I’ve
been pretty swamped at work since end-October. See, a colleague had a very bad
case of high blood pressure so much so she collapsed at home. Her family
brought her to a specialist hospital and she was placed in the ICU. She stayed
there for ten days before she was cleared to leave the ICU. She’s still on
medical leave though so my other mate and I have to pick up her workload.
I’d
promised my nieces and nephew that I’d bring them to Legoland and we finally
agreed to go during the school holidays after la
niña finished her SPM papers (yes, how time flies). I booked hotels and had to
change the check-in and check-out dates when we found that the PT3 results
would be released on 14 December 2015. Finally the day came for us to head
south.
Friday, 11 December 2015
We picked up the kids from Akak’s place and left at
08:15. We stopped en route at Pagoh and to use the facilities and Senai for the
kids to change clothes. We arrived at Legoland parking area at 11:45 and made
our way to the Water Park. I had bought the tickets online last Thursday to
take advantage of the advanced ticket price. We went to the changing rooms
first. You can change clothes, have a shower and use the bathroom here. There
are also lockers here, the small ones cost RM20 while the bigger lockers cost
RM40. La niña didn’t want to go on the slides with us so we left our bags with
her at the LEGO Wave Pool before checking out the slides. We tried the Red Rush
first then went over to LEGO Slide Racers. Next we climbed up to Splash &
Swirl (I shared a tube with my younger niece), shared a tube for the Brick
Blaster before going solo on the Wave Rider and Tidal Tube (I prefer the
latter). It was a bit tiring having to wait for an available tube, haul it up
the stairs and queue for your turn.
We then went down to slather on more sunblock and
have a bite. Yes, I went prepared: I brought a mat, sunblock, hats, ponchos,
big brolly, Hypergear dry bag, some snacks and water. I wore my Arsenal away
jersey, a pair of yoga trousers and an old pair of Crocs.
It began to rain at 13:45 and before long, the rain
got heavier. La niña had the idea of covering our bags with the raincoats. We
left our bags under the mesh tent and sought shelter at the big Legoland arch
but the rain was so heavy that we finally had to brave the elements and sought
shelter at Beach N Brick Grill. It was raining cats and dogs with the thunders
and lightning. It must have rained for at least an hour and by the end of it,
there wasn’t a part of me that wasn’t wet.
Finally the rain petered out and we waited to be
given the nod to resume our activities. We then went back to the slides and
tried them all again. We were glad we tried the Red Rush because it was closed
for maintenance when we resumed our activities.
We finally decided to leave after 4 p.m. We went to
the respective changing room. I didn’t change as I didn’t bring a change of
clothes so I spent time drying myself at the dryer. We then met up and exited
the park and headed back to the parking area. I’m not sure why the parking area
was not tarred up, it looked unfinished like the job was left in a hurry.
I had booked a hotel in Gelang Patah, only 9 km away
and we reached it in almost no time.
We drove out to Restoran Yeo Sekeluarga for seafood
dinner that night and returned to the hotel at 10 p.m.
Saturday, 12 December 2015
We had agreed to meet at the lobby at 0730 and I
was the first one there. The girls came down first and the boys staggered down
later. We loaded our bags into the car first then went to an eatery for
breakfast. I had just placed my order when I spotted a small stall selling nasi
lemak, I think it was at Persiaran Nusaria. I had read someone giving a
feedback mentioning this stall so I walked over and bought two packets of nasi
lemak. Everyone said it was good, Alhamdulillah.
We went back to the hotel and went up to use the
bathroom before checking out. Then we drove back to Legoland. I went out first
to queue for the tickets while the rest stayed to park the car and get the
stuff from the car. The queue was blissfully short but the counter staff spent
time attending to queries – good attentive patient customer service there! I
managed to get 35% off the ticket price using my credit card, Alhamdulillah.
We went in and waited to be allowed to participate
in the activities in the park. We headed for Lego Technic first and rode
Project X. I didn’t manage to ride this on my first visit so I was happy to
finally be able to ride it this time. It was deceptively scary but really fun!
That ride was enough to put la niña off though and she refused to ride any more
rides following that. We then hurried over to Lego Kingdom and rode Dragon’s
Apprentice and The Dragon. After that, we walked over to Imagination and Land
of Adventure but Dino Island was under maintenance then so we went over to Lost
Kingdom Adventure. Then we crossed over to Lego City and watched Ninjago at the
Lego City Stage.
It
was very hot and bright when we emerged from Lego City Stage and went to
Miniland. We spent some time there before rushing off back to Lego Studios 4D
at Imagination to watch another show. Oh the welcome relief of air-condition!
As it was almost Zuhur when the show ended, we went to the prayer room at
Imagination to rest and await Zuhur.
After
Zuhur, we queued to ride up the Observation Tower before trying out Kids Power
Tower. Ugh, I really didn’t have the strength to pull myself up. We entered
Land of Adventure again and saw that Dino’s Island was open so we went up.
Thank God it had started drizzling lightly by then so I had an excuse to don my
poncho. I still got somewhat soaked though but not as badly as I would have
been had I not worn the poncho. El niño then tried
out Aquazone Wave Racers alone. We then hurried over to Technic Twister at Lego
Technic. It started raining very heavily so we waited out the rain there. It
was every bit as heavy and long with thunders and lightning like the day
before.
Finally
the rain stopped and we walked to Lego Star Wars Miniland. Then we trudged to Studios
4D at Imagination to catch some shows but when we got there, we were told that
the theatre was already full so we had to turn back. La niña was not happy and left us. We made our way to Lego Kingdom
and queued to ride Dragon’s Apprentice again. After that, I went to find la niña – she was at The Café so we left out bags with her after
appeasing her. The
others wanted to try Boating School and I was dragged into it so we headed
there next. I must say I HATED it. Stupid ride. It looked so easy peasy when
other people do it but our boats got caught, turned directions and I couldn’t
steer it properly to the dock. Stupid, stupid ride. I was pissing mad at the
end of it. I mean, rides are supposed to be fun, right? Not make you go angry
and frustrated. We then wandered and came upon Lego City Airport. This was
a mild ride in comparison but hey, I’d take mild to a stupid frustrating
pointless ride any day.
We left Legoland and headed for the Mall of Medini as
the kids were hungry. I didn’t buy anything but had some of the kids’ fries.
After that, we drove to Johor Bahru as we would be spending two nights there. I
had purposely booked the Grand Bluewave Hotel as it’s quite near the CIQ
Complex.
We didn’t go out for dinner and ordered some food
from the room service. Note: don’t bother. Try find an eatery somewhere
instead.
Sunday, 13 December 2015
We went for breakfast at 0715, yes, very early I
know but I had read that the breakfast spread finishes quickly while
replenishment is slow. The kids and I left at 0830 and walked to the CIQ
Complex. We were lucky to meet a local guy (he’s a Penangite who works in
Singapore) who showed us the way to the CIQ. The immigration process was quick
enough and before long, we had boarded the Causeway Link bus CW2 to Queen
Street in Singapore. The fare was RM3.40 per person.
We got down at Woodlands and joined the immigration
queue. My God, that was the pits. We queued for an hour and our line was the
slowest of them all. What bad luck! We then exited the complex and went down
the escalator to find another CW2 bus. If you get down the escalator, turn back
as that’s where the buses are. The coaches are parked in front of you when you
get down, the buses behind you. Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait long for a CW2.
The ride took only 30 minutes.
We alighted the bus and walked to Bugis MRT. La niña
said we should skip Orchard Road so we bought return tickets to Marina Bay. It cost
SGD1.50/person/trip but SGD11.60 for return trip for four of us so yeah, buy
return tickets when you can. It started drizzling as we exited the station so
we hurried over to The Shoppes to seek shelter. The drizzle didn’t last long
and soon we ventured out again. We had some snacks before going to the ArtScience
Museum. I had spotted a poster advertising Leather Forever exhibition there on
our way back from Helix Bridge. I was pleasantly surprised when the kids agreed
to go too – maybe just to escape the humidity hahaha. As I had thought and
hoped, it was the Hermès Leather Forever exhibition
which I attended in London back in 2012.
After
spending time in Hermès heaven, we re-entered The
Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, took the escalator down to LB2 and trekked to the
Louis Vuitton Series 3 Exhibition which entrance is next to Zara. I had booked
for a guided tour and exhibition tickets (they’re both free but those with
tickets have priority and I didn’t want to take any chances seeing as it was a
Sunday, school holidays have started and there were bound to be many people doing
their Christmas shopping). The kids made faces and grumbled good-naturedly when
I told them in the morning that the exhibition I had told them we would be
going to was the Louis Vuitton Exhibition. They behaved well but I could tell
they were starting to get restless – until the last part of the tour where we received
a poster each and got to choose four stickers. I even took another poster. The exhibition
was about the original Louis Vuitton logo which is now adopted and incorporated
into the brand’s contemporary designs, a brief history of the brand, the origin
of Petite Malle bags and we even went into a room where the actual runway used
for the spring/summer 2015 collection – if I heard it right – was set up.
We then walked back to Marina Bay
station and rode the MRT back to Bugis. From there, we went to Sultan Mosque to
perform prayers. We weren’t happy when we discovered that the female ablution
area is outside the building and we had to come down again from the first floor
(second floor to Americans and Singaporeans) and brave the drizzle to the bathroom
(where the toilets and ablution area are).
After prayers, we crossed the
street and had our late lunch at Singapore Zam Zam. I told the kids that my
parents (their grandparents) and I love the murtabak there so we ordered
chicken murtabak in extra-large size (!) and drinks. And what do you know, it
vanished within ten minutes! I was happy to see them enjoy it as the sisters
are picky eaters.
After our meal, we walked to the
nearby Queen Street and queued up for the bus. We decided to stick to CW2 bus. The
fare was SGD3.40 each but SGD12.9 for the four of us. We had to endure another
queue at Woodlands Immigration but nowhere as long or as painful as this
morning’s queue. We then took the first CW bus back (CW1) after determining it
would stop at the CIQ Complex. We repeated the same process in reverse then
trudged back to the hotel.
I called CT later and asked for
favour to get us dinner. I spent the rest of the evening in the room resting
and watching Arsenal beat Aston Villa. OK, I did doze off sometime in the
second half.
Monday, 14 December 2015
We left our rooms for breakfast at 0720. They changed
the menu slightly from the day before, no complaints from moi. We went back to
our rooms and met again at the lift and went to load the car. La niña came with me to the lobby to check out and we were already out
the lobby door when CT pulled up.
We stopped to fill up and left at 0912. We stopped
en route at el niño’s boarding school to pick up his PT3 results. Syukur Alhamdulillah,
he did well.
We met up with Akak at a roadside restaurant at Ulu
Bendul and had lunch. Then we unloaded the car of the kids’ bags and loaded
Akak’s car and we drove back to KL separately.
Hopefully, there’ll be many more trips with the
kids in future. Those of us without kids of our own have to ‘borrow’ other
people’s kids...
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