Phuket November 2016 - Holiday Inn Resort and Patong Beach.

Why, hello, Blogpsphere! It's been some time since I last posted.

I've been so busy with Adam's primary school shenanigans and also with our parrots. The only times I come in here is to search for past posts of our kids/ memories.

You can catch more of us on my Instagram account, @mumzillaveron.

Anyway, here's one post about our recent weekend Phuket trip.

Vacationing with your children on a weekend is doable!

You don't need annual leave or a lot of $$ to have some family fun.

We're booked to go to Korea in December, but due to some spontaeneous decision, we ended up going to Phuket with my in-laws first. We've visited Phuket with the kids last year (2015) and stayed at Clubmed, and this time we gave Holiday Inn a try.

To my pleasant surprise, Holiday Inn far exceeded my expectations in terms of being kid-friendly, family-centred and clean. My in-laws also enjoyed their stay. Thumbs up! :)

HOLIDAY INN RESORT

Family room with a kids room costs SGD$300 per night.
A normal room with 1 King sized bed or 2 Twin beds costs SGD$160/night.

Our spawns have a joining room connecting to ours so we can be left to our own (adult) devices.

I can finally take use the bathroom without an audience!

KIDS ROOM

Are my kids' room awesome or what! I wanna bunk with them!
Just kidding. Please leave me alone.

There's even a treasure chest with toys. Very pirate-themed to the max.

Kiddy toiletries - they really pay attention to the details :)

Adam's favourite Big Boy activity - gaming.

KIDS CLUB

At Kids Club, where you can park your children, from 9am - 5pm daily.
There are extended hours on certain days, so you can plan your adult activities.

Children below 5 need an accompanying adult, which is the only disadvantage if you are planning some snorkelling/ diving trip and you have a child below 5yo.

SWIMMING POOLS 

There are 2 children pools beside the Kids Club and 1 adult pool.

PATONG BEACH

 is just a stone's throwaway from Holiday Inn.

In contrast with Singapore's erratic, mostly wet weather, Phuket is just heavenly.

  Don't spend your weekdays waiting for the weekends, because your time is now.

There is no better time than now to be silly, be crazy, be yourself, and be happy!

Hope you enjoyed the photos.

Will upload the rest when I have time :)

{Travel Tuesday} Roadtrip to Queensland, Australia. PART 1.

PART 1: Getting from Brisbane Airport to Sunshine Coast, then to Gold Coast.

Free-and-easy road trip. 

source

In 2015, for the Jubilee long weekend in August National Day, our family flew to Queensland for a holiday.

We travelled to many places in 2015 because that is the last time we can jet off on a whim before Adam starts Primary school.

This trip is super backdated because I had made the photos into a coffee-table album and didn't have the energy to repeat another story about it!

Until now that is!

As for most flights with the kids, we took the redeye flight and landed in Brisbane in their morning.

The minute we touched down at Brisbane airport, we could feel the chilly winds on our skin and we had to quickly layer up with our parkas and bomber jackets.

Once we settled our car rental, we drove to PYO (pick-your-own) Strawberry Fields in Sunshine Coast, Qlds.

Our itinerary was to drive from Sunshine Coast to Gold Coast.

*In order not to make a wasted trip, please check out their website for the season!

PYO Strawberry Fields:133 Laxton Rd
Palmview, QLD, 4553
Exit 190 off Bruce Highway.

 It was a HUGE farm which wasn't populated. In fact, there were only a couple more families besides ours.

Lots of opportunities to pick big, juicy strawberries without bumping into others.

March school holidays: Angry Birds Activity Park in Johor Bahru.

Started the March holidays with a jam. Literally.

We were stuck at the Johor customs for 5 hours. ZOMG.

Due to bad planning on my part, I had initially thought that we could set off at 0830am and still make it in time for a full day at Legoland, because being a Saturday, I assumed most people would have already driven in from Friday.

Obviously, thousands of other JB-goers also thought the same I did, and so we were stuck in a 5-hour jam.

By the time we reached JB, it was already 3pm so we changed plans and went to Angry Birds Activity Park instead, since we have never been there before.

Angry Birds Activity Park

Level 3, KOMTAR JBCC,
Johor Bahru City Centre,
80000 Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

Opening hours: 10AM - 10PM daily, with several timings of 1-hour closure.

The indoor park covers 26,000 sq.ft. and is strategically located in the premises of KOMTAR JBCC, Johor Bahru City Centre's newest premier shopping, dining and entertainment destination.

They are having a March holiday promotion now. FREE ice-cream cone, meal voucher and 6R family photo with every ticket purchased.

Senior citizens aged 60 and above enter free.

We bought the family package for 2 adults, 2 kids for RM$280 (less than $95 SGD per family).

During their 1 hour closure from 5-6pm, we went for our meal with the free vouchers and went to select our family photo for printing.

When the Flock members re-opened the park, we went in again for our second round.

Parents also can play!

Hubby challenged me to play this jumping activity and I chickened out last minute.

So he had no choice but to go first HAHAHAHA.

*this is for children aged 10 and above.

He assured me it was fun and not scary at all (if you are at the top and look down, it actually looks scary and higher than it is!!!!) and forced me to JUMP!!!

The feeling like wanna commit suicide!

Our free 6R photo came with soft-copy also which you can scan into your Wechat.

 We then ended the day with a scrumptious seafood dinner at Taman Sentosa.

This is our favourite seafood place and the stall we frequent is still around. In fact, all the shops in the area also didn't change!

Their signature dish is the butter crayfish.

Overall, a great outing for us despite the last minute change of plans due to massive jam.

Despite being not-so-new, it was our first time there and glad the kids enjoyed themselves.

With the March holidays promotion, it is very worth it!