87. Go to an orchid garden

On Thursday we headed to The Singapore Botanical Gardens for the morning. It's a pretty beautiful place. Because we were there in the morning we got to see some people doing tai chi near the entrance. It's pretty cool to see a bunch of people moving together at once like that. We enjoyed a nice walk through part of the garden and found the orchid garden hidden at the back. Imagine thousands of orchids in one place and you get the picture! Our plan is to take some of our favourite photos and have them made into paintings for our house back home. Here's a few of our faves.

All of the yellow flowers are orchids!!!





18 down...82 to go!!

45. Ride on a zip line

Sticking with the Amazing Race theme, we went to Sentosa Island to hit the beach and go to MegaZip Adventure Park. We opted for the zip line ride down from the peak to an island out in the water. It was fantastic and we all enjoyed the thrill of the ride!


17 down...83 to go..

71. Drink a Singapore Sling in Singapore

One evening after Universal Studios, we trekked to the Raffles Hotel, home of The Long Bar where the Singapore Sling was invented. It was a big bar with 2 levels with peanuts on every table. The floor was ultra slippery though as you just threw the peanut shells on the floor! It was a little odd being at a bar at 10 PM with kids, but apparently they are allowed on the lower level! Amanda enjoyed the Sling and we all shared some desserts!

16 down...84 to go...

42. Eat an ice cream sandwich like the one from The Amazing Race

It took us almost 4 full days in Singapore to finally find the cool treat to beat the heat! Amanda and I have been dedicated Amazing Race viewers since it began and when we saw the Singapore leg last year on TV, I knew that I would love these ice cream sandwiches. These are unique as they are a 1 inch slab of any flavor you want and you have the choice of eating the ice cream between 2 wafers or in a folded piece of normal bread. I was 100% in favor of the bread and it did not disappoint! These were the greatest ever and we all enjoyed them. When we move home, I'm buying a box of ice cream and some bread the minute we get back!

15 down....85 to go..

34. Go to a fish spa and get a pedicure from some fish

After our full day of walking around the zoo and an evening of walking around the Night Safari coming up, Amanda and the kids decided to get a much needed fish pedicure at a fish spa located just outside the zoo. It was quite hilarious watching them as the the fish consumed the excess flesh from their feet...kinda creepy if you ask me!

14 down....86 to go...

31. See an orangutan up close

Amanda arranged for us to have breakfast with some orangutans at the zoo and we are all happy she did! Not only was the food delicious, but we got to sit about two metres away from a group of orangutans while they enjoyed their breakfast too. We were also able to get nice and close for some great pictures. The little baby was definitely the biggest hit. Seeing these animals up close was something none of us will ever forget!





13 down...87 to go!

49. Feed an interesting creature

As I mentioned in the previous blog, we visited the Singapore Zoo on Monday and fed some very interesting creatures!

At the beginning of the day we were able to see 2 of the zoo's elephants taking their morning bath. One of the elephants thought it would be great fun to absolutely SOAK Amanda. It was pretty funny. We spent about 15 minutes feeding the elephants apples and carrots. Kaid was pretty nervous at first. You could tell he really wanted to do it, but he was clearly scared. He told me later that he had thought that elephants use their trunks like vacuums to suck things up. He had been worried that his arm would get sucked up the trunk! Once he realized that their trunks are just like hands, he very enthusiastically started feeding them. Thanks to Kaidyn, those elephants ate about 50 kg of food in about 5 minutes!

The next animals we fed were the giraffes. This was definitely the MESSIEST feeding session we participated in. Kylisha and Amanda are still finding giraffe slobber behind their ears. Basically you can hold a carrot anywhere near your face (or in your pocket) and the giraffes will use their 3 metre long tongues to find and grab the carrots!! Because the zoo was so dead we ended up feeding the giraffes for a long time. We were definitely happy that we had the opportunity to go during the week. We have heard that it's ridiculously busy on Saturdays and Sundays.

A quick shout out to Amanda's "Bonus Face" in this pic! It's a surprise she let me post it! hahaha! The giraffe's slobber was definitely too good not to share, though!


Later in the day we got to get up close and personal with some giant tortoises. Some of the tortoises were 80 years old. Because their jaws are so powerful, you can't feed them out of your hand like the other animals at the zoo. We fed them apples by putting the chunks on the ends of sticks. The tortoises would eat the apples off the sticks. It was pretty hilarious seeing 5 giant tortoises "chasing" Kaidyn around to try and get him to feed them. They were surprisingly fast for being so huge. Kaid loved rubbing their heads and feeling their shells too. Once again, since the zoo was so dead, we spent about a half hour interacting with these big guys. Pretty cool.

Later in the afternoon we fed one of Kylisha's favourite animals-the manatee. The last time we went to Florida Kylisha, Amanda, and Amanda's dad went and swam with manatees in the wild. Kylisha absolutely fell in love with them, so she was pretty excited to be able to feed them. It was pretty cool to feed them because they have rough whiskers that they use to help push the food you are holding into their mouths. We fed them cooked potatoes and carrots. Since they have no teeth, their food has to be soft. The kids loved rubbing their heads and feeling their whiskers. There were also 2 babies that were pretty cute.

At the end of the day we checked out the Australian area of the zoo and we got to interact with some kangaroos and wallabies. Kaidyn loved cuddling up with the kangaroos. They were so tame and friendly. Since there were no other people around we got to spend as much time as we wanted hanging out with them. A perfect way to end our day there!

It's hard to pick which experience was the best, but if we had to choose our faves, here's what we'd have to say:

My fave-the elephants
Kaid's-manatees
Kylisha's- Tie between giraffes and manatees
Amanda's- Tie between giraffes and tortoises

12 experiences down...only 88 more to go!

7. Visit the Singapore Zoo

We just returned from Singapore and the highlight for all of us was our visit to the Singapore Zoo. To say the very least it was SPECTACULAR! It was by far the best zoo we've ever been to (and are likely to ever visit). It is an open concept zoo and they use moats instead of bars. The zoo is right in the middle of the jungle and it really doesn't feel like you're in a zoo at all. We got VERY close to several types of animals and the kids (and my wife) LOVED feeding and touching all the creatures.










11 DOWN...89 to go!!!

Kaid's birthday, the grande Buddha, and another baby

On Kaid's birthday we headed to HK on the 8 am ferry. It is so simple to get around HK on the MTR; we easily made it to the Disneyland resort. Once we got there we checked into the Hollywood Hotel and then we headed to the park. When we were checking in they gave Kaid a birthday button which helped him receive approximately 50 birthday wishes from random people throughout the day. He also managed to collect a huge stack of stickers from the cast members. Kaidyn's favourite land is Tomorrowland so that's where we went first.



After hitting the Buzz ride and Space Mountain (known as Ghost Galaxy during the Halloween season) we went to meet our haunted tour guide at City Hall. Our guide's name was Phobe (pronounced fo-be, not fee-be). She was great and made Kaid's birthday pretty amazing. First she presented him with some Mickey ears with his name on them. Then she took us for a private "session" with Chip and Dale. It was pretty hilarious to be in the room with Chip and Dale, our family of 4, Phobe, and 3 other random workers (1 photographer and 2 people to shout poses out and make us laugh). There was some ring around the rosie going on, and a lot of hugging, with a little, "let's all be really scary for the camera" thrown in for good measure. Good times!



Phobe turned out to be our best friend. She took us around the park and we went to the very front of each and every ride. Not a single second of waiting. Sometimes she would even ride the rides with us. Because it is almost Halloween there are some "bonus" rides at the park right now. One is the Haunted House and one is Demon Jungle. Phobe assured us that the haunted house was "not too scary." So, we bravely followed our new BFF into the Disney haunted house. And...

I'm surprised our family made it out alive. It was terrifying for ALL of us!!! At every turn there were zombies and monsters jumping out of the darkness, grabbing at us and screaming LOUDLY in Chinese. We ended up walking through as a train. Phobe was in the front and Kylisha was behind her, holding her for dear life. Amanda had Kaid between her and Kylisha and she had one hand gripping Kylisha while her other hand held Kaid and covered his eyes. Meanwhile, I was at the back yelling, "I thought this was Disney!!" Randoms would grab at me and follow me with their meat cleavers. It was terrifying and it went on forever.




Once we were back in the safety of the sun our tour continued. Phobe said we only had one more ride...Demon Jungle. We explained to her that the house was too scary for us. We wanted to know about this jungle...would it be scary too?? Phobe assured us that the Demon Jungle was NOT scary. It was FUN. We believed her. She had a nice smile. She was rainbow-ish. She was jolly like a smurf. You would have believed her too.

Demon Jungle was the scariest "ride" we've ever encountered. First of all, it wasn't a ride...it was another stinking haunted house!! This time the dead zombie people were even more terrifying and angry. They yelled more Chinese and grabbed at our train as we chugged along praying for sunlight. At one point we had to walk the "gauntlet". There were about 12 scary tribal warrior scary dudes with spears lining the path on either side of the gauntlet. We had to walk between them to get across. Some were real men, some were statues. Or maybe all were real men? Our eyes were closed, so we can't be sure. We just know that they brutally attacked the group ahead of us.



After 7 or 8 hours of walking through the jungle we made it back into the Disney we know and love...scarred for life. That's when we found the frozen cheesecake.



We parted ways with Phobe and continued on our way. We had booked a dinner at one of the restaurants and Amanda had arranged for a cake. Kaid was pretty excited when they brought it out, and then the whole restaurant sang Happy Birthday to him. All the restaurant workers had also signed a birthday card for our boy. After dinner our server "Suki" taught the girls some Chinese. We stayed for the fireworks and the best parade I've ever seen at a Disney park. Kylisha started feeling sick right after dinner and almost had to call it a night at about 7, but she managed to tough it out until the fireworks were done.




All night Klash was up. The bug she had earlier in the week was back! In the morning we had a character breakfast planned and she couldn't come. And Kylisha loves those breakfasts! It was too bad. We will definitely have to go back...maybe for her birthday? The breakfast was very similar to the ones at the other parks. Lots of western food. There was also dim sum and Indian food. All the characters were dressed in Halloween costumes. But, the best outfit of all was the boy at the table beside us. He was about 4 and he was wearing a full on wet suit with jogging pants over top, and white disney slippers. His BMI was also roughly 37. He was awesome!!



Speaking of slippers...it was a good thing the hotel gave us some free slippers because Kylisha's flip flop broke at about 9 pm at the park. She was walking around with one shoe on and one bare foot for the rest of the night. The next day, though, she wore the slippers on the MTR to the mall where she bought some new sandals. The people on the MTR thought she was crazy and were blatantly pointing and laughing about her slippers. She was just thankful that she didn't have to walk barefoot. And...she was equally happy when she and Amanda found a Roxy outlet and she ended up with nicer sandals than the ones she had worn to HK!!



The giant Buddha on Lantau in HK is GIANT. Seriously. It's huge!! And it is also apparently very popular on Sundays! We waited in line to get tickets for the cable car up the mountain for longer than I wish to say. THEN, we bought our tickets and waited in line for another eternity!!! We could have went on 56 Disneyland rides in the time it took us to purchase tickets and get to the top of the mountain. A tip for anyone who plans on taking the cable car up-take the regular cabin UP the mountain and the glass bottomed car DOWN. Or, better yet-forget the glass bottomed number all together.




Once we arrived at the top we took a short hike up to the Buddha (it involved a few flights of stairs, but nothing serious). Kaid spotted a little man begging for change while we were there. The man had no arms and maybe one leg (or maybe a leg and a half). Kaid is intrigued by little people, so as he walked by the man he pointed him out to us and asked us why the little man was sitting there. We pointed out the man's red bucket and explained that he was looking for money. He wanted to give the man some money and talk to him, so Kylisha helped him (as he was eager, but equally timid).



As we mentioned in the last blog, we gorged ourselves on ice cream a couple of times and then headed back down the hill. From that point it took us about 3 hours to get home! We took the MTR back to the Disney hotel (where our bags were being stored), then back the other way to get to the ferry station. Then we grabbed dinner to go from various restaurants at the ferry terminal and made the 6:30 ferry back to Macau. We enjoyed our dinner on the ferry. And Amanda enjoyed the lady sitting beside her. She kept puking in the barf bag. Awesome.

Finally, we wish to send a BIG congratulations to our friends Darcy and Michelle from back in Edmonton! On Sunday they had their first baby-a little boy-Davin. Michelle is like Amanda's little sister and Darcy calls me POPS, so I guess Davin is our nephew/grandson. Wish we could have been there, kids! Enjoy every minute.