This was baby's 1st time in a swimming pool! And well, she didn't take too well to it. She started crying and yelling like crazy.
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| She was so scared she clung to us for dear life! |
With a kid you kind of learn to tune out their cries after a while. I just kept assuring her that it was ok and she's safe in mummy's arms.
As the hubby and K wanted to play water basketball, we decided to migrate to the adult pool.
They had loads of fun with the hoop which I think suffered a lot of abuse from people like the hubby who continually hung onto it despite the huge sign above that said, 'No hanging'.
Anyway, since I didn't trust myself to be able to hold onto baby in the adult pool, I got her into the yellow baby float that we bought for her from Kiddy Palace for S$14.90.
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| Baby J in her yellow baby float |
As you can see, the float brought no comfort or security for baby J as she still clung to me like glue. I persevered and eventually she was floating around solo (with me hovering at the side watching her like a hawk of course).
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| Feeling more at ease in the pool |
After much persistence and patience, she finally got used to the water and started to have some fun with it. Her paternal grandmother taught her how to 'pat' the water recently so we got her to do it in the pool and captured it on video for her granny to see:
I thought it was a pretty successful first swim, albeit the initial reluntance.
Later in the afternoon we met up with the same cab driver from the day before as he promised to charge us a good price of S$40 (from the usual S$50) if we took his cab. The cost covered our journey to Mega Mall at Batam Center, from Mega Mall to Golden Prawn Restaurant and from Golden Prawn back to Harris. Seemed reasonable to us plus he had a great attitude and was reliable so we decided to hire him for the rest of our trip to drive us around.
First stop was Mega Mall located next to the Batam Center Ferry Terminal.
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| Maga Mall, Batam Center |
This was a relatively large shopping mall. Of course we couldn't resist eating at A&W, which is no longer available in Singapore since 2004.
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| Mega Mall's A&W |
Many of us grew up eating their curly fries and drinking their root beer float, so for us to be able to eat this was a throw back to our growing up years. So happy that they had curly fries this time unlike the previous trip where the outlet at Nagoya Hill ran out of curly fries.
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| Fun stuff for kids at Mega Mall |
If your kids are older, you may also consider allowing them some fun in the Kid's maze or a train ride inside the mall. Although the scenery isn't exactly exciting, but it is innovative and interesting to see a train roaming the second floor of the mall.
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| At Godiva Bistro Coffee |
We had some drinks at Godiva Coffee on the 2nd floor and it was lovely. They had free wifi so we were able to feed our facebook addiction.
At 6pm the cabby came to drive us to the famous Golden Prawn Restaurant where we had more seafood.
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| Live seafood at Golden Prawn |
It was live seafood that you can pick and choose. The hubby was in heaven (to say he is a seafood fanatic is an understatement).
However, be warned that there are a gazillion (and I'm not even joking) mosquitoes lurking in every corner ready to launch their attack on every exposed (and even unexposed) part of your body as long as they are able to reach it. We managed to (miraculously) defend ourselves against them thanks to J's anti-mosquito lemongrass oil (as apparently mosquitoes hate the smell). Baby was also once again protected by her anti-mozzie solution. This time, it was the hubby who was attacked and I suspect it's because he didn't apply enough lemongrass oil. Defending against mosquitoes is the most important skill you must have to survive in Batam.
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| Eating our seafood at Golden Prawn |
But the food was so worth the fight against the mosquitoes. It was delicious and much cheaper than the seafood we had yesterday. We ordered a total of eight dishes and the entire meal only costs approximately S$85. You will never get live seafood at that price in Singapore. We were all so full but very satisfied.
Back at the hotel, we played Catan till very late and prepared for the early morning ferry the next day to take us back home and in time for Baby J's Baby Dedication at church.
All in all, although the trip started out really badly, I'm glad God answered my prayers and we returned with a healthy baby, lovely memories and a great time of bonding with K & J. Looking forward to more overseas trips together =)
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P.S: For the rest of my Batam posts and other travel itineraries, please visit my travel page! =)
