We had bfast and the kids were sent to the kids' club while I did some last minute packing. We were going home. The kids made accessory and experienced crab catching at the beach before we took them out at 11am.
Daddy Lim and I waited for them at the beach. He can really sleep anywhere while on a beach holiday.
Finally the kids came.
I followed the kids on their crab catching experience while Daddy Lim continued to nap on the beach chair. The kids didn't catch the crabs, they merely try to spot the crabs and cheered the staff on when the staff were catching the crabs. They caught about 5 mini crabs in all. It looked so easy. The crabs were released back to the beach before they headed back to the hotel. Poor crabs must be traumatised.
We checked out of the hotel after we picked the kids from the kids' club. We had a quick sandwich lunch before the driver picked us from the lobby to the site for the sea sports. We opted to go to the turtle island as well as the banana boat and tubing. We were quoted USD115 by the 1st travel agent the day before. We booked eventually with the second agent who initially quoted us USD85. We bargained it down to USD65 eventually. We had no idea what was the right price but USD65 for our family and for 3 activities didn't feel too bad.
The car ride took about 30 mins. We opted for the turtle island 1st as we didn't want to bake in the afternoon sun. We had to take a boat to the island. The boat only carried the 4 of us. There were so many other boats going to and back from the turtle island.
The boat was parked very far out to the shore and that was bcos the water was really shallow. See the boat driver manually towing the boat to nearer shore.
We had to walk in the sea for quite some distant before reaching the shore. But the water was really shallow and was ok for all except for Lil Isaac with really short legs. Lol
When we finally reached the shore, there was more walking. The beach had plenty of crabs and some slimy worms. Lil Isaac freaked out. Lol.
We arrived at turtle island, which is effectively a building. We paid some $$ for entry. What greeted us were some big tanks with some turtles in them. The guide then picked up a medium size turtle for us to take pictures with. The turtle was either too lazy or too used to this. It just stayed motionless.
Seeing that we had kids, the guide showed us some baby turtles kept in a styrofoam box. Then fished out a "toddler" turtle for the kids to take picture with. Looked at how happy Lil Shauna was. Lil Isaac was wary. The turtle kept trying to struggle free. Poor turtle.
Next, we were brought to a shaded shelter where big turtles were kept. Most of them were motionless. The biggest and oldest is 70 yo! Lil Shauna had fun feeding the turtles with what looked like seaweed. Lil Isaac basically hide at the entrance.
With that, we came to the end of the turtle tour. Amazingly, that place also kept many other exotic animals. Each time, Lil Isaac kept a safe distant. Haha. They had big bats too! Poor bats were passed to the tourists for pictures and shook awake so that it would spread its wings.
The staff then tried to sell us a picture of the kids with the turtle for about S$15. Seeing that we were reluctant to buy, they lowered the price to S$10. To encourage sales, the staff said that the proceeds would help the animals and not the staff. Looking at how the animals were handled, I very much doubt so. The kids had a good time but I think we would give this place a miss the next time.
We made our way back onto the wet beach and then waddled our way in the below knee seawater to the boat.
Next, we tried the banana boat! The sea was quite calm, so a staff sat right in front to help to balance the boat as well to bounce up and down to create extra effects. Lol. The kids loved their 1st banana boat experience. We tried tubing next. It is a big float but like a wafer. We sat in one of the "holes" and the float was pulled by the speed boat, similar to the banana boat. However, there was less risk of falling off the float and the speed boat therefore went so much faster. At one point, it dragged us in circles and so much fun! The kids after all the adventure.
We arrived back at the hotel at 3.30pm. The hotel had this thing called the hospitality lounge. It has a big room with TV and free coffee and tea and shower facilities, meant for guests like us who had some time to burn after checking out and before our flight. It is a lovely concept and we were so thankful for it. We freshened up and just in time for a taxi to the airport.
The flight was on time and the kids were manageable on the flight. Lil Isaac fell asleep at 8pm and didn't wake up when we got off the plane or when we stopped for dinner.
He basically slept on and on as when moved from point to point. Our impromptu stroller bcos the boy is 19kg! My back!
Even our power girl fell asleep in the taxi. Finally, we were home and the kids were in lala land shortly after shower. The end of our lovely beach holiday.
I would give it a thumbs-up. We would be looking at more beach holidays henceforth. Daddy Lim is grinning. Hehe. Unfortunately for him, the kids (and me) preferred the activities filled beach resort as compared to the do nothing but just nuah villa. Haha.
Mummy Lim
