Keat-In-Space: June 2011

I am always looking for new healthy and tasty snacks for Kiiron. I know that we are not suppose to encourage our little tots to take so much titbits but we adults also cannot stop ourselves from munching right? As long as the snacks are not too high in salt content and he takes it in moderation, I'm not too particular. Kiiron is not a food lover so I'll let him have whatever he wants to eat, if he is intereted.

Great! Here's the evidence I needed to proof that I'm not dreaming up this myself. In fact I think this applies for 1-99 years old. More than 25% of my calories came from snacks!

Snacks are also essential items to pack when we are travelling, especially when they get older. I need lots of snacks to keep him seated during the flight, especially during take-off and landing. Munching on snacks helps to relief the ear pressure too.

Here are what we found recently.

Freeze Dried Mini Fruits
Available at NTUC ($6.95) and Cold Storage Drie($7.20) in 2 flavors. (Apple / Banana Strawberry). I find it a bit pricy though and the volume is really little, especially so when mummy is munching on it too! I prefer the Banana Strawberry one more, we already finished 4 packs of it.

Lil' Crunchies
I ordered this together with my iHerb parcel. I haven't seen this in Singapore's shops yet. It's basically an ang-mo version of our childhood favourite snack, Chickadee... without so much MSG and salt. There's several flavors but Veggie Dip is the only one available when I placed my orders. Kiiron is not so hot over this and ate like about 10 pcs only. Kippy and I finished up the rest.

It's been almost 2 months since little Bay had last seen his daddy. Mark had been very busy at work and couldn't take any leave to come back to Singapore. So I, the wonderful wife and dedicated mother, decided to take a week off work and fly the little boy 2000 over miles across the ocean to see his old man.

It's good that there are so many flights to Shanghai to select from and we took the mid-afternoon one so that we can sleep until "自然醒" and then enjoy a nice lunch at the transit area before boarding the plane.

What should I have for lunch? ... Chicken rice, of course!

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Butterfly Garden
We still have some time before boarding (dedicated mummy had forgo all the shopping plans!) so we went to check out the Butterfly Garden.

Getting There
Singapore Changi Airport, T3 transit area (behind Cheers mini-mart)
There's skytrain connecting the 3 terminals so you dont necessary need to fly from T3 to visit this place

Admission
Free for all. 24 hours.

Facilities
The area is not big and there are 2 levels with only stairs. When I was there, there were only 2 other people inside the garden, so not crowded at all. It is a really beautiful garden with many different types plants, trees and of course butterflies.

Rating (4.5/5)
Will definitely bring Bay to the garden again. As we didnt go down to the lower deck this time, will check it out next time.

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As usual, we were the last few to board...

One quick snap with Grandma before boarding

En-route...
Bay is still entitled for an infant ticket, so he was not allocated a seat. The ticketing officer did advice me to get him an infant ticket with seat for him, but that means I have to pay $1k more! CRAZY!!! Anyway, I never liked to take the front rows with bassinet seat. Although there is more leg room, but usually the arm rest cannot be lifted. I prefer the back rows if there is an empty seat next to mine. I will do a seat selection during internet check-in and block out the 2 aisle seats, leaving the middle one empty. When I check in at the airport, I will be "boey paisay" and ask the ground staff to lock the middle seat for me so that no one will take that place. Most of the time they will do so if the flight is not 100% booked. This trick works 90% of the time. Lucky us! This trip we got free seats for Bay on both ways.

Sharing a seat with Grandma

Bay is usually quite well behaved on most flights and will normally doze off right after take-off. As we had a seat for him during the 2 flights, he was able to lie down comfortably and he slept for more than 2 hours. I would too if I can lie down flat!

He's such a darling!

I'm one of the rare few who love aircraft food. For some reason, I'm always hungry during the flight and I look forward to meal times.

Grandma's oriental veggie meal

My international set. Not so nice, but I still finish every drop

Bay's kid meal. Soggy chicken nuggets with BBQ sauce. He ate a bit and I finish the rest!

Having fun with not one but two controllers!

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Bay's reaction when he first saw his papa after 2 months was priceless! His eyes lit up and he smiled shyly, then let out the softest but the sweetest "papa" ever.

Our 1st stop is to head for dinner. 一茶一坐 @ 世纪莲花, one of the restuarant chain that we frequent often in China with clean and tasty food. Child friendly too.

Chilling with papa during dinner

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The 1st thing we did the next day is to go to Thumb's plaza for breakfast and most importantly to buy some supplies at Carrefour. Well... in supplies I actually meant toys!

Doting dad bought a cart load full of toys and story books for little Bay

Bought this yummy korean fried chicken for lunch. It was so spicy... even for me, the self-proclaimed top spicy chilly-hot lover. Totally addicted to it!

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静安寺

My mum had wanted to visit this temple for the longest of time but didnt have any chance during the past few trips. Parts of the temple are still under renovation but the works on the main area are done.

Bay is try to show the "peace" sign. No sight of Grandma as she refuse to have her pic taken

Getting There
上海市静安区南京西路1686号
We drove there and there is no parking at the temple, so we had to park the car somewhere behind, in one of the courtyards. Very easy to get to via subway line 2, alight at the 静安寺 stop and voila! you are at the doorstep.

Admission
RMB 30 per adult. Free for little Bay
Open Daily from 7:30 am - 5:00 pm

Facilities
As with most temples, there are long flight of steps leading to the main hall. I dont see any lifts so we took turns to go up as we dont want to manually hoist the stroller up.

Rating (4/5)
This is one of the recommended place to visit, especially so since it is so easy to get to and right on the famous 南京西路 itself. There are many parks and shopping malls around it, so bundle it with a day trip around the area... which was what we did.

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We went for an early dinner at 久光百货 next to the temple. Spicy Hunan style. Ordered steam egg and some non-spicy veggie for Bay. Those typical little clay bowl steam rice served at Hunan restuarant as so cute and the portion is just nice for Bay... unfortunately he does not like the chinese 大米, so he only ask 1-2 mouth full. I love eating the 剁椒鱼... my staple food when I live in China.

On the week we were there, it's China's Children's Day (1st Jun), so many department stores are having 70% sale for kids items. What a bliss! haha! No bargaining needed. Bought these in 1 hour

All these things for one little boy...
Best buy: Combi shoes (RMB100), Thomas the Train (RMB50) and a nice top for Reuben's wedding

Happily playing train with papa

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We spend most of the days nuaing at home, hanging out at Thumb's plaza or at carrefour while Mark is at work. Mark promised that he will take care of Bay if he is not working... so little boy will bath in the evening as papa is in-charge of "bong bong".

Fun time in the bath tub

Little boy will literately "cry" when washing hair... either he thinks that the water are his tears or he is threatening us that he will really cry. He hates to brush teeth too.

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We get to use the car for a day as Mark has a day trip to Nanjing, so we went to check out the Bund. Driving in Shanghai was actually not too bad as people dont drive as fast and are more willing to give way. Nevertheless, I've not driven there for 1.5 years already, so it was still quite nerve wracking. Getting the GPS to work was much more challenging than the actual driving. I decided to park the car at 正大广场, then take the tourist rail across to the bund. I spent a good 30 mins trying to search for 正大广场 on the darn GPS. I almost wanted to crash it. Well... once that was done (not crashing the GPS, but getting it to work), driving to the place was rather uneventful.

Our route for the day...

Stop 1: 正大广场

Super Brand Mall (上海市浦东新区陆家嘴西路168号)

My favourite mall in Shanghai Pudong. There are many international brands like Zara, Mango, UniQlo and best of all H&M. If you are looking for cheap bargains, this might not be the place for you though. We parked the car here as we intend to come back to this place to shop and eat afterwards.

Having some snack while waiting to start our trip

Stop 2: 外滩观光隧道

Bund Tourist Tunnel. I took this with Jean back in 2007 when she was in Shanghai for holidays. I thought little boy would love to take the train as he is obsessed with trains now. It's about 5 mins walk from 正大广场 to the station at Pudong side. This will bring us across the river to the Puxi side, right at the Bund.

Some pics outside the Toursit Tunnel Station at Pudong side

Ticket: RMB30 for one way and RMB40 for return tickets

There are some crappy exhibition which they had bundle with the train ticket. The ticket sales person will always push you to buy the bundle tickets, which I did. Like I said, I knew the exhibitions were crappy and I dont know why I bought the bundle tickets, perhaps I thought Bay would love to see some sea creatures...

In the end, I bought the RMB55 bundle tickets with admission to 1 exhibition (underwater creatures). We were in and out of the exhibition in 10 mins. Small and dusty exhibition hall and some fish tanks. I'll give this exhibition a 1/5 rating

Finally, we are ready to take the Tourist Tunnel train, they are not really train but more like a bubble capsule on the tracks... The whole journey across the river takes less than 5 mins, I manage to capture the journey on video because I forgot to turn off my camara. haha!

Look mama, TRAIN!!!

They made the journey like a Disneyland kiddy ride, with bright neon lights and music throughout. Quite fun for kids. I dont mind bringing little Bay back for another ride next time, minus the exhibition.
Rating (3.5/5) for the train ride.

Stop 3: 外滩
The famous Bund needs no introduction. It was under renovation for the past few times we were in Shanghai, so mum didnt had a chance to walk on it yet. Our main mission for today is to walk on the Bund.

Mission accomplished

Stop 4: 和平饭店
Peace Hotal, a landmark made famous because there was a movie with the same name. Actually I think I've never been inside... or maybe once long long time ago before it's renovation and I cant remember already. Anyway, no lasting impression.

Boring...

Stop 5: 南京路步行街

Next stop... lunch. We had 过桥米线, it's basically thick beehoon in chicken broth. It's one of my staple diet in China, I had it almost 2 times per week when I was preggie then. After lunch, some walking / shopping on the Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street. This is one of the main shopping belts in Shanghai... Actually it's better to come at night, so you can see the neon lights. Shopping is ok, lots of things to see but I felt it's mostly overpriced. If anyone asked, the shop that I'll recommend you to check out is Meters/bonwe, a local brand of fashion store endorsed by Jay Chau. The products quality is good and reasonably priced. At least if you cant find anything to buy, there are still posters of Jay to look at. keke!

Stop 6: 地铁2号线

I forgot to buy the return ticket for the Tourist Tunnel and luckily I didnt, if not we'll have to walk all the way back to the Bund. We took the Subway line 2 back to Pudong Oriental Pearl Tower (1 stop). RMB3 per person. Bay got to take the train again... Lucky boy!

Stop 7: 东方明珠塔

We alighted at this station and walk on the mega pedestrain bridge to get back to Super Brand Mall.

More pics with Grandma

Stop 8: 正大广场

We are back to our starting point and we spent 5 hours in this mall!

Taking a break @ 满记 dessert store

Mummy shopped while Bay naps... and soon its time for dinner... We went to 俏江南 to have our favourite 水煮鱼 for dinner on the top most floor of Super Brand Mall. You could get very good view of the Bund from the restuarant if you dont mind paying extra for a window seat.

Yum! Yum!

We reached home at almost 9 pm. It's a 10-hour long day for us... exhausted!

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Fun weekend with papa...

PEACE!

Shanghainese lunch...

Korean dinner...

Shanghai and Beijing are suprisingly quite child friendly cities. I dont need to hoist the stroller very often, unlike Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan which are super stroller unfriendly. Most of the restaurants do provide high chairs and kids cutleries but dont expect small eateries to have such services though.

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It's time to go back to Singapore