Nurul's Flower Festival

Remember the Sentosa Flower Festival we went to? Those were my photos then. These below were taken by Nurul using the P&S camera. One of her first few camera outdoor experiments.

Hort Park in March

This month's theme is all about Nature. For their monthly outing, the school brought them to Hort Park. Nurul brought along our P&S camera. Trying to instill photography skills in her. She took few photos along the way. The photos of them were taken by their Mudarrisah Mardhiyah.

My first

Hi, my name is Nurul. I had my FIRST bubble gum on Saturday while waiting for the ferry from Batam. It was a Strawberry flavoured bubble gum which Mama got from Faris. But she halved it cos my mouth is small. ;p

Whoa Batam! Guide to 3D/2N

We came back from Batam yesterday. It was a great trip! Though it was a short one... 3D/2N, all 16 of us. But they say, if it's too long in Batam, there's nothing much to do. We should do more family trips like this. It's great to bond (not for my parents though ah) with relatives...

It was a close fight between Harris and Holiday Inn. Settled for Holiday Inn cos of the price vs type of room.

Many things happened while we were there. Good and bad. I could have spoken up to say who was in the right and who was in the... well, not so right. But I chose to keep quite just because... (.) Urrggghhh! Keeping mum about things is so daunting sometimes. But just kept it aside and didn't want to let it ruin my holiday.

Anyway, my wacky cousins Siti Saleha and Hafiz did a good trip organising with chartered bus and all. Think she dreamed of becoming a tour guide... thanks babe! You're the best! After me, that is... kehkehkeh

see... told ya they are wacky! And i'm not responsible for that.

For all your hard work, i got you a vase souvenir shot... :)

This trip changed my perspective of Batam. Batam to me, was... you know... keropok (crackers in English) trip for makcik-makcik. Now, it's one of the cheapest short trip that includes great cheap shopping from clothes to supermarket and food, next to Bintan. But I think they really need to improve on their toilet and its cleaning facilities. It could be disgusting at some places.

ok, here are some of the shots but didn't edit them... cos the lappy is taking too long to load the Photoshop.

First day started with us missing our ferry cos Fadhli was late. ahhaha. (psst... Fadhli had so many silly incidents... and he learnt some English words... repeat after me, Fadhli. It's called PONTOON. ahahahha.) We had to reschedule our ferry ride. But what's a holiday without incidents like this rite? It's more memorable, ahhaha... shit happens... but I was cool about it... and so were the rest. well, initially, almost the rest.

Batam Centre Megamall --> Megamall --> DC Mall --> Nagoya Hill Mall

On board Batam Fast 2... ferry ride was about 40 minutes. Smooth ride but with a stopover at Batam Centre Terminal. I was expecting the ferry to be full load but it wasn't. There was still room to change seats and even move to the upper open deck.

The weather was good in Btam. With a portion of the trip rained heavily. Otherwise it was just overcast and good sun for the places we prayed that would not rain while we were there.

The bus trip from the terminal to the resort was very short. The resort was just at the right turn of the terminal. The resort staff were all very friendly (but of course, rite?). And i also realised that i could not converse in Bahasa Indonesia as well as i had thought i could. Damn! Must watch more Indon sinetron from now.

The lobby was nice and smelled nice too. I bought the exact essential oil - Rempah Wangi - from the lobby shop as souvenir. Now my house is smelling like the lobby.

All of us got the garden view rooms. The rooms were clean and the room facilities were ok. I would strongly recommend the resort to just provide the toilet delight items like toothpaste, toothbrush in anticipation. And not having the guest to call them for the items. Smell wise, the carpet does not have a very musty smell. Acceptable.

From the Holiday Inn suite balcony.

Their intricate door detail.

The lobby. Nice and cosy.

The Terrace Cafe. I urge them to really spice up and expand their buffet range.

One of the few ok night shots I got. Knowing my shaky hands, I should have just used timer since I had the tripod.

The 3 places which I was so enthusiastic to go to... but alas... no money for spa, no time for kid's club, no determination for gym. :p

Ancient history... A&W! The restaurant used to be ubiquitous in Singapore. At Batam Centre Mall. Initially we wanted to scout the area for cheap food outlets. I think Cik Salamah and family ate at some great food place. Should have gone there. But hey, Singapore has no A&W anymore and the waffle ice cream was just too enticing to turn away.

There was this shop called No 61, next to JCo Donuts where the t shirts were selling so cheap! Fadhli borong (grab all in English) the $2 t-shirts! Quite a good quality. I got 2 t-shirts for Pa.

Heavenly!

Caved in to my greed. I just had to buy this after seeing this other woman ordered the hotdog although I had Nurul's chicken.

We ended the night with dinner in Nagoya Hill Mall. It's definitely a place for food lovers! We had ours at a Halal Chinese seafood place at level 3 near the escalator. We ordered everything from fish to shellfish, veg except crab. Only SG$5 per person! Worth it!

Day 02, we only had 2 adults and 2 kids breakfast coupon per suite. The rest had to pay. Pricey breakfast at SG$25. The buffet spread was not that great. I miss Nirwana Gardens' buffet spread! I didn't have much cos I had some Breadtalk stuff I bought at Batam Centre mall in the room. So I only had cornflakes with milk and some porridge.

Go Kart --> Pondok Guring --> Ocarina --> Night Batam Centre Mall again! = quick late night grab-all-you-can shopping!
His 253rd car. A transformer bumble bee car.





Dun play, play ok... this is water ballet!




We went Go-Karting!

My tummy was rumbling. But we had to go to the Go Kart first before lunch as it was the only sane decision as the lunch place was rather far from the resort. The guys played + Ika. Pa, Hafiz and Fadhli were just relieving their childhood dream of becoming a race car driver.

All checked and ready to go.

And we had lunch at Pondok Kuring. The place was a bit out of the way but the food was better than the hotel's. And it was a sit down(folded legs) type of sitting. Something different for us. Served us local Indonesia delights. We had fried gurame fish, kangkong belacan, chap chye, prawn cereal, sambal belacan with ulam (my fav!), cumi-cumi (but take note, if you want the cute fried little cumis, you gotta request for 'fried'), chicken soup, asam pedas, grilled chicken, grilled fish, curry chicken and of course, my staple food, plain rice. All for not more than SG$7 per person.

I looooooove Ulams! I'm very Malay when it comes to this. I love the belimbing muda (sour young starfruit).

Pa's cold authentic Es Cendol

At Ocarina. Think it's a new theme park. The way into the theme park was like driving along the Marine Parade in Gold Coast on the way to Sea World. With the sea/each on one side. Took a few rides there. Ferris wheel, water bumper boat ride and had dinner by the beach.

Like Lego!
New necklace. Only SG$2.


We took the ferris ride cos of the kids. The ride cost SG$2+ per adult or IRP15,000. But it was like a sauna in there! ok, free spa treatment. We took it almost at sunset so it the view and sky colour was good.








Ahhhh... sensationally euphoric!

This was a very fun bumper boat ride. I was scared shit at first when they all attacked me. Cos i can't swim! Ya know, i case the boat capsized. Nurul was with me and cried when we were atacked. Those big bullies!

The beach starts after the beach umbrella.
Einstein thinking hard.


Day 03, packing day! It was also a 'make-full-use-of-game-facilities' day. Pool and wii. The wii cost SG$5 per 1/2 hour and the pool game is SG$8 per hour.

Ben 10 playing wii.

All was well ended well. Had extra cash at the end of the day? What to do with it? Shop at the Waterfront terminal! Bought Tea Sosro, rite Fadhli? Bought Kek Lapis, preserved kedondong fruit (yummy! I'm salivating as I type this) and of course... Polo tee souvenirs.