Mum's Visit

Mum was here for a month so this is a long one! Here's the short version of what we did plus some photos that are not suitable for posting on open networks :)

Picked Mum up at the airport - Emotional reunion

After she had a nap we met David at his office at Raffles/Marina Bay Financial District

Watched the National day celebrations from 28th floor

When we got home we showed mum around the condo and played pool

Next day Mum and I walked around Jurong lake and Chinese/Japanese Garden for two hours, which was a baptism of fire for her in the humidity. We saw:
Massive lizards swimming and walking
Kingfishers

Loads of turtles

Various fresh water fish

Herons

Can't remember now but we saw loads of stuff

Next day back to the airport to to go the Philippines

Cebu

Picked up our rental car and got a McDonalds

Drove for a couple of hours and eventually found the Granada Beach Boutique Hotel which  was so out of the way, tucked up a hill on a long dirt track with no sign posts.

Feeling around in the dark when we got to the deserted place, as they had no other guests, and only one member of staff who we bumped into in the dark - quite terrifying

Day of rest - looked around the old 17th century fort and read a lot in bed.

Up early to swim with the whale sharks. They were magnificent and kind of scary because they were so huge! Very friendly though, and beautiful

A big kerfuffle about a flat tyre

Bit of snorkeling but mostly getting stung by jellyfish

Driving to our next hotel and stopping at two magnificent waterfalls on the way.
Mum also had a ride on the back of a motor bike up a very steep hill

I am wearing a scarf because after jumping in two waterfalls I had run out of clothes.

Next hotel - Dolphin House, very nice welcome and lovely dinner

This was our dinner pet ^

Chillin, swimming and more reading

Driving around at night trying to find a restaurant

Snorkeling/beach where mum got ambushed by a flock of beach sellers
Back to Cebu, fancy hotel, the Marco Polo Plaza

Playing in the pool, taking advantage of the cable TV

David and I got some serious massages

Temple day (there'll be a separate post about that) and then to the airport for our flight home

Church at Singapore 1st Ward

Showed mum how to use a gym, swam in our pools, I believe mum then did general chillin, went for a blood test, did our shopping and house work

She went exploring around Marina Bay/Gardens by the Bay

We all went to the Bird park which turned out to be amazing and another day of pure sweating

Followed by dinner at our favourite restaurant Poulet and amazing milkshakes

Bit of night swimming at the condo

Watched some of the DVDs mum brought with her

Mum went to church and taught my primary class for me as I was working

Then David and mum came to meet me at the end of my shift at the hospital and I showed mum around as much as I could. Unfortunately it was dark

Monday we walked across the boardwalk to Sentosa, island of fun!

Went on segways, did a cable car sky ride twice and luge down the hill twice which was loads of fun!

Visited the beautiful butterfly kingdom where there was also bird feeding which was hilarious!
Here are some highlights:

This is the downward spiral of bird feeding for mum, I've started at the point when she was starting to doubt that it was a good idea. I love the facial expressions of pretending to enjoy it mixed with despair.

This is the best bird ever!

I thought it was only fair to include one of me. It really isn't fun, but all of us, including the staff, had a great time laughing at mum :)

Mum post-traumatisation:

You know as you walk into an adventure park and they take your picture, then try and sell it to you at the end... I guess they hadn't seen one like this before. Makes me laugh every time.

Mum on the luge... not that she was holding everyone up or anything.

Couple of days later we went out for dinner at Marche which is a really cool restaurant but it was pretty much ruined by a random emotional outburst from me - work stress..

Mum took herself to the Botanical gardens and seemed to really enjoy it

David and I went to see "The Internship" and Mum chilled at home

We went to Bali!

Bali is just lovely, it's now my favourite place in south east Asia.

It really has a rich culture of Hinduism and arts particularly sculptures and statues which are lovely.

Checked into our lovely little resort

Next day chilled out and then went white water rafting, not the most rapid of rapids but it was fun and beautiful. We stood under some more of the waterfalls and David and I were able to get out near the end and swim the rest which was really nice.

This is mum getting a little help on the way back up. There were millions of steps to be fair. 

We stopped at a coffee farm/shop where we learned some interesting things (Cat-poo-chino) and had some delicious chocolate.

Early next morning (2am) we left for the volcano, Mount Batu I think, and mum made it pretty much all the way up. We climbed while it was dark so that we could see the sun rise from the top. It was breath taking.

This is mum after having climbed and descended a volcano :)

There were some ruins and temples near the bottom.

When we got down we went to some natural hot springs next to the volcano to relax, something like 42 degrees in there!

Then we stopped at one of the many Hindu temples which was interesting.

After a nap we had a nice dinner here:

Next day we wanted to visit the beach before flying home so we borrowed some bikes from the hotel as it was not far away. Mum preferred to walk though, and got very lost, which resulted in us riding around endlessly and panicking about missing our flight before I found her at least two hours later.
When we got back to Singapore we went to the night safari. Saw some cool animals, photos didn't come out too well though as there was no flash allowed

Went out for diner the next day after work and took mum back to the airport for the 6th and last time!

Bye bye mummy!