travel

I meant to post sooner but we just got back from our annual mid-year Aussie trip to visit my sister and I am so completely wiped. We’ve been doing this for the past 4 years so I figured this would be a piece of cake but this trip has been the most massive operation by far. We went with all 3 kids (technically 4 if I’m counting the one in my uterus), plus my mom and my helper.

I thought I’d be posting on the fly like I usually do but by the end of each day, I could barely stumble into bed without falling over, much less attempt to blog. Turns out that being 30-weeks pregnant and chasing after 3 kids all day is ridiculously exhausting.

But other than that, it’s been a really good trip.

It was baby Finn’s first visit to Melbourne and Sydney and I can say definitively that he loves it. This kid clearly inherited his siblings’ travel bug genes. Every single morning, he woke up with a huge grin, yelling “KAI KAI…LET’S GO…YEAH!!!” He was so enthusiastic about everything and it was like looking at the place through new eyes. I loved it.

We thought we’d do something different this year so we took a drive along the Great Ocean Road for the first time. We’d probably have driven up as far as the Twelve Apostles and Grampians but we didn’t want to push it so hard with so many people in tow (great decision, btw!) so most of our time was spent in Lorne, a pretty little town overlooking the ocean.

Looking at them, I realise that kids don’t need a lot to be happy. All they need are wide open spaces to run, some trees to climb, playgrounds to hang around in, and each other for company.

That pretty much works for me too.

The kids were so thrilled that my sister’s boyfriend brought his two gorgeous dogs along. Meet Khan and Charlotte. I call them the poofy, slightly aloof one and the heart-meltingly sad one.

Club Med has been on our holiday bucket list for a while and I’m glad we finally managed to check it out last weekend with all 3 kids. It was a glorious, sunshiney weekend to head to Club Med Bintan, about an hour’s ferry ride out from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.

Being the first time we were bringing baby Finn along for a holiday just the two of us (without any additional adult help), we were a little nervy about the adult-kid ratio. Plus there’s my pregnant belly which reduces mobility by about 70%, so it was effectively like 1.5 adults vs 3.5 kids. It’s a good thing Truett and Kirsten are such seasoned travellers, which helped a lot.

One of the best things about Club Med is their system of GO’s (Gentil Organisateur). They’re a bunch of young, energetic and enthusiastic Club Med crew who run all the activities, including the super awesome kids club (Mini Club Med). The Mini Club Med program runs from 8.30 in the morning till 5 in the afternoon (they even eat together) and the kids had such a great time hanging out with their newfound friends and GO’s.

Evidently, we’re big fans of Mini Club Med because that means we get to chill out and take a breather while the kids are off having fun.

While they were at the kids club, they got to try out a whole bunch of really cool activities like the trapeze, trampoline and archery.

I think the trapeze was Tru’s absolute favourite activity. He panicked a little as he started climbing up the ladder but my brave little trooper powered on and took the leap. He made it look so fun that if I wasn’t pregnant, I’d definitely be trying it out myself.

Baby Finn was a little too small to join Mini Club Med unsupervised so he got to spend some quality time with us, which he was thrilled to do. I’ve never seen him look so happy – he was yelling “AWESOME…YES!!!” everywhere he went.

Finally, here’s what happens after a fun-filled day at Mini Club Med.

Ok, only one of these 3 are really sleeping.

Yeah, that one.

*Book a Club Med holiday from now till 30 May (travel from May-Oct 2014) and enjoy the Kids Stay For Free promotion at Bali, Cherating, Phuket and Guilin.

Also, you don’t want to miss the Bintan Family Festival from 5^th to 8^th June, where there’ll be a whole list of exciting activities happening over the span of 4 days, such as a Soccer Clinic with Steven Tan, Child Yoga, Mosaic Art, Eco Arts and Craft, Batik Painting, Ice-Cream Making, K-Pop Dance and Kids Performing. 

As far as the food was concerned, we weren’t quite sure what to expect during our visit to Maldives. I’ve never had Maldivian cuisine nor had the faintest idea what it would consist of. Rice? Curries? Kebabs? Seafood?

Turns out that we didn’t have anything to worry about after all because the food we had at NIYAMA was one of the finest we’ve tasted anywhere in the world.

In the resort were 3 restaurants and 2 bars and a deli, each serving different cuisines to cater to a variety of tastes.

There’s Epicure, the main restaurant by the beach where a scrumptious breakfast buffet was served every morning. Continental breakfast buffets can be kind of meh, but the spread here was the kind that gave you a reason to smile and filled your day with happy thoughts.

Most of our lunches were also taken in Epicure. At lunch, it’s all à la carte so the chefs would whip up your order according to individual preferences. I loved that they created fresh, tasty, healthy food for the kids during our entire stay. Even the chicken nuggets that Truett ordered were freshly prepared with minced chicken and tons of hidden vegetables.

Pretty much everything we had was delicious, but special mention has to be made of this insane platter of seafood awesomeness that was lovingly grilled to perfection.

If you’re up for something different, just a short boat ride out from the main island is where Edge and Subsix are located. We headed out for drinks at Edge one evening and discovered that it was one of the best places to catch the sunset.

Among all the restaurants, my absolute favourite has to be Tribal, an al fresco beachside campfire dining experience that combines the best of South American, African and Asian cuisine.

We had a pulled pork appetiser that was delightfully sublime and the mains, OMG the mains were two gigantic juicy, succulent lobsters that looked too good to be eaten. I almost passed out from happiness thanks to that one dinner alone.

***

So that about brings me to the end of our all-too-brief Maldives experience. After spending 4 days in paradise, all I can say is that NIYAMA Resort has been truly spectacular in every way. It’s one of those places I’ll never ever forget.

Maldives is typically seen as a honeymooner’s destination, and it absolutely is but we’ve discovered that it’s so much more than that. Turns out that NIYAMA Maldives is an amazingly kid-friendly resort and it might be possible that the kids had even more fun than we did, which is saying a lot.

So what’s a kid to do at NIYAMA?

1. Sharing secrets while gazing at the glittery blue ocean. 

They could do this all day, just sitting by the ocean and whispering secrets to each other. They talked about manta rays and baby sharks and mermaids and how they’d swim with the dolphins when they got older. And we had the best time eavesdropping on all the adventures they dreamed of having.

2. Hunting for treasures by the beach.

They pretended to be pirates searching for buried treasure in the sand, then burying them. And by them, I mean mostly each other.

 3. A relaxing spa massage treat to soothe those tired little muscles. 

They were so excited to be going for their first ever specially customised kids spa massage at the gorgeous LIME Spa. It was 60 minutes of pure bliss and tranquility for these two little explorers. As a testament to how relaxing it was, Kirsten promptly fell fast asleep 30 minutes into her massage.

4. Oodles of fun at ACTIVE, the activity centre for kids. And adults too!

Having a kids club was a nice touch. It was filled with all kinds of super fun games and activities, plus the staff were amazing with the kids. They baked cookies, watched movies, picked up pool, tried table tennis, played video games and drew little masterpieces.

5. Learning about corals with a marine biologist + a tour of Subsix, NIYAMA’s underwater bar.

This was hands on learning at its best, as the kids were given an introduction to marine life and coral conservation, then taken out on a jetboat to a really cool underwater bar where they got to experience it up close for themselves. I’ve never seen them so fascinated by fishes and corals.

6. Leisurely strolls to just about everywhere. 

Walking has never been this fun. They held hands and took leisurely strolls to explore everything they could find on this little island paradise.

7. Selfies! 

Ok, this was mostly Kirsten, who’s the selfie expert around here. It was like her dream come true taking selfies in such a pretty place.

“C’mon, let’s take a photo, mom!” she’d ask excitedly everywhere we went and I was happy to oblige. 

Sitting here looking out at the beautiful baby blue ocean and golden sands with my flute of bubbly in hand, I’m certain of one thing, that NIYAMA Resort Maldives by Per Aquum is an unparalleled piece of island paradise.

Nestled on this little atoll is perfection – the  combination of luxury, tranquility and exquisite charm, topped off with the most spectacular view anyone can ever hope to see.

Quite often, you look at amazing photos of a place and when you actually get there, you realise that you have to knock off at least 30% for photoshop skills or great composition. But here, photos don’t even come close to capturing how breathtaking everything is.

Being here feels like a dream I never want to wake up from.

First of all, arriving at NIYAMA Maldives must be done in style, via a seaplane. It’s 45-minute flight out from Male international airport and there’s something so very James Bond about getting on board a seaplane; makes it all feel like a real adventure. It’s one of those things to check off one’s bucket list and I’m glad we did.

Sidenote: it was equal parts cool and terrifying to be 3 feet away from the pilots in the cockpit, which might I add, has no door so we could watch them in action the entire flight. They were working all these levers/buttons like a pro and the whole time I was thinking, “all it takes is just one wrong button and we’re quite literally swimming with the fishes…ALSO DUDE WHY IS THAT RED BUTTON BLINKING FURIOUSLY??!!”

The kids thought it was super awesome, so that’s that.

Once you arrive though, you immediately start to feel all your problems slipping away. We stepped off onto the jetty to a welcome party of friendly staff offering cool towels and a refreshing lime juice for us and a handwritten note with bracelets for the kids.

“How did they know our names?” Kirsten whispered, clearly impressed by all the attention she was getting.

Shortly after, we were whisked off by Ashley, our Thakuru or personal butler (who happens to be from Singapore!!) to a stunning water pavilion with private pool and jacuzzi at number 50, our home for the next couple of days.

It’s a palatial one-bedroom paradise with an adjoining living room that opened up to an infinity pool and a jacuzzi overlooking the shimmering Indian Ocean. The beds were luxuriously soft and fluffy, the living room was equipped with every possible amenity we could want (Nespresso machine, fully-stocked private wine bar, separate fridge, popcorn machine, bubbly on ice, microwave, Bose sound system) and the bathroom was an absolute palace, featuring separate open air shower and toilet areas that gave you a view of the fishes swimming below as you showered. The bathtub was bigger than anything I’ve ever seen, it could fit all four of us with room to spare. Seriously, it was so huge it could fit a baby elephant if it wanted to.

Apart from the spanking new luxurious digs, the hospitality of the staff was the cherry on top of an already decadent, triple-frosted, sugar coated, scrummilicious chocolate fudge cake, so to speak. All the staff we met were so warm and friendly that we felt right at home. Also, their dedication to housekeeping was phenomenal. On our last night, there was a massive thunderstorm as we hopped out for a quick dinner and when we got back, we discovered that they had rushed to spruce up the room even in the crazy storm.

In short, NIYAMA redefines luxury. In fact, it takes what you used to know as luxury and blows it all the way into the stratosphere many times over.

This was the view we woke up to every morning, just endless crystal blue water that disappeared into the sky. It’s hard to imagine life being more perfect than this. I’m hardly a morning person but for a view this spectacular, I was up every morning at 5.45 to catch a glimpse of the morning sun peeking out on the horizon.

As were the kids, who decided that life was infinitely better with early morning pre-breakfast somersaults into the jacuzzi.

Suffice to say, our Maldives experience at NIYAMA turned out to be far better than anything we could have possibly dreamed of. It was the best of days filled with relaxing conversations by the ocean, dreams of pretty sunsets and amazing family time lounging in the pool.

*More to come on the activities and food, stay tuned!

We’re here at NIYAMA Maldives with Truett and Kirsten for a couple of days and this place is out of this world kind of gorgeous.

The kids think that they’re in heaven – Kirsten actually asked “is this what heaven looks like?” – and all I can think of while we’re here is how does a place this beautiful even exist??!!!

The sand is so pearly white it shimmers (plus it feels so ridiculously soft between my toes). And the turquoise water is such a crazy shade of blue I can just sit here and look out at it all day with all the little fishies swimming around.

I’ve got a ton of photos, I promise I’ll get through them and have them up on the blog once we’re back.

In the meantime, have a great weekend, you guys!