Klook

NAJ’S SINGAPORE ZOO BIRTHDAY

July 13, 2017 by Little Miss Honey 1,960 Comments

Naj just turned 3 years old two weeks ago. We initially planned for a trip to Kuala Lumpur but my husband’s work schedule won’t allow so we thought of other ways to celebrate Naj’s birthday beside throwing a big party. And we thought, hey why not a trip to the Zoo! He can identify animals now and seen animal cartoons on TV. He would love to see the real ones we are sure. And we were right! He and Fynn had a fun time at Singapore Zoo.

How to get to Singapore Zoo

Coming from the East, we rode the MRT from Green Line to Red Line. We went down at Ang Mo Kio Station. The station is connected to AMK Hub and since it was almost lunch time when we arrived, we decided to have lunch there. We picked Fish & Co. We had a fishy yummy lunch before heading to the zoo.

The bus interchange was conveniently in AMK Hub. We waited for Bus 138 to take us directly to the Singapore Zoo.

I got our tickets to through the app, Klook. Admission fee usually is $33 for adult, $22 for child (3-12 years old) and $15 for senior citizen. However, we got our tickets cheaper through Klook. I just printed the ticket voucher before hand. And we arrived, all we need to do was scan the ticket in one of the green kiosk and the machine would provide us the tickets.

What to do in Singapore Zoo

The last zoo I remember I went to was in Manila Zoo (if I don’t count the mini zoo I went to in Sydney, Australia). I have the image in my head that animals are kept in cages. It was refreshing to see animals in Singapore Zoo to be out in open space for them to walk about but safe enough distance for the zoo visitors.

First, what we did was to check out the schedule of shows. Here they are:

Splash Safari Show : 10:30 AM , 5:00 PM – Shaw Foundation Amphitheater

Rainforest Fight Back Show: 12:30 PM, 2:30 PM – Shaw Foundation Amphitheater

Elephants At Work & At Play Show – 3:30 PM, Elephants of Asia

Animal Friends Show – 11:00 PM, 4:00 PM – Rainforest Kidzworld Amphitheater

We were able to see the Rainforest Fight Back Show and the Elephants At Work & At Play Show. My advice is to pick two shows that you like to see and the rest for other activities to do in the zoo. I didn’t really like the Rainforest Fights Back Show so I think you can give it a miss.

The kids love the Elephant Show. We arrived early and settled in the Elephants of Asia ready to watch the show. It was easily packed. I guess it is quite a popular show. We were glad we arrived early so we got seats. Some were already standing in the back. It was fun show to adults and kids. There were also feeding session after the show but we didn’t do that anymore because the queue was quite long.

Next thing you should do is get in a tram and get to see the whole Singapore Zoo which comes with a voice-over narration of the animals in the zoo.

Fynn was soothe by the rocking of the tram, he fell as sleep, hahaha.

Roam the zoo on foot and check out the animals you like to see. There is an area where you see life-like dinosaurs in the bushes. We saw lots of different types of monkeys. We saw beautiful vibrant pink flamingoes, zebras, lions, penguins, seals, giraffes and many more.

Naj is also into bouncing and jumping a lot these days. We saw this MegaBounce and we asked if Naj can go for it. The guy said yes and Naj was so ecstatic.

Next to the MegaBounce is the Rainforest KidzWorld. They have a nice carousel outside it. Fynn particularly enjoyed it. He was so upset when it ended hehe.

Inside the KidzWorld, you can get a pony ride and there is a water park for the kids. We came prepared so we got swim clothes for the kids . My kids just love water parks! They were happily splashing water and sliding down the water slides.

After they got tired from their water fun, we roam the zoo for a bit and headed back to Ang Mo Kio. The zoo closed at 6:00 PM daily. We had so much fun! Naj indeed enjoy his Singapore Zoo birthday. We cant wait to visit Jurong Bird Park and River Safari next time.

For dinner, we headed to Ang Mo Kio- Bishan Park to have dinner at Grub and Naj got to blow his mini birthday cake.

Happy Birthday Naj! You amazed us everyday of your sweetness, your iron strong-will, your ability to learn things, your love for cars & chocolate, your caring ways of making sure we walk on the right side of the road & be aware of cars coming and your adorable smile when we are together. I am so grateful I get to be your mommy and see you grow up…. Mommy, Daddy and Howell love you so much!

Singapore Zoo

80 Mandai Lake Road

Singapore 729826

Tel. No. (65) 6269 3411

Email: enquiry@wrs.com.sg

Website: Singapore Zoo

Opening Hours: 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM daily

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KOREA TRIP DAY 3: PETITE FRANCE, NAMI ISLAND, STRAWBERRY PICKING, CAT CAFE

March 22, 2017 by Little Miss Honey 2,199 Comments

It was J’s birthday on the 3rd day of our Korea trip. Happy Birthday to my hubster! I wanted it to be a special day for him so I got a package from Klook for a Day Tour to Petite France, Nami Island and ends with Strawberry Picking. I got for 81 SGD per person. Children under 3 can take part in the tour free of charge so yey, no need to get a pay for my kids.

One thing though I failed to remember that my hubby hates waking up very early in the morning. And on his birthday, I subjected him to wake up at dawn so we can prepare for our trip which has a scheduled meeting time and the night before we were all giddy with excitement and sugars from the Krispy Kreme donuts we bought that we stated up late at night playing with the kids. But all is well and my husband is a trooper for rising early and helping me prepare the kids. Believe me, bathing and dressing up kids below 3 years during winter is not an easy task.

I indicated the chosen meeting point at Myeongdong. So I was instructed that we should be in Myeongdong Station Exit 2 at 8:00 AM to meet the rest of the group. Since we are worried we will be running late if we take the MRT, we decided to take a cab instead to Myeongdong Station. We are glad the tour bus was still waiting for us at the meeting point. We made it! We stored our two strollers in the bus and met the other families that is joining us in the day tour. We made another stop at the Dongdaemun History & Culture Park Station to pick us the last people who will be joining us in the day tour.

The pretty Korean tour guide introduced herself to us. I completely forgot her name now though, oppps… She gave us the itinerary for the day. First, we are going to Petite France then lunch then Nami Island. And we will end by having strawberry picking at the strawberry farm. She told us we can get a shut-eye first since it will take more an hour to reach Petite France which we gladly did.

Petite France is inspired from the French novel, “Le Petit Prince” or the Little Prince by Saint-Exupery. It is a French Cultural Village set consisting of 16 French-style buildings where visitors can have a glimpse of French cultural village living.

The place was colorful and quirky. Each little house has its own unique charm. There were a lot of memorabilia in each little houses. There were costumes, little cars which Naj was happy about, puppets, vases and beautiful furnitures.

Grumpy Babies

It was extremely cold that day and the kids were in a very grumpy mood. It was also a struggle climbing the steep grounds going up the village with the two strollers in tow. There was a marionette show for visitors in the big open space near the entrance but the kids were not up for it so headed back to the bus.

Everyone eventually boarded the bus as we head to Nami Island. We took another nap again before reaching the dock going Nami Island. The tour guide gave us two choices if we wanted to eat before riding the ferry to Nami Island or we can opt to eat in Nami Island also. She gave us all our tickets before we spread out.

J said that we better eat before riding the ferry. We chose this restaurant that serves Chicken Dak Galbi.

Chicken Dak Galbi is a popular Korean dish made of spicy stir-fried marinated diced chicken on chili pepper paste with sliced cabbage, sweet potato, scallions, onions and rice cakes. You cooked the marinated diced chicken in front of you.

The chicken dak galbi was really good! We enjoyed our lunch a lot. J ordered rice to go with it. J is a very picky eater so he has been loving all of the Korean dishes he has tried so far.

When we were done with lunch, we waited for the ferry to arrive. It was a large ferry with seats on the side and a big space in the middle. We were glad we didn’t need to closed the kids’ strollers. It took only 5 minutes to beautiful Nami Island.

Nami Island is indeed “nami” (Hiligaynon word meaning nice). It is a huge piece of land that is an oasis of culture and leisure for visitors. There are several pine tree and mulberry trees in the area. There were lots of pre-made snowman and snow hills that we enjoyed playing around with Naj. Naj was also so happy with slide of ice. He can’t stop going up and slide, up and slide that we have to drag him out of there or else we will never leave the place. Hahaha!

The place is so picturesque, perfect for sightseeing, for photo-taking, for meditation, for romantic stroll dates. Nami Island is quite popular after it has been featured in a Korean television drama, Winter Sonata. There is even a statue of the actors on that show there.

There several cafe and restaurants in the vicinity. There were traditional heating area. And I like the large dark stone statue of a breastfeeding mother .

When it was almost the time for us to meet back in the boat, we hurried tocatch the ferry back to Chuncheon.

When all of us were in the tour bus, we then headed to our last destination: Strawberry Farm.

I have never seen how strawberries were planted and harvested. I didn’t know they are housed in a little green house. The owners educated us on the perfect strawberry for picking and they even helped picked some of them. We got two big plastic containers and we ate some as we picked. They were the sweetest strawberries I have every tasted. I often tried strawberries and there have more of the sourish taste but the strawberries I tasted in Seoul was so sweet & yummy.

With all our plastic containers filled with juicy strawberries, we headed back to the city. We told the tour guide, they can drop us off in Myeongdong.

In Myeongdong, we wanted to go to a cafe for some birthday cake for the birthday boy. We saw a Cat Mascot with a signboard Cat Cafe. We asked the cat to show us where the cafe is. The cat lead us to the cat cafe.

We need to remove our shoes to enter. The Cat Cafe was warm and toasty and there were different breeds of cats there sleeping or just leisurely lying around. Naj and Fynn enjoyed playing with the cats and sometimes chasing them. There is an entrance to the place with a free drink. We got slices of cakes as well.

I would love to stay longer and hang around but we were all so tired already. We brushed out the cat hairs from our clothes, wore our shoes and took a cab back to our hotel.

It was a tiring but exciting day. I hoped my hubby enjoyed his birthday inspite the early morning travel and the heavily-packed day. But those wide smiles and contented eyes when we were playing around the snow with our kids says it all. I am sure he did.

KOREA TRIP DAY 2: LOTTE WORLD

March 21, 2017 by Little Miss Honey 4,519 Comments

We decided to travel free & easy and DIY our trip in Seoul because we are travelling with kids and we don’t want to be restricted by time schedule. I allow my hubby and our kids to sleep in though our 10-months old is an early riser like me. We also think we can save by planning the trip ourselves and heavily research every aspects of the trip. I bought most of the tickets ahead of time for entrances in several places we are going to in Seoul through Klook.

We didn’t get the accommodations with breakfast so in the morning, I went to Starbucks in Insadong to buy our breakfast and some coffee.

We are going to Lotte World for the day. Lotte World is a large indoor theme park inside of a big mall. They also have an outdoor theme park called the “Magic Island”. We opted for Lotte World instead of Everland, another theme park in the outskirts of Seoul, because it’s winter time. Everland can be too cold for the kids. Lotte World is perfect for young kids and it would shelter the kids from the cold weather.

Going to Lotte World, we took the Jonggak Station, which is very near our hotel, to Jamsil Station. The changing of MRT line station got a bit tricky, we were temporary lost and may have ridden the wrong train in one of the swift. But we soon figure out how and we eventually reached Jamsil Station.

The Lotte World ticket cost 52,000 KRW. I got our tickets for 41 SGD. Since our kids are below 3 years old, they have a free pass. Yey, haha!

I presented my Klook Lotte World ticket voucher at the South End gate to get our entrance ticket. We arrived just in time for the Lotte World Parade! It was a very colorful parades with princesses, pretty belly dancers, big intricate floats and a catchy song. It was quite entertaining to watch. We got an ice cream churros to eat while watching the parade. I didn’t like the ice cream churros that much though.

Lotte World indoor theme park has 4 floors and a large skating rink in Basement 3. We roam around the Lotte World to rides that the kids can try and find those rides with shorter queues.

Of course, Naj accompanied by his dad queued up for the Bumper Cars. He loved it so much! Too bad it was over too soon.

We went to Kidstoria and it is the perfect place if you have little kids. You go inside barefoot, so they give you a hotel-thin slippers and a bag for you to put your shoes. The place is a fairy tale land which characters and scenes from familiar storybook stories is lifelike in its large firm foam resemblance. There was the Alice in the Wonderland, Aladdin, Cinderella’s castle and many more. Naj and Fynn enjoyed exploring the place. I didn’t mind Fynn crawling around because everything was in firm foam. But there seem to be a time limit for our stay because when time was up, bell rung and we all have to go out. The disadvantage inside the Lotty’s Kidstoria is that there are no toilet for adults only for little kids. So if I have to go to the ladies’ room, I need to go out, wear my shoes, come back and change again.

We also rode on the Lotty Train that goes around the 1st Floor of Lotte World. My two babies enjoyed it a lot.

We were famished by noontime and we were searching for a place to eat. There are several choices to eat. We serendipitously chose Mr. Pork. We glad we did because we were satisfied with our bento Korean meals. Naj like the soup that came along with it.

We rode the Aeronauts Balloon Ride. It is a ride in a balloon spans that goes around the indoor park. It allows us to view Lotte World from high above. We also rode the World Monorail, a cool ride that zooms around Lotte World as well. J also tried driving on of the simulated trucks. It didn’t look easy at all.

We decided to brave the cold outside and checked out the Magic Island. There was a beautiful lighted castle, perfect for a photo op. We couldn’t get a decent family photo though, haha, using our trusty selfie stick.

We rode a kiddie train in Magic Island and my hubby took the chance of trying the Gyro Drop. It is one of the popular theme park attraction using goggles to give a simulation of a futuristic landscape during the elevation sequence.

We are satisfied with our Lotte World adventure, though I know we haven’t really maximize all the rides and attraction, but maybe next time when we come back. We stopped by the Lotte Mart to buy some Korean snacks and beverages before we headed home.