With our daughter nearly two years old we decided to take a trip overseas. to be honest by the time the trip came around it was more of a health break as the air in Shanghai had been really bad for a whole month and we were not feeling the best. But as we might go to Europe in the summer we wanted to take a shorter trip overseas with the baby to see how she would behave on the plane and on holidays. We also wanted to goto a safe modern city should anything go wrong or should we forget anything important so a trip inside China was not on the cards.
I fly to Singapore frequently for shoots but had never spend more than a half day or so afterwards in which I usually went straight to the Kinokuniya bookstore on Orchard Road to stock up on reading material as you can't get any books in China worth reading.
I fly to Singapore frequently for shoots but I have never spent more than a day there myself and most of it in Kinokuniya book store on Orchard Road to stock up on reading material for the next while as you can't get decent books here. The few English book stores have mostly travel and business books. My wife had been there on business too and was sure there was nothing to do but shopping and gambling. So I picked a range of places to give us a good family holiday and although we didn't get through half of the events I had planned (one of the things we learned of traveling with a baby) we did see the fun side of Singapore without loosing our shirts in a casino.
There are three excellent beaches in Singapore on Sentosa Island and one especialy designed for families.
Our daughter did not like the sand on her toes so she stayed on the blanket for the entire visit.
You can never guess what's going to entertain a baby. She loved playing in the corridor outside our door with the bag of buckets and spades for the beach.
She did however love the free swings outside the local MRT subway station and stayed there for two hours.
Here she looks like a little old lady at the betting track that is not winning. The highlight of her trip to the zoo was not the animals but the zoo map which she still looks at daily.
It was also our first AirBnB experience and it was quite successful. We even had a swimming pool in the complex to cool down with.
We learned that we need to plan activities especially for her in the morning and afternoon to keep her entertained and calm. So we visited the swings or a playground each day.
I love the determination on her face here. She is going to get to the top of that slide. Never mind that she is going the wrong way.
It didn't always go well. There were a few tantrums here and there but at the end of a successful day she was ready to fall asleep. Then myself and her mother could have some time to ourselves, at least that was the theory. We were usually so tired that it wasn't long after we were heading to bed ourselves.