Celebrating New year - Far east style!
Family friendly vacationing at Kuala Lumpur and Singapore
Pre-departure planning
Having lived in India all my life, I have always dreamt of watching
New Year fireworks in close proximity ever since I was a kiddo. But I never
could realize my wish until I had a baby of my own. One reason – such grandiose
displays of light, colors and sound almost always happens in distant foreign
land. And my teeny weeny wallet never permitted such expensive pursuits. My
parents are simple folks (read Indian middle class folks) who preferred saving
and spending money for our education rather than on such silly wasteful
interests like travelling (meh!). But the gen Y people as we are, had other
aspirations in life. With more stable jobs and better paychecks, we like to
believe, the future will take care of itself as long as you acquire enough life
experiences – even if it meant zero savings at the end of year.
And so it was decided. An international destination for this
year’s New Year vacation. My hubby was more than happy to delegate the trip
planning all to myself and pitching in to provide only his unparalleled wisdom
and approvals as and when required. (Lead Engineer as he is at work...)
After burying myself in millions of posts from Tripadvisor
to Lonely planet and Booking.com to Agoda.com and having my spam folder
requiring a purge every few days due to unending suggestions from travel
websites from around the world, the verdict was made. Malaysia – Singapore! Yaayy!!
Toddler friendly itinerary
This being the first international trip for my then 3 ½ year
old son, Malaysia & Singapore seemed to be an easier option considering we
are not moving across too many time zones and getting jet-lagged (look at me
using such fancy words!!!). We also wanted to keep the itinerary light
considering my little one. So it was going to be only Kuala Lumpur and
Singapore.
The preparations
Promptly flight bookings and hotel reservations were made.
Even though Kuala Lumpur and Singapore sounds like very similar places for the
untrained Indian ears, there is a sea of difference between the two. Firstly,
the hotel rents - You can get an awesome spacious room with all facilities with
great views overlooking the Petronas twin towers in a 4 star Hotel for INR 3200
per night, if you plan well in advance. But you will get only a cramped hotel
room in a barely 3 star hotel even if you are willing to shell out INR 5000 per
night. So is the cost of everything else.
I am going to skip the part where our passports almost got
drowned during the great Chennai floods of 2016 and barely got the visa stamped
in time for us to board the flights. Huge sigh!!
Flight to Kuala Lumpur
After taking the customary in-flight family selfies, we flew
uneventfully to KL (I am already talking like a native of Kuala Lumpur..
phew!!! ). Mind you, it was my son’s first international trip. His first words
after landing in KL, “Woooow.. So many peoples!!!”. He somehow thought adding
the ‘s’ to people made it sound much larger since the airport was overflowing
with people. We followed the sea of people getting out of the flight to figure
out where the exit was – we realized we had to take an Aerotrain to move
between terminals! A taxi ride later and after absorbing the sights and sound
of KL during the wee hours of the day, we reached our hotel – Concorde, KualaLumpur. A point to note, almost all the cabbies in KL are Indians and can
converse in Tamil. And there are n number of taxi services at the beck and call
of people. The maximum we spent was 17 Ringgits for our trip to Batu caves!
The hotel was all decked up in the light of Christmas and
was a total feast to the eyes. It was a kid’s wonderland – with Santa toys and
Ginger bread man and Xmas tree and so on.
Day 1
The mandatory sight-seeing
We started our site seeing from the next day. KL City Center
AKA KLCC is a one stop shop for most tourist attractions. Being a civil
engineer myself, any monumental construction work of grandeur takes my breath
away. That was exactly what I felt when looking at the Petronas twin towers up
close. 88 floors of sheer awe!
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| Towering beauty |
Next stop, KLCC Aquarium, comparatively small,
nevertheless my son had a whale of time ( pun intended! ) playing with star
fish, sea cucumbers first hand.
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| Wondering where they all go - at KLCC aquarium |
Day 2
Food for the soul and senses
Day 2 saw us going to the Batu caves – a must see for both
religious and the non-religious alike. The 2nd largest statue for
Hindu deity in the world, the gold painted Lord Muruga’s statue stands tall at
140 ft is sure to bring the religious fervor in most Hindus.
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| Racing pigeons at Batu caves |
There is also cave exploration activities that happen in Batu caves which we had to give a miss
because of the little one. We then headed to KL bird park which is the world’s
largest free-flight walk-in aviary. In layman terms, there are no cages, in
most cases and we get to see the birds in their natural habitats. They also
host bird shows which entertains both the kids and adults alike.
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| Posing with the birds at Bird park |
After a tiring
day, we hit the China town and burnt a reasonably small hole in the pocket.
This place needs at least 2 hours of undivided attention for the shopaholics
out there. Rain played spoil sport and we had to find the shelter of a cab. But
that did not deter us and we had one more place to see before we called it a
day. We went to Bukit Bintang which is the high end commercial district of KL.
Everywhere you turn, you would see outlets of expensive international brands
which we couldn't afford and so we went straight to a mall – Pavilion KL. After a
sumptuous meal of Satays and Breads and Noodle soups, we came to the end of the
day.
Day 3
Bye bye Kl - Hello Singapore
Our last day at KL saw us lazing around in the neighborhood
and taking a few pictures here and there. After a short flight, we reached the
little red dot – Singapore! Since it was December, we were welcome everywhere
by short spells of rain. But it never came in way of our sight-seeing. As soon
as we reached our hotel, Parc Soverign Tyrwhitt, we dumped our bags and
ventured out for some Singaporean gastronomic indulgence. And what best place
than the food courts or hawker centers where you can get anything from satays
to chicken rice and laksa to chilli crab. And these are competitively priced
too. You can get a normal meal for a person for SGD 5 on average. With more
than full tummies, we headed to Clarke Quay. This quay is located upstream the
Singapore river and cruises which takes you along the key attractions of
Singapore are offered here. Once on the river cruise, my little one was so
excited when he spotted ‘the white lion statue’ aka the Merlion statue which is
said to be the personification of Singapore. How I wish I had 360 degree
vision! There was just so much to see – Marina Bay Sands, Esplanade – Theatres
on the Bays and all the other sky scrapers around the Singapore river.
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| Marina Bay Sands in all its glory |
I just
wanted to stay in the cruise forever. And with that, we took a bus back to the
hotel to get the much needed sleep. When in Singapore, travelling in bus and
metro is easy and economical. All you need is Google map and basic sense of
direction.
Day 4
Aquatic adventure at Sentosa
Come next morning, we were heading to the much talked about
Sentosa. We bought all our attractions tickets from the local travel agents who
give discounts for package deals. And these tickets are quite flexible in that
they have a 3 months expiry period. Having picked all the locations that are
toddler friendly, we ensured that our little one was well entertained
throughout the trip. Sentosa is an island resort which houses lot of attractions for people of all age groups and preferences. Out of the many ways to reach Sentosa – driving, board
walk, Sentosa express or cable car – we chose Sentosa express. Having a water
baby for husband, our first pick of the day was Adventure Cove Waterpark in
Sentosa. LO and I were content in waddling in Seahorse hideaway (kids pool),
Bluewater bay (wave pool), Big bucket treehouse and Adventure river (lazy river).
We had a whale of time (pun intended!) spotting sting rays in the latter. The
hubby preferred to go for much more adventurous rides like Pipeline plunge or
Rainbow reef where he had his first snorkeling experience. After a draining
first half, we visited the Maritime experiential museum which greets you with a
glimpse of Asia’s maritime heritage. This led us to our next stop, the most
awaited and much acclaimed S.E.A aquarium. It actually felt like going under
water, swimming from ocean to ocean and observing the different flora and fauna
of the underwater world. Magical at times and mind-blowing at times, it’s a
piece of aquatic wonder. But the piece-de-resistance is the Open Ocean. It’s a
panoramic array of Manta Rays, Leopard Sharks, Saw fish and so on, that just
moves across your vision in never ending fluid motion. It just makes you feel
puny. Talk about grand scheme of things! By then we were way too loaded to do
or see any more for the day. A long walk along the board walk to main land
brought our day to closure.
Day 5
Family fun at Sentosa
| Spice Garden en route to Kandy |
| Spice Garden en route to Kandy |
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| Yeah! That's Vin Diesel, alright! (or is it his wax model ;) ) |
There were plenty of
options to fill our stomach as well but the cost is quite dear. Since it was
the holiday season, most places are open till about 9 PM, which gave us plenty
of time to check out all attractions. Another pointer for those who don’t want
to wait for endless hours in long queues, is to buy the express passes
available at various counters there. This means little waiting for most of the
rides. ( A few rides are not included in this, though)
Day 6
New year’s eve
Come morning, it was New year’s eve and we headed straight
to Singapore Zoo. Be prepared for a long walk if you are not taking the tram. Protecting
animals in their near-natural habitat is clearly the way to go rather than locking
them up in cells like in most other places. After watching a streak of tigers
pouncing on their breakfast meat, we found ourselves gaping at the polar bears
in the climate controlled Tundra area. My son was so excited to watch the
Animal Friends show. One metro ride later we reached Gardens by the Bay. The
Supertree Grove looked straight out of a sci-fi fantasy story book with its
tall branches lit up in various hues dancing to a tune of its own. The flower
dome is the world’s largest green house with flora from all round the world and
I was immediately reminded of the words of William Wordsworth:
Continuous
as the stars that shine
And
twinkle on the milky way,
They
stretched in never-ending line
Along
the margin of a bay:
Ten
thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing
their heads in sprightly dance.
Eventhough, it was not just Daffodils that I saw. Having
absorbed all the floral glory as possible, we moved to the Cloud forest – an
artificial indoor mountain with a fully functional world’s largest indoor
waterfall. Sounds surreal, isn’t it? That is exactly what I felt when I climbed
one level after another. And there is more, it gets misty and the temperature
and humidity control would make you feel exactly how you would atop a mountain
in a rain forest. And there is all kind of flora that are normally found on such
cloud forests.
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| Cloud forest! within a glass building! |
We left the place with a lesson in environment conservation that
how such places are fast disappearing due to unplanned human activities.
The air was full of excitement as the new year was just a
few hours away. People were already occupying the various vantage points to get
the best view of the New year fireworks. We found ours along the promenade and
hubby being a shutterbug started setting up his tripod along with other similar
souls to get the perfect new year click. Few minutes before the onset of new
year, we were treated to a kaleidoscopic display of lights and projection on
the buildings across the Singapore river. Just when we thought it couldn’t get
any better, the sky seemed to open and gave us a glimpse of what lay on the
other side (if ever there was another side to the sky!). Fireworks impeccably
orchestrated seems to occupy every inch of visible sky. Thunderous sound
accompanied by unimaginable colors and patterns announced the arrival of the
new year – 2016. Straining our neck every bit possible, we tried to absorb it
all. This was easily one of the most overwhelming moments in our lives.
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| Worth all the wait! |
Day 7
The return to normal lives
Next day morning, we found time for some much needed
shopping therapy in China town and Mustaffa center. The Mustaffa center
deserves a full day if you are shopaholic and are keen on buying souvenirs for
everyone back home.
Flight back home
With heavier bags and
fuller hearts, we boarded the flight back home. This sure is one of our best New
Year memories yet!
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| The destination family picture |
Super Prameena 💗
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