We managed to bring the boys to several places of interest while we were in Singapore. My sisters and their children came along too, and that had definitely made the whole trip more interesting.

Sentosa Island was one of the places that we went to visit.  I have not been there for ages.  The whole place has changed and improved so much.  I was really impressed. My sister and her family booked a room at one of the resorts on the island and invited us along to enjoy the many facilites the resort offered.  There was a wonderful play area for the kids with water slide and shallow pool — perfect for our children!  They had an absolute blast playing at the pool area.

They never once complained they were tired or hungry even when nap time was over due and meal time was long over due.  They just played and played …. It was fun to watch them, I have to say.  Calvin played really well with his cousins and so did Athan — although this little fellow was with his dad most of the time.  He did not want to be held — he wanted to walk around the pool all by himself.  When he fell, he picked himself up again — he was not bothered by the water getting into his face at all.

We visited the underwater world while we were at Sentosa.  The kids get to touch some fishes and we saw some amazing collection of underwater creatures.  Guess what?  It was back to the pool after seeing the fishes! 🙂

The Singapore zoo was another very enjoyable place that we went to.  They now have a children’s play area where there’s water play, baby animals and pony ride!

It was difficult to see ALL the animals because of the children (and the heat).  However, we managed to squeeze into a couple of animal shows that were very entertaining.  We even took the mono-rail to get a little tour around the zoo.  The surroundings of zoo was very well maintained and inviting.  It was very well designed, I would say.  They let the orang utans loose in that these animals were not enclosed in cages, rather they were free to swing from tree to tree and walk on ropes over our heads! One could even take pictures with these creatures for a small fee. In fact, a number of animals were not enclosed in cages.  Visitors could actually go up close and personal with them — with the zoo keeper around, of course. I think visitors to Singapore, especially those with young children should visit the zoo.  I am sure they will enjoy it.  We certainly did.

We went to the Jurong Bird Park too.  I remembered my dad used to bring us to the bird park and zoo quite often when we were very young.  The bird park was my favourite.  I have to confess that I did not like the zoo when I was young.  I remembered the zoo to be *smelly* and we had to walk for long distances to see the animals!  Everything has changed now  — the zoo has many shelters and nice walking paths and *ahem* it doesn’t smell! 🙂

Anyway.

The bird park was a nice place to visit.  I still enjoyed it when we visited this time round.  The open aviary was so much more attractive now.  The landscape was beautifully maintained, the species of birds were amazing and, yes, the waterfall was still there!  I remembered I loved the waterfall the best as a kid.

We did not manage to see many species of birds as we hoped to mainly because of the children.  They were tired and sweaty and … well, this is life with young children.  The kids love the penguins.  Not only was the penguin area cool, but the whole penguin community congregating together was very amusing to them! We also went into the dark room where we saw giant owls and many other night species.  Calvin as a little afraid of the sight of the birds as some of them were really fierce looking.  But he acted brave because his cousins were not scared! :)  As for Mr Athan, he was enjoying a snooze in the stroller the whole time.

Robin and I took turns to carry Athan when he refused to sit nicely in his stroller.  Calvin would take the chance to be pushed around whenever he saw the empty stroller!

Athan was quite well behaved during our outings, I would say.  We wished he could sit nicely in his stroller all the time, but he has his own mind.  He is older now and he wanted to join his brother and cousins walking around the park and having fun. I don’t blame him.

Calvin had a good time with his cousins.  It made all the walking around so much more fun for him.  I really believe that if his cousins were not with us, he would have given up on walking long ago!  He would surely want one of us to carry him around.  Here’s Calvin with his cousins:

It is a very different experience when going on such long outings with young children.  We can’t expect them to be angels all the time.  It is when we do not expect too much out of them that we get to enjoy the outing too. In fact, I would say that the presence of the children has made our outings much more enjoyable and fun.

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