Our family blog

We couldn’t have chosen a better day to leave for Desaru. It was a gloomy day and the sky threatened to open up on us anytime. However, with much invested into the trip, we decided to brave the weather, hoping that it will be sunny at our destination.

In addition to the weather, we had to brave the traffic jams at the checkpoints…

the Causeway…

and in Johore Bahru City…

before we hit the highway.

Hallelujah! The traffic was finally behind us. The skies were still dark but our mood was significantly better.

We arrived at the Pulai Desaru Beach Resort at around 3.30 p.m. After sorting out some confusions with the room allocation, we managed to check into our rooms at around 4 p.m. The room was quite spacious and it even had a balcony.

Unfortunately, from our balcony, the weather didn’t look promising.

It was too early for dinner and we decided to take a walk at the beach.

There were less than ten people on the beach and the reasons were obvious. Strong winds hit us from all directions and menacing waves pounded the shore, reminding us of the recent Tsunami.

The red flag at the life guard’s tower was conspicuously hoisted; indicating that swimming was a bad idea.

There were no lifeguards on duty though. Maybe they had assumed that no one would be crazy enough to jump into the sea at this time. Seizing the opportunity, I decided to play lifeguard for the day.

The swimming pool was also deserted.

Even Santa decided to stay away from the water.

Sensing that being too near to the sea could be life-threatening, we adjourned to dinner.

After dinner, I gave Jolyn some tips on billiards.

We also had some retail therapy at the gift shop.

Internet services were available in the shop, but we did not make use of them.

The girls had a nice dip in the bathtub before we called it a day.

On the second day, Anna woke up with a severely upset stomach. We suspected that she was suffering from food poisoning. She rested in bed, in the morning, while the girls played in the play room.

Later, despite her discomfort, Anna did not want to disappoint the girls and sportingly agreed to take them to the swimming pool. The girls were naturally overjoyed.

The pool was again deserted and the water freezing cold.

Even the girls couldn’t sustain their enthusiasm under these conditions. After a few splashes in the pool, they were promptly bundled up and we sent them waddling back to our room.

As the day progressed, the weather and Anna’s stomach turned for the worse.

We decided to cut our holiday short and made a hasty retreat to Singapore. On hindsight, our early departure turned out to be a blessing in disguise because the day after we had returned, Johore was under water due to the relentless rain.

On Christina’s invitation, Nicole gave her maiden piano performance at her place. Being a piano teacher, Christina holds organise a concert for her students every year. This year, she has decided to do hold it at her house. The concert was attended by more than 50 people. Nicole performed two short pieces the “Honey Bee March” and the “Merry Dance”. She was a little nervous before her turn but during her performance, she was as cool as a cucumber.

With some free time on hand, we have decided to the famous Qian Hu Fish Farm and introduce Nicole to the world of commercial fish breeding. The farm is located at a rather inaccessible part of Singapore call Jalan Lekar, off Sungie Tengah Road. As we drove nearer to the farm, we were welcomed by farm lands and plantations on the sides of the road. It felt like we were travelling back in time.

With prominent sign postings everywhere, we made it to the farm effortlessly.

From what we can see, I would estimate that the size of the farm was about two football fields. We parked our car and began peering at all the fascinating fishes.

Some of the fishes were quite scary in their appearance and Nicole got a fright.

We learnt that fishes can be quite expensive. I wonder who buys these fishes. I certainly will not spend so much money on something that can go belly up the next day.

The centre of attraction on the farm would be the Luo Han fish exhibits.

These strange fishes are really expensive too.

There is also a gallery displaying many of the more popular fishes.

We were intrigued by these fishes that looked like tiny snakes.

No outing is complete without a trip to the washroom.

Words of wisdom were found in the toilet.

The farm also has facilities to keep children occupied.

If you are hungry there is a snack bar.

The Managing Director of Qian Hu, Mr. Kenny Yap, is obviously not shy about promoting himself and the farm. News articles about him lined the walls.

Besides fishes, the farm also sells accessories for the fish rearing enthusiasts.

Of course, no trip is complete without shopping!

She ain’t gonna be the next Mozart but we are still extremely proud of her.

In our family, we start them young with the house work.

2006 Dec Jolyn doing house work

We have been thinking about putting Jolyn into a play group for the longest time. Today we finally put our thoughts into actions. Jolyn had no clue that her fate had been decided by us as she put on her sandals, thinking that she is just going for another stroll in the neighbourhood.

After days of deliberations, we had narrowed our choice of schools to two. One at block 846 and another at block 880. Both schools were shortlisted mainly because they are near our flat. So off we went on our morning adventure.

Within 5 minutes, we arrived at the first school at Block 846. We met the person in charge and asked the usual barrage of questions.

Three minutes into the Q&A, Nicole and Jolyn were already bored.

When we got all the answers, we left the place without registering Jolyn. I thinkthe place did not give us the correct vibes.

Five metres later, we had to make a mandatory stop…

and it was mommy’s turn to get bored.

The children had their fun…

and we hit the road again.

Along the way we made a few more mandatory stops…

before we finally registered Jolyn at the second school for one week of trial lessons.

…… continued from previous post.

Time flies and we were at the final day of our trip. We slept late and had a late breakfast. Jolyn was already feeling sad about going back.

We did some last minute shopping and bought a suitcase so that we would have enough space for all the stuff we bought.

We were then all set to leave.

After a shower and a quick lunch, we checked out of the hotel.

Jolyn was clearly exhausted from the activities and she slept soundly when we arrived at the departure hall of the Langkawi International Airport

Fortunately, she woke up before the plane arrived.

We had a final glimpse of Langkawi while waiting for our plane.

Not long after, our plane arrived. It was the same type of small aircraft which flew us here. We waited for the passengers to disembark before making our way to board the plane. I felt like I was taking the MRT.

Once safely tucked into her seat, Jolyn proudly declared that it was her second time taking an aeroplane.

We were soon airborne and Langkawi started to fade away.

Jolyn finally got fed up with having her pictures taken all the time.

We were happy to return to Singapore safe and sound.

That’s all folks. Thanks for reading.

…. continued from previous post.

We woke up bright and early on the second day. The Kuah Town slowly came to life.

With a quick breakfast and a change of clothes, we were off to the Langkawi Underwater World.

We saw lots of interesting marine animals at the Underwater World.

Nicole and Jolyn also became good friends with the King Penguin.

Nicole was fascinated by the sight of penguins swimming.

Then we met the world’s laziest fish…

and discovered the scary fact about how sharks are born.

There was also a huge commotion when the diver jumped into the tank to feed the fishes.

After emerging from the Underwater World, we did the most logical thing next…. We had our nails painted!

Finally, we were off to the beautiful island of Langkawi. If you just want to look at the pictures, click on the following album. Otherwise, read on.

The girls were, expectedly, very excited about the trip; especially Jolyn who had never been on an aeroplane.

When the aircraft finally arrived at the departure gate, we were slightly disappointed that it was such a small plane. I suppose not many people travel from Singapore to Langkawi each day.

I had the “good fortune” of sitting next to the wings of the aircraft. It was not a very spectacular view, but had the engines caught fire, I would be the first to know.

Nicole couldn’t wait for the plane to land and for the party to begin.

About one and half hours after we took off, the plane descended. We began to see land rushing up towards us.

Touch down! The Langkawi International Airport was a far cry from our Changi Airport, but it did had a rustic charm around it. We met a friendly Caucasian guy, who volunteered to take a picture of our entire family. We thanked him profusely. I wondered if my fellow Asians would have made a similar offer.

When we retrieved our lugguage, we discovered that the handle of our suitcase was damaged. We had to make a detour to the baggage office to file a report.

We finally cleared the customs and boarded a van towards our hotel. Our driver, Michael, was very chatty. After travelling with him for about 30 minutes, we learnt a lot about the history of Langkawi. Nicole and Jolyn were also hyped up because it was their maiden trip on board of a van.

During the trip to our hotel, I noticed that, although Langkawi is a popular tourist destination, most of the island remained undeveloped.

We arrived at our hotel room just in time to witness the Langkawi sunset.

Being full blooded Singaporean, we decided to do some shopping before retiring for the the day. Although Langkawi is a duty free haven, the only things which were really cheap there were liquor and cigarettes.

After some shopping and dinner, we returned to the hotel for a well deserved hot water bath and a good night’s rest.

Our hotel room was a picture of luxury.

That’s all for day one.