Perth Day One To Three

Taking the midnight flight….

It is a 3.5-hour drive to our accomodation for the first three days, and Hubby is our only driver, so we take a break at the biggest free entry playground in Australia!

Apple Fun Park at Donnybrook. It’s a big lovely playground, but so sunny at 9am!

Our home for the next three days is Pemberton Farm Chalets. We choose the four-bedroom chalet as there are seven of us including my parents-in-law. It is spacious and comes with a fully-equipped kitchen. But there is only one bathroom.

It is actually brighter than it looks in the photo

The kids spend most of their time drawing and reading at the dining table since we don’t switch on the tv anyway.

Our 8-seater : )

The farm has animals of course but it is not a working farm, so there are not that many animals.

There is supposed to be a feeding session in the morning, but we didn’t see anyone around when we came out at the stated time. Can feed the animals on our own anytime though.

The chalets shown here are the 2-bedroom ones, right in front of the pasture. Our chalet is more secluded, a few minutes’ stroll away.

On Day 2, we visited the Gloucester Tree.

The Cascades. Nice place but not spectacular…

Lunch at Hidden River Estate Winery

Many sheep outside the winery

The Ngs 😀

We have a very leisurely itinerary, so it’s a good thing the farm has quite a few things to entertain the kids.

Day 3 We took the Pemberton Tram through the forest

Lunch at Lavender and Berry Farm. We choose to dine outdoors to enjoy the scenery while the kids play.

Hmmm, does our trip sound a bit boring so far? Sigh…. ya, indeed it is not very exciting. Anyway I shall do up the posts for the remaining days before I pen down some of my thoughts on the trip.

October Travels

I seem to be saying this very often… Urmm, I am back (again)! So, my previous post was on 29 Sep, I was still ignorant of what was going to happen the very next day…. Hubby suddenly agreed to let the kids and me go to Jakarta to visit my friend! My friend has been staying in Jakarta for the past one year plus, as her husband is working there. And coincidentally her two daughters were having a two-week school break starting from the day which I was flying over… which was just three days later!

Best is, we ended up in Jakarta for two weeks! My friend had already made some plans for the school holidays, so we tagged along. Flew over with Hubby on the same day, and stayed on for six more days after Hubby returned to Singapore.

Flew on the same day as Hubby, but he was on his company-sponsored SQ as he was also going over for work. So it’s just me and the kids on Jetstar!

Came back to Singapore on 17 October…. and on 22 October, we flew off again, this time to Perth with my parents-in-law, a trip we booked two months ago. After ten days in Perth, it’s back to Singapore to prepare for Kor Kor’s sixth birthday party. It was just a simple celebration with family, but still, it’s additional work on top of the daily chores to care for the three kids. Now you know why this blog was soooo quiet. What I am busy with nowadays a day after Kor Kor’s birthday – doing up some photo collages of the Perth trip for my parents-in-law, and my favourite hobby of decluttering and home improvement, heehee. I shall also do up some posts on the Jakarta and Perth trips, hopefully soon! : )

 

Holiday At Redang!

A couple of weeks ago, we made a trip to the Malaysian island of Redang. I suggested this place after reading this blog post.

We booked our coach tickets with Konsortium as recommended by SAys! Happy Mums, and were prepared for the ten-hour journey. Really on the dot, coach departed from Golden Mile at 9.30pm, and dropped us off at the jetty at Terengganu at 7.30am.

The problem was, the ferry transferring us to the Redang Kalong Resort would only leave at 10.30am! There was nobody else around except the souvenir stalls owners, so at first we were not even sure whether we were waiting at the right place. (There were quite a few jetties in the area serving different resorts.)

 

Only one shed for all the passengers… It was very sunny and hot

  

But got souvenir stalls selling interesting cute stuff!

  

Our jetty, which turned out to be NOT beside the shed where we waited

 
 

Refugees…..

  

Finally onboard!

 We knew that this resort was meant more for divers, so we were prepared for it to be basic and simple. We had a seaview quad room, nothing to shout about, it’s similar to the other divers’ resorts I have been to.(yes, I am an Advanced Diver! But no more chance to go diving since kids.)

[Actually, I have an issue with the resort’s claim of “5-star sleeping experience at 1-star price“….. I didn’t feel there was anything 5-star at all.)

 

Where we arrived at the resort

  

Simple beach, quite a long stretch

My favorite part about our 3-night stay here, is that as our room is so close to the beach and the resort is so small, it was very safe to let the kids leave the room and hang out downstairs on their own. (Just for a short while of course, eg when they had finished changing their clothes and I was changing. Not like we adults took a nap in the room and let the kids run loose ok :P)

Sometimes they searched for and stalked the chickens roaming around, sometimes they hung out at the hammocks and sun loungers.

 

My beach boy : )

  

The beach is right in front, but there’s a 1-meter drop

 

Hanging out with cousin in front of the seaview triple rooms

The package includes four meals a day and twice-daily snorkeling. The food was satisfactory and filling. We only went for two snorkeling trips as we preferred to take it easy especially with kids. We spent the whole day outdoors, hardly stepping into our room after stepping out for breakfast around 7.30am. (The kids changed clothes at the balcony outside the room :P)
 

Happy water babies!

 

We brought along a life vest for Meimei and snorkeling sets for the boys. But the resort’s life jacket is actually small enough for her. They also provide snorkeling sets small enough for my skinny 5-year-old and a bit meaty 4-year-old. Need not bring along our own equipment after all! 

They are so brave! Some apprehension at first, then all 3 like bobbing up and down on the sea (except when seawater got into their eyes oops)

This girl is too cool for words….. the small one heehee

Actually, Kor Kor is the only one who really snorkels lah

All in all, it is a relaxing family trip where we get to spend time with my siblings (we played majong every night!) and the cousins get to play together. My kids clocked 33 hours outdoor time over the three days! 

I like that we did not have to waste time waiting or traveling around once we reached the resort. Nothing much to do, not much choices, also means we make do with simple pleasures. But honestly, I would not choose the same place in hindsight. While the 10-hour coach ride was manageable, I couldn’t stand the 3 hours just standing around doing nothing while waiting for our ferry transfer. At least we were comfortable in the coach, with proper seats and aircon. Would I recommend this resort? Only if you manage to find a coach which arrives at the jetty closer to 10am!