Point Yamu Phuket - I am a COMO kid

Melissa exclaimed, "Hey, Megan is going to be a COMO kid!"...

That is after a meeting where it is decided that we needed Point Yamu kid's activity book to be launched before Xmas. Alas, what does that mean? It means that I have to hurry up and start drawing... Ah yes, your dearest tech service director is drawing the kid's activity book!!!

 

It all started with Maalifushi where I was the interior designer (nth years ago) turned operator (yth years ago) turned owner's rep (now). Since I witnessed the beginning and am part of the end, I thought I might as well document the process with illustrations. Somehow that personal project evolved into a Point Yamu activity book!?! ... Well I am excited with the idea, but I know very little about Point Yamu and even less on the kid's activities provided there. So I decided on the spot that Megan is to go and try out this new resort.

Hence on very short notice, Ken, Megan, my in laws, Feli, Jay, Bruce and Ari flew up to Phuket. I was working on site for the villas, kid's club and our new Beach Resort 50mins away for three days when the gang suddenly arrived. That signals the start of my vacation too! Hurray!!!

Having worked on Point Yamu pre-opening, I know how stunning the resort is. But I was still surprised how fast everybody especially Megan settled into the rooms and everywhere immediately. "I love it, I love it!", she wandered down the corridor, lobby, restaurants, pool etc.

 

 

The pool was her favorite. The hot sun did not seem to bother her even when all the adults simply prefer lying on the daybeds enjoying happy hour beer and chicken wings. Swimming pools generally pose a problem for me. I hesitated, recalling the numerous "I saw you doing aqua aerobics at the pool this morning!" in Maldives early this year... Yes, thank you, that was the first time I swam in the pool having visited the property at least 20 times for the past XXX years. I somehow forgot that everyone from the GM to the contractors knows me and I was happily jumping up and down in my loose bikini. Great job YY!

 

This time will be even worse because I will be exposing my 5 months old baby bump with saggy thighs and very pronounced varicose veins to yet another group of people who knows me. Plus the pool is shallow. " Mummy come in and play!" Dang, I will never hear the end of it!

I think the favorite pool was very quickly replaced by the favorite bath. It is an awesome bathtub which can easily fit the whole family. But daddy is more interested in his monsoon shower than playing with bubbles in the tub. Oh well. BUBBLES!!!

 

 

But even that was quickly replaced by another favorite - she calls it "the auntie in the last room" - aka the lady staff in the kid's club. Darling, trust me, you will never leave the kid's club after it has been fully furnished but in the meantime both Ken and Jay gave the kid's club staff a huge thumb's up. Judging from Megan's constant "are we going to the auntie in the last room yet?", she approved the verdict.

COMO has always been known for their food so Yamu is no exception. Personally I prefer food in Como Maalifushi. Yeah Tim, I dig your cooking!!! Having said that the kid's menu in room service was par excellence! It was the first time I tried dining in with Megan and OMG, that is the best and most comfortable meal ever! Jay, you should have recommended in-room dining sooner...

Oh yes, let's not forget that I have a job at hand while vacationing! I have to try out the activities so that I can draw for the book! Egged Ken and the adults to go for taiji, yoga, pilates and biking around Yamu town. Yes Yes Yes, everyone was keen but either it is lazing in bed or "we have to get ready for breakfast", nothing materialised!!! Biking was a firm yes from Ken until he saw the slopes and decided that it is too strenuous for a chilled vacations....

 

 

In the end we only went for a trip to the beach. Megan was ultra excited as she loved beaches but this is the first time she is heading out to sea via a local longtail boat with a loud engine... She went stiff.

I am not a beach person, I don't see the importance of having a beach attached to a resort. The whole point of falling asleep under the blazing hot sun is bizarre and a total waste of vacation time. I can see the bummer Jay roll her eyeballs... But hey, let's try... I always see beach bums armed with a book, presumably to fill in the gaps of doing nothing... OK what do I have here? Fountain Head by Ann Ryan...

Even with grandpa engaging Megan with shell hunting, sand castle building and swings, I can't digest this objectivism architecture stuff... wrong book. Eventually, Megan and me gave in to the charms of just lying in the deck chairs staring out at sea, eating porky.

 

Family time of everyone in different stages of snoozing by the beach in silence... hmmm. Strange...

I could not figure out why kids are so attracted to Point Yamu. I never felt it was designed for kids. Megan literally do not want to leave and have begged to fly back numerous times. It was not until the following week when I was walking the property with the designer, Paola Navone did I scratch the surface of its appeal to children. As Paola passed by the lawn, she exclaimed "finally the trees and grass look happy, they did not look so happy when we planted them there"...

That's it! Paola designs with happy eyes and that has resulted in a design language like no other - full of colors, textures and fun. This place is so full of happy vibes, no wonder all the kids I see are laughing and having a great time. Everything here is approachable and not pretentious. It's a joy to be here.

 

 

 I cannot resist doing a "find the pattern" project since there are so many patterns to be found everywhere. I printed 30 simple patterns onto paper and went on a pattern hunt with Megan. She absolutely loved the treasure hunt and insisted on leading the way around the property with the print outs in her hands. "I know where this is, I know!!!" and she jumped with triumph and joy when she matches the patterns with the actual. It was such a great educational tool for young ones to start opening their eyes to design. I am putting this game into the activity book!

 

 

 

 

As I settle into the big deep sofa on our last day. I contemplate how wonderful this vacation has been. And oh, how seriously comfortable this sofa is!!! It suddenly occur to me that I have never "see" Point Yamu in this perspective before. On work trips, I merely notice the quality of the shower, the size of the desk, speed of WIFI and how comfortable the bed is. Yes, sometimes I pause to inhale the spectacular view. But with family in tow, I have discovered a lot more depth to this place.

I count my blessings that I am living the life I am living. That I am always surrounded with beautiful things and great people.

Now Megan? Where do you want to go next?

Green Resorts and Sustainability

I was invited to visit a green resort in Sentosa. I believe in green but believe even more greatly that businesses are promoting “feel-good-green” with no real content – yet another marketing gimmick. However, this time I was wrong and it turned out to be a morning very well spent.

With very low expectations, I was firstly blown when I stepped inside villas built on slits with tree trucks slicing from the floorboards and out through the roofs. Some villas have as many as 13 trees trucks invading the space, others have guestroom configuration that simply does not make sense (since they were working around existing trees).

The most expensive villas were initially planned to be located in prime locations facing the beach but because of existing trees again, they were eventually built on a most unfavorable location with zero views. Trees growing through the villas, though a great architecture features, can proof to be a water proofing nightmare. Insects climbing through the gaps anyone? I can imagine a frustrated architect coming to site everyday trying to solve structural and waterproofing details and of course, all site survey plans are inaccurate enough to guarantee double the project duration. I wonder if this project has bankrupted the architecture firm in our ultra expensive time=money Singapore…

The care and considerations given to the primary forest was unbelievable. Constructions of the 12 villas took 15 months with microbial piles hung by cranes to ensure no trees/ roots were damaged from clearing. No trees were killed or relocated or so we were told, but 10 trees died throughout the years. (can this even be real?)

Auditors were deployed throughout the construction period to ensure workers preserve trees as a priority. The MD spoke passionately about the common practice to unload trucks under trees because of the shade but doing that compacts the soil and hurts the roots so it is a No NO. Contractors cannot pour and wash concrete off near trees because concrete will poison the trees. Contracts were written to bind owners themselves to the death of every tree instead of contractors so that every effort is made to monitor. Such stories of construction and their willingness to share details are both fascinating and bizarre… Even if some of these stories are a brag, the intention and efforts to provide this level of tender loving care is beyond wow. If not for the love of nature, why would anyone bother to go to this extend?

The swimming pool was planned to sit on top of an old monorail service road to again avoid digging and soil compression. They rejected a chorine pool and opt for a high capital cost salt chlorination pool. In fact, quote a bit of their green technology are hmmm… high capital cost…

However such efforts to ensure health benefits can get unappreciated. We were told that some parents rejected the pool as unsafe for their children because they cannot smell the disinfectant chlorine. Just goes to show how we urbanites have forgotten what is good for us and actually find comfort in daily chemicals.

Even small details like rugs in the rooms are made of recycled plastic bottles. A technology they claimed to borrow from Tze Chi charity in Taiwan. High grade rubber floor tiles on the corridors which I wanted to steal were apparently designed and made by themselves (patented?). The construction at the base to allow drainage solved a major health risk that children in rubber matted playground flooring are facing. Anyway on the topic of playground, I know of many parents who, in the name of safety, prefer rubber matted playgrounds to old school sandy ground. I wonder if they know that playground safety mats are toxic and as they bake under our heat, they release tons of toxic chemicals that children breathe in. Their shed crumbs as they aged are also an environment hazard to the eco system when washed into the water system, indigestible to marine life. But I digress… let’s get back to the resort…

Their ultra successful recycling of vegetable and fruit waste from the kitchen with worm compost program is actually the main purpose of our visit. We have tried in our own resorts without much success and the 1 hour talk on these creepy crawlies alone benefited us a lot. As important as sharing the technology of our Ah Gong and Ah Ma days, it is priceless they are sharing their mistakes and failures.

Moving away from green, we were briefed on their CSR programs. To my surprise, the resort employs twenty odd mentally challenged staff. “Employ” may be an inappropriate word since they were not paid a monetary salary but the resort provided them transfers, meals and swimming classes. To me, that may be more important than dollars and cents - the sense of one’s self worth and usefulness to society. Similar to their green efforts, this program appears not to just scratch the surface. Managing mentally challenged people is no easy task and on average, at least one incident involving them happen everyday.

Many tripadvisor comments relate to unfriendly and unresponsive staff. While I do agree that their “normal” staff are not up to standards, only one review by a foreign family wrote that they knew about the mentally challenged staffing program. And that is because they expressed the lack of smiley faces to the GM who in turned told them about this program. Why not state things upfront? Will it be better or worst?

We spoke about the intentions behind all these green and CSR programs that the resort pushes. To which, the MD replied that they wanted to see if a business that is both environmentally and socially responsible can be sustainable in today’s world. A loud voice in my head went “ NO WAY!”

We were not given a straight answer but I think it is between a yes and a no.

Yes, with their use of green technology, their extremely low PUB bills for 200 keys is 65 times lower than one of their next door neighbor of 100 keys. So impressive that PUB constantly check if their meters are being tampered. Green does pay off….

But no, and this is purely coming from my personal conclusions… deep pockets is certainly funding this property. Hotel is a business that requires huge capital outlay and huge manpower resources. Staffing is already extremely limited but I see substantial resources allocated into promoting and maintaining green and very challenging CSR programs as opposed to meeting daily operation needs.

Expectations. Expectations. It is all about managing guest’s expectation. “We can get away with it because we are a 3 star hotel”…. True to some extent until I started to ask around. Surprising, many of my friends have stayed in this resort before! All knew that it is an eco friendly resort but no one knows anything more of their green and CSR efforts despite having stayed there. Like the response on trip advisor, non were too impressed. But when told about all the amazing initiative the resort puts out, everyone exclaimed that it would have made them see this property in a brand new light if only they knew…

I am humbled to know that there are so many passionate people out there who care/ do so much for our surroundings. Me in the same industry and in a good position to do a lot more have never really started. I am inspired to start acting straight away and I have a plan!

In a funny way, I cannot shake off the feeling that the management team’s priority here is green and green education and their hotel a mere vehicle to support/ fund greening. While I am searching for a green and CSR model that is sustainable for a hotel business, I came home with a model that the hotel business is used to sustain greening. Now that is a mind twist…

Cake Pops Friday

I am a fan of Bakerella and her cake pops - bite size cake Popsicles.... So last friday, mimi, me and Megan decided to tested it out. Megan was so keen on the idea that come Friday morning, she crashed into our room at 730am shouting "lets make cake pops, lets make cake pops today!"

Ingredients from Phoon Huat AMK :

Sara Lee Pound cake (ready made cake! No baking!)

Creamy vanilla frosting (not available so we have to make from scratch)

Candy Melts

Candy coloring

Lollipop sticks

Sprinklers (kids simply love them)

Let's get it straight. Me and mimi are no baker. I am making cake pops for Megan to have fun and get her hands dirty. Mimi is invited to join so that while I goggle what went wrong, she can continue the process with her grand daughter.

First make the frosting - WikiHow says to mix 11/2 cups of sugar with 1/2 cups of butter, 2 table spoon of cream and a few drops of vanilla essence together.

Beat mixture until a peak forms... end result should be totally different from what Megan is demonstrating in the picture here. 

The process of making cake pops is far longer and complicated than I envision - in hindsight, maybe not a great idea for an impatient kid. But then as long as you can bear through a hundred "are we ready to make the next step yet?', "is the butter soft yet?", you are fine. So I am glad I cheat through the actual baking process and opt for Sara Lee pound cake. 

Crumble the Sara Lee cake into tiny crumbs and add the frosting to the disintegrated cake. 

Mix them together to form a paste so that the cake mixture can bind together when you roll them into balls. Be warned not to add too much frosting or the mixture will be so wet that they will fall off the lollipop sticks! 

Megan has rolled enough plasticine balls to do a great job... then comes my mum whose hand rolled balls made ours look like crap...

Stick lollipop sticks into the balls. But first, dip the end of the sticks into melted candy chocolate before poking them to ensure they stick to the cake balls. Child labor is perfect for this job as they take it very seriously. 

Cake pops need to harden in the freezer before you can coat them in melted chocolate. In the mean time, prepare the sprinklers and chocolate bits. Watch your little one as a proportion of these sweets will go missing before you even started. 

This is the part where everything gets a bit messy. Kid's attention is divided between eating the ingredients and adding the finishing touches which means they are not fast enough for the harden coating. It has been a few hours of hard work and they are tired and has grown cranky. Because this is also the most interesting part, they refuse help from anyone but want to finish every pop themselves!

Fat and satisfied. Now comes the best part.... Give the cake pops away!!! You seriously do not want your kid to go on days of sugar high.....

Activities for the 3 yr old part 3

I want to play with mummy all day long... everyday...

People always say Megan will have my genes for art. Hearing that is kinda stressful.What if, just what of she does not like to paint. At this moment, she is more interested in mixing colors - red and blue become purple, blue and yellow become green, white and red become pink etc.... I once dismissed her question on mixing two colors and told her the result will be maroon. She ended up mixing and showing me different shades the whole evening asking me if "that" is maroon.... And of coz, eventually got angry with me because she will never get maroon. 

We were walking home from the playground some time ago when it suddenly it rained, bringing down a lot of frangipani from the trees. We picked a few home and I urged her to draw the flowers with me. One thing I learned being a parent is that kids do not develop interest by themselves. To get Megan to sit patiently and draw, I have to paint first.

Of coz, we can only guide. Kids being kids will still do it their way. Megan stuck the flowers on her paper and drew me and her walking under a park of tall frangipani flowers. 

Megan spent half of her time at my in laws place. Since I am not sure what she will be doing, I actually drew up a lot of maze games and simple maths worksheets for her to pass her time. Yes I am a KS Singaporean mum. 

Variation to painting : painting 2D Easter eggs! 

Using paper cut outs to create a picture! 

Learning to make origami planes and animals together......I also made paper boats of various sizes in which I wrote the words 大中小...  well since you want to do it, might as well go a step further right? 

Puzzles are a great way to pass time. Diaso sells a set of 2 for $2! 

Reading is the best activity. I realise that many books are not suitable for beginners. It is too expensive to buy then realise the content or the sentence structure do not work well for your kid. The national library is your best friend. It is amazing how much books they stock! But do remember to return them on time because we never did. Megan is a book hogger. 

Megan has been wishing for a playdoh set for months but I cannot convince myself to spend the money. But then, lets not forget that Megan has a daddy who loves her to the moon... Just look at her smile when daddy finally bought her playdoh in May.

Ok I am not happy with old school plasticine for its color BUT I hate playdoh that flakes into a million pieces!! Urgh... Finally I had enough of both last week and decide to make our own play dough. With youtube screening on my ipad, Megan and me had a grand time mixing flour, salt, oil etc in the living room floor... The results? Spectacular color and texture!!!

It turned out to be one of the best activity that we have done together. Megan creating plasticine from scratch. You want it, you make it... I like the concept. And she decorated her rainbow waffles with beads fallen off her broken abacus.

When I am busy, I will tell Megan to invite her frens over for picnic. 

The great outdoors - 

Having friends who are well informed of various exhibitions around town helps tremendously. Andy told us we have to bring Megan to iLight at the bay and Megan went out of control... simply refused to go home...

The East Coast Park is a great place for families. Tiff recommended longgang fishing which did not appeal to Megan but she loves feeding the fishes though... All in all a great morning...

Scooter skate - one of the latest toys daddy bought! I have to admit, this is a great toy.... zooooomm!