.

I think MBS seriously lack mid-end restaurants. It's either food court or high end celebrity restaurants! The closest thing to a mid-end restaurant was a Coffee Bean Bistro, which was crowded! But we waited anyway and got a nice and cosy sofa seat inside.



Cobby had the beef steak sandwich...



I had the roast chicken pasta...



Food wasn't extraordinary, but it was alright. After lunch we went inside.



The hall was quite grand with the mirror-ed walls.



The inside was not as big nor as nice as the Esplanade, but the show itself was quite good. I think this was my very first modern musical. Others were classics like Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables. The puppetry was excellent and the music was awesome, so overall, it was money well spent. Good!



Click HERE for more information about the show.

Cable Car Ride 2011

We bought cable car tickets together with the tickets to the Underwater World when we were at Sentosa, but we didn't have time to ride it. So we went another day, today! I let Jolie wear her new Angry Bird T-shirt we bought yesterday at T3. She loved it! She would make Angry Bird noises like "Squaaawk!", and show everybody her new shirt. When I said I wanted to take a picture of her shirt, she stuck out her tummy like this!



The Mount Faber was flooded with tourists and their stupid buses, so we had to park quite far away from the cable car station. Damn... I grumbling under my breadth and giving Cobby the f*** face as we trodded uphill in the blazing sun. I guess you can say I wasn't exactly in the mood for a family outing.

Finally we got there and hopped on into the moving cable car. We've never been to the new cable car before, and it was quite nice! When we were in the cable car, moving through the sky, I instantly felt better.



Jolie was a little nervous when we just moved off...




But after a while, she got comfortable enough to explore the view by herself.




Tried to take a family photo, but the girl just would not stay still!!!



The weather was so hot and sunny! So we gave ourselves a treat of iced coffee and ice cream. But then it was lunch time already, so we bought some baked potato chunks to munch on. Such a sinful lunch! But then again, we're on holiday!

Countryside exploration!

Today we were going to do something different, we were going to explore the Singapore's countryside! Starting with some wild life, goat! I've always heard about the goat farm, but I've never been there, so Hay Dairies was our 1st stop. If you want to go, you should go before 11am, because then you will be able to see this!



Yelp they are milking the goats. They looked bigger then I thought they would... After awhile it just gets boring, so we decided to explore the farm ourselves. Phew the place sure stinks!



There was just one route for visitors to walk through, which was between two long rows of huge metal "cages".



At 1st I felt kind of bad for the goats, I thought they would be happier walking around on the grass, grazing. I mean, wouldn't that make the milk taste even better? But then they say that they might get bitten by insects and get infection on their hoofs. But still, they looked kind of sad and bored!



Then we just turn the corner and realised that, that was it! I thought that we would be able to pat some baby goats or something, but there was a sign by AVA saying that visitors aren't allowed to come in contact with the animals. Boo!

Since we were there, might as well try the milk!



Apparently goat's milk is more compatible with the human's digestive system, and the lactose level is lower, so it's great for people who are lactose intolerant. (like Cobby and I) So here goes!



It's not stinky like everybody said it might, in fact, it tasted very light, like watered-down milk! Now we'll see if it makes us LS (lao-sai). :P

Next up, fish farm! We headed to Qian Hu Fish Farm, which was something Cobby really likes. To me it's just a giant fish aquarium. At first it was fun, but after 10 minutes of fish, fish and more fishes, I was like, yawn... But the father and daughter seemed to be enjoying themselves! Jolie seemed to really like the pretty stingrays...



Cobby pointed out this interesting aquarium decoration. The floating ball of moss looked like the floating mountains in the movie Avatar! It does, doesn't it!?



Finally we headed to the infamous Bollywood Veggies for lunch. Cobby's colleagues brought him there once and he liked it enough to bring me there too!



They have a few famous dishes, like their chicken curry, banana bread, and this interesting dish called moringa oleifera tempura. Apparently this is a super nutritious food, and better yet, it's quite delicious! Even Jolie, who's not very enthusiastic about vegetables, ate a huge portion of it!



With that we ended our countryside exploration. Jolie was getting really sleepy, so we did a quick stop at a plant nursery to pick up some gardening supplies before headed home.

While driving, I noticed that there were signs of some cute mascots on some lamppost. Later I found out that apparently several farmers at Kranji actually came together to form an association to promote awareness about the area. I think that's a great idea as so many people, even locals, don't visit our very own "countryside"! So next time if you run out of ideas on where to go on weekends, instead of wandering around aimlessly in another shopping centre, go enjoy some fresh air and get in touch with nature at our Kranji Countryside!

P.S. We did not LS. :)

SingKids Indoor Playground @ T3

Next on our list of Cobby's June holidays activities was this indoor playground at Changi Airport Terminal 3. When Jolie saw the place, we had to hold her back! So exciting! It was a weekday, but there was a big group of children from some childcare nearby(I think), so it was quite crowded. But I think the excitement from all the other children was very infectious, so Jolie was very hyper.

There was a ball-pool...



An enclosure with giant balloons floating around...



A lighted "water-bed" thingy...


Her favourite, the roller cars. She's so good at it, she could easily drive thru all the other bigger kids! She's gonna be a very good driver I tell you.



Something different from the other indoor playground, some of their equipment would move. This one would rotate! So the bigger kids would hold on tight while it rolls.



This one would sway very slowly side by side.



Then there's the bouncing castle. I'm afraid that the bigger kids would step on her, so I hopped in with her. It was fun, but my legs got all wobbly when I got out!



There's also a toddler's section for smaller kids. There's a mini slide which Jolie insist on going down by her belly. -_- It's ok for me, but then other kids started copying her! Oops... Haha... bad influence!



I like this motorised see-saw. It just keeps on going up and down by itself, so you don't need a partner to play.



Besides, you can hug the bear as it goes up and down!



Jolie insist that I join her, but I was a little worried if the machine can take my weight or not, so I had to keep some of my weight off. :P



There's also a balloon room, but the balloons were smaller for smaller kids. I love it anyway, surrounded by colourful balloons!



As a parent, I think Polliwogs was safer, with locks at the gates and temperature checks and stuff. Besides, they have a place inside for parents to lounge with food and drinks. But my inner-child really liked the balloon rooms and the roller cars (wish I could try) and the motorised play-equipment! So if you are at T3 with your kids, go check it out!

Sentosa Day Two

Good morning! Guess who had a good night's sleep?



Man... Cobby and I hardly slept a wink with Jolie rolling, kicking, sleep-talking and crying. It's only a queen bed, so there's hardly enough space for us three. Yawn... But man the view was great. Another beautiful day in paradise!



We went downstairs for breakfast and it was great. Nice outdoor seating, good food, and many squirrels scurrying around the trees!




After breakfast we went to the beach for a little fun on the sand and sea.




I went swimming in the sea for a while and asked Jolie to join me. At first she was super unwilling, even running away when I approached her. But when Cobby offered to come along, she reluctantly went into the water. Later, she REFUSES to get out of the water! Sigh...

After that we went back to the hotel to wash up. Jolie loved jumping on the bed...



Next up, the Butterfly and bird farm. There's a counter for you to feed the birds! The bird's claws were quite sharp, so I offered my arms for them to stand on while they drank the sweet water from the cup.




With that, we headed back to the mainland. We didn't do much, but honestly, you can't do much with a two-year-old. More importantly was that everybody had a good time, and I think we achieved that. :) There seemed to be more interesting things to do now at Sentosa, but not suitable for little kids. Hopefully Cobby and I could go back by ourselves sometime. :)