travel

This is day 6 of our trip and while we’re having a blast with Truett and Kirsten, I miss baby Finn so terribly. I’ve never been apart from him for more than a few hours since he was born and I can’t function without munching on his juicy rolls multiple times a day. It’s so bad that every time I see a baby over here, I go into full on baby withdrawal overdrive. I almost picked up a few babies for cuddles but so far, I’ve managed to control my urges.

I’m posting on the go so I’ll update stuff on the trip in batches, starting with the Sydney leg.

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In Sydney, the one thing I was really looking forward to was the Vivid Sydney light show. In particular, the Doctor Who Anniversary celebration light show at Customs House, the sails of the Sydney Opera House and the Vivid Aquatique water + fireworks showcase at Darling Harbour.

The Doctor Who event was a one night only thing, which happened to fall on 1 June, the night right after we arrived. So even though it was raining quite heavily in the evening on Saturday, we bundled up the kids and trudged out to the city in the freezing cold.

It was already crazy packed when we arrived at Circular Quay and after some skillful maneuvering, we managed to find a tiny spot right at the back to catch glimpses of the TARDIS in between rows of bobbing heads. In fact, I spent most of the time watching the back of this dude’s head while trying not to get jabbed in the eye by an umbrella. It was like a game of straining to get a peek at the screen every time the crowd oohed and aahed in unison. Well at least I managed to see the Weeping Angels and lots of Matt Smith.

The next stop was over to the Sydney Opera House to watch the sails all beautifully lit with colorful dancing lights.

At this point, the kids were starting to get a little tired but we’re really crazy hardcore travelers so we decided to round up the night by walking all the way to the Rocks for the flea market and then to Ives Steps Wharf to catch a ferry to Darling Harbour for Aquatique.

To put it into perspective, that’s like a 2km trek. In the rain. With 2 kids. But we were like “no problem, let’s do it.”

By the time we got to Ives Steps Wharf, I had carried Kirsten for almost a while kilometre and I couldn’t feel any of my limbs thanks to a combination of the cold and exhaustion. And then we still had to stand there in the freezing Sydney night air for about 30 minutes to wait for the next ferry to arrive.

The longer we stood there, the colder and wetter we got, until about 25 minutes in, I was almost ready to call it quits and forget about the Aquatique show. But I realized that I would totally be like the bimbo in the joke where she swims halfway and then decides to turn back, except that in this analogy, I’d already swum like 85% of the distance. So persevere on we did until finally, the ferry arrived to take us to Darling Harbour.

Thankfully, we made it to Darling Harbour just in time for the fireworks and it was breathtaking kind of gorgeous. It’s the closest I’ve ever been to a fireworks show – we were right at the edge of the water and we could see the fireworks being launched from several feet away on a platform in the water.

The kids were feeling a little miserable from the night’s grueling activities but they stood there watching the fireworks in absolute awe. And as we turned back for our return 2km trek, we all agreed that it was all quite worth it.

In just a week, we’ll be heading to Sydney & Melbourne for a family trip and since this one isn’t quite as impromptu, I’ve had time to put together a proper travel plan.

A friend was just commenting that we love traveling to Oz an awful lot and it’s true, we do love the place. It’ll be our third trip down in 3 years so I guess it’s safe to say that it’s turning out to be a family favorite. To borrow the words of Dr Seuss, “it’s opener there in the wide open air.” There are mountains and rocks to be discovered, quaint little shops, farms, playgrounds, markets, beaches and the coffee…seriously, I have sweet, sweet dreams about the coffee in Melbourne. Plus it gets cold in winter and the crisp, cold air is a welcome change from our ridiculous heat.

I know it can be costly to travel with the entire family so imma share some holiday planning secrets for all you family travelers on a budget.

1. Flight tickets.

Airfares take up a large chunk of the travel budget and there’s no way around this so act fast when there’s a sale. The moment I have travel dates in mind, I start monitoring the various airlines for promos. Scoot was having a 30% off flights to Sydney and we got our tickets for $357 per person including taxes. Shortly after, Tiger airways was having a domestic flight sale for AUD $44 each way. And if you don’t already know, Jetstar has a system called the price beat guarantee where they’ll give you a 10% discount off the lowest price you can find on any other airline. Make use of it.

2. Accommodation.

With kids, it makes the most sense to go with an apartment instead of a regular hotel. We can get really gorgeous 2-bedroom apartments from Airbnb and Roomorama for under $200 per night and we have access to all the comforts of home like a washing machine, dryer and kitchen facilities. Like this charming artist warehouse turned apartment that I booked for our Melbourne leg was $170 a night.

photo by airbnb

3. Driving.

We usually drive when we’re in Australia because between taking public transport and driving, I’ll take driving any day. No waiting for buses, struggling with bus routes or squeezing with everyone else on a crowded train. With a GPS installed on the phone, navigation is a cinch and we can take day trips out of the city to explore surrounding areas any time we want. All we need to do is just get in and go.

On this note, car rental prices can fluctuate quite a bit so you’ll need to do some homework and book when prices go down.

4. Food.

Ok, eating out in Australia is really pricey. There’s no $2.50 bak chor mee available and the average cost of a meal is about $15 per person on the low side. So the first thing we do when we settle in is head to the nearest Woolworths to stock up on supplies like bread, milk, cereal, egg, fruits. And then we go to places like Queen Victoria market to get some of that delicious free range bacon. Lots and lots of bacon. And maybe some wagyu beef to throw on the grill for dinner.

Some days, you’ll want to eat out so plan your itinerary and stalk the group buying sites like Groupon, OurDeal and Living Social for restaurant discounts.

5. Activities.

If you like doing touristy things, get the iventure card so you don’t have to pay full price on all the attraction entrance fees. Alternatively, group buying sites will also have discounts on various attractions.

6. Other activities. 

When you’re done doing the touristy things, there are lots of other fun stuff that are free of charge. Keep a lookout for events and street performances (so excited that we’ll be there for the Vivid Sydney Doctor Who light up on 1 June), explore weekend markets, visit playgrounds (Australia has some unbelievably awesome playgrounds), have a picnic, feed the birds, there’s so much to be done.

photo by vivid sydney

I’ll be posting updates about the trip on the fly when we’re there so check back next week for itinerary plans, aight?

Okay, forget everything I said about the first villa being paradise. We just spent the last 2 days in a villa called Karma Kandara and it is so incredibly breathtaking I’m actually out of adjectives for once.

It’s a 4-bedroom cliff-top resort villa overlooking the Indian Ocean and everything about it is perfect.

Private infinity pool, check.

Lush outdoor gazebo + dining area, check.

Unbelievable view, check.

Elegant interiors, check.

Private beach with the finest white sand, check.

Kids club with personalized attention, check.

Safe from creepy crawlies, check.

And the pièce de résistance – a stunning horizon infinity pool where the end meets the sky.

They say a picture paints a thousand words so I’m going to stop talking now and let the pictures do the talking.

And a couple more instagrams.

And a bonus one of my sister who’s missing from the group shot because she offered to be the photographer and my skills are not high-level enough to photoshop her in.

We’re in Bali for a holiday with the entire family and by entire, I mean the whole gang. The husband, the kids, my mom, my sister, my brother and sister-in-law. It’s rare that all our schedules coincided and my sister’s back from Melbourne so we decided that a family trip was in order. And seeing how it’s the first time we’re traveling with all 3 kids, it was important to maintain a 2:1 adult to kid ratio.

Can I just say that traveling with 3 kids is quite insane? To be fair, Truett and Kirsten are great travelers and they’re super quiet on plane rides but all that holiday dust gives them an adrenaline high and they’re like on speed the whole time. They seem to feed off each others’ excitement and with a baby thrown into the mix, it’s really quite a handful.

With our headcount, it made sense to rent a villa instead of regular hotel rooms. So for the first 2 nights, we settled on a 4-bedroom villa that comes with 2 private pools, a huge patio, private open-air bath areas, a maid, a cook, a driver and a security guard.

The kids would be in the pool, come up for a drink, jump back into the pool, run around the villa compound, back in the pool, Kirsten would stop for a manicure, more pool time, and so on.

Quite the life.

I daresay I’m enjoying Balinese villa life with the huge space and lush greenery. In the daytime, it’s paradise.

But then nighttime comes and my inner sheltered city girl freaks the hell out. The first evening, we were chilling out at the patio playing Monopoly with the kids and I start to hear a cacophony of unknown animal sounds. I know some people find the sound of a rainforest gentle and soothing but I’m not some people. Weird animal sounds make me think that there are scary animals lying in wait to attack me. Then out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a lizard. Which was making that annoying lizard call to its creepy lizard friends. Moments later, I spotted a second one. Then a third.

The whole time I was doling out fake Monopoly money, I kept a mental count of the number of lizards in my immediate vicinity and the available route of escape should they decide to advance.

For the record, I hate lizards, but you know what I hate more? That’s right, frogs.

The husband was getting a drink from the fridge and suddenly, he said, “babe, don’t panic but there’s a frog near the sink.” Basically, whenever the husband says “don’t panic”, whatever follows usually means that I should immediately panic. Sure enough, there was a frog. Crawling up the decorative glass backing behind the sink. I didn’t even know frogs could crawl on walls but there it was, defying gravity and looking all smug with its smug beady frog eyes.

And to all the people who claim that frogs are harmless and cute, I only have one thing to say. Pfffft. There’s a reason why God sent frogs as one of the 10 plagues to the Egyptians. I bet the Egyptians wouldn’t have minded if God sent them a bunch of furry little bunny rabbits but no, they got frogs, aight? Frogs are icky and slimy and ewww so gross.

So I hastily retired to our enclosed air-conditioned room, the one place I thought was safe. Except it wasn’t. I made the husband do a perimeter sweep of the room and sure enough, there was a baby lizard on the ceiling, which he valiantly caught.

Later today, we’ll be heading to another villa where we’ll spend the next two days. On the bright side, there’s an infinity pool overlooking the ocean. On the considerably dimmer side, I hear there are monkeys.

After 2.5 years, the husband makes a return as a guest blogger. The official reason is because he was my editorial rep on a visit to Legoland with the kids (the 2 big ones). The unofficial reason has more to do with me phoning it in and making him do work while I lie down for a nap. 

So despite the wife’s attempts to secure a covert last minute exit to Malaysia a week after giving birth, we all decided it made sense for her not to travel. Being the dutiful husband, I was thus assigned volunteered to bring the kids down to the media preview of Legoland on Saturday.

For those of you thinking of driving down, a quick word – DO IT.  It’s just a 15min drive from the Tuas checkpoint, and with hardly any traffic along the way we made it there in slightly over an hour. Of course if you’re the sort that gets panicky with with road names like Jalan Persimuang Berhenti Muas 1/125, you might wanna plot the address into your GPS or something but either way getting there is pretty much a breeze.

When we arrived we were quickly ushered into a world where everything was literally put together, Lego brick by brick.

Now I don’t know your thoughts on Lego as a toy but wading through a darkened room littered with Lego bricks is akin to an ancient Chinese torture for belligerent parents. It was really nice to see them all properly set in their place in the form of Lego architecture and OH WOW THAT’S THE MERLION.

Apparently, over 50 million Lego bricks have been used to build the models, and it shows – the attention to detail is simply remarkable. More than once I had to stop the kids from attempting to yank the miniature figurines from the various recreated cities; heck, even I wanted to steal the Taj Majal below but settled for a picture instead.

On to the rides and attractions, and there were plenty. Legoland Malaysia boasts over 40 attractions and many of them suitable for the younger ones. With Kirsten, height limit was always going to be an issue but I’m happy to report that she made it for quite a few. Usually when I bring the kids out I do the  “Are you having fun?” check but I think it was quite evident from her whooping (“WOAH THAT WAS GREAT, DADDY! YIPPEE!”) and frantic waving after every single ride.

Oh, and a big shout out to the very encouraging instructors at the Junior Driving school who egged Kirsten on after a shaky start. She got so good at it after five rides she was waving at me as she drove past with one hand on the steering wheel.

Being the adrenaline junkie that he was, Truett was clamoring for roller-coasters after the umpteenth horse-ride (seen above) which he complained was ‘very, very very slow.’ The boy has seemingly, and rather unfortunately, picked up my penchant for exaggerating stuff. Anyhow,  we manage to find one at Lego Kingdoms and six loops later he was beaming with a satisfied grin and an Edwardian hairstyle to boot.

I have to make a special mention for the Lego Build & Test Centre. This is like a builder’s workshop of sorts; you’re handed a set of wheels at the entrance and there are working tables and benches with a variety of Lego bricks strewn all around. Pick a spot and you can just go on to build your own vehicles. There’re even tracks provided with automated launch mechanisms so you can race your prototype against others.

After the brief respite from the blazing heat in the airconditioned Build & Test Centre, we ventured out again and decided to take up the noble task of firefighting.

The station marshalers spiced things up a little by pitting us against three other families in a bit of a competition. There’s a sequence to it; first you’ve got to pump this hydraulic thingee in the vehicle to drive the fire engine towards the house. Once there you dash out of the fire engine, grab a hose, put out the ‘fire’ with sprayed water from aforementioned hose, head back into the fire engine, and pump hydraulic thingamajig to return fire engine to base. First one back to base wins bragging rights.

We did emerge fourth which I suppose wasn’t too bad, with two tots in tow. There were only four lanes, though.

Towards the end of the day we started to wrap up by slowing things down a little. We caught a couple of 4D shows – ‘Spellbinder’ is pretty good – and took our taking our time just exploring the sights and sounds. In between the various zones were carnival booths like this, and the kids had a great time doing a bit of fishing on a extra large version of a toy every child of the 80s should be familiar with.

We spent close to eight hours at the park and while doing a bit of research writing this post I realized we’d only covered about half the park or so! Some of the rides weren’t quite ready at the point of completion and the rest, we missed out just because of the sheer size of the park. Does that warrant a trip back up any time soon? Hell yeah, but the next time I’ll be bringing my sunglasses along and slapping on generous dollops of sunscreen- the kids and I are 50 shades darker from the expedition.