Family holiday planning (joy or headache)

As the kids grow older and busier, it is increasingly difficult to plan for family holiday time. Not just about When to go but also about Where to go and What activities to do. We have one who cannot go too cold, too adventurous, another who wants to have action packed holiday, another who wants to have some adventure but within acceptable comfort level and one who is anything also can (which is most difficult to please).

So for this hols, other than having a family trip to Batam, I made it a point to spend some individual time with each of them.

Started with number 2 as he’s gonna be the busiest during the hols with camps and overseas community project. We went for a local staycation and did whatever he felt like doing. Catching a movie, playing pool, fool ard the swimming pool and of course eat and eat and eat. We stayed at Arab street ard the Bugis area where there are sufficient things to eat, see and do. We had some interesting conversations and in the end, I was first to knock out in bed while he still had the energy to catch some tv on the big screen projector in our hotel room. We could have extended to more than 1 night but he has his O level CL paper in that week so got to just be satisfied with a night.

Next up is mei whom we tried so hard to convince to go for a hiking trip to Mt Ophir. And it was so worth it. We drove up to Malacca first to enjoy the old sights and relive some memories. Malacca has been a place we frequent so often when they were much younger (before Covid) and we never got tired of this charming old town. This time round we still managed to find things to do / eat that we did not do in Malacca before. Found a salon to do hair treatment for both of us to pamper her a bit too. Had the famous cheese prawn bee Hoon, HDL, chicken rice balls, Nonya laksa etc as well as the customary visit to Jonker Street night market. This place is getting lots of publicity and has become the centre of attention, drawing crowds away from the 2 shopping malls. But the old school local shops are slowly being taken over by global franchises like Mixue, Watsons and I guess sooner or later a Starbucks will appear on that street soon. Both of us just enjoyed ourselves 走走吃吃看看 and tried to appreciate the old world charm before it slowly disappeared (hopefully not!).

After one night in malacca, we left for Tangkak which is a small town and nearest to Mt Ophir (Gunung Ledang national park). Stayed at a cheap hotel as we will begin our climb early the next day. Spend some time driving ard to explore Tangkak which has just one main road with shops lining both sides. Did not have chance to eat the famous 东甲牛肉面 again as they close early. Found a second shoes shop just opposite our hotel and spent some time shopping inside for a pair of sneakers for mei (spoil her again). And then we began our climb the next morning….

Along the way we chatted abt school, her BFFs, and papa’s childhood, while pushing and encouraging her to push herself to complete the hike. And we did it! Am so proud of her and throughout she did not complain and simply took each step by step to move closer to the summit. This hike is highly do-able as long as you are of basic fitness and can be completed within a day. We reached the base camp by 5pm, washed up, had dinner back at Tangkak to reward ourselves before driving back to Spore 💪

Then it’s Batam with the entire clan! Was an action packed trip where we did lots of stuffs from ATV to water sports to fooling ard the pool to karaoke to movie to shopping to eat eat eat…. We enjoyed karaoke the most as the kids have a much wider song list that they can sing to now. The last time we went was before Covid and all they can do were Baby Shark and Frozen. We discovered new things about our kids from the 3 hour k session… who can sing best, who has the most singing facial expressions, what is their go-to-song, etc. It was a short 4D3N trip but all our hearts were filled… and we found a new family activity of playing Dai Dee 😊

Then it’s the wife’s turn. We went for adult zone camp in JB while the kids went for their youth camp. Had a good time fellowshipping with our cell members before wife and I went for our couple trip to HK.

Weather was good for first 2 days and we were able to complete most of what we wanted to eat and do. It started to turn chilly on day 3 and the cannot-take-cold-wife started to feel under the weather. But shopping is a miracle activity and she used her final ounce of energy on the last day to complete her list. We enjoyed the company together but did not really enjoy HK. Prices were steep and the service staff in eating places generally have limited patience for our limited Cantonese. But what we learnt and appreciate is that we should 多走走，多看看 while our bodies are still fit and healthy and not wait till it’s too late…

For our eldest who just finished his Os, we did not do a trip this year due to some changes in plans. Instead we spent 4 days serving in a diocese kids camp at St Andrews Cathedral and had some quality time with him too. Finally settled his own Paylah account and he’s all ready to earn his own keep with some part time work over the holidays. Will have a 1-1 trip with him in 2025… in the works 😊

Planning for family holidays needs coordination, time and effort. In the past, we say, we go, they follow. With teens, it takes much more effort to make such trips happen. Sooner or later, they’re gonna have lesser and lesser ‘school holiday time’ with us. And it’s a matter of time when they have no more school holidays! While there’s still time with them to have such precious family bonding time, let’s put in the more than required effort to make such memories happen, while it still can happen.

Sharing a video we recently chanced upon recently:

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/182NpcBwhf/?mibextid=wwXIfr

To me, it’s always a joy to plan our holiday time together. It need not be an expensive holiday to a far away country. It’s just having undisturbed time together exploring new places, eating new food, and discovering new things about one another.

And it’s worth every effort, every minute, every penny.

If not now, then when?