Crete, October 25. - 30. 2018

October school holidays is an ideal time to discover Southern Europe - the weather is likely to be still quite warm, but not hot like in summer, the crowds are reasonable and the flights to many destinations are pretty short from where we live. We were considering several destinations in Southern Europe, but finally chose the island of Crete. The history, culture, food and beautiful nature seemed good enough reasons for wanting to go. 

Our holiday actually started already a day before, on October 24th. We wished to get to Crete as fast as possible, not taking any connecting flights. From the closest airport to us, Nice Cote d'Azur, there were no direct flights to Crete and with taking connecting flights we would have ended up spending the whole day travelling and waiting around in airports. Milan Malpensa is about three and a half hour drive from Antibes, where we live, and there was a convenient and very cheap direct EasyJet flight from Milan to Heraklion. We did not think long to buy those tickets! 

The flight to Heraklion was leaving at 6 in the morning and it seemed like a good idea to go somewhere near the Malpensa airport the evening before, in order to get a decent night of sleep. We opted for a MO.OM hotel about 10 minutes from Malpensa airport. The Garden Family Junior Suite was on two levels. The ground level had a sitting room with a sofa bed (was large enough that my 9- and 11-year olds slept there comfortably) and a modern bathroom with a big rainfall shower. The double bed was on the mezzanine level. The hotel was reasonably priced and within walking distance of several restaurants. We tried a nearby restaurant called Rosso and it did not disappoint. We would definitely stay in the same place again when flying from Milan Malpensa.

In front of the Rosso restaurant after a lovely meal

The two and half hour flight from Milan to Heraklion ended with a bumpy crosswind landing at the Heraklion airport. The weather was cool and very windy, not the sunny Indian summer that we had hoped for. We got our rental car from Europcar to start the half an hour drive towards Anissaras beach, where our hotel was located. Fortunately the gloomy weather only lasted for the first day, we had sunshine for the rest of our holiday.

Wishing mostly to relax and to have everything available at the hotel, we chose to stay the all inclusive Mitsis Laguna Resort and Spa. This time we also vacationed with my sister's family, who had already arrived at the hotel a day before us, so we were a group of 10 in total - four adults and six children. The hotel was beautiful Venetian style with immaculately kept grounds, several swimming pools and just across the road from the beach. The beach was a bit smaller near the hotel, but we walked on the beach till the nearest village and loved it. The kids discovered something new on the beach every day - crabs, fish and enjoyed observing the nature.

View from our room

 

The beach near the hotel

We had reserved the sea view family bungalow room. The room was divided into two parts - a double bedroom and a twin room with a little balcony with sea view. It perfectly suited the family of four (kids aged 9 and 11). The rooms had lovely decor, two TVs,  a minibar that was topped up daily... The rooms were serviced twice a day - a bigger cleaning in the morning and turndown service in the evening.
  

The main pool

Other pools

The hotel had a main buffet restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner and several speciality restaurants. We managed to try all of the different restaurants. Our favourite by far was the Italian - they had a pizza oven and all the meats and pastas were lovely. Cretan restaurant was also very good, but the Mexican and Asian did not really impress us, they were not bad, just really average.
The main buffet was very nice, a good variety of everything that changed slightly every day, lots of local dishes also. The kids loved the endless crepes, waffles and Carte d'Or ice cream they could have from the Creperie cafeteria by the main pool. The cocktails in the main bar were delicious, but our favourite spot was the adults only Champagne bar for the cocktails and the atmosphere.

 

There was a minidisco for kids every night followed by a show (magicians, comedy, acrobats) and also live music in the main bar, some evenings international pop/rock, some evenings local Greek music.

Although the hotel was fantastic and we could have spent all days in the hotel, we wished to discover the Crete island a bit more. Knowing that the Knossos, the largest Bronze Age archeological site in Crete, also called the Europe's oldest city, was only a short drive away, we decided to take a look. It was amazing to walk around the old palace complex, dating back as far as 1900 BC. The children had a real history lesson there.
 

We also visited a beautiful little coastal town Agios Nikolaus for a nice walk around. The town had lovely local tavernas and cool bars, but we were fed so well by our hotel, that a simple walk around the old town was enough for us.

The holiday in Crete with the people we love was all we needed to recharge our batteries for the winter. Although we mostly love to wander around and discover, staying in a luxury of an all-inclusive hotel is sometimes the best way to relax and have fun. Au revoir, Crete...

 

Singapore and Bali, Feb. 26. - March 09. 2018

Singapore

Having discovered Europe and other closeby countries for the last years, we felt the children to be in the right age for a hassle free (relatively) long haul travel. Bali had been in our thoughts for quite some time already and when affordable Swissair tickets to Singapore came on sale in September 2017, we did not think twice about buying them. Another dream was about to realize - we were going to visit Singapore, too!

"Mom, look, it is snowing!" said Martin on the morning of the day we are supposed to leave for Singapore. Living in the Cote d'Azur, the snow is extremely rare here and it is not the thing one wishes to see when about to take a long haul flight. Our flight to Zurich was leaving in the afternoon but we decided to leave to the airport earlier. There was an absolute chaos in the airport and our flight, of course, was cancelled. After waiting at the queue at Swissair counter for about an hour our fate was finally clear - no flights were leaving this day and we were rebooked to the Emirates flight leaving the next day - 20 hours late!

 

Emirates is known for their excellent service and great on-board entertainment program and our flight from Nice to Singapore via Dubai went smoothly. 

On our arrival at Singapore Changi airport in the early afternoon, we had to fill in a form, queue up for customs to have our photo and fingerprints taken, got our passports stamped and we were good to go. The Changi airport is very big, but super organized and spotlessly clean. 

In Singapore we had opted to stay at the Marina Bay Sands hotel. It is a landmark hotel in Singapore and staying there was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The best rate was at the hotel own webpage, it is not cheap, but still an okay deal for the Club room, accommodating two adults and two kids under 12. We had initially booked for a two night stay, but due to the flight cancellation, it was reduced to one night. I called the hotel from France when I got to know about our flight situation and they were kind not to charge us the night we could not use.

Marina Bay Sands is a huge hotel, but the check in process was very smooth. We had reserved a Club King room. The Club rooms have a separate check-in area, they are situated on the higher floors and they give an access for two adults to Club 55, a lounge situated on the 55th floor, that serves breakfast, afternoon tea and pre-dinner drinks. The most famous feature of the hotel is definitely its rooftop infinity pool, available for hotel guests only. Our Club room was spacious, with a sofabed for the children to sleep on and a super comfortable king sized bed for us. The lounge and the bedroom could be separated with a sliding door. The bathroom was huge with a rainfall shower and a bath and Cavalli toiletries added a nice touch. The room was on the 53rd floor and had a view of Gardens by the Bay and the sea and what a view it was!

Champagne at Club 55 Lounge

 

 

The famous infinity pool and jacuzzis with a view

 

View from our room on the 53rd floor

The hotel

Although the hotel was excellent and we were tired and jetlagged, we decided to go to discover a bit around, outside of the hotel, because already the next morning we had to take a flight to Bali.

Being hungry, we wanted to try something local for dinner and Gluttons Bay outdoor hawker center just a short walk away across the Helix bridge seemed like a good idea. We had several plates of noodles, chicken skewers and dim sum - all freshly made and delicious.

Gluttons Bay

 

 On the Helix Bridge

There is a laser show with music every evening at the fountains of Marina Bay sands. It is beautiful and definitely worth a visit while in Singapore. Before dozing off in the (very comfortable) bed of our hotel room, we took a little walk in the Gardens by the Bay. The gigantic artificial trees looked magical all lit up in the evening. There was also a show with lights and music under the trees, but we were already too tired to watch it all.

Laser, fountain and music show by the bay

We were all up early (around 4am) in the morning due to jetlag, playing boardgames (we always bring cards, Dobble and Ligretto with us), watching the amazing sunrise over the bay from our 38th floor windows and waiting till the hotel breakfast opens at 6 am. The Club room has breakfast included for two people, we had to pay extra SGD 22 per child for the kids to have breakfast with us. There are three places to choose from for breakfast - The Rise restaurant in the lobby, Club 55 Lounge or by the infinity rooftop pool. As the Rise restaurant was the earliest of the three to open, we chose to eat there. The breakfast was buffet style, having both hot and cold, Asian and continental options. All-in-all an excellent, fresh and tasty spread of everything. 

We really enjoyed our stay in Marina Bay Sands and wish we could have stayed longer.

Having arrived a bit early at the Changi airport for our flight to Bali gave us some time to look around the airport that has been selected the best in the world several years in a row. The airport is like all Singapore - clean, colourful, efficient and beautiful with lots of different options to eat and drink or have a walk around.

Singapore Changi airport

 Bali, Ubud and around

The 2h 20min flight from Singapore to Denpasar, Bali with AirAsia went well. AirAsia is a comfortable Asian low cost airline, probably similar to EasyJet in Europe.

We arrived to Denpasar airport, the main gateway to Bali, in the late morning and decided to head directly to Ubud, where we would spend the next 4 days/3 nights. Ubud is considered to be the cultural and spiritual capital of Bali, situated inland, surrounded by rice terraces and jungle. The distance between the airport and Ubud is around 40 kms, but it took us about an hour by taxi - the roads are narrow and the traffic is sometimes heavy. We also got some Indonesian rupiahs on our arrival at the airport, the exchange rate being 1 EUR to approx. 16 000 IDR we felt having a lot of money in our pockets. Although the airport exchange rates are not good, we usually get some local currency there, even just enough to pay for the taxi ride and get us through the first day.

Not wanting to stay too far from the central Ubud, but still having some peace and quiet, we chose to stay in the Alaya Resort. Alaya Resort is situated a short walk from the Ubud center and Monkey Forest, but still far enough from the hustle and bustle. They also have their own little rice terrace. We had booked a connecting room - a double for the adults and a twin for the kids with a nice little terraces with forest views. 

Our rooms in the Alaya Resort 

After a couple of busy days full of travelling we decided to take it easy for the day - the kids had a swim in the pool of the hotel while the adults had a refreshing Bintang (local beer) in the hotel bar and later in the evening we went for a walk and dinner in Ubud.

 

 

Rice planting at Alaya rice field 

 

 

Alaya Resort has a breakfast menu where one can choose between different breakfast options. This is the Balinese breakfast. 

Having pretty limited time in Bali, but wishing to see as much as possible (and also considering travelling with two children) we had reserved a day with Bali Traditional Tours. Our driver/guide Wayan picked us up from the hotel at 9am. The car was clean and comfortable and had bottles of water for us to drink. Wayan took us privately to more places than we even imagined while explaining every aspect of the Balinese culture to us. He made us feel very welcome and took as many photos as we wished through all temples, waterfalls, mountains, rice fields, etc we visited.  We highly recommend this company to anyone looking to have a great trip around Ubud and explore the area. 

Our first stop with Wayan was the Tegallang rice terraces. Tegallalang Rice terraces, although part of the Cultural Landscape of Bali Province UNESCO World Heritage Site, are  worked by local rice farmers. It is one of the must-visit places around Ubud, but as we arrived there pretty early in the morning, we almost had it all to ourselves.

Tegallalang Rice terraces

Next we went to visit the Bali Pulina plantation, it is a coffee and spice plantation specialicing on local produce. We were taken around by a nice lady guide, who explained us about all the plants growing there and, of course, their main business, the coffee making - both the regular coffee and kopi luwak, a Balinese speciality. We learned all about the process of coffee - from picking to roasting to grounding the beans and ended our visit in the cafeteria sampling the local products.

 

 

 

Coffee plant

We were getting a bit hungry and it was time to have some lunch. Wayan took us to a buffee restaurant with a view to Mount Batur - a volcano about 30 km away from Ubud. Unfortunately it was getting cloudy and halfway through our lunch the volcano was wrapped in the clouds. We still managed to take a couple of photos before that. On our way to the restaurant the kids were pointing out several fruit stalls on the way. When we got back from our lunch Wayan surprised us with a bag of fruit he had got for the kids. 

 

Mount Batur almost disappeared in the clouds

 

Fruit stalls

 

 

 

Before heading to our next  destination, we took a little detour so Wayan could show us his house and we could have a cup of tea and some local pastries with him and his wife.Wayan and his family lived in a traditional Balinese house compound that consists of several separate buildings the most important of them being a temple.

Our day continued with a visit to Pura Tirta Empul temple, famous for its holy spring water, where Balinese Hindus go for a ritual purification. We walked through the temple grounds, taking in the beauty and the holiness of this magnificent place, listening to the captivating storytelling of Wayan.

Before returning to the hotel, we made a quick stop at Tegenungan waterfall, but after a long day we were too tired to take a hike down. We also had a chance to sample some durian on the way and decided it was not our favourite.

 

 

The next morning we were woken by hotel room service knocking our door coming to service the room  - it was 11am and we had all slept through breakfast service. Fortunately we had not planned much for the day, only walking around Ubud and visiting the Monkey Forest Sanctuary.

 

Ubud Monkey Forest, is the sanctuary and natural habitat of the Balinese long-tailed Monkey. It is located at Padangtegal Ubud, Bali. About 1049 monkeys live in this sanctuary. The Monkey Forest Ubud has 186 species of plants and trees in 12,5 hectares of forest. The Monkey Forest Ubud has 3 temples, namely Dalem Agung Padangtegal Temple, Holy Spring Temple and Prajapati Temple. (source: Wikipedia). The Monkey Forest is basically a very well kept huge park/forest area, where monkeys live freely, although they are fed there. We found the monkeys a bit aggressive, the kids were actually scared of them. There was a monkey who pulled a water bottle from my kid's hand and another one who "inspected" Johnny's pockets - only found Monkey Park tickets, though. Otherwise it is definitely worth a visit for a nice walk around.

After a nice walk in the Monkey Forest, we headed to Ubud, to visit the Ubud Palace grounds. Ubud is a lovely little town full of nice restaurants, quirky cafes and lively market. Many of the restaurants have an upstairs terrace with a view to the street. We can recommend a place called Kafe, only a short walk from our hotel that has very tasty food and great service. 

 

We all also went for a massage - a must do in Ubud for its excellent price/quality ratio.

 

Some photos of the beautiful temples of Ubud, Ubud Palace and our massage

We all loved Ubud a lot and hope to return one day, but unfortunately, after spending three wonderful days there, it was time to leave. We were going to the coastal town of Legian, situated between the two tourist hubs - Kuta and Seminyak. 

 

On our way we decided to stop at Bali Bird Park. It is located at the Ginayar Regency and has an area of 2,000 square metres. The Bird Park houses more than 1.000 birds representing more than 250 species in an enclosed aviary. The park has been landscaped to create natural habitats and incorporates a diverse botanical collection. Features 52 different species of palms, rare jungle fruit trees, cycads, bamboos and cactus. There are 3 lakes hosting various species of water birds. A total of 60 bird enclosures with habitats to house the collection (source: Wikipedia). Our kids loved the bird park and all the colourful birds they saw. It is possible to take photos with some birds and also participate in feeding times - there was a schedule for that at the entrance of the park. Their special favourite, though, was the Komodo dragon, a species of lizard, native in the neighbouring island of Komodo, growing to a maximum length of 3 metres and weighing up to 70kg.

Bali, Legian and around

Legian is not as busy as the party spot Kuta or not as posh as Seminyak, we found it a perfect place for a family. We chose to stay at the Pullman Legian - it is a nice hotel just across the road from the beach, and has two pools - the garden pool that is bigger and offers some shade and a rooftop infinity pool with beautiful sea views and a cocktail bar. Our room (one bedroom suite) was spacious - adults slept in the bedroom and the kids had the living room sofa and an extra bed we asked to add in the living room. The room also had a nice big terrace accessible from both rooms. The buffet breakfast of the hotel was excellent - a very good spread of everything, but we specially appreciated the different Balinese dishes we could try every day (the black rice pudding was amazing). The hotel also organized an open air cinema some evenings with big comfy bean bag seats for lounging and watching a movie (the movies are family friendly, we saw the BFG). In Legian we mostly wanted to relax, enjoy the pools and the beach with just a bit of sightseeing mixed in.

The beach across the road from the hotel was clean and wide, it had a couple of bars and was possible to rent sunbeds for the day or take surfing lessons. The width of the beach depended on the tides - sometimes it was really wide and the walk to the water's edge was long.

We also had a chance to have a beer with an old friend who lives in Seminyak at the moment - it was wonderful to find a familiar face so far from home.

Hotel pool

 

Legian beach

Not wanting to spend all the time lounging by the pool, wandering around in Kuta and chilling at the beach, we went to visit Pura Luhur Uluwatu Temple and Kecak dance spectacle at the temple at sunset. Uluwatu temple stands atop of a cliff above the Indian Ocean, in the southwestern end of Bali and there is a wonderful view from the temple, specially sunset time. Kecak is a form of Balinese hindu dance and music drama. Since its creation, it has been performed primarily by men. The dance is based on the story of the Ramayana, it is performed by a circle of as many as 150 performers, percussively chanting 'chak' and moving their hands and arms. We arrived some time before the spectacle began, that left us some time to walk around the temple grounds and admire the view. The temple also has lots of monkeys running around freely and stealing from people (there are warning signs).  It is obligatory to wear a sarong in a temple in Bali if wearing shorts or short skirts, usually they give them at the temple entrance.

Having spent seven beautiful, eventful and busy days in Bali it was time to return to Singapore. We all loved Bali a lot and wish we could return someday. There was still a lot left to be discovered...

 

Singapore

Back in Singapore, we checked in to our hotel early (Grand Park Orchard, two Premier King rooms) to go to discover the city. The hotel was just off the Orchard road, the main shopping street in Singapore. We were not so interested in shopping and wanted to see the different parts of this amazing city. Probably the easiest way getting around Singapore is by MRT. The standard ticket costed 1.40 SDG and was rechargeable for up to 6 rides. 

Waiting for the train, Singapore MRT

In the need of feeding the hungry bellies, our first stop was Chinatown, Maxwell Hawker center. We wanted to try the TianTian Haianese Chicken rice, made famous by chef Anthony Bourdain. Yes, there was a queue, but it was so worth the wait. The hawker centers are an excellent way to have cheap and delicious food in Singapore.

After a filling meal, we took a walk around Chinatown and its temples and then visited Little India, a completely different world, and its temples. The Buddha Tooth relic temple is the most famous temple of Chinatown, it is beautiful and peaceful center of worship in the middle of the busy city.

The Tooth Relic Temple in Chinatown

 

 

  

The Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple in Little India

 

In the evening we ate in the Chinatown food street, a covered street filled with food stalls - the choice was huge and everything was so good.

Our next day in Singapore was spent in the Singapore Zoo. Singapore Zoo has been at the list of world's top zoos for several years and we decided to take a look although we always prefer animals in their natural habitat rather than in captivation. Singapore Zoo is still unique and amazing to visit. Make sure you have enough time and you are ready to walk a lot (there is a possibility of taking a small train), as we had 6 hours to visit the Zoo and the River Safari and we really just made it. And we did not even have time to see the shows!
The animals in the zoo are made to look like being close to their natural habitat. Our kids favourites were the dome with huge bats (the Malayan flying foxes) flying around freely and the orangutans that were passing back and forth over our heads. 

 

I think the holiday is perfect when having a feeling of not wanting to leave. During our trip we did not miss home and we can not wait to return to Asia. After a 12-hour 50-minute flight from Singapore to Zurich, Europe seemed like completely different world. We had a wonderful time and we realized our kids are fantastic travel companions. New adventures to follow...