Tag Archives: Shangri-La

On Friday September 28th, the kids finished school at noon.  1 short hour later we were on our way to the airport to fly to Singapore for the start of our 10 day holiday over Golden Week.  We flew China Eastern Airlines (I have previously flown a couple of times with them domestically), and this was a different experience from British Airways and Delta – both of whom we are frequent fliers with.  China Eastern Airlines ran out of food and drink when we were only half way into the flight!  The flight was full of people escaping China for the holiday week and the economy seats felt much smaller than in BA or Delta!  It is a 5.5 hour flight from Shanghai to Singapore and I know that for Owen it felt like 15 hours!  Once again, I was proud of our kids who were so well behaved.   Singapore airport was a welcome sight – so clean, so organized and so quick!  No lines to get through immigration and our bags came off rapidly too.  Once through customs, there was a very nice driver waiting to take us to the Shangri-La Sentosa Beach resort.  It was now after 10pm and our 2 kids were fading fast……

We drove in a fancy people carrier which the kids loved.  Owen and I just wanted to get to our hotel room at this point!  Check in was fast – a lovely open air lobby on the 5th floor (road side) and then we rode the elevator down to the first floor to our family garden terrace room by the pool.

Owen’s back was so painful after the travel day and so for our first full day Owen did not leave the hotel room.  Isabelle and Oliver were oblivious to either parent as there was a huge pool with water slides!  They were perfectly happy to be here for the whole day and they quickly made friends on the water slides.   Our international move has been so good for the kids confidence (especially Isabelle, who can be quite reserved initially) as they are both proactive now at introducing themselves and making friends.

Later in the afternoon, I realized that I did not have any Singapore $$’s so I booked the kids into Cool Zone (kids club) for 30 minutes so I could get the tram into beach station to find an ATM.  I was so glad that I did that as I saw lots of good things to do outside the resort.  Also, Isabelle and Oliver loved the Cool Zone and begged to go back later!

I came back to get them so we could see some of the activities that they might want to do – the Luge, Mega Zip wire, Beach, Trapeze.  On the way down we saw a couple of peacocks, a big lizard and lots of monkeys!  We had been warned to keep our terrace patio doors closed as the monkeys will come in to steal things!  During our stay we witnessed a cheeky monkey leap from one balcony to another with something glittery in his hands!  Of course, the kids thought this was hilarious.

After a really nice dinner – we are all inclusive so dinner was buffet, but what a choice and all great quality.  I like the concept of eat as much as you want too!  Isabelle and Oliver loved going to all the different stations to try new food.  After dinner, they both wanted to spend a couple of hours in the Cool Zone, so Owen and I took advantage of that to enjoy an adult drink and conversation.

Sunday was a much better day for Owen’s back pain so we rode the tram into Beach Station.  First item on the agenda was the Luge!  – we all had a couple of go’s on the luge.  First it was a ski life ride up to the top – our ride’s were attached underneath us.  My stomach dipped a couple of times riding this and we were not that high up!!  What a rush on the Luge!  There were 2 runs down, and once we had completed one, we were back on the ski life to do the other run!  Isabelle rode with me and Oliver rode with Owen on the first run, and on the second run, Isabelle wanted to do it by herself so Oliver rode with me.  As it requires a little arm strength to control the brake and turn capabilities, half way down the second run, Isabelle had enough and rode the rest of it with Owen.

Too cool!

After the Luge, we rode the tram up to the next stop where the Singapore Merlion is.  We all climbed the Merlion and took photos from the top – you could see all of Sentosa from there, including Universal Studios!  We all stood in the Merlions mouth for more photos and discovered that it actually has 16 teeth and not 4 that you can see from below!    We took a leisurely walk back to Beach Station and then caught the tram back to the hotel.  After another lovely dinner, the kids begged to go back to Cool Zone so Owen and I had another lovely evening enjoying a couple of cocktails before we collected them at bedtime!

On Monday morning we booked the kids into the Cool Zone as Owen and I wanted to do iFly (skydiving inside) but it was fully booked!  So we took a leisurely walk along the beach and relaxed by the pool for the rest of the morning until it was time to collect the kids.  Once we picked them up, we went straight to Mega Zip which is most definitely the longest Zip line I have ever seen and…. OMG what an experience!!!!  Soooooo much fun.  Isabelle was scared at the top so we told the guys just let us go and once we were on our way she enjoyed it.  Owen and Oliver went down together and Isabelle and I went together…..

Hanging about at Silosa Beach

More swim and slides time at the pool when we got back.  After dinner, the kids again, begged to go back to the Cool Zone.  Owen and I had always thought that kids club were dumping grounds for parents who did not want to spend time with their kids – it never occurred to us that the kids would actually beg to do it!!  When we passed by the window (on the way to enjoy another evening cocktail!), they were both wrapping one of the workers in toilet roll like a mummy!   They have had so much fun at this resort – we would definitely come back and it is highly recommended.

Tuesday meant an early breakfast as our taxi was coming at 9:00 to take us to the airport for our flight to Kuantan in Malaysia.  Singapore airport is a lovely airport – clean, spacious, lots of lovely shops, big play area for kids and best of all, the x-ray machines are by each gate!  What a fabulous idea to reduce long security lines!  It was an uneventful short 1 hour flight on a little prop jet plane.