Singapore (September, 2013)

We met up with Cody's brother Kip's family (Kip, Emily, and Cy) and Cody's parents (Toni and Scott) in Singapore to kick off our two week adventure in southeast Asia where we would visit Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam.  We went on a similar vacation last year and loved it so much that we wanted our family to experience some parts of it.  One of our takeaways from last year's Vietnam trip was that there was so much more of Vietnam that we wanted to see, in particular, we weren't able to visit Phu Quoc Island and Halong Bay last time and we were not going to miss them again.

Kip's family's airline tickets were a continuation of the tickets that they had for his Salt Lake City to Auckland flights in April, 2013.

Instead of booking a traditional roundtrip and flying Salt Lake City to Auckland, New Zealand and back to Salt Lake City, we were able to create an itinerary where Auckland became the stopover city (and the family stayed there from April to September, 2013) on the itinerary and Singapore was the destination in September, 2013.  Kip, Emily, and Cy were able to fly in economy class from Salt Lake City to Auckland, NZ (stopover for 6 months) then from Auckland to Singapore (vacation for 2 weeks), then back to Salt Lake City for 80,000 US Airways miles (plus $157.50 in taxes) each (160,000 miles + $315.00 total).  Kip did have to pay an extra $150 for Cy's infant ticket from Auckland to Singapore.

Toni and Scott were able to redeem 120,000 US Airways miles (plus $53.56 in taxes) each (240,000 miles + $107.12 total) to fly in business class from Salt Lake City to Singapore and return from Hanoi, Vietnam (the end of the 2 week journey) back to Salt Lake City.

Cody, Eliza, Sawyer, Ryder, Nash, and Zander paid cash ~$1500 for 6 one way tickets from Perth to Singapore (not a great deal, but not terrible either) and redeemed 22,500 British Airways miles + $24.16 each (total of 135,000 + $145.00) for the Hanoi to Perth one way at the end of the trip.

Toni and Scott arrived to Singapore on the 27th and stayed at the Crowne Plaza Changi hotel at the airport.  Kip and Emily arrived at 6:00am on the 28th and we arrived around 2pm on the 28th from Perth.  We stayed the next 2 nights at the Holiday Inn Singapore Atrium for about $150/night which included a pretty good breakfast buffet.

After we were done chit chatting and getting reacquainted in the rooms at the Holiday Inn, we decided to go to the hotel pool instead of making the trek to the water park, since it looked like it was about to rain.  The kids were able to burn off some energy and reunite with their cousin, Cy.

After swimming, we got cleaned up and headed out towards Clarke Quay and Chinatown on foot.  It was a bit of a walk with 5 kids, but we enjoyed ourselves and although we ultimately never made it to Chinatown, we ended up hanging out in Clarke Quay and having fun in the lights and water in the fountain.  We had some 7-11 Slurpees, Kebabs and Mcdonalds for the kids for dinner, then headed back to the hotel.

Sunday morning we got up, gorged ourselves on the hotel breakfast buffet (as we are prone to do), and then headed to church and were locked out of Sacrament despite being there during the Sacrament Hymn...I guess it's a cultural thing not to be late in Singapore.  We met some of the members of the ward we attended, then headed off to do some Sunday-ish activities.

We went to a place called Lockdown, which essentially is a puzzle room.  They blindfold you, lock you in a room, and you have 1 hour to get out.  There are clues, puzzles, riddles, combination locks, etc. throughout the room that you have to figure out.  The room we did was called "Kidnapped".  The theme was that we had been kidnapped and locked in a basement.  We were confident that we would get out in time, but our confidence proved to be unjustified.  We spent too much time figuring one of the clues out in the beginning and were under the gun from there and we didn't make it out in time.  Regardless, it was awesome, and a great activity, especially for us since it could accommodate our group of 11 (6 adults and 5 kids).  Lockdown has 2 other puzzle rooms, allegedly "Bailout" is slightly easier and "Top Secret" is much harder than "Kidnapped".  We were told that the success rate for "Kidnapped" was around 20-25%...that made us feel a little less stupid.  We would definitely go back to Lockdown.  ~$18/adult and kids free was a good deal in Singapore.

We went back to the hotel for naps and games.  The kids played a Book of Mormon character charades game with dad, grandma, and grandpa while Eliza, Kip, and Emily had a nap.  When everybody woke up, we headed into the city to the Marina Bay area to check out the Gardens By the Bay and the Super Trees, the Waterfront Promenade, and the Helix Bridge, which all surrounded the amazing Marina Bay Sands Hotel.  Unfortunately, we didn't stay there this time (we stayed there last October and had an amazing time swimming in the infinity pool on the 57th floor both at night and during the day).  It's expensive though (and they are pretty strict about how many people are allowed to stay in each room), and the group voted to have another night at the Holiday Inn.  Scott and Toni did pay to take the elevator up to the top and check out the pool and views without being able to get in and swim the day before everyone else arrived.  We had dinner at one of the cafe's by the Super Trees, then headed back across the bridge through the Marina Bay Sands to catch the 9:30pm free Wonderful Light & Water show.  We ended up on the far side of the bay, away from the Marina Bay Sands, and there we had a great view of the lasers and lights, but it wasn't ideal to hear the music and see the water show (for that you want to be on the Marina Bay Sands side of the bay on the Waterfront Promenade).  We were exhausted after so much walking around Marina Bay and it was late by the time the show ended and we went back to the hotel to get some sleep.

Supertrees.

Very super.

Walking to Clarke Quay.

Posing by a footbridge.

We're a bunch of idiots for not figuring out the puzzle room.

Lock Down is a "must do" in Singapore.

Monday morning we woke up, snarfed down as much food as was humanly possible at the breakfast buffet, and headed to Sentosa Island.  We wandered around Resort World for a bit, then made our way to the water park that is inside of the aquarium (Adventure Cove).  It's a pretty good water park that definitely has some unique features including the lazy river that weaves its way in and out of some of the aquarium exhibits like the sting rays, sharks, and large fish.  There is another area where you rinse the chlorinated water off yourselves and they issue you snorkel masks and put you in a tank full of exotic, colorful fish and an artificial reef.  Pretty cool for those who are afraid of the ocean.  There are watersides and a wave pool as well.  We spent a few hours at the water park, then had to rush out to catch our flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Margaret River, Western Australia (September, 2013)

Cody surprised Eliza for her 29th birthday and got a babysitter for the 4 kids and we went to Margaret River for the weekend.  It was a pretty quick trip, but was great to get away for a while.  Margaret River is only 3 and a half hours south of Perth and is a huge change of scenery.  September is still late winter/early Spring in Perth, so it was still slightly cold.

We hadn't booked a hotel, we just thought we'd figure it out when we got down there.  We ended up stopping at our friends' (the Hannans) house in Busselton and chatting for a bit, so by the time we got into Margaret River, it was nearly 10pm.  Almost everything was closed, but we managed to find a place in the middle of town (Margaret River Hotel) that was still open and had vacancies.  They only charged us $110 for the night and it was clean, so it did the job.

We woke up and headed south from Margaret River out towards Redgate Beach.  The Margaret River scenery is unique for Western Australia, everything is much greener than it is in Perth.  There are farms and vineyards all over the place and it's very quiet...not a lot of people.  We watched the surfers at Redgate Beach for a bit and wandered around on the rocks, then headed back to the car to head further south.

We stopped at Calgardup Cave on the way and paid the $15 each for a torch (flashlight) and headlamp.  The tours are self-guided (you're on your own) which is what we prefer anyway.  We were the only ones at the cave the whole time we were there and apparently this was one of the only "natural" (unlit) caves in the area.  We wandered through the cave for the next 45 minutes.  There was a place to do abseiling (rappelling) from a small hole in the top of the cave to a platform at the bottom of the cave...that would be fun for next time…we'd have for sure done it if we had known it was there.

 Eliza, coming up the steps from the bottom of Calgardup cave.

 Wandering along the rocks at Redgate Beach.

 Calgardup cave with a camera flash.

No people, just sheep.

We headed further south to check out the Boranup Karri Forest and drive to Hamelin Bay.  There was not much to see at Hamelin Bay, but the forest was pretty.  We were able to drive some dirt trails through the forest and were pretty much the only cars on the road.  It was relaxing to have a drive with just the 2 of us.

We headed back up towards Margaret River for a lunch we had booked at Voyager Estates.  We wandered around the well-manicured grounds, rose garden, and restaurant area for a while, then headed inside for our "wine tasting".  Since we don't drink alcohol, we tasted the sparkling grape juices.  An interesting fact that we learned was that the founder of Voyager, Michael Wright, also didn't drink alcohol and was adamant that Voyager always have non-alcoholic options available.  We were grateful for that.  The wine tastings are free at Voyager, and it's worth a visit to just check out the grounds.

 We took the scenic route through the Boranup Karri Forest.

 Michael Wright's winery.

 Viva Australia…er, Aussie, Aussie, Aussie…Oi, Oi, Oi.

 Our non-alcoholic wine.

 Endless fields of vines.

 The hot spot in Margaret River.

The lunch was not our cup of tea...we aren't really fancy food people.  $35/person for the "large" lunch was about what we're used to for Western Australia and the atmosphere, but Eliza doesn't like steaks that aren't cooked at least to medium-well and they refused to cook it beyond medium (we have found that several restaurants refuse to cook it beyond medium...a bit snobby, if you ask us).  The portions were quite small as well.  Cody had the sampler plate that included chorizo, chicken pistachio sausage, duck pate, some small fish dish, and bread.  The only thing worth eating was the chorizo.  We're sure the lunch was really high quality food, we just don't appreciate that kind of thing...probably would have rather had some Whoppers from Hungry Jacks (Burger King).

After lunch, we headed back to Margaret River to the Fudge Factory and sampled 9 different kinds of fudge (strawberries and cream, cherry coconut, mango, mocha, chocolate orange, chocolate chili, chocolate ginger, caramel cashew, and apple pie), buying some to take home to the kids.  We had a little wander around Margaret River and then headed east to Jesters Flat for some horseback riding.

Jesters Flat was a pretty cool place.  It was just the 2 of us with a guide and we were able to trot and canter with the horses.  It was unique to be riding horses among the kangaroos and eucalyptus trees.  $55/person for an hour was not a bad price.

We then made the three and a half hour trek home.