Went to Universal Studio in Singapore today for day trip. For some of the rides, even with the express pass, it took at least 30mins of wait time.

The park was opened till 10pm tonight. We had a quick snack in the park in the evening so that we can continue to the rides because there were less people now! No more wait time even at the regular queues.

DH got a huge Despicable Me cola bottle which can get a $2 refill of soft drinks. All the kids loved it!

Everyone had dessert first, before having proper but late dinner at 9:30pm.

There was a long long queue at the restaurant, while waiting, we took some pictures. Eventually, dinner was done at about 10:30pm and we reached home at 12am after an hour jam at the causeway. Not too bad considering it was a Friday night in the last few days of the year end holidays. 

Its time to open the Christmas presents! In the first point, DH got a spider man toy!

In the next box, what is the surprise? Will DH's dream come true?

Look, it is the ninja turtle truck which he always wanted. Santa has made his dream come true! 

XN got a lego museum set an DH got his truck, everyone was very happy today. 

This is DH's toy from Phuket. The robot monster's name is King Joe from the Ultraman series. Its cool because not many shops sell the bad guys.

On the 2nd day in Phuket, it was still raining non stop! We went to a mall near phuket town. It was a big mall and with lots of shops. DH saw some super hero statues on display and was eager to take pictures with them.

We also had our lunch there. The food was good and the prices are cheaper than the restaurants at Patong!

At night, we went to the weekend market near Phuket town. It was still raining on and off, so it was wet all over the place. It was not the best way to see the market but we managed to walk a few lanes and bought some clothes. Since we had heavy and late lunch, we did not try the street food.

But they sure looked good!

Chocolate banana was one of the deserts that caught DH and XN's eyes. Since they love everything chocolate, it was a must try. 

DH and XN each got one, they enjoyed it very much. The chocolate was not too sweet and the banana was just the right kind for the chocolate. Yummy! 

At the exit, we saw a unique van selling coffee. If you zoom into the the van, you can see the "van keeper" was posing for the picture! 

Back in the hotel, we were packing for tomorrow's home returning trip. We used the hair dryer to blow dry the wet clothes. We were pretty good at it. 

Next morning, time to leave for the airport and it was sun shine! We quickly took the chance to visit the beach after breakfast, we only had 15 minutes! 

The beach was very clean and there are even small clams that we can see trying to dig themselves into the sands after the tides brought them on to shore! DH and XN found this very interesting because they have never thought that clams can move like this. 

One of the trees in the hotel was home to a few birds. We suspected there were eggs in the nest because mama bird had been sitting there since yesterday morning.

Finally, we arrived at the airport. There was a mad crowd rushing to go into the airport check in and immigration counters. Definately something for the airport to improve.

Since the plane was delayed for almost an hour, we had time to wait in the the transit bus before going to the air plane. DH took the chance to do some monkey stunts on the handle. Sine we did not have the chance to go on an elephant walk this trip, we will be back next time! 

We are at Phuket this weekend and we stayed at the Holiday Inn Patong. The hotel breakfast was fantastic! DH had a great time playing on the sofa. 

The dining tables were well spread out and very spacious!  

Not just the food was great abut also there is something specially for the children.

There are utensils that are meant for children! They looked very new too! Hello Kitty set for the girls and Doraemon for the boys!

It rained most of the time this trip, but none the less a lot of people braved the weather to make the best out of it on the beach front. 

The hotel grounds had some lovely lotus flower in all sorts of colours. 

Some of the flowers were not just colourful, the size was also huge! 

After breakfast, it was to the pool. The hotel had a very big kids pool, one of the biggest we had ever seen in a hotel. 

The water was colder than usual due to the rain but the children were not affected. We had a wonderful morning in the pool. 

In the afternoon, the rain was down to a drizzle. It was OK to go out in a tuk tuk for a ride to the butterfly farm. 

The tuk tuk ride was very unique. The open sides was a very good way to feel and see the surroundings during the journey. 

DH was particularly excited when he was in the tuk tuk.  

The journey to the butterfly farm took about 40mins due to the bad jam at patong. When we reached, it was about 4pm. 

Although it was already late afternoon, the butterflies were still very active. We were able to catch a glimps of these gentle creatures at very close range. 

The was even a very lovely corner for some photo opportunities. 

Naturally, all the items in the farm were related to butterflies. Even the windows were shaped like one. 

In the souvinior shop there were even more lovely decorations and furnitures. 

Since we did not have enough time for coffee or snack we just took more pictures. 

This is one of those PVZ characters, Bucket Head. PVZ is currently their favourite game. 

We had spaghetti for lunch on Sunday! We also had spaghetti for lunch yesterday.They were both good! 

After lunch, it was back to the PC and tablet........ ahhh this is the life during the school holidays...