In early May this year, we happened to visit NTUC Club’s water park,  Wild Wild Wet, during the NTUC May Day celebration. There was some nice water play area and rides for all age groups and even a person like me who is absolutely scared of water could enjoy it. That’s when we saw that there was a resort integrated with this water park – D’Resort at Downtown East.

A browse through their website showed super nice, clean rooms. The very thought of water play everyday during the stay at the resort was very tempting for the children. This place seemed like the perfect place to go on a staycation.

We rarely take a break during weekdays. This is one rare instance when we are doing this and started our staycation yesterday evening. We have one of the rooms of the ‘Mangrove Walk’ series.

This room has all the nice amenities with two big beds, a TV, a double door fridge, a microwave oven, an electric kettle and a clean, spacious bathroom – perfect for a family with kids.

The balcony of our room overlooks the big slides of Wild Wild Wet.

But the ground floor rooms have an open balcony without any grills and there are times when somebody is working on the plants on the other side. Centipedes are a common sight on the balcony too. So it is better to keep the door and curtains closed.

A walk behind the rooms leads to the exit to Pasir Ris beach – a beach with very shallow waves and having dense mangrove behind it.

A sheltered walkway through the different blocks and rooms of the resort leads us to E! Hub which houses the super fun-filled indoor playground of NTUC Club, eXplorerKid. E!Hub is your typical shopping mall of Singapore housing lots of shops including NTUC Fairprice, eateries, several extracurricular/enrichment classes, Cathay cinema Theatres, etc.

Adjoining Wild Wild Wet are several eateries including Pizza Hut, Subway, McDonalds and NTUC FoodFare housing a wide variety of cuisines. Of course, finding good Indian Vegetarian food outside of Little India or Downtown in Singapore, is still difficult. There is an Indian food stall in Foodfare, but for strict vegetarians like me, the smell from the place turns me away from it. For now, I will stick to the veg Sub from Subway.

There is also a Cheers outlet near Wild Wild Wet as well as at the resort.

So, yes, there is everything at or a stone’s throw away from the resort, making it a perfect place for a vacation.

I am enjoying every bit of this much-needed break from the usual cooking-cleaning-rushing crazy daily routine and we as a family have decided to completely relax for one more day after which we will be back to our routine starting Thursday morning.

P.S.: NTUC members, do check out all the awesome offers and promos at this resort.

5 years back, my husband and I wondered just why on earth would somebody want to go on a staycation within a small city like Singapore itself when there are thousands of places to explore all over the world. Today, we have ourselves come on a staycation! On the second day of the staycation, sitting back and watching the kids having loads of fun at the indoor play area, here I am, not complaining one bit and enjoying every moment of this wonderful vacation.

Today, as yet another old lady started talking to me non-stop in a friendly tone, I only wished yet again that I put in the time and effort in learning at least a basic conversational Mandarin.

Right from the beginning, we have found the elders here to be extremely friendly. Be it the neighbours or random strangers in the bus/train, corridors and other public places, the elders here have always been very friendly. Saying a ‘Hi!’ or playing with the babies or stopping a crying child with just a ‘Sshh!’ uttered in mock anger or exchanging a sympathetic glance with me as I try to calm a crying child or giving kids candies, they are friendly all the time. Be it listening with rapt attention to the Chinese songs our daughter was learning in school or just striking a conversation with us. But language has always been a big barrier when it came to communicating with them since most of them do not know English. In our previous apartment, we had such a helpful neighbour, but, alas, language was the problem. We had to wait till her son came home to communicate anything important. If only I learn Chinese…

(Written in early 2016. We moved from this area in January 2017)

Sometime last week, I was walking along Rochor Canal Road carrying my son. At around 8:30 in the morning, the usually sweltering heat of Singapore was yet to reach its peak and there was an air of pleasantness to the weather. The water in the canal was still and, there in the still water, I could clearly see the reflection of the blocks/buildings of Kelantan Road – my home for the past 3.5 years in Singapore.
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A post on my previous neighbourhood – Kelantan Road – in Singapore is something which I have been planning to publish for more than a year now! A while back, I found my notebook on which I had written this post last year and sat down to type this on the laptop. That’s when I saw the date and it struck me that it has been exactly 5 years since I first set foot in Singapore – July 28th, 2012! Now there is no way I am moving away from the laptop till I finish typing it fully. Stay tuned for it.