Weekend at the Fairmont Singapore

(Inset: Faith with the camera cover on the plush linens of the Fairmont Singapore)

One of the family's favourite weekend activities actually involves checking into a nice local hotel and really living out the life of a tourist on vacation - we get the best of being pampered with the luxuries of hotel-living while not having to suffer through any jet-lag or exorbitant exchange rates.

This weekend, we went to the Fairmont (previously under Raffles) since mum's Raffles vouchers were expiring soon.

At 2pm, we had checked-in to the hotel. Consistent with the standards of Fairmont in Dubai, the room in Fairmont Singapore had familiar brands of toiletries, was spick-and-span and spacious. Recreation-wise, we had access to the gym, and the pool - the former was available only on paid basis when we were staying in the Swisshotel during National Day.

Fortunately for us, the weather held up and we managed to bring Faith down for a dip in the afternoon, close to 4. It was literally a dip because the waters were a tad bit cold, and we were concerned about Faith catching a cold - one of the things she seems to catch a bit too easily. As usual, after her swim and shower, Faith had her afternoon nap - somehow she slept so well today that her usual half hour nap dragged out to an hour - perhaps a sign that all the crawling and swimming was proving to be a bit more exhausting than expected for her.

In all, the day went passed quite uneventfully - and it was overall nice to have the family spend time together again doing one of our favourite past-times. It's also nice for us, because Eve and I tend to take more pictures of Faith when we go for outings like these.

I think this year, we have scrimped quite a bit by staying only in the Swisshotel during National Day (mum's Raffles card), Sheraton (free), and Intercontinental (mum's Intercontinental card), whereas, we used to stay in the Ritz-carlton and Conrad quite frequently. With hotel room rates going up, it only makes sense that we leverage on the perks that mum signs up for. I think we can certainly look forward to more of these in 2008, as mum shows no signs of giving up on these memberships. Yay! :)

So glad to be home this Xmas

I was driving home a few evenings ago when a thought struck me. I was just so glad that we're home for X'mas this year. I told Eve and she agreed - it's nice to travel but home is still always best. I still remember how last X'mas, we were in London and Paris and how even though we were in the company of very good friends and nice memories of our INSEAD days, we were still in a big way missing home and family during X'mas.

Before writing this, I took a look at our 2006 blog just to re-jog my memories of how we were feeling last X'mas when we were in London, Paris and Fontainebleau. Lots of memories came rushing back to me when I was reading the blog - I remember how we had flown to London from Houston on 23rd of Xmas with Eve expecting Baby 6 1/2 months old. And how we were so happy to meet with Adrian even for a short while and had to da pao food back to our London hotel near Leicester Square. This was something I didn't write in the blog then, but I remember that night sharing with Eve that I was quite sad that in a way, we weren't home for X'mas after spending so long in Houston and away from home, and she shared the same feeling. But still, we wanted to make the best of what we could given that we knew our mobility would change with Baby in tow in 2007. More importantly, if we had gone home, Eve wouldn't have been able to accompany me longer in Houston past the new year. Last X'mas we spent it in London, and we had the most expensive bowl of rice for X'mas lunch in Chinatown (6 pounds). We celebrated my birthday with Manisa and Ajay in their London apartment on X'mas Eve. On Boxing Day, we were busy dodging the crowd on Oxford Street because we were afraid people would bump into Eve. Subsequently, we had taken a train to Paris on 27 December and we went to our favourite La Duree that did not disappoint. We then spent a number of days in Fontainebleau reminising about old days before coming back to London to welcome the New Year with Manisa and Ajay.

When I re-read the blogs, it brought back nice memories of our time last year. At the same time, it reminded me of how I missed home last X'mas being away. And I think it all reinforced my happiness of being home for X'mas. Just today, we spent dinner at Chee Keong's wedding and the we had a chance to sit together as a complete family on my side - it was really nice to see Faith - a new addition to the family with the whole family. What a great way to end 2007 :)

Langkawi (mis)adventures

Our third and final family trip of the year, turned out to be a little bit more than what we had bargained for...:)

After an uneventful flight to Langkawi and treading the tarmac at Langkawi International airport, we were driven to Westin Langkawi in no time. The weather was actually nice and to my surprise, cool and breezy and not rainy as the weather forecast had advised.

When we arrived, we were actually quite happy with the place – it looked quite like a Banyan Tree-type resort and the front desk guys were nice enough to seat us down and serve us a much-appreciated drink after a long journey. Even when we checked in to the room, we had a good first impression – the plasma TV was as big as the one we had at home and the baby cot was all nice and ready in the room.

Somehow, however, it kind of went downhill from there. That night, we had ordered room service in after tucking Faith to sleep and the food quality I must say was not what we had expected from a Westin hotel. While the salad was of fair standard, the Won Ton Noodles that came was not hot and the fishball (in the Won ton noodle??) was actually not fresh and you could tell, pre-packed frozen. That night, I actually felt a bit chilly and tad bit nauseous.

When I woke, I immediately popped two panadols (thank goodness for our faithful travel medical kit) and that helped alleviate the nausea a little. Unfortunately, I was in no mood to indulge in the buffet breakfast and had only a small bowl of plain porridge.

To cut a long story short, because I was sick, we ended up eating in the hotel for lunch and dinner and unfortunately, that meant more food that was really quite not up to par and even a little unfresh. Unfortunately, by the second night, Eve had caught on a bit of the food poisoning and Faith in turn caught the bug – resulting in bouts of diarrhoea throughout the day. The last straw came, when on the second night, I heard Faith having diarrhoea again at 6am in the morning – I picked up my mobile, dialled Singapore Airlines and arranged for an earlier flight home.

If you ask if we’d ever go back to Langkawi or the Westin Langkawi again, I think it will very much depend on our spirit of adventure. Certainly, I think we’d be much more careful with drinking the water unboiled or even eating too much at the restaurant. I wouldn’t say we’d never go back, because the place had its redeeming points. For example, I must say the pool there was by far the best pool I’ve ever swam in – it was literally next to the islands, and the sea and it was an Olympic sized pool - quite different from the unusual shaped pools in most resorts. And because the pool picks up the warmth of the sun very quickly, I was literally swimming in a heated pool that was not over-chlorinated and yet glistening clear. And at the end, when we met with the manager of the hotel to give our feedback, we could tell the manager was genuine in making as much amends he could to make the rest of our stay more pleasant.

For now, however, we are all glad to be home safe and sound in our humble home in Ang Mo Kio in Singapore. Faith has now travelled to Indonesia, Dubai and Malaysia this year and Eve and I silently hope that whatever bug she has caught will make her more resilient for our trips in 2008.

Remaining pictures of time in Dubai

I've been bumming around and not blogging much since the return from Dubai. There's no excuse. I'm not busy unpacking nor with the frenzy of doing any Christmas shopping. Speaking of the latter, I ought to get my butt moving to start buying Christmas presents. Somehow, there's less of an impetus to wanna get into the Christmas pressie shopping mood cos I'm at home and not influenced by the loads of shopping bags hauled in by colleagues during this period. Still, what's gotta be done, gotta be done.

There were still some pictures that we took in Dubai that I didn't have the chance to post. Since I'm still in a somewhat lazy mood, instead of blogging, I'm just going to attach the remaining pictures with a few explanations here and there :)

On the 2nd last day in Dubai, Faith came down with running nose. My mood was dampened when Faith falls sick again. Decided not to go out that day, but to get out from the confines of the 4 walls in our hotel room, I brought her out for a walk just outside our hotel. As we were located in the financial district, there really isn't much sight to behold except for more buildings, the highway and of course, more ongoing construction works.

After we returned to our room, we whiled away some time, trying to take a picture of Faith, looking out at the cityline, but unfortunately, with the reflection off the windows, it was hard to take a nice shot of Faith, yet capturing the view outside. Either that or I'm limited by the lack of photography skills.

On Saturday, the day of our departure, we headed out to this place called Medinat Jumeirah after lunch. Its supposed to encompass a hotel, shopping and lots of restaurants and pubs. For lack of time, we only went to past the hotel lobby to get to the Chinese restaurant, Zheng He (supposed to be THE best Chinese restaurant recommended by TimeOut Dubai) and I did a quick shop around the Souk. The whole place resembles a themed hotel in Las Vegas. The draw was that the Burj Al Arab was very very near. From our alfresco table, we could very clearly see the iconic hotel and being touristy, we succumbed to lots of picture snapping.

And finally, more than 2 years after my return from our Morocco trip, I finally got to buy a set of Moroccan tea set and minature tagine. Yay!

Dubai

After a hectic week for both Eve and I, we finally had a chance to have a relaxed family breakfast on this Saturday morning. While we had already lowered our expectations of how leisurely this trip was going to be, we never expected the past few days to be so hectic for Eve in coping with Faith alone. I think we're all the more thankful for all the help we get back home now!
This morning, though we didn't exactly get to sleep in, it was nice nonetheless that we could for once in Dubai, take turns to look after Faith. Given that I didn't have to rush off for work unlike previous days, we took turns to feed Faith and carried her around a little so that she wouldn't get too fidgety in her pram. It seems Faith somehow decided that she no longer liked bananas as much as she did a few days ago. Where she finished a bowl of squashed banana (half a banana) a few days ago, she now turned away when Eve tried to give her bananas again. The good thing was she still seemed keen to eat her hard boiled egg yolks that the wait staff cooked for her.

After breakfast, we went to the Sunrise pool for a walk. There are two pools here in the hotel - the Sunrise pool allows one to see the Sunrise, while the Sunset pool allows you to see the Sunset. On previous days, I've woken up at 6:30am without fail to swim in the Sunrise pool and as you can imagine, the pool has always been very cold. Today, the sun was shining brightly and it was nice and warm. Hmm, maybe I'd try to go for a swim later before the flight home :)

After our morning walk, we went back to bathe Faith. We are planning to go out after lunch so we thought it best that Faith catches a nap before we go out. For the first time, thus, we were able to capture Faith in her bathtub - she seemed quite happy with this much bigger version of bathing facility (compared to what she has at home).

let's keep our fingers crossed for the rest of the day :)

Dubai as I see it

Source: http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2005/07/sinister_paradise.html

Dubai fascinates me. The entire city seems to be in a constant state of development. Developing newer, bigger and more iconic skyscrapers, office buildings, apartments, condominiums and malls. I even learnt a new term, Pentaminiums, meaning penthouse condominiums. Everywhere I travel along the highways, I see many buildings in different state of development and construction, seemingly trying to surpass one another with awe-inspiring or jaw-dropping intents.

Piling works ongoing in empty plots of land. Long cranes sitting high atop already tall, half-finished skyscrapers. A fully developed apartment tower is sandwiched in between another two partially constructed buildings. Every few kilometres, one can see billboards and posters advertising newer development areas and projects.

In time to come, the well-known Burj Al Arab will be surpassed by yet another monument skyscraper, the Burj Dubai. Looking at this latest project, the words that come to mind are sleek, majestic, modern, cool, cold.

The skyscrapers and buildings do make for a pretty sight. Sunlight reflecting off the shiny windows of ceiling to floor glass buildings, glittering and sparkling like blue sapphires. Images of the sky and fluffy clouds can be seen mirrored on these shiny glass facades. At night, the long cranes are all lighted up, and the skyline of the entire city twinkles every other second, warning helicopters and airplanes of the sheer height of all the skyscrapers in this concrete jungle desert city.

At times, they all seem so surreal and unreal. As much as I am a city girl, I just cannot imagine myself to be living in this city. Maybe I am not the sophisticated city mouse that I thought I am. Or perhaps, this is really the grandeur an oil-rich country can buy for itself.

And becos they are so rich, I imagine that it would be beneath most Arabs to think about working in the service industry. In the hotels, the malls and the retail shops, the staffs are Indians, Pakistanis, Filipinos or Africans. Carrefour has an entire section dedicated to selling common items and condiments for Indian and Philippines cuisines. Timeout Dubai list many Indian restaurants around the city, ranging from the affordable and value-for-money to the haute cuisine.

Still, I’m grateful for the chance to see and experience Dubai, even though I’m holed up in the hotel more often than not. I chalk it up to an education and eye-opening experience.

Right now, I can’t wait to go to the spice souk and/or perhaps the gold souk. Instead of being greeted by service staff with a foreign accent, I hope to glean into the Arab of old. One where perhaps, an old and weathered man, sitting amidst all his products, hawks his goods.

The unexpected trip

We’re in Dubai! I only had gotten wind of Louis’ trip last Thursday. Originally, we were supposed to fly on Saturday but as one of his colleagues needed some time to process his visa, the flight date was changed to Tuesday. On Monday afternoon at 2-ish pm, Louis called to ask if it was possible for me to finishing packing and be ready to fly on the 10 pm flight that night. It required some frantic packing but not impossible. And fly we did!

This being Faith’s first flight – and a 7-hour one at that – I was concerned if she would be able to take to the long flight. Thankfully, she did well and was a great baby on board the flight. Due to a delay in take-off, Faith was asleep by the time the plane finally took off. I was initially concerned if she would experience ear pressure on the ascent but was grateful that she pretty much slept throughout the flight.

Taking the night flight around her bedtime was great, cos it allowed her to sleep onboard. However, due to the 4-hour time difference, it was 1.30 am local time when we arrived in Dubai. By the time we cleared customs, travelled to the hotel and checked into our rooms, we had a slightly cranky baby who only had about 5 hours of sleep instead of her usual 11-12 hours.

As Louis was expected to be busy with his work, I’m pretty much left with Faith for most of the day – Louis only slept 2+ hrs after we checked into the room before he went off to work.

My first day in Dubai with Faith was rather uneventful as we stayed in the hotel as I wanted to adjust her to the time difference. Becos she didn’t had enough sleep and her feeding and napping times are now a little different, she was rather cranky at various times throughout the day. Our usually cheerful baby cried a lot more with strangers and even when I left her in the playpen or stroller while I prepared her food, took a shower or even ate my meals. Nevertheless, I brought her out to the hotel pool for a little sun and water, so she cheered up a little.

Of course, Louis, being the ever doting dad, was a little heartbroken to hear about his little one’s day when he returned home after work. That night, he carried her around and played with her until she slept cos he said “I don’t want her to cry anymore”:)

I’m sure Faith is going to turn out to be the regular daddy’s girl and Louis, being the soft hearted person that he is, would be wrapped tightly around his little girl’s finger and enjoy the fact. While it may seem like he’s spoiling her already, a part of me can’t help but being pleased that Faith is a daddy’s girl. After all, I think it’s a rightful place for every little girl to be and I know that ultimately, Louis wouldn’t spoil her rotten.

The hotel that we are staying boasted of having panoramic views of the city. We could see Burj Al Arab, the icon hotel resembling a billowing sail, and one of the Palm Islands from the first room that we checked into. From my current room, all I see are lots of nameless buildings, ongoing developments and the highways. I didn’t know before this, but traffic jams in Dubai seem bad. Starting from as early as 5 pm, I could see long lines of cars stuck along the highway.

Today, Faith and I met up with Hind, our Moroccan neighbour in France, who’s staying in Dubai as her husband, Salah, works here. However, Faith was still a little out of sorts and she cried when Hind tried to hug her. We headed out to the Mall of the Emirates but before we could get any serious shopping done, Ines (Hind’s daughter) called to say she was sick. I shooed Hind to head home while I loiter in the mall and went Carrefour to buy some vegetables for Faith’s meals.

Believe it or not, I ended up buying a pack of Pamper diapers becos they came in short packs, slightly different size and I think it’s a packaging that I don’t see in Singapore. Hahaha… wonder what Louis would say when he returns home. And yes, we did manage to see Ski Dubai, the indoor ski resort in the midst of this desert city.

Faith fell asleep halfway on my shoulder on the taxi ride back to the hotel. As I’m typing my post, Faith has been sleeping for the last 4 hours and its past her dinnertime. But I think I would let her sleep for as long as she wants. Poor baby. I think she’s tired and is still on Singapore time.