Friday, October 08, 2010
Our Singaporean Holiday
8-OCT-2010:
For a long time, Dom had been bugging us to take him to Singapore for a holiday. It happened (I think) because his cousins went for a holiday there sometime late last year (when Emily was just born) and I guess his cousins told him a lot of things about Singapore. Despite that, I was sure that he didn't have any idea where Singapore was or what it looked like.
So, the Raya holidays were approaching and I took the initiative of making the arrangements and told Saimun that we were going to Singapore for a short weekend break. All I had to do was make some arrangements for accomodation - which was just a text to my uncle, and we were all welcome to his house. Next, we had to do Emily's passport, as well as Dom's (since it was expiring in less tham 6 months). Doing the passports was an ordeal. It was exactly the same as 5 years ago when we first did Dom's passport. I can't believe that after so many years, nothing has actually improved. Or worse still, I think the level of service has depreciated. We actually made 3 trips to the immigration department before we got the passports done. The first time we went, we arrived at around 9am. Apparently, that was considered very late and they've run out of queue numbers (i.e. they only process a certain number of passports each day). The second time we went, it was closed, while it normally would be open but it was the 3rd weekend leading to Hari Raya, therefore they were closed. It wasn't mentioned anywhere in the website, nor was there any notices put up the week before when we were there, mind you. And so we had to go there a third time. This time we were early. Got there even before it opened and there was already a long queue outside the office. I was baffled. Wasn't there supposed to be a "special queue" for babies and senior citizens? Saimun did some investigation while I waited in line. There was a "special queue" but we had to queue up with the rest before we could be issued the "special number". The old lady in front of me was complaining because her legs ached from standing and it took about 1 hour to get to the front of the queue, where she was finally issued the "special number", but what was the use? She had already stood in the queue for 1 hour.
Next, you know what, there were various newspaper clippings and posters in the immigration office claiming that now they have shorten their passport processing time to 2 hours, meaning from the point you submit your application, you can expect to receive your passport within 2 hours on the same day. It was probably good effort on their part but I found it totally pointless. Who would actually wait there for 2 hours, especially when you have young children in tow? You would still have to leave and come back again in a few hours time. The experience was totally unsatisfactory, but unfortunately no one asked for my feedback.
We had the kids' passports done only 4 days before we were to leave for Singapore. And then Dominic came up with a temperature. It was good timing that he recovered just before Friday (the day we left), but early Friday morning when I put Emily into the car, I discovered that she was running a temperature instead! And so throughout the trip, her appetite was poor but was fine otherwise (except for the temperature). She also had very, very stong stranger anxiety (wouldn't let anyone touch or even look at her at all), but she is normally very afraid of strangers. As for Dom, he had a blast!
We were in Singapore for a total of 3 days and we left on the 4th day. On the first day, we visited the Science Centre after lunch and spent the whole afternoon there till dinner time. Dom was so excited and he had so much fun. I think he was slightly overwhelmed because he kept moving from one exhibit to the next and was too excited to even spend 5 mins with each exhibit. Emily on the other hand, just sat on her buggy looking bored and sucking on her pacifier. She used the pacifier a lot during the trip. I guess it gave her comfort. It wasn't a good trip for her and I've never seen her less cheerful.
Water play area outside the science centre. It was drizzling, that's why it was empty.
[Too many other photos taken inside the science centre. Will upload album later.]
Anyway, after the science centre, we went home for some rest and shower and then headed off to Clarke Quay for some seafood dinner by the river. The crowd was horrible. First there was the traffic jam and then the "human jam". So happened there was a Taiwan street food fair and the crowd was so bad that we could hardly walk, and we needed to get past the street food fair in order to reach our restaurant. After dinner, we walked around the riverside looking at the enormous "lanterns" set up there for the approaching mooncake festival. Coming back from London, I thought I've had a lot of practice walking but I never thought that my aunt and uncle could walk so much and they seemed to be tireless. You know how I normally go to bed at 10pm but not during this holiday. My aunt kept saying "it's alright, it's a holiday and you can sleep late". Haha!
The next day we headed off to the zoo. My aunt's maid was wonderful. She made us a heavy breakfast before we left. We actually left quite late as Dom slept till almost 10am. By the time we reached the zoo, there was a traffic jam going into the car park that started about 1.5km before the zoo entrance. A man directing the traffic there informed us that it could take at least 1 hour to get in. So we parked at the Orchid Farm nearby and walked there instead (think it was about 1km walk). Zoo was fun but the weather was so hot! We kept sweating and we felt so uncomfortable. Plus, don't forget that Em was having a fever. The last time I've been to the zoo was in London and it was no sweat even though it was during the summer. The Singapore zoo was so huge. We were there still 5pm but still didn't manage to see everything. Needless to say we were dead tired. Fortunately, my aunt's maid again prepared dinner and we ate in instead. After dinner, Saimun and Em went to bed, but Dom was still very alert. At about 9:30pm, my aunt said let's go to the Esplanade. In fact, she insisted that we went. Saimun and Emily were too tired, so I went with Dom. Dom was very excited and he insisted on going too.
From the Esplanade, we walked to the Double Helix bridge, crossed it, reached Marina Bay Sands, walked through the shopping mall and got to the 3 buildings with the "ship" on the roof. Let me tell you, it was a long, long walk. We all did it for Dom because he wanted to get on the "ship". Unfortunately, it closed at 11pm and we were there at 11.01pm. My poor boy was devastated. He walked all the way there. On his own. And he didn't complain. Even more unfortunately, we forgot about walking back to the Esplanade, as our car was there. I was dead tired so it was no surprise that soon Dom was complaining that his legs hurt. My uncle had to carry him half of the way. You know, that place around Marina Bay Sands was still under heavy construction. And I don't think they ever stopped working. They were still people working even at midnight. I find that very impressive.
The next morning, we went on the Singapore Flyer. I think it was exactly like the London Eye, although the view from the London Eye was a lot more beautiful. Aboard the Singapore Flyer, you don't really see much except for construction sites here and there and the highway. When I compared, London was really beautiful.
After lunch, we headed off to Sentosa Island. Took the monorail from Vivo City and stopped at Universal Studios. We never intended to visit Universal Studios. We wanted to at first but decided against it since there won't be much for the kids to do. Plus, we didn't have enough time. Anyway, tickets were all sold out when we reached there. We walked around and took a photo with the globe. We spent some time at the beach and then at the Underwater World. Compared to all the other underwater worlds or aquariums that we've been to, the Sentosa Underwater World was lame. It was so small and nothing much to see. Dom was most excited with the "travelator", not the sea creatures. We had dinner at Sentosa and left. On the way back, we stopped by Vivo City and played in the paddle pool. I find it really great that water fountains, play areas and paddle pools are almost everywhere for kids to play in. I think I would love to live in Singapore. KL/PJ is so boring in comparison. We took the MRT home. When the train was about to arrive, there was a cute song that went something like this: "Train is coming, train is coming! Please start queueing, ding dong!" Really refreshing compared to the London Underground: "Train is approaching. Please mind the gap!".
Big fish behind Dom:
The next morning, we left early to beat the ERP. Oh yes, I forgot to mention about the incident at the Singapore checkpoint. We arrived there without the VEP card (the card that you slot into the machine to pay the toll and every car must have one), and we didn't have the white card as well (the form you fill in to enter Singapore if you're not Singaporean). Now, about the white card, unless you drive in to Singapore fairly often and keep a stack with you, there's no way you can get hold of it until you reach the Singapore checkpoint, am I right? So we were there, and since we didn't have the VEP card, we had to go their office to buy one. And the guy at the counter said, since we're going to the office anyway, why don't you fill in the white card there because there are many cars waiting behind. Not knowing better, we said okay. At the "office", we realized that people were sent there for passport clearance because of problematic or unusual cases, such as one girl's passport had expired by one day. So we were kept waiting there just because we didn't fill in the bloody white card. Next time if the same thing happens to you, do insist that you want to fill in the card right there at the checkpoint booth. Plus, you know the people working in the office were all very senior, which translates to S.L.O.W. Anyway, we were there for 1 hour and buying the VEP pass took only about 5 mins.
When we got past the checkpoint, we told Dom that we were in Singapore already. We were on the highway and there were just trees on either side. Dom was very upset because he "couldn't see anything". Why was there nothing in Singapore? It was supposed to be a "fun place". Haha. He asked, "Where is Singapore? Is Singapore a building or not?". We said, no THIS is Singapore and he said, but there is nothing! Hahaha!
