Water Venture Sembawang 2D1N Family Science Camp

[ Media Invite ]

Boon Yee and me attended a 2D1N Family Science Camp last week. The highlight for the kids (Cheekiemonkies mobilised whole family!) must be the water sports.

Boon Yee (no3) and Ash standing next to their 10.8 Standup board.  This platform can support up to 2 adults and 4 kids!

Organised by PA’s Water Venture Sembawang, families got to enjoy a variety of events.

Star gazing, Forest walk, Intertidal walk and water activities.

Water Venture Sembawang is located at postal code 759058. It is about 5km kayak from Punggol Barat Island (scenic view here)

A few tips:

-Nearest bustop is 15mins away Sembawang Park

-You will be getting 3G 4G signals from Digi, Maxis, Celcom. Some signal from Starhub and M1 and zero from Singtel. Switch off your social media  and enjoy more family time 🙂

-We found out Bottle Tree restaurant is on the second floor, in case campers are looking for supper

 

The camping site is very new and just next door to Water Venture. Infact, we are the first group to use their 8-men tents!

Clean amenities, there is a hot water dispenser. No aircon and warm showers 🙂

Families help each other setup their tents, we were unanimous in choosing “sea-view”!

1)When I heard about the 2D1N Family Science Camp activity, I quickly accepted the media-invite 🙂

I really miss our Pasir Ris Camping experience and wanted to expose the kids to more camping fun.

2D1N Family Science Camp
2D1N Family Science Camp

Ice breaking games for families.

We got to illustrate our masterpieces on the floor too, graffiti with license :p

Some other activities include “protecting our eggs”. Basically you wrap the eggs with tons of paper, bubble and throw the bundle down.

We were throwing from table height, and I heard they used to throw the eggs from second floor heh heh.

Our sea activities were delayed by 3 hours, no thanks to thunderstorm and heavy rain. The wind was so strong a few tents toppled over.

We decided the sea was too choppy for a smooth ride 🙂

Our camping instructors and guides kept our moral high by engaging in more games and interactions. Kudos!

The floor is wet, entrance is flooded but fortunately interior is only slightly wet.

 

5pm and we got all clear to Kayak! Hooray, this was supposed to be the highlight for many families and was nearly canceled due to rain.

2) Most choose kayaking, but I really wanted Yee to experience Standup paddling. I thought it would be the standard one-man board, but we end up clustering 6 paxs to a board haha.

The 10.8 board is much more stable compared to one-man board, and once we are comfortable, we all stood up and attempt paddling to Johor (joking!)

 

Image credit Kelvin (Cheekiemonkies)

Ash and Yee decided to paddle some adventure on their own. Although we only had 1 hour of paddling, it was super FUN and I am so glad we proceed even when it drizzles.

Yee has forgotten about his Standup Sitdown paddling experience in Sabah Gaya Island (blog).

Wash up but not ready to slumber yet. Campers take note, it can be cold at around 2 or 3am in the morning, you might wish to standby long pants, socks and blankets.

3) Diy Muah Chee was fun for kids and families. It tasted delicious too!

4) Jungle walk just behind our campsite, hear the crickets and spot the bats. I told Yee it is too bright as we can still see our hands.

5)The last activity for the day was Star Gazing. We spotted Jupiter and the moon’s craters through the telescopes!

I always thought Singapore has too much light pollution and we would find it hard to spot stars, much less planets! The friendly guides shared more constellations in our galaxy.

Monopoly card games and instant noodle till 10.30pm, Nights Out. I believed I KO before the boy.

We all agreed it is more FUN to camp as a big group.

Day 2 arrived with the a beautiful egg yolk! Sunrise in Singapore is always late around 7plus am.

Actually, we got free alarm clocks from Johor’s Mosques. The speakers were relaying their prayers from 6am onwards hee hee.

 

Mist covered shoreline.

Day 2 was the launch of Family Aqua Carnival @Sembawang. Busloads of families were invited to enjoy a day out with sea sport and fringe activities.

Some were queuing for mini banana boats (really cute), while others learn more about conservation.

 

Conservation mascots.

Remember to save water when you shower or brush your teeth ok.

6)Intertidal walk towards the direction of Sembawang Park. When it is low-tide, we can spot more marine creatures along the coast.

 

 

Singapore’s Northern beaches are not really clean and we spotted much rubbish strewn around. Most are washed ashore.

Some helpful folks volunteered to clear a few bags of rubbish.

Perhaps Water Venture Sembawang might consider “beach conservation” as part of future activity? It would be meaningful for kids to understand first-hand how human’s plastic waste end up polluting our sea and habitats.

 

We caught some crabs in an isolated lagoon. None of them become chili crab.

If you are interested in intertidal walks, do pop by SengkangBabies’ offshore island experiences here. (Semakau, Chek Jawa, Sisters Island)

And so we ended our 2D1N Family Science Camp on a high. We were happy with the outdoor activities which were both educational and entertaining.

We heard the next Family Science Camp will be on 09/10 June. Do find out more package details on :

https://www.facebook.com/WaterVenture
-Tel: 6755 0225 (Tuesday-Sunday, 9.30am-6pm)
-Email: pa_wvsembawang@pa.gov.sg
Www.onepa.sg

 

Thank you PA and Water Ventures for the Fun Invite, we hope more families will get to enjoy the great outdoors too.

ps.. our previous PA Water Venture experiences at Marina and Sengkang were soaking FUN too. (Sengkang Kayaking post)

-> https://sengkangbabies.com/sports/paddle-fest-2016-at-anchorvale-cc

 

 

3D2N Sekinchan family trip

Imagine a Sekinchan family trip.

Golden padi fields stretching as far as our eyes can see, all ready for harvesting.

适耕庄 Sekinchan is such a piece of abundance. Infact, 适耕庄 (Chinese name) liteally means land-suitable-for-farming, 鱼米之乡.

Sekinchan is in Selangor, 1 hour North of KL. It is about 5 hours, 440km from Singapore (estimated driving speed of 120 to 140kmh).

 

You know you have arrived at Malaysia’s rice bowl when you spot endless fields of padi.

 

鱼米之乡
鱼米之乡

Our Sekinchan family trip was timed to see golden Padi fields, estimated around mid May/Jun and Nov.

We did say Harvesting right, seeing monster tractors in action were COOL!

Right photo below, the padi factory. You will also notice many high-rise buidings designed to nest swallows and their saliva (燕窝 bird nest)

Rice Factory GPS (3.520942, 101.128885)

There are tours to guide you about padi process, from planting to harvesting to packaging and buying of  by-products (photos at Google link)

(L) 南天宫 (GPS 3.523699, 101.142036 )

 

The other highlight for us at Sekinchan was our accommodation. We were staying in container boxes!

Farm Ville Cafe & Homestay (GPS 3.500811, 101.111003)

Pretty innovative and abstract right, there is a small pool too!

We had more details about containers in this post, but you can see photos at Google link. (Just take note that the boxes can be hot during the afternoon, full blast the aircon)

 

This is view from our window, Green and yellow!

 

Map of Sekinchan attractions.

Image credit http://sekinchan.org

If you like nature, old-town, and lots of seafood, try Sekinchan. There are enough activities for families to enjoy a laid back 3D2N.

Sekinchan family Trip
Sekinchan family Trip

This is the famous Beach at Pantai Redang (GPS 3.502855, 101.094474).

You can swim but do not expect white sandy beaches.At the canal entrance, you can spot fishing boats heading out to the sea.

We spotted many “tree-houses” along the coastline. This beach is popular for kites and fishing.

Next up, Dinner. There are many stalls next to the beach area. The stalls are a bit run down, do not expect food court hygiene hee hee 🙂

炸騙集团 caught our name! The shop name means “deep-fried syndicate” haha.

 

Our “seafood dinner” consists of fried squid, prawn (is it mantis shrimp?). Total bill was only RM40, we ordered a second plate of squid as it was good.

 

You will not miss this Coca Cola landmark. Folks would climb up to second floor for a better view of surrounding.

Cool refreshments are always welcome 🙂

Breakfast was a 10 minutes walk for us to Sekinchan’s town area.

You will find coffee shops, bike shops and a wet market. This place is very crowded in the morning.

We did pass by a popular old school coffee shop. (Kedai Kopi )

Wanton noodle seems to be popular with locals.

Bike shops all along this street (GPS 3.506692, 101.106362), prices start from RM30 to RM50 (Quad bike) for 1 hour (or is it 2?).

 

This padi stack (or roll) Ah Ma’s house (Grandma) is popular for photo props.

阿嬷的家 The House of Ah Ma (GPS 3.50760, 101.10848)

You can find nostalgic stuffs and food, popular with souvenir hunters. This egg crepe is their best seller. It may look plain but it is tasty.

Mango King (3.52782, 101.13948)

You will likely see tour coaches before the mango trees.

We had the sweetest mangos ever, and busloads of visitors kept popping up. Try to enjoy the mangos under the trees, for enhanced novelty feel.

If time permits, visit “fishy” Bagan fishing village (3.506837, 101.094621)

Trawlers are back in port, and fishermen busy repairing their nets. Try to spot eels and other local catch.

After seeing the seafood source, seafood restaurants for lunch.

No1 favourite would be 建旗海鲜饭店 (Restoran Jiann Chyi, GPS 3.504834, 101.099031), but queues can be up to 1 hour! We ended up with neighbour “Hai Kang” .

We enjoyed our seafood lunch although Google Reviews are less positive.

After lunch, there are some shops selling local goods (土产). Do buy the normal or coconut egg tart but skip the cendol.

 

Cycling offers a good experience to exercise off the seafood calories. Fresh air, green landscapes, but do avoid the huge quad-bike haha!

We struggled to sustain momentum for this bike over an hour and we got 6 pairs of legs!


Quad-bikes does looks cool for family portraits and Instagram haha.

 

There are minimum cars on the road but we must still exercise vigilance. Just stop anywhere and pose with the padi landscape.

 

More details can be found on Sekinchan website http://www.sekinchan.org

Do pop by our Facebook photos, Day 1 and Day 2.

This trip was taken in May 2016, we are two years late 🙂
More about our Container hotel at this link.

.. read our 2018 Sekinchan Padibox stay

ps.. We would like to highlight another Fun pace near to Sekinchan. Do Google for 天空之镜 Sky Mirror. I enjoyed my sand-bank and clams exploration with my boy, blog post below.

Sky Mirror in Malaysia is SUPER FUN