Perth, Western Australia (May 2018)

JJ in PER (31st May – 5th Jun 2018)

Type: Free & Easy (Self Drive)

Day -1

Daddy J comes in with the usual “LIGHTS-OUT-kids-please-sleep-since-you-have-a-long-day-ahead-tomorrow-no-story-time-tonight” yadda yadda; and we try hard to fall asleep, thinking what movies might be screening in the IFE tomorrow (hopefully no more Frozen or Peppa Pig, though Paw Patrol, PJ Masks or Ninjago would be fun) and soon dozing off with Mommy Koa and Elsa.

Day1 – Caversham Wildlife Park

We arrive on time in PER and remember the Q at immigration builds up very quickly given the short interval between SQ213 and MH flight. We clear immigration in a jiffy and get the go ahead to clear customs without the cute little beagle sniffing our bags this time. Onward to the car rental counter (this time we opted to go with Enterprise* whose counter was located at the far right end of the terminal in the car park as we were exiting the secondary clearance area).

*Good thing Daddy bought a separate insurance cover from Rental Cover as we did encounter bit of an incident towards the end of our trip! We were so scared! See write up here.

It was a relatively quick(er) process versus the more-than-an-hour-wait at Hertz the previous trip and soon we were all strapped in and headed to Caversham!

Day2 – Perth Hop On/Hop Off (Perth Explorer Bus)

We get up early (surprising how JJ get up early during holidays!) and head down for breakkie (free breakkie for HH Gold. See separate write up on HH Gold fast-track. We also got upgraded to a family suite this time!).

We then drive to Murray Street and park somewhere in between ‘The Explorer Stops 2 and 6″ (refer below map) since we want to take the bus only around the City to Northbridge, onward to Optus Stadium, Crown Casino (where we pitstop for Macker’s hash browns!) and alight at Perth Mint – this circuit takes only 20 mins tops. We alight outside the Perth Mint and walk 5mins back to the car neatly parked on Murray.

Refer to the Perth Explorer Website for latest routes and timing (Map/photo credit to Perth Explorer).

We end the day with the welcome drinks…

[Disclaimer: Kids did not partake of any alcoholic beverage(s), its just one of the signs of cranky and tired kids after a long day out!]

Day3 – Cicerello’s @ Freo

Voted by the JJ Twins as #1 Fish and Chips in Australia 🙂

Very kid-friendly as they have lotsa crayons and colouring pages to keep the kids occupied while waiting for the food!

(yummy chilly mussels!)

Day4 – Busselton Jetty

After breakkie we make our way down south towards Busselton, past Bunbury.

All in we take about 2 hours for a leisurely drive on Freeway South.

Highlight here was the train ride towards the ocean along the Longest Jetty in the Southern Hemisphere.

There’s an Ocean Observatory at the end (10min train ride, which you need tickets for! Make sure you pre-book it lest you wait an hour or two for next available slots). Caution if you are rushing to the Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse (about 1.5hrs further down south-west from Busselton) you really need to prebook the train ride.

After grabbing some Jester’s Pie (yum!), we rush off towards the Lighthouse at Naturaliste (past Dunsborough).

Unfortunately we arrived just past 5pm where the last tour had departured. Fortunately the groundskeeper was kind enough to allow us to our self-guided walk around the vicinity!

We hurried off just before 6, as the final few cars to roll out of the car park, with the sunset behind us and make our way back to Perth City. Needless to say kids (including Daddy J and Mummy J) were super exhausted by the time we arrived back at the hotel…

Day5 – Swan Valley/Mini Golf

After an exhausting day the day before, we decide to take the day slow.

We went on the Perth Explorer Bus again, then drove north to the Margaret River Chocolate Factory @ Swan Valley (30min) [not to be mistaken with the original Margaret River Chocolate Company in Margaret River (3 hours drive down south).

After stuffing ourselves silly with choc and ice-cream, we decided to head over to X-treme Ice Rink at Mirabooka to burn it off with ice-skating (we had prebook family passes from Groupon the night before).

Ice Skating at X-treme Ice, Mirabooka

Day6 – Perth Carnival Fever!

While at Westfield Carousell the day before, we noticed a carnival going on at the Showgrounds Claremont.

Did some check over the internet and found tix which we then bought. Everyone loves a carnival! 🙂

The even had a petting zoo with small farm animals (Old MacDonald’s petting zoo!)…

Face Painting for the girls…

And more rides!!!

Summary of May 2018 Perth Accommodation:

We were at the Hilton Parmelia Perth this time. It was on par with the Pan Pacific Perth we stayed at the year before but note that parking at the Parmelia is by valet only and costs AUD$50/night. We found it obviously more cost effective to go with the street parking. Note that there are also strict timings by when you need to observe clearway (strictly no stopping), and maximum duration allowable (1P denoting 1-hour/2P for example is for 2 hours).

Honors Flash Sale Pricing:

Price breakdown

Room price AU$695.50

5 nights: AU$139.10 /night including taxes

Total AU$695.50

March 11, 2018December 27, 2020

Bali, Indonesia (Feb 2018)

JJ in DPS 12th – 17th Feb 2018

Type: Camping in the hotel over CNY.

SQ946 departs Changi on time and arrives shortly into to DPS at 1946hrs.

Clearance was smooth and soon we were in the arrival terminal.

It was good to be back in Bali since Daddy and Mummy had been there previously and were hoping to bring the kids to the beach there one day. This was that ‘one’ day we had talked about previously. Couldn’t help however but notice the heat as we go out to the arrival area as we were greeted by our driver who would be bringing us to the hotel.

Traffic was not a concern at that hour and soon we were at the beautiful hotel grounds (couldn’t really take in the sights until the next day when we were finally able to explore the sprawling grounds!).

Photo credits Hilton Bali*

*Note this property was previously the Grand Nikko Bali till circa May2016 when it was acquired by and rebranded to the Hilton group.

Kids as usual lose no time in taking photos while Daddy J checks us in.

We get upgraded to a family room (with bunk beds and pool view).

I think we could have stayed in the room all day with the kids super excited about the double-decked bunks, climbing up and down, and (almost fighting) about who would get the top bunk. We finally agreed with alternating J1 and J2 every subsequent night 🙂

Got up to a nice breakfast the next morning post which we spent some time exploring the grounds. It was a huge hotel, with multiple pools (i think 4 spread across the site).

First stop of course was the Kids Club which we had read a lot about (2 levels – top floor with foosball, game consoles, board games, first floor with an outdoor and indoor area; the outdoor houses a wooden-decked playground, sandpit, rock-wall, trampoline and the indoor with a kids activity area*).

*The Kids Club runs multiple kids’ activities throughout the day – and even offers parents the opportunity to ‘drop’ your kids and optional kids’ lunch and dinner menus.

After couple of rounds on the foosball table, we decided to hit the beach!

Jon tries his hands (and legs) at rock-climbing the next day (part of the fixed-timing activities).

Kudos to the staff who were very helpful and supportive the whole time!

At the beach, we catch some hermit crabs… yummy (just kidding!). No crabs were hurt in the process!

We got a nice invite to attend the Manager’s Welcome Drinks Session the next day, which we happily accepted.

Had some nice canapés sipping Pina Colada and the Blue Fizzy drink by the pool after which we went for our own Chinese New Year Reunion dinner.

Part of the 5 most memorable experiences from the kids were ‘Drinking the Blue Drink by the Pool!*”

5 Best things about this trip (according to J Twins!) in cascading order.

5. Sipping Blue Fizz by the Pool!
4. Spending time with Daddy and Mummy!
3. Kids Club!
2. Beach!
1. Bunk beds!

Camel Feeding – also part of the Kids’ Club activities.

Overall, the 5 days here passed by swiftly! We had alternated between the following as part of our daily routine:

Breakfast – Kids’ Club – Beach/Pool – Nusa Dua Collection (10min shuttle bus ride away for lunch and shopping) – Beach/Pool… we also found some time towards the end for tennis with the kids!

Soon it was time to bid farewell to Bali.

Jo zooms off with the potter on the trolley back to the Lobby where Daddy J checks us out while we feed the kois in the pond around the lobby/foyer area.

Given our flight back home was early on Saturday morning (17th Feb), part of the plan was to relocate to Hilton Garden Inn (situated right next to the Denpasar airport!) which we transferred to after checkout on Friday. From here, it was a 5min Blue Bird taxi ride to Kuta Mall!

December 30, 2017June 22, 2019

Seoul, Korea (Dec 2017)

JJ in ICN (22nd -27th Dec 2017)

Type: Private Free and Easy Tour

Aunt J decides we will go on a private tour this time as it would be our 3rd trip to Korea. in our 1st Korea (packaged tour to Seoul/Jeju Island) trip in 2015, we met our then tour guide Mr S. Park, a very nice fatherly chap whose contact we had kept… until now. Though we had been back to Seoul a year after (2014), we went on our little own Free & Easy Trip (alternating between Lotte World and frolicking around Myeongdong for food and fashion!).

I’m attaching the itinerary here for your info, please send me an email if you’d like to learn more and we will be happy to share the contact of Mr S with you.

Day -1
Daddy J comes in with the usual “LIGHTS-OUT-kids-please-sleep-since-you-have-a-long-day-ahead-tomorrow-no-story-time-tonight” yadda yadda; and we try hard to fall asleep, thinking what movies might be screening in the IFE tomorrow (hopefully no more Frozen or Peppa Pig, though Paw Patrol, PJ Masks or Ninjago would be fun) and soon dozing off with Mommy Koa and Elsa.

Day1
We wake up at 5am, get dressed pronto and make our way to the airport to catch our ride to Seoul. We ALWAYS make it a point to go early to the airport – the Holiday really does start at the airport itself! With so much to do at literally the world’s best airport, Changi continues to impress.

Soon we’re airborne on KE648 bound for Incheon!
Kids waste no time on the in flight entertainment but can only last so long and fall asleep soon after.

Arriving at our hotel for the next few days…

Day2 – Gyeongbukgung Palace, Insadong

Annyeong haseyo Uncle S!

Uncle (Mr) S meets us right after breakkie and we load up into his MPV and off we go to Gyeongbukgung Palace and National Folk Museum (oh and we pass by the Blue House* en route)

*Daddy J asks us a riddle – “If the green house is on the left, and the red on the right, where are the white and blue houses? In Washington and Seoul of course!!

We get off the MPV and make a short stroll to the outer court of the Palace where a procession takes place. It was freezing cold but Mummy J whips out some hand and feet warmers which she quickly tucks into our pockets. We didn’t quite like the racket although it was fun to see the colourful traditional hanboks. T2 and T1 lose no time taking some pix with Grandma J, Aunt J and Mummy J.

We walk through the Palace grounds which house some traditional looking cottages and were impressed at how closely these replicas might have resembled the original look and feel of the palace and living quarters.

We find some pinecones and continue walking till we come to a the stone zodiac statues. TJT pose with the dragon symbolising the chinese zodiac of their birth year. Soon it gets cold again for us so we run inside the folk museum building to escape the cold (although momentarily!) and to take some shots with Soohorang and Bandabi-nim to commemorate the upcoming 2018 Seoul Winter Olympics!

Soon we head back out to meet our guide Mr S and take some funky pix on the way before hopping into the MPV for what i recall a 5-10min ride to Insadong.

At the end of the way – The J Twins were just so beat we dozed off on the way back to the hotel…

Day3 – Everland

Was raining cats and dogs all day. Despite the ponchos Mr S prepped for us we pretty much had to stay indoors at the cafe having extended breakfast, lunch and tea, eating sweets, choc, burrowing our heads in the map, taking pix, and more pix.

Oh for the record, Aunt J actually found a lost baby and returned her to the info desk to very VERY concerned and grateful parents. WELL DONE and HIP HIP HOORAY for Gugu J!

A blessing in disguise – because of all the rain, it started to snow as we were leaving the park! OK, maybe not so much snow, just flakes… but still good enough for us equatorial dwellers.

We end the day with another one of our chicken parties – WHAT is a visit to Korea without Kyo Chon???

Day4 – Christmas @ Lotte World!

“Today is best day ever because today is (not moving day – adapted from one of our favourite movies – HOME! but)… Christmas!”

What better way than to spend this day (not with your toys! – separate section) but with your favourite people at Lotte World!

This would be our 3rd time to Lotte – the first 2 years we spent more time at Pororro Park (situated inside Lotte) but this time TJT mutually agreed in one accord (this seldom happens) that they were getting a tad too old for this ‘park’. Daddy J quickly welcomed the idea since he didn’t need to pay extra to go visit Pororro in his abode again!

The J Twins lurveee rides and meats!

At the end of the day, Mr S drives us to our Christmas Dinner reservation Texas de Brazil @ Seocho-gu. By this time, we were so hungry we could literally have eaten a horse each!

The Churrascaria was a great choice since they had a great salad bar (even though you don’t really need that in a meat bar!) and all-the-meat-you-can-eat! T2 signalling with his green chip for MORE meat! Literally, no horse run. Neither was there horse meat. Seriously.

Way to go Mutton!

Day5 – Nami Island and Petit France

Off we go with Mr S who drives us about an hour to get to the pier where we would get on a ferry to Nami Island.

Miss Singapore T1 poses with the Singapore Flag.

A lot more snow on the other side – The J Twins go sledding.

Daddy J “There’s more snow over here kids. Beware of black ice!”

TJT “Daddy don’t eat the yellow ice”

TJT are TRUE Vegetable champions!

Day 6 – Myeongdong and Paju Premium Outlet

More shopping before we finally bid farewell to Seoul. Until we meet again!

Farewell Seoul – we had a blast. Checkout our awesome JTJ moves.

July 8, 2017July 11, 2019

Perth, Western Australia (May/Jun 2017)

JJ in PER (29th May – 2nd Jun 2017)

Type: Free & Easy (Self Drive)

The JJ kids are up early this morning as we scurry to get ready for our flight! We catch some quick shut-eye on the way to the airport but nothing’s stopping us from posing for the cam at T3!

The J Twins posing with Mummy Koa (who’s headed back to Aussieland) and Elsa.

It wasn’t long before we hop onto to plane.

Daddy says its 5 hours to get to PER, but…

JJ: How long is that Daddy?

Daddy J: Thats the equivalent to 2 runs of Frozen kids… you can watch it twice, or once and have a little shut eye after your CHML before we get in.

How’dy Mate! Sure enough we soon land in Western Australia, the new Aussie Sunshine State (with officially more hours of light that Queensland, with an annual average of 8.8hours of sunshine/day). Anyways… we disembark, and make our way to the immigration clearance. Wow, the queue builds up really quickly, we think there was another flight (guessing its MH) which arrives into the gate within minutes from ours.

No trouble… we clear immigration after a 20-min-ish Q without any hassle, pick up our bags, and our Kiddy-booster seats.

Note Australia has stringent legal requirements on child seats – Disclaimer on below requirements. Please CHECK the current legislations and latest requirements online via www.transport.wa.gov.au for Western Australia (RTA for New South Wales), or log on to the AusGov Roads and Transport Authority site since different AU states have different local governing bodies which manage licensing and regulations within their jurisdiction – https://www.australia.gov.au/information-and-services/transport-and-regional/roads-and-road-transport/authorities

What we had when we were there though we noted as below:

< 6M – Babies less than 6 months need to be put in an approved rear-facing seat (baby capsule or convertible child car seat)
6M – 6Y – Toddlers in this age bracket to be in a forward-facing child seat with inbuilt harness.
Kids > 145cm in height can use the regular fitted seat-belts.

After collecting our bags we were randomly selected for a secondary customs inspection where we were instructed to stand still in a line when Mr-Customs-Officer a cute waggly beagle comes along to sniff our bags. He takes a little extra sniff on ours maybe because of Rex’s scent but then trods along soon enough. Too bad we couldn’t snap pix… he was really adorable.

When we get out the sliding doors, we make a left turn towards the car rental desks. Daddy told us to wait as he queued at the yellow Hertz‘s counter with what appeared to be like 5 others folks ahead of him. And boy did we wait. We found out subsequently there was only 1 guy on shift that day, and was probably out at lunch. Daddy must have been in Q > an hour since during this time we had gotten his Aussie Optus SIM card from the local telco store, and had bought us a quick something to eat and drink while Mummy stood in line on his behalf! FINALLY we get our keys, Daddy manages to secure our trusty Safe’n’Sound seats into the rental and on we go all strapped up and ready to rock’n’roll! Despite the multiple delays we have every reason to smile from ear to ear!

We make our way to Caversham Wildlife Park in Swan Valley to see our favourite Aussie marsupials.

For the record – Jiejie (T1) was so tired (she’d refuse to sleep on the flight – ended up maxing out 2 movies with the endless request for more snacks and OJ) she falls asleep on Mummy’s lap for most of what we recall at Caversham. Daddy hurries around with Jon to see the other animals (we tried tirelessly to track the croc but only find a measly baby hidden behind some shrubs in the enslosure but were happy to find the family of baby penguins happily swimming away). That of course was after the standard Koala and Kangaroo trail.

Funnily though when we were about to leave, Jo wakes up feeling all fresh! *we remember Daddy nagging away about us having enough sleep before the holiday so we don’t sleep our holiday away…”.

Daddy says we’re a stone’s throw away from the Margaret River Chocolate Company also in the Swan Region. We get there soon enough and perk ourselves up after stuffing ourselves silly with chocolate!

The next day we get on the Perth Explorer (aka the Hop-on-Hop-off) bus…. we basically just do a little circuit and hop off at almost the same spot we left our car. We do spot SHREK along the way apparently at a Shrek Show in at Burswood Convention/Entertainment Centre. *Whee!*

We alight the bus at the Hay Street stop, right outside the Perth Mint. Daddy got us discounted tix from the Perth Explorer bus captain to go into the Mint. Seems there was a fixed timing so we play around the outside while waiting for our slot. We recall there was this interesting display of melting what looked like a gold brick. We thought Daddy seemed to be getting some ideas at one stage staring wide-eyed at the gold bar the whole time…. 🙂

After we whack him in the bum to wake up his silly ideas and he was sober enough to get behind the wheels again, he drives southwards to Cicerello’s @ Freo (Fremantle) for the best fish’n’chips in town!

On the way, we chance upon a nice big toy store called ToyWorld (what caught our eye was the yellow banner with the familiar while-emblazoned-on-red LEGO fonts claiming to be “Western Australia’s Largest independent Lego Store”. We make a pitstop and check out the Lego there to validate that claim!

Turns out to be pretty extensive a range, but the lineup wasn’t the newest… we did enjoy the giant trampoline and made ourselves pretty much at home in the basement though!

Soon it was munch time at Cicerello’s! Great food, some nice colouring sheets we helped ourselves to with some crayons while waiting for our lunch! We really liked the fish tanks with marine sea life around the restaurant (even in the little boy’s room!).

After a hearty lunch we head to Fremantle Prison.

We’re in luck, next tour leaves in 5mins so we quickly sign up and jump into our Orange Prison jumpsuits for our prison tour (just kidding on the jumpsuits!).

All in we took >2hrs to complete the prison tour. Daddy really liked it, Mummy we thought was too tired from chasing us around the sprawling outdoor grounds…

The next day we went shopping Westfield Carousell…. we enjoy the twin shopping cart at Coles. From Cannington we drive to X-treme Ice @ Mirabooka for some ice-skating. This is our first attempt on the rink, and Daddy says the cute little Penguins would come in handy. As there were absolutely no other people that day the staff were nice enough to offer us the Penguins at no additional cost – thanks heaps again guys from the JJ Twins! You guys rock! We will be sure to come back again soon!

At the University of Western Australia (UWA) grounds the next day. Surprise surprise who do we bump into there but our BSF teacher who was on holiday with her family.

At King’s Park with the picturesque backdrop of the beautiful Perth City!

At the Synergy Parkland King’s Park, where kids play like KINGS!

All in 5 days seemed pretty short. Soon we were packin’ up and Mummy got us to do our usual stuff sitting on the suitcases so we could pull the zipper together to close it shut…

Daddy says there’s so much more we weren’t able to see this time, and we should come back soon – if only we eat our veggies and continue to be the vegetable heroes we are, hope to see you soon Perth!

Summary of May/Jun 2017 Perth Accommodation:

We split the accommodation at different properties based on the best available rates (BAR) at each establishment.

Jo developed a fever towards the end of the trip so we had extended by 1 day (SQ was kind enough to waive the cancellation/rebooking fee and had rebooked us to another flight at no additional cost!).

First 2 nights at the Mercure Hotel Perth (10 Irwin Street, Perth, WA, 6000 Australia).

Price breakdown

Room price AU$265.52

2 nights: AU$121.51 /night

Taxes : AU$22.50

Total AU$265.52
Subsequent 2 nights at the Pan Pacific Perth (207 Adelaide Terrace, East Perth, WA, 6000 Australia)

Price breakdown

Room price AU$351.01

2 nights: AU$160.44 /night

Taxes : AU$30.13

Total AU$351.01

December 31, 2016May 16, 2019

Taiwan (Dec 2016)

Taipei, Taiwan (Dec 2016)

JJ in TPE (22nd – 28th Dec 2016)

Type: Free & Easy – Littl’ Tots/Kiddy Itinerary

Day -1

Daddy J slides in to our bedroom with his usual rhetoric “LIGHTS-OUT-kids-hush-now-please-sleep-early-flight-tomorrow-no-story-time-tonight” yadda yadda; and we try hard to fall asleep, with him rattling on his usual from-memory or made-up story, and soon dozing off with Mommy Koa and Elsa…

SQ878 gets into TPE slightly past 6pm and we’re quickly tucked into a shuttle bus headed 1.5hours East towards Toucheng township. Its getting dark early since its Winter, and we doze off in the bumpy bus ride towards our destination.

D1 – Yilan/Touceng Farm

We have a quick barbeque dinner and head off to a family activity – making paper lantern which we complete with some help and eventually set flight after penning our wishes and resolutions for the new years 2017!

D2 – Republic of Chocolate Factory and Freshfields Resort/Hotspring

Daddy teams up with T1, and Mummy with T2 for the chocolate making session and we’re making a Christmas Chocolate log cake!

I like marzipan!

Daddy answers a quiz the facilitator asks and gets an extra snowman choc which we then proudly affix to our little masterpiece!

We like the the Freshfields Hotspring Resort which was really nice, with a hot spring bath in the room – akin to the Japanese onsen! We had fun stuffing ourselves with all the log cake, and were making such a racket Yeye, Mahmah and Gugu J heard us from next door! *burps*

D3 – Leofoo Resort Guanshi

Fun signs @ Leofoo Village Theme Park!

“Stepping forward although you have self-confidence” – in the little boy’s room
“No somking, Foods and Drinks on the rid” – at the Flying Horse ride
“The non-arrival dismounts area to strictly forbid to stand fall to dismount” – I have no idea…

After a really fun day at the theme-park, we head back to the Leofoo Village Resort – the renowned safari-styled kids resort with free-roaming safari animals which include giraffes, rhinos, zebras and lemurs! Definitely a hit with the kids!

D4 – Taipei 101/Shilin/Ximenting

Shopping, shopping, and more shopping and eating…

February 15, 2016July 10, 2019

JJ in ICN (4th – 9th Feb 2016)

Seoul, Korea (Feb 2016)

JJ in ICN (4th -9th Feb 2016)

Type: Free & Easy

*RRRRINNNGGGggg* the alarm goes off – Daddy J startles out of bed and does his thing again at having a go at knocking us kids out of slumber! But what d’ya know, we are already up and are ready in a jiffy! The J Twins are ready to rock and rumble! Soon we are at the airport…

We can still fit nicely into our twin stroller (Didi still calls this the ‘stro-ro’!).

Didi with whom else but MMK (Mommy Koa)…

We say bye-bye stroro-ro ro ro at the check-in*…. we’re off to see Pororo!

*(we recall KE accepts stroros only at the check-in counter and not at the aerobridge unlike SQ at least at that point in time. On arrival however, both offer pickup of stroros at the bridge!)

Waiting to board the big blue bird that will take us to Incheon.

We get some nice Pororo-themed kiddy packs (water color stencils)…

We plan to be in Korea during Chinese New Year which happens on 8th Feb 2016. Unbeknown to us, it coincides exactly with the Korean New Year which meant that most shops we closed at least on the first 2 days (8th – 9th Feb)!

Good thing Mackers is always open – rain or shine; winter, spring, summer or fall, and holiday or non-holiday! We muck around with our Chicken nuggets and make it look like rex!

Lotte World and Porroro Park

Welcome back to Porroro Park! It’s great to be back!

Seoul Tower

Kimchi School and Seaweed Factory.

Myeongdong

December 30, 2015May 30, 2019

Okinawa, Japan (Dec 2015)

JJ in OKA (22nd – 27th Dec 2015)

Type: Tour/Charter Flight direct from SIN to OKA

Grandpa J and Grandma J had been wanting to go to Okinawa but the transit at Tokyo and additional 2H40M flight had resulted in the plans being put off for some time since transiting with twin kids is not always the easiest thing (Even with 5 adults). While our 1st trip to Korea (Dec 2014) included a domestic flight [SIN-CJU-ICN] we had a couple of days in Cheju/Jeju Island.

So anyways, when the option of a charter flight option on MI from SIN to OKA came about, we jumped on the opportunity!

*Note Jetstar subsequently started a direct flight from SIN to OKA (trice a week on Mon/Fri/Sun departing Singapore at 2.20am and arriving at Naha, Okinawa the same day at 8.30am. The return flight, departs Okinawa on the same days at 9.30 am and arrives in Singapore at 1.40pm.

Day 1 – Flight from SIN – OKA

Star Wars Mania hits Changi! Again, there was a time when Mummy was able to carry us both! 🙂

T2 sits happily with Mummy Koa (la) while T1 is with Grandma J!

Total flight time was 5H10M

We arrived Naha, Okinawa sometime in the early afternoon.

Okinawa is a subtropical paradise, renowned as The Island of Longevity with 5X more people living > 100 years of age compared with other prefectures in Japan

Day 2 – Cape Manzamo / Orion Happy Park (Beer Factory) / Nago Pineapple Park / Ocean Expo Park (Churaumi Aquarium)

Spectacular views of the East China Sea. Cape Manzamo is particularly known for its distinction formation resembling that of an elephant trunk, resulting from years of wave erosion.

We arrive at Orion Happy Park, home of Okinawa’s home-grown beer brand – Orion!

We take a tour inside the brewery and learn the tips and tricks of beer making and tasting!

And here’s why they call this the Orion Happy Park.

Nice try but no beer for you Mutton!

Everyone gets a pint but Gugu J, Mummy J and Daddy J happily gulp down Grandpa and Grandma J’s share. The J Twins had fruit punch instead!

On we go to Nago Pineapple Park, literally a stone’s throw from the Orion Beer Distillery.

We enjoy a little ride in the autonomous vehicle *Hello Mr Pineapple!*

After sampling and buying some pineapple products we continue our journey to the Ocean Expo Park. The highlight for us was really the dolphin show at Dolphin Lagoon… even better than the one at Sea World, Goldcoast!

The dolphins swim majestically amidst a very breathtaking backdrop of the blue East China Sea.

Hyper after some ice-cream? After taking some funny shots with Mummy, Didi soon falls asleep… ZZZZzzzzzz…..

Day 3 – Ryuku Mura (Ryuku Village) / Aeon Mall / Christmas Eve Gala Dinner!

After breakfast we head out to Ryuku Mura (Ryuku Village) and immerse ourselves in “Lion” or Shisa Painting, a popular Okinawan culture.

*Daddy never really excelled in art… but the kids make up for with Mummy who really has an artistic flair!

No prizes for guessing the winning Shisa! We end up buying the usual souvenirs and fridge magnets instead…

We pass Kadena Airbase on our way to AEON Mall Okinawa Rycom and have some lunch and fun at the arcade! By the way, the mall has a really huge marine fish display! Impressive!

After lunch, we hang out at the arcade!

“Hello Ms Bus Driver, where are you going today?”

Daddy J almost sprains his back clamouring in and out of the ‘giant red robot’ – twice since each Twin gets their own turn! (the inside’s not the most spacious!)…. well, so long as The J Twins have fun.

Soon its dinner time! And we usher in Christmas with family Christmas Eve Dinner complete with an appearance from Santa himself! And yes there was a time when The JJ Twins still had their makan bips on! *I dig the bip*

Blessed CHRISTMAS 2015!

Day 4 – Shuri Castle / Okinawa World (Gyokusendo Limestone Cave) – Eisa Drum display / Ashibina Outlets!

Lunch!!!

Train ride with Yeh Yeh (Grandpa J) at the Ashibinaa Outlet Malls…

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2016 from the JJ Twins!

February 23, 2015January 6, 2024

Taiwan (Feb 2015)

Taipei, Taiwan (Feb 2015)

JJ in TPE (19th – 22nd Feb 2015)

Type: Free & Easy

All smiles on the way to the airport with Mommy Koala and Peppa Pig in tow!

Kids don’t last very long in the flight and doze off after some movies and CHML.

Day 1 – Hanging out at Daan Park Playground

We pretty much spend half a day in this beautiful park!

Kids really enjoyed themselves scampering through the various parts of the very-well-thought-out-design of the play area which included the usual swings (with bucket seats for younger kids which Jo thoroughly enjoyed!), slides, and adjoining ramps and obstacles.

Only problem was because the play area was so huge, both Daddy J and Mummy J had to have eyes on the kids at ALL times, which was made even harder because of the intersections between ramps, slides and rope bridges… i.e. you’ll never know which slide either T1 or T2 would emerge from with all the other kids running helter-skelter in their skedaddle!

Day 1 – To the Taipei Zoo we go!

After breakfast we head off to the zoo!

The ONE card that rules them all. This MRT card was very handy and made train-travel very hassle free!

Commute from Daan station to the Taipei Zoo was seamless and scenic (towards the terminating station) and took a breezy 30 minutes.

Which way to go? Follow the crowd!

At the Koala enclosure getting acquainted with Nicole.

Day 3 – Back to Daan Park and lounging around the city and Hello Kitty Cafe!

Off to the mall and Hello Kitty Cafe! YAY!

Happy CNY at Sogo with Rody horses!

Day 4 – At TPE airport (Hello Kitty playground)

On route back to SIN on CA

December 30, 2014July 10, 2019

Jeju and Seoul Korea (Dec 2014)

Jeju Island and Seoul, Korea (Dec 2014)

JJ in CJU and ICN (21st -29th Dec 2014)

Good morning! We’re so excited about going to see Porroro that we couldn’t sleep a wink all night!

We get to Changi really early in the morning *yawnz* to catch our flight from SIN to ICN.

Changi celebrates a Disney Christmas 2014!

Jo and Grandma J en route to ICN!

Seoul

Korea Culinary institute – Korean Pancake Making.

Introducing Sous Chef Jo and Jon with Chef de Partie Mummy!

Seoul to Jeju.

At the Jeju Folk Village and Tangerine Farm.

Look Ma, black pigs! *oink oink!*

Mummy points out specifically to the sign on this house…

After like a dozen tangerines between the kids, we head to Jeju Land ATV park.

The boys went off to play and left the girls behind, only thing Jo could do was to pose with the yellow hard hat.

Jeju Island

Teddy Bear Museum

Jeju Trick Art Museum

And pick of the day goes to… the 2 adorable monkeys!

And the usual JJ pose…

Jeju to Daegu via OZ8122.

MERRY CHRISTMAS from The J Twins!

Its Christmas today and we head to CJU airport to catch our northbound flight to Daegu.

We have a little OJ and BYO Porroro and Friends play kit as IFE for our 1 hour domestic flight.

Pizza and Cheese Making in Daegu

Jon teams up with Grandma while Jo tags with Grandpa.

Our instructor flips it in the air.

There are also some very hungry farm animals outside which we eagerly fed! They must’ve smelled the pizza….

Daegu to Yongpyong

We arrive at the Yongpyong SKI resort and take the gondola up to the top.

At night the temperature drops to -12 degrees C!

Spot Jo among the snowmen!

We make an attempt at making our very own Olaf with BYO plastic carrot and Santa hat while Daddy is out night-skiing.

Next morning we try our hands at skiing… not before we make an attempt at our very own egg-Olaf at breakfast. Now kids, what did we say about not playing with your food?

After a while Daddy and Mummy leave us with Granpa and Grandma J who bring us to the kids’ play area while they hit the slopes.

Seoul

Highlight here would definitely have been the Jimjilbang!

For the ‘uninitiated’, Jimjilbang is sauna, spa, public bath and family entertainment centre all rolled into one!

Initially we were quick nervous about it having been told we had to change out into the Jimjilbang attire! After we got over our initial apprehensions (with much cajoling from Daddy that these were certainly not prison wear!) we finally consented. Jo had to go with Mummy to the littl’ girls’ change room and Jon with Daddy to the littl’ boys’.

There was an indoor playground, TV/Movie area and lotsa food – even waffles & ice-cream!

We’re starvin! I could eat a fork!

Didi, you have some…

And here comes the best part of it all… waffles and ice-cream!!! We lurve JIMJILBANG!

Next day we head to Porroro Park to meet Porroro and Friends!

Porroro Park is situated within Lotte World, which did-you-know happens to be the largest indoor theme park in the world! Anyways, PP is located on the same level as the skating rink. We take the elevator down 1 level and get our entry tickets!

We were so in hurry to get in to play we don’t bother with the photo-taking!

Mummy: Jon, stay put.

Jon: No mummy, i’m going down! Jo’s got my Porroro bottle!

*Jon leaps off instantly from Mummy’s lap*

Mummy: Oh dear… here we go again :s

*fight erupts*

Here comes da’ man himself!

Man of the house – little penguin Porroro! Well he doesnt seem too little here in person! Along with pals Loopy (the pink beaver), and Eddie (the orange fox).

Going into Porroro’s abode!

Guess what, there’s even a sandpit-play area…

Entrance fee was for 2 hours only and soon our time was up. We head out and back up one level to Lotte World and chanced upon some Dippin’ dots which Mummy instinctively introduces to us! Superb timing since we get to see the evening Parade that’s ongoing.

After a long day, we do the usual JJ pose.

Myeongdong

It’s super cold in Seoul today but the streets were bustling with tourists and locals alike (peddlers and bargain-hunters!).

Temperature was well below 0 degrees C and the grown-ups just kept walking and munchin’ away while us kids slept away in the cool…

Soon it was time to head home… ICN airport has a nice kids playground where we spent some time in. Suffice to say, we were all really exhausted on our flight back and fall asleep right on Mummy’s lap *ZZZzzzz*

Super Mummy carries Jon up front and piggy-backs Jo in the carrier.

December 31, 2013May 16, 2019

Japan (Dec 2013)

JJ in HND and KIX (22nd – 29th Dec 2013)

Type: Tour

Day -2

Daddy and Mummy rush T2 to the clinic as he had developed a fever with temperature soaring to 40 degrees C.

Dr Ker administers the usual suppository (we had been accustomed to the Voren/Voltaren “bullets” by this time) and the temperature subsides. Jono boy is drinking lotsa fluids and but kicking up a fuss in adamantly protesting the “fever patch” we stick up his forehead and back…

Day-1

Temperature continues to be in range of high 30s but no longer spiking to the 40s. We see this trending down but are still concerned as we were unsure about whether or not the trip would happen. Worst case, we would split the team up – Daddy to stay with Mutton boy and Mummy to travel with Jo and the gang to JP per plan. Bags are packed bearing in mind the 2 possible outcomes at this stage, with us scrambling on the phone with friends (Andy and Judy) to borrow a single stroller for Jo since we would ditch the twin pram if T2 wouldn’t be able to make the trip.

Day1

D-day arrives and littl’ boy still has a temperature, circa 38 degrees. We rush to the doc again in the morning and he clearly says “no travel”. Albeit disappointed, we head home and let Jon continue to rest. It wasn’t until 3-4pm thereabouts Daddy J makes the call to GO! as Jon was by now up and about in the house with his toys. While SQ636 wasn’t scheduled to depart until 2200hrs, we make a dash at (literally) throwing Jon’s clothes back into the suitcase… including the med kit, double iPADs (yes, I’m ashamed we were victims of the iPAD-nanny syndrome which could have accelerated Jon getting on prescription glasses by 6!) and of course his faithful Mummy Koa stuffling.

Soon we’re at the airport, and as soon as the plane was airborne, the nice flight attendants helped setup our bassinets and soon we’re sleeping like babies through the red-eye flight with no IFE, no drinks and no fuss.

Day2

We get in early to HND 530am the next morning… YOKOSO Japan!

It is Emperor Akihito’s birthday on 23rd December and its a National holiday in Japan!

We join in the festivities outside the Tokyo Imperial Palace!

I think the original plan was to visit Disney at Urayasu today but we chose to stay behind and take the day slow with Didi’s condition. Thankfully the fever had subsided by now, but we didn’t want to stretch him too much. Went to the hotel when it was time for check-in and pretty much had some snooze time to recover from the night flight. When we kids get up, we take a stroll outside to soak in the nice weather!

Day3 – Christmas Eve!

We pretty much take the day slow again and explore Tokyo.

Mutton is well enough and frolics around the mall while Jo is in the loo 🙂

Note there was a time Mummy was still about to carry us both! 🙂

Soon the kids are famished and what do we find ourselves eating in Japan? Ramen of course!

After more walking and walking, we head back to the hotel for family Christmas Eve dinner…

Day4 – Lake Kawaguchi Onsen

The next day we set off early for a long coach ride towards Kanazawa and Lake Kawaguchi…

Jo tags with Mummy for some girl-bonding time!

Arriving in the onsen resort to be greeted by Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel and a nice Kaizen dinner which Didi speedily slurps up.

Daddy: What language does Hello Kitty speak?
Mummy: Japanese of course!
Daddy: No, Hello Kitty has no mouth 😡

For the record, the kids did not go to the onsen, they were fast asleep already when Daddy J and Grandpa J went for their first attempt at the Japanese public bath with a small white towel and a BIG story to tell when the kids are older!

Day5 – Mt Fuji!

One of the most vivid memories for Daddy and Mummy (as they tell us) was a time they were both able to wear us in our baby sacks (aka our Baby carriers)! Soon after we learnt to scurry off on our own!