Spirit of Clubmed on Bintan Island

It's amazing how a short ferry ride across blue-green waters can transport you from Singapore to a tropical island paradise. For romantic couples as well as families with children, the Clubmed resort on Bintan Island tries hard to maintain that image.

Over the years, it has somehow managed to fulfill that promise for us. Our 2 sons will always remember our previous family vacations filled with sea, sun & indoor sporting activities complemented with good food & wholesome entertainment. Most times, success must be credited to the Clubmed culture of a young & vibrant team of "GOs" or gracious organisers, and a village chief, who leads by example!

Last weekend, Theresa & I sneaked off to Clubmed Bintan by ourselves, where Mike & his wonderful team gave us our best vacation ever. Theresa was particularly impressed by Syera who served us in the Boutique gift shop. She also led in a traditional dance the first night & proceeded to charm us into modelling their latest sportswear on stage the second night.

On the third night, we were destined to be re-acquainted with their resident musician, Buddy. In celebration, we teamed up to sing a duet as guest entertainers after the usual night show. For Theresa, it was also her chance to take on her stage name Sayuri, singing in public with live accompaniement for an appreciative audience ! After warming up the mike, we were in the mood for some freestyle dancing well past midnight.

Amongst the many talented GOs, we will remember Marco fondly, who loved being in the limelight as the new in-house comedian, alongside Clubmed's resident clown Tam-Tam, who just happens to be the Restaurant Manager in the resort. Talk about wearing many hats ...

Life's A Scenic Adventure

Earlier in March this year, we did more adventuring in Kinabalu, hiking its cool trails around the Park Headquarters with its pleasant temperature range of 15 - 24 degrees C (all year round). There was no pressure this time round to summit the mountain & we planned our hikes to last from 2 to 4 hours. Theresa & I enjoyed the scenic Liwagu Trail the most as we started it upriver near the Timpohon Gate & followed its steep-sided descent to the HQ. Even though we finished it mid-afternoon in drenching rain, we were prepared with raincoats & headlamps, which made it all the more exciting! If you click on our Picasa album in the sidebar, you can see what other adventures we enjoyed in Sabah.

Family Time

When our boys were growing up through their childhood & teenage years, my wife Theresa & I aspired to keep 2 simple promises. A happy home to grow up in, and a broad education.

As a family, we were privileged to have lived abroad in Boston in the last year of my specialist training with the National Skin Centre, Singapore. While I did lab research at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Theresa, with initial help from visiting grandparents, gave Calvin & Daryl a carefree childhood. There were no classes in Montessori "early education", or special Math & Science "enrichment". Instead, there was lots of learning through play & each weekend, we planned for little driving adventures in the beautiful New England countryside.

Back home in Singapore, they had more contact time with doting grandparents while we introduced them to creative art, drawing, piano music, swimming, martial arts and all manner of ball games. There was time to fly kites & model aeroplanes and lots of freeplay inbetween. Honestly, on thinking back, parenthood was a truly enjoyable time for us.

Having appreciated the great outdoors in America, we've also taken the boys on leisurely family vacations back to various parts of North America. Of course there were the enchanting excursions to man-made theme parks like Disneyland & Universal Studios but we specially enjoyed rustic road trips through giant redwood forests and across great deserts, to see spectacular mountain ranges, canyons, geysers, rivers, waterfalls & lakes. I didn't realise then that the mountains were beckoning to Theresa. She had always harboured a secret childhood passion to climb a mountain peak & only years later did it become a reality.

Today, we're glad to see Calvin fulfilling his ambition to become an architect in Melbourne and Daryl finishing an exciting officer cadet training course in the airforce. Whether it be Theresa summiting Mt Kinabalu in 2008 & 2010, Calvin aceing his architecture programme or Daryl aiming to be a pilot-officer, I sincerely believe it's what the good professor, Randy Pausch prescribed in his Last Lecture (please see my previous post), chasing our childhood dreams.

It's nice that Theresa & I now have more couple-time for our own pleasurable pursuits. Like Latin dance, movie dates, regular nature hikes in MacRitchie forest and planning for more adventuresome trekking abroad. We'd like to think of Life as one great scenic drive; taking the time to smell the roses along the way, making happy memories together. Call it our joie de vivre.

Crossing The Threshold and Celebrating Life

One weekend in October 2011, we celebrated a double-birthday with a difference. It was our younger son, Daryl's 21st, coinciding with grandma's 80th on exactly the same date, the 21st of October. An auspicious double celebration indeed.

For Daryl, it was crossing the threshold into adulthood. After graduating from Singapore Polytechnic with a Diploma in Communications & Media, he has since enlisted into the Army, while Yihan, his girlfriend is furthering her studies at the local University.

For us, his parents, we're happy to have given him a happy, stable home to spend his childhood, and in his adolescence, the space to cultivate meaningful relationships with people outside the family. Given his gregarious personality & multiple talents, we believe that he will follow his passion & fulfill his ambition in Life. Time for us to sit back & give him emotional support and financial aid as needed for his higher education.

For Grandma (Theresa's mother), it's a significant milestone to have come this far & be able to see Daryl grow up into a man. In the evening of her Life, she has accepted the wisdom of Velveteen Rabbit, celebrating Life & grateful for what she has. For us in Asia, we try & have parents & grandparents close by & in this respect, Dominic (Theresa's brother) is truly a filial son, attending to most of her needs. Blessed is he.