Taiwan 2015 - Day 5 & 6: Flying Cow Ranch/Taipei

Today marks the final day at Flying Cow Ranch. We had a quick breakfast and head for the three free morning activities again. But before that, some photo taking with the popping balloon dessert statue.

Spotting unusual insects with the boys on the way to the activities area makes fun bonding time.

Taiwan 2015 - Day 4: Flying Cow Ranch

Today we start the day early with buffet breakfast at Flying Cow Ranch. Its quite a spread from Taiwanese porridge to sausage & bacon. The boys cannot enough of salted eggs.

Taiwan 2015 - Day 3: Cingjing Farm & Flying Cow Ranch

The next day, driver Wu pick us up early for the next part of our trip. We will be leaving Taipei and going to Cingjing Farm enroute to Flying Cow Ranch in Miaoli.

Its a pretty long drive, about four hours to reach Cingjing Farm. It was long and winding as Mr. Wu's VW Transporter T5 climbs the hills confidently. We had lunch near Cingjing at a place call I Na Ko Restuaurant (伊拿谷). The view from this restaurant is simply breath-taking.

We saw these huge clay jars just outside the restaurant and were curious what it was. Turns out its roasted chickens, set in a up-right position, with all the chicken essence/fats dripping to the bottom. Looks so good, we have to order it to try.

Taiwan 2015 - Day 2: Baby Boss & Rouhe Night Market

I heard pretty good reviews about Baby Boss and thought it would be fun for the boys. So Lilian and I brought the boys to Baby Boss while my parent explore Taipei on their own today.

Baby Boss is like a theme park with many different jobs for the children to experience. Each jobs takes about 30-40 minutes and at the end of it, they get "paid" Baby Boss (BB) currency. More on that later.

Taiwan 2015 - Day 1: Ningxia Night Market

We finally bolster enough courage to bring both boys for an overseas holiday. It was partly to bring them for an overseas holiday before Xavier goes primary one next year. We wanted them to experience a farm stay and also expose to Mandarin, so Taiwan was a nature choice. We got my parents to join us too.

Lucas was very excited as it was his first time on an airplane.

We touched down at Taipei late afternoon. I arranged a driver, Mr. Wu, to pick us up at the airport and drive us to Cosmo Hotel. While you are at the airport, do check out the data-only prepaid sim card available at Taoyuan Airport at discounted price for tourist. With Whatsapp having the ability to make calls, the data-only plan makes a lot of sense. You can conveniently google the places to visit, the directions to a certain attraction and keep in touch with each other throughout the trip (especially when you split up to see different places or explore different shops or stalls.

We arrived at the hotel, put down your luggages and went to have our first taste of Taipei night market at Ningxia Night Market. Mr. Wu pointed out where this was on our way to the hotel.

This was the first stall to catch my attention. Marbled beef cubes flames by a upsized blow torch. The end result was so-so only though. The cubes texture range from tender to chewy. I soon found they are everywhere and have different copycats.

My parents went to try fish soup in one of the stalls. I wasn't too keen so I left the whole family and went to wander about myself. Spotted this stall had super long queue for oyster omelette so I joined in. Yums, well worth the queue. Each mouth you could taste some cripsy bits, some chewy starch, some juicy oyster, and a sauce that brings everything together.

And how to resist having sausage in Taiwan, especially one using wild boar meat?The meat taste firm, juicy and delicious.

This papaya milk shake is super yummy. Right amount of sweetness and all so refreshing. Its a great way to wash down all those greasy food. And I had to take a picture of the handsome young man making these.

We were in the middle of the monsoon season and it started to rain towards the end of our night life raid. We took shelter outside one of the convenient stores in the area. Right beside it was a shop selling shaved ice dessert.The price is so reasonable! Had a bowl and wolf it down without taking pictures. Ops.

We headed back when the rain turned into a drizzle. Travelling with kids require a change of mentality. We can't cheong the night like couple holidays.

Also see:
Taiwan 2015 - Day 2: Baby Boss & Rouhe Night Market
Taiwan 2015 - Day 3: Cingjing Farm & Flying Cow Ranch
Taiwan 2015 - Day 4: Flying Cow Ranch
Taiwan 2015 - Day 5 & 6: Flying Cow Ranch/Taipei

Cheeky Lucas turns 4!

Cheeky Lucas turns 4. Somehow after going through all the photos I took, this photo just kept my smiling. It looked like Ethan, the boy on the left who photobombed, was going "Orh, Lucas have a girlfriend".

Okay back to the Lucas 4th birthday. Its seems to be the routine where we will have a bigger cake for their class celebration, complete with goodies bag and all, and a smaller close family celebration on the actual day.

Lucas seems extremely shy when the birthday song was sang.


Photos from the school celebration.

Happy faces and goodie bags give away.

We had the small family celebration at the function room of our new place. Lucas finally decided to have Bumblebee as his cake after repeated changes over the two weeks leading to his birthday.

Group shots and more happy faces.

Happy 4th Birthday Cheeky Lucas!

Renovation: Places to Shop for Electrical Appliances

Image from Atlantic Supplies & Trading Pte Ltd

Shopping for electrical appliances for your new house can blow a pretty big hole in your wallet. Which is why it pays to do some price comparison to save some money.

The major stores like Courts, Best Denki and Harvey Norman are the best places to shop and test your electrical appliances. These major stores often have many brands and models on display and you are often able to test and compare so you can make some informed choices. But they may not be the best place to buy, if you have the cash.

You see, these major players often have high cost and overheads to pay, hence very often, you may not get the lowest price. But they do appeal to two kind of buyers: a) buyers who wish to pay with credit card, or pay via installment plans, b) buyers who wish to buy extended warranties.

There is an exception though, and it is call television. TV is one segment that is so competitive that you should not write off the major players as they could sometimes throw in certain freebies like extended warranty or special brand tie-ups like LG with Harvey Norman that suddenly makes their offer very appealing.

The next tier are the big stores like Gain City, Mega Discount Store and Audio House. They have a big flagship store and even several smaller stores but their range and offerings would not be as extensive as the major stores. They may have older or discounted models which they sell at bargain prices too. Sometimes they may have an exclusive model only available at their store. Mega Discount Store is an example. They carry the Samsung JS8000K Series 8 TV which is only exclusive to their stores. And it is for this reason I bought this TV from them (after some bargaining with Mr. Tony Maung).

If you are willing to save even more and pay for the appliances in cash, then the neighbourhood stores like Parisilk, Maximum Credit, Ban Kim Chuan, Goh Ah Bee and Kong Tai. Each has certain appliances that cost less than others. The name of the game is to get as much from a store as possible and try to bargain for even more discount.

How I did my shopping was to go window shopping at the mega stores, narrow down the different model numbers of the appliances I am keen in, then with that, ask the pricing from the neighbourhood stores. From the list of prices I got, Andy Koh from Parisilk Eastgate and James Koh from Maximum Credit both gave very competitive prices. In the end, I bought most of my appliances from Andy. I highly recommend him as I find him very friendly and responsive and very service-oriented. Drop me a pm or email if you wish to have his direct contact.

Just a side note about TV buying. You can get some good bargains with display sets. And the best display sets are those that are used during those four days event or expo. You get a four days old TV at display set price and they come to your house fully run-in.

Whoever you decided to buy your appliances from, always try to bargain. You would be surprise that you could bargain with even the major stores for a lower price.

Happy shopping!

Parisilk East Gate contact: 63449937
Maximum Credit contact: 62763331
Ban Kim Chuan contact: 64435298
Goh Ah Bee contact: 62888611
Kong Tai contact: 65658924

Renovation: Window and Balcony Restrictors

I love space. Living in a tightly packed city, space is a real luxury. When we picked our new house, we look for ideal units with unblocked view as this gives a sense of space. However, when you have young children in the house, their safety takes priority.

Parents with young children should consider putting in some form of restrictions at the windows and balcony. This is to prevent young children from climbing out of the windows or over the balcony. The most basic would be Window Grille made of metal materials like aluminum or wrought iron.

Image from Pang Giap Enterprise (88) Pte Ltd

Aluminum is probably the most popular choice due to the economical price. It serves more like a deterrent. However, if your windows are along the corridor, you might want to consider stronger material like wrought iron. The disadvantage is maintenance to prevent rust from setting in. 

I see some other sites offering wrought aluminum which it says offer the strength of wrought iron without the worry of rust. You may wish to find out more. There are also other considerations like whether are the grille powder coated or anodized.

Many do not like the look of grille as they feel caged up and loses the sense of space. The other alternative is using invisible grille. But it comes at a higher cost.

Image from CSA Invisible Grille

The idea behind invisible grille is using thin stainless steel cables to restrict access while doing away with the caged up look. It is gaining popularity now as it offers safety with a much lesser compromise on the lost of spaciousness. There are quite a number of options for window ranging from fixed to casement to sliding. 

Image from CSA Invisible Grille

This is also a very popular option for balcony. In fact, we installed invisible grille for our balcony from CSA Invisible Grille. Do find out more about the materials the different companies are using and to check the reviews of others who have installed from the different companies. 

For our window, our ID Tom did propose something different. He showed us a kind of vinyl blinds for the window which looks very nice. These blinds are heavy to lift up, hence the idea is to keep it lowered and to hide the strings away from the children. Hence they will not be able to lift them up.

The children are able to turn the direction of the blinds, either to allow more light and ventilation in or close the blind. The gaps also allow us to open and close the window with ease. We bought the idea. However, as I am afraid that the boys could still somehow get past the blind (from the side or by crawling under), I have also installed window restrictors.

Basically its a cable system that restricts how much you can open the windows by. The advantages are that you do not have the caged up look and you can unlock it to open the windows fully if you need to. The disadvantage is because you restrict how much you can open the window by, you restrict the amount of wind or ventilation coming in from the windows. They do not seems to be readily available locally, hence I bought them from eBay UK.

Lastly, Daiso sells a balcony door restrictor that a number of neighbours find useful. It limits the opening of your sliding door. I believe it can be used for sliding window too.

Renovation: Places to Shop for Furnitures

Lilian and I haven't been really step into a furniture shop since our last renovation. Hence we were like mountain tortoises when we went around shopping for items for the new place. We also find that what we use to fancy no longer appeals to us. I guess that is what is terms as ageing.

Below are some shops we liked in case anyone of you are in the same boat as us. I'm not very good at categorizing the shops to various themes so it would be best to click on the link to see if they are what you are looking for.

The okay, affordable shops:

Comfort Design: This place has a huge variety of tables and chairs, so much so that they call themselves "The Table and Chair People". If you have been visiting designer furniture shops, you may find some similar designs here.

Pomelo: This place carries some very nice furniture. Loft, warmly feel.

Grafunkt: This shop would be a favourite if you like wood furniture. They place alot of thought and effort in their design and manufacturing. 

Commune: This shop features many walnut wood furnitures. I liked their Kardell sofa so much that we almost bought it.

XZQT: Initially not on our list of shops to visit, a "see see look look" walkabout ended with us confirming one of their dining tables. 

Massimmo: We got our sofa from them. What we liked was that we could customise our sofa to something we liked.

Lush: We bought our previous sofa from here. The shop run into some bad reviews online in recent years so approach with your eyes open.

The 太空价 (outer-space price) high-end shops:

Space: This huge place is decked with designer furniture that are usually out of our range. I visit this almost every week when scouting for furniture because its right next to NAFA. Kills some time while waiting for Xavier to end his class. There are some bargains though during their sales period.

Xtra: Similar to Space, this place is decked with designer items priced beyond us. Still, a good place to shop to wow on those Herman Miller items. 

Lifestorey: Also nice to walk walk see see.

Danish Design: Nice designer Scandinavia and European style items. They have a very nice extendable dining table with Corian top that Lilian loved.

Renovation: Balcony Decking

We now have a balcony (and a backyard) and we have thoughts of doing decking at our balcony. It is one of the area which we spend quite a number of time researching on.

Image from Evorich

Our start plan is we want something with minimum maintenance and the choice is easy, WPC decking, also known as Wood Plastic Composite decking. They do not need sanding and re-vanishing every few years, unlike natural wood. They will also not have splinters or crack or split.

However when our ID shown us the product sample, I had second thoughts. It feels very plastic and further research points out the cons, like getting very hot for bare sole under direct sun, having to have a bigger gap between planks to cater for larger expansion, will scratch like natural wood but it will become permanent as you will not be able to sand and re-varnish again.

Of course there are different grades of composite decking. Absolut Outdoors' composite decking is already "pre-expanded" so they could build with smaller gaps, and the feel is alot less plastic. Forexia Eco Wood Composite Decking from Evorich comes with a 25 year warranty.

Image from Jason Parquet

On the other spectrum are the natural wood. Common wood used are Chengal, Ironwood, Teak, Merbau and Balau. If you like the feel of wooden decking, there is no compromise. The natural wood feel/"warmth" gives you the resort feel. Chengal seems to be the preferred wood by many, including my ID. This is because Chengal is characterised as hard wood and is naturally resistant to termite attacks and fungal growth. You can find out more from Nam Soon Timber.

Image from Calvary Carpentary

Engineered wood, or eco wood, falls in the middle. These includes brands like Accoya (carried by Evorich), Heveatech (carried by several companies like Floorxpert), and Abodo (carried by Calvary Carpentry). These are treated wood where they go through processing to make the wood perform better. Hence these brands often offers warrenties.

Image from Hafary Holdings

Then there are wood tiles, or tiles that look like wood. These post very minimum maintenance as they are tiles. There will still have grouts though as they are afterall tiles. But done by the correct people, it can look great too. Hafary Holdings carry a wide selection to choose from.

For WPC and tiles, the look should stay the same thru the years without major fading. However for natural wood and engineered wood, it will the vanish/coating will fade and it will look greyish (for Chengal). It will look like old jetty wood decking landing. So after a few years, you would need to sand down and re-varnish again.

After much deliberation, we decided to go for Chengal decking for our front balcony, mainly cause we like the feel of real wood decking and we would be able to sand and re-varnish for a look like new decking every 3-5 years.

Renovation: Ceiling Fans

I have never really taken notice of ceiling fans, not until we decided to put one in every room and started researching. The ceiling fan universal is huge. I will introduce some that we like.

Start point for us was we were using standing fans every day when we were in our previous home. Be it watching TV or taking a nap, we try to use fans over air-conditioning as much as possible. So since we are using standing fans so much, might as well install ceiling fans for all rooms. Moreover, ceiling fans actually frees up precious real estates of our home, as pointed our by our friend Alan.

The basic criteria for choosing the right fan would be the size of the room/area where the fan will be installed. There must be enough clearance between the tip of the fan blade and the wall/cabinet/L-box, as well as the clearance between the fan and the ceiling. Different fans have different clearance requirement so do check.

There are two main types of ceiling fan, AC (alternating current) and DC (direct current). In a nutshell, AC fans are more powerful, uses more energy, and are more noisy than DC fans. And they usually cost lesser too.

Reliable AC fans are like those from KDK and Crestar. The simple yet elegant Crestar Icol fan caught our eye. It is available in two two sizes (40" and 46"), four colours, and optional light and remote control. Combine these with a reasonable price and this fan becomes a popular choice.

Image from Crestar

Fanco has a similiar fan call I-Con. It is only available in size 48", has four colours, remote control and optional lights. What is interesting about this model is it come with four blades and you can change the blade configuration to three blades or two blades yourself.

DC fans are where price and design factor starts to go up. Top on my list would be the sexy Big Ass Haiku fans. The highly sought-after finishing is the Bamboo, coming in two colours (Caramel and Cocoa). If you have wood finishing furniture or flooring, this fan will match very well. The sleek design won me over. And just in case you are wondering whether the bamboo finishing will last or break, this following video will probably give you the assurance.

Currently only available in Singapore in 60", it is more suited for living room and maybe some bigger master bedroom. However, I understand that Big Ass Fans Asia Pacific is in the mist of getting regulatory approval to bring in the 52" Haiku fans so it should be available later this year.

Image from hiconsumption.com

They are also bringing in a new Haiku model equipped with the SenseMe technology and I couldn't resist not getting it. SenseMe bascially makes it an "Intelligent" fan with sensors to automatically start the fan when someone comes into the room and switch off when everyone leaves. It can also automatically adjust the fan speed according to how many people are in the room. You are also pair it with Jawbone and it will know when you are sleeping and to slow down the speed. Haiku is also available in Composite finishing with two colours (black and white).

Image from Aeratron

Aeratron AE2/AE3 fans also caught my eye. Initially Lilian didn't like them but the looks are growing onto her. I like the two blade AE2 variant more. Shaped like a leaf, it actually won a number of awards for it efficiency and strong airflow. Singapore seem to only have the 50" size available in both black and white. In Australia where it originated, they come in three sizes (43", 50" and 60") and in five colours including two timber colours.

The other popular DC fans are Spin, Amasco Triniti and Efinitti.

Some other things to note. If you are installing the fan on your false ceiling (as oppose to your actual ceiling), you need to make sure there are additional support on the false ceiling for the fan. Malaysia may have the same or similar fans at a much cheaper price but it can be a hassle when your fan breaks down so do weight your options. Lastly, some shops or brands do offer discounts if you are introduced by your Interior Designer (ID) so do check with your ID.

Updates on 17 May 2015:

If you are looking for fans for small room/area, the range of DC fans in this area are very limimted. There could be others available but the smallest we found are the Amasco Trinity 42" and probably the soon to be available Aeratron AE3 43".

Back to AC fans, the choices are aplenty in this zone. The two models I like are KDK M11SU (aka KDK Baby Fan) and Franco Mini Bee.

Image from KDK

KDK M11SU is a 110cm (43") fan. It comes in silver and white and with remote control, coupled with reliability of KDK fans, it will help to cool small areas. There is a slightly larger model call R48SP at 120cm (about 47") if you want something slightly bigger.

Image from Franco

Franco Mini Bee is a 36" fan with 15W three colours LED light. The fan comes in 3 colours (white, silver and multi-colour) and remote control. The interesting model is the Multi Colour version, it adds a dash of colours to any setting. The small blades does mean the area that can feel the wind would be limited so do take this into consideration.

The last fan I want to introduce is the Vento Fino. At 13" is a really small fan that can be ceiling or wall mounted. As this model does not turn or oscillate, you will have to plan before mount where you want it to face. My friend Alan mount it at a corner of the children's room, away from the bunk bed and yet still providing wind to the children. I have also seen it being used at the balcony and even kitchen. This comes is an array of colours. There is another model call Fino II. Its slight larger at 16" and the most important feature is it can oscillate. The price is more than double Fino though.

Just a pointer to end off this extended post, do take it with a pinch of salt when you are testing fans in fan shops. The fan shop often wants to display as many variety of fans as possible. Hence the mounting and the position of the fans might not be ideal like in an actual room application. And you are likely to be standing directly below the fan with the shop turning the fan to max speed. This of course makes every fan windy.

Hence when testing in shop, do test the fan you are keen at various speed settings and also test the wind in various spots away from the fan so you get an idea how large an area the fan will cover. Lastly, if you know someone who has the same fan installed in their house, ask if you can test it. That way you can get an actual feel of how the fan performs in an actual setting.

Happy shopping.

Also read: Renovation: Ceiling Fans Service Centres Experience.

Pre-Renovation Thoughts

I am currently in the pre-renovation stage. I would like to pen down some thoughts on this stage.

1) Do not expect a perfect unit/apartment/house from the developer. While you might be very excited when you get your keys, that can quickly turn into anguish and disappointment if you expect the "perfect" house.

2) Look for and report the major defects as soon as possible. Engage professional help in spotting defects if you need, or if you have a bad back. I had backaches for 3 days after checking defects myself, and I still missed out some major ones till later. And its time consuming looking for defects you are not familiar with.

3) Try to close an eye on the minor defects or defects that will not really matter at all. Examples are patchy paints on the wall, if you are going to put wallpaper then it does not really matter. There are cases where a minor defects was made worse during rectification. 

4) Resist committing or paying deposit for a products or service way in advance, or before you get your keys. Chances are there may be a better deal when you are ready to renovate, or you get access to better variety, or you may prefer to engage another company for the same product/service.

I had such impulse sign ups and am now regretting as I sort of lose confidence in that company I paid a deposit for after coming to know various reviews from friends and neighbours.

Hence I hope you do not get into such impulse purchases as I did. After you get your keys, you will still have time to consider the various offerings.

5) Try to look for and join a social media group for your development. Often there will be bulk purchases offers that certain vendor offers to the group.

Keys to Our New House

After a long three years wait, we finally got our keys to our new place. The view from the balcony makes it all worth the wait.

But before I go into more pictures, I must first make my new house huat huat! And what better way then to roll ong-lai (pineapples)!

The next step is to check for defects and get it rectified. Renovation will follow thereafter. Without the luxury of time and the energy that I have when I did the renovation for our first house, I actually find it pretty stressful this time round.

So many things to research on, consider, compare and decide. We decided to engage the interior designer that did our first place as we find him pretty responsive and friends whom we recommended him to all have good feedback about him.

Let hope all these results in a great home to look forward to.

Thank you, Mr. Lee!

Credit

This week has been a life changing week for me. And I believe it is the same for all Singaporeans. Our founding father Mr. Lee Kuan Yew passed away on 23 March 2015, 3:18am.

The media have been broadcasting documentaries about him, his powerful speeches, his tireless work, his decisive actions, his undying passion for Singapore, his vision and leadership, what people say about him, etc. It was like the whole history lesson of Singapore and Mr. Lee presented in high dosage.

It just struck me that this Singapore we have, this stability and peace, the job I have, the roof over my head, the family I build, the education I received, and everything I have blindly taken for granted would not have been possible if not for what Mr. Lee and his team of pioneers did. Here's an online article which I thought was a good read for our generation might not know: What our generation doesn't know about Mr Lee Kuan Yew.

Having born and lived in times when Singapore was already on stable tracks of progress, it is easy to overlook what how much Mr. Lee has done and sacrifice to get Singapore to where we are now. A small and new country, with no natural resources, migrants with no sense of belonging, and with only a strategic location has its upper-hand, it wasn't really much to begin with.

And yet in half a century, Mr. Lee transformed it into an advanced first world country, where people of different races lived together in harmony, where everyone receives education, where they try to give everyone a roof over their head and opportunities to blossom. And a country that other countries envies and applauds.

But what really changed me was learning how selfless Mr. Lee is, in his pursue to make Singapore better. I believe every moment for Mr. Lee has been thinking about how to make Singapore better. And when I learnt how much Mr. Lee has sacrifice to always try to make the Singapore we have now better, I appreciate, treasure and now want to guard and build on what he has given us.

Sadly, it takes this unfortunately event to wake me, and I believe many other Singaporeans of my generation, to really drill in the fact that what we have achieved should never be taken for granted. In fact, we should try our very best to make Singapore even better, just like how Mr. Lee have done. This is really what SG50 should be about, recognising how far we have come and cement why we need to fight whatever difficulties we face to make our country a better place for our children and future generations to come. I feel the unity of Singaporeans this week, and a proud sense of belonging.

One of Mr. Lee's many famous quotes was "I have spent my life, so much of it, building up this country. Theres nothing more that I need to do. At the end of the day, what have I got? A successful Singapore. What have I given up? My life.".

Thank you Mr. Lee, for everything. Thank you.

Tok Kong Movers - Sibei (very) Tok-Kong (superb)

We moved recently. We took a week off work to pack before the move and even then, we were still packing and sealing the boxes when the movers came. My advice for those moving soon: Pack early, sort early, throw early.

Thankfully, we had Tok Kong Movers helping us with the move. I asked for quotes from three movers whom were recommended by friends and their quote was the cheapest. By how much? Well the most expensive mover quoted me almost double the price. But to be fair, the most expensive movers did have value-added services (like packing services) and special carton for clothes (so your clothes will not crease that badly compared to packing into normal boxes).

Tok Kong Movers on the other hand are your usual mover. They will come for assessment of the items to move and give you a quote for the move. After you confirm them as your mover, they will provide the boxes, masking tapes and a roll of bubble pack. What I like about them is their flexibility and their service that wow us.

Our move involve packing two-third of our stuff to Extra Space for storage and the balance to my parent's place.

Extra Space storage filled to the brim.

Usually moves that involves two places are more expensive but the quote David (the sales executive) gave me was tok-kong. And when I needed to add a third location one day before the actual move, he was happy to do it for us for a nominal fee (even when I highlighted that it will involve a long flight of stairs).

On the actual move day, their bigger lorry was not available due to gearbox issue and they had to make do with a smaller lorry. My whole move took longer then it was suppose to be as they needed to make more trips to complete the move. But they remained professional, cheerful and positive throughout. We felt bad that they worked till 8pm to complete our whole move and gave them a bigger angpow.

So if you are looking to move, I highly recommend the sibei tok-kong Tok Kong Movers.

The Day We Sail on the RSS Endurance

Got a special email invitation to sail with the Republic of Singapore Navy in January and the first thing that came to my mind was, can I bring Xavier along?

This year marks a year of celebration for Singapore as its our 50th year of independence. Woohoo SG50! It is also the 50th year since the formation of our Singapore Armed Forces. Woohoo SAF50!

SAF50@Vivo kicks-off the year-long celebration with awesome display of military hardware, exciting stories to share, fun activities to engage in and special performances. One of the major exhibit is one of our Landing Ship Tank (LST), the RSS Endurance.

Hence you can see why I was so excited when I receive the invitation to sail on one of Singapore's biggest warship. But I wanted to bring Xavier along, to share this special experience with him. After a few emails, Xavier is clear to go too. Time to apply for my leave.

This trip is like a mini treasure hunt for information about life in the Navy and what's it like to sail in the big ship. There were a number of navy officers who takes on the role of ambassadors to bring us on a tour of the LST and explain various aspect of life in the Navy. Colonel Thng, 191 Squadron Commander, encourage us to ask and find out more information these ambassadors.

One of the terms Xavier learnt quickly is "Heads", which stands for toilet on the ship. He had to visit the Heads fairly often. After several briefings by the various commanders, we are ready to "slip off".

Bigger ships like the RSS Endurance has got bow thrusters to help the ship to turn. But it still need  help from the tug boat to  turn before we could set sail.

On the other side of the naval base lays the Formidable-class frigates, read stealth ships.

As we sets sail, we begin our tour of the Great RSS Endurance. Here's several of us engaging the ambassadors.

The main gun on the RSS Endurance is this 76mm Oto Melara super rapid gun. The ship also have "medals" painted on for each international mission it completed.

Spotted several different kind of ships when we were sailing. Ships on their way to delivery new cars, ships carrying many containers, ships carrying natural gas, even sampans with fisherman.

RSS Endurance has room to land two Super Pumas or even a Chinook. She has one of the Super Pumas secured on the deck level.

The ambassadors spoke fondly of their love for good food during their deployment in the open sea and how much they appreciate the cooks. Their cooks are trained at Shatec and are able to wipe out delicious food, even local delights like Bak Kut Teh and Hainanese Chicken Rice while in rough sea. They took us on a mini tour of the kitchen as well as the area where they have their meals.

Next we visited the Bridge. This is where the crew set the course and navigates the ship. We were told to keep our volume down as the crew needed full concentration to navigate a narrow path as we approach Vivocity. The blinking lights, the digital display, it almost felt like a computer game.

Next they showed us where the two Fast Craft Utility (FCU) are. The big area allows the crew to store their supplies for long mission, or to bring down the helicopter if needed.

As we approach Vivocity, we were out at the landing deck taking pictures of the surrounding. It is not often that you get an opportunity like this to take pictures from different angle.

Xavier was fairly hungry when we docked hence we didn't check out the booth while they are setting it up. But below are the information for the SAF50@Vivo.

Held at VivoCity from 12 to 15 February 2015, the SAF’s three Services (Army, Navy and Air Force) will come together for an experiential display of military hardware, stories and special performances. For more information, visit www.saf50years.sg.

You can ballot for tickets to go onboard the RSS Endurance, or take a ride out to sea on the FCUs too. There are also several performances available at the event, guest appearance by the crew from Ah Boys to Men 3, and several contests going on where you can win prizes so do check out the website for more information.

Xavier and I would like to give a big thank you to the Singapore Navy for inviting us to this truly unforgettable experience. In fact, Xavier been talking about the trip to his classmates non-stop today.