We have no immediate family here in Singapore, so I thought a two- to three-day family vacation would be a great way to celebrate my son’s second birthday. Last year, we arranged a Jollibee party for him. It was attended mostly by family members and a few of our closest friends in southern Metro Manila. It was also a good time for my son’s cousins to see each other, some of whom haven’t seen him in person. I also wanted my parents to be there since it’s his first birthday but my father, who passed away recently, was not feeling well that day. My mother was there along with his half a dozen “após”.
All firsts are special. His small Jollibee party was a lot of fun. But after the party I told my wife that in the future, instead of parties, we should travel instead as a family, something we did as a couple before the baby came. Now that he’s getting bigger, it’s time to tag him along. We had so much fun during our stay in D’Resort (D’Resort @ Downtown East). A caveat here, though: this is not a review — don’t even think it is one. It’s a brief shout out of sorts. The place was so nice and the people too.
We celebrated our son’s birthday in D’Resort over the weekend. It is a quality leisure and entertainment resort. People get to relax, dine, and play. It was renovated in 2012 with the concept of being the “first nature-inspired resort with an integrated waterpark experience”. It has its own access passage to the enormous swimming complex (Wild Wild Wet). Swimming and playing around the pool is something that the mother and child enjoys. But because my son just turned two, we didn’t get to try those towering pool slides. They look enticing and intimidating at the same time. There’s this slide (they call it Vortex) that is so high one would slide down at 35 feet per second! Our baby was happy waddling around the shallow pools for toddlers. And so did we. For the price of the accommodation, we had a great room (Beach Cove class) with a vista of Pasir Ris Beach. It’s big enough to house maybe six people. It has four beds that we ended up linking together. We brought our own food, some pasta, bread, drinks, and of course the birthday cake as we sang “Feliz cumpleaños a ti” to our beautiful boy on the first night of our stay at around eight in the evening.
From time to time, I do surf fishing in Pasir Ris beach. The rear of the D’ Resort faces the straits of Johor. The body of water that separates the main island to Pulau Ubin. On a clear day, you could see what’s on the island. I heard a few signal noises from commercial ships that pass by. Nothing that would bother your rest. As a matter of fact, I get excited when I hear one. Our room is about 500 meters from the shore. These loud noises are created by the ships air horn. They remind me of my time in Mabolo, Cebú City. I rented an apartment near the pier. At nights, when land traffic and human noise are low, you could hear the ships.
For this vacation, my wife came up with the idea of taking one but not going out of town. She said it’s called “staycation”. I thought the whole thing did not make sense. Why would you go to a hotel within town to take a vacation?
Well, they say when you try new things, that’s when you learn. Our schedule here in Singapore is hectic. We both work and take turns taking care of the baby. We don’t have household help nor relatives to rely on. I’m consulting for a European company that is based in California. This gives me some flexibility with time. I work all night (morning in the US).
When the sun comes up, I take over baby duties. When my wife comes back home from work in the afternoon, she takes the wheel from me and I go rest. I normally sleep less than 4 hours in most days. If you don’t have a lot of time for an extended vacation and you need to have one quick vacation, a “staycation” solves that. The idea wasn’t as bad as I thought it to be. So we headed to the closest resort in town. And when I say close, I mean close. Roughly three kilometers away from home!
On the third and last day, we waited for the sun to rise. There’s an exit to the park and beach surf for guests at the rear. We walked along the coasts. It was relaxing to us adults, but the baby was a bit terrified by the strong crashing tides. I wonder if he would have any memories of this when he grows up.
