Jakarta - Gig-Trip (3D2N)

I did my first gig-trip to Jakarta. Have never been there, but still I found it pretty exciting amidst their jams. Here's a 3D2N itinerary which I think you can follow too if you are going for a concert. 

Where to Stay: The Sultan Hotel & Residence Jakarta

I tried to do a money-saving by booking last minute (I booked a day before by the way). The strategy didn't work and it fell flat. There was a price surge and all the cheaper rooms were sold out. I ended out not getting the hotel we initially wanted - Artotel Gelora Senayan Jakarta or a cheap luxury option - Fairmont. 

The Sultan Hotel & Residence Jakarta is really convenient and within walking distance to the concert and the nearby shopping district. The compound is huge, I didn't even finish exploring the whole place. The exterior is a little worn, but the interior is clean. My favourite was their breakfast. It was delicious and had a massive selection. I even found ice-cream <3 Glad we ended up there!

** Use the discount code "BABYNFAMKLOOK" when you book through Klook for a 5%  Discount. Applicable to All Klook Activities with min. spend of SGD50. Discount capped at SGD15.

How to Travel: By Gojek, By MRT (during Jam)

Gojek is really cheap there and is generally the preferred option because the pedestrian roads isn't very friendly. We ended up walking in circles a few times. Good thing we knew locals who swear by MRT. During desperate times, we gave it a try. We had to purchase the card (S$3) which is so expensive for their standards. Every top up had an administrative fees. However, it is really fast and was the best mode of transport during the peak hours. It still doesn't get you right at the doorstep though.

What we observed during the peak hours was that the Gojek driver would stop moving in the map and we would be leave in limbo. MRT was definitely the best option. Either that, we considered the pillion rider on bike option, which many of their locals seems to be taking. Fun fact, there are women cabin and we had to be educated by the commuters. :P

Day 1: Kota Dua / Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption/ Hutan Kota by Plataran

We went to their top attraction. Honestly, there isn't any much there and seems like we mainly went for food. Most of the people were locals and attempted to speak to us in Bahasa. For lunch, we had Pandang Merdeka instead of the highly instagrammable cafe - Cafe Batava. No regrets because their food was super good. We struggled a little on the language, pointing and translating the menu. I stuffed myself silly. Their pop chicken looked really unappetizing but is amazingly delicious. Do not miss it!  We chilled a little at Kedai Seni Djakarte to try their Poffertjes. Ok, but not a must-go!

As I had a bit of spare time, I decided to head to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, the one place I really wanted to check out. We ended up hitting peak hour and had problems catch a gojek. From there, we learnt that you need to give yourself buffer time. After debating for half an hour, we decided to take the metro (pretty convenient as it walking distance from the metro station!) and arrived at the beautiful cathedral. It doesn't beat anything you see in Europe. If you love architecture like me, you would enjoy a short visit. 

Ended the day with Dinner at Hutan Kota by Plataran, a recommendation by their locals. It is a little of a fine dining place and I love the attention to details they showered on us. (It started way before we arrived, from the day I made a reservation). As it was a special occasion, the waiters even came their a full assemble to sing us a song. Food is fusion style, but very tasty. It is pricey for the local standards, but worth every penny. The view and ambience was great. Highly recommend!

Day 2: Blok M Square Enclave

It is a very youthful place and I love it. It is a trending hang-out and I can understand why. We got a lot of caffeine fix here. Check out how many cups we had in total. Ranked according: Tuku (love their gula aren in their coffee), filosofi (typical good cup of Western Coffee), Matchaman (ok cup of matcha). It was a great shopping area. My best find being Ingood- a place which sold really cute merch and had  the most decorated photo booths with movable props and nice photo templates. We struggled a little with the payment instructions but the shop owners were kind enough to assist. Another nice find was a tee from Shrotam. 

Lunch was at Sarang Oci, which served another type of Indonesia cuisine. Another satisfied meal which I would highly recommend. We left the place soon after by metro again because the jam was crazy and I needed to collect my tickets for the concert. Would have loved fitting a massage session in, but I love shopping more!

Day 3: Last Minute Shopping - ASHTA District 8

Wasted a little bit of time exploring the Car-Free-Day booths. It is mostly street food which I had no courage to try. (I prefer shopping). ASHTA District 8 is my favourite shopping mall thus far. It has character and lots of interesting local brands. But too bad, I had so little time. I could only squeeze in a coffee stop at Fuglen and a grocery run. And it was to the airport. I surprisingly enjoyed Jakarta and can't wait to be back already. Can't wait to go there again for another concert!

K!dz Pop Con Asia 2026

Back at K!dz Pop Con Asia again, and this year, the booths were more spread out. I like that it was easier to navigate and had more space to think/ spend. We managed to finish most of the booths within a day, call me crazy, but I prefer to have more things so that I will FOMO. Lol! The bouncy areas were the highlight as usual. The area was as large and the children actually went for 2 session - literally the first and the last thing they did. 

After which, we went round the booths. The kids particularly enjoyed booths with crafts. As this year, it was held slightly before the June Holidays, I was a little bummed that there were not as many enrichment class vendors. I would have loved to get a few discounts and fix up some June Holiday Classes for them. Food was affordable and there was good variety this year. You don't have to step away to fill up your tummies!

This year, our favourite booth had to be Syrena, the mermaid's booth. There was so much to do there - including a balloon bubble, shiny face painting, playing with the gymnastics ribbon. All for free too. Plus the whole booth was very instagrammable. Bluey also made special guest appearances at their booths. More excited than the kids, cos I watch Bluey and they don't really. Haha.  I was a little sad this year My Little Pony didn't set up a booth because I am a huge fan. 

Toy Story 5 had a booth and their activities and free goodies were absolutely the best! We even ended purchasing some tickets to the upcoming movie. KPop Demon Hunters also had a booth just to sell merchandise only. Overall, I thought it was still a great, well-priced event. Maybe I was spoilt by last year (read my review here), I just want more! In any case, we can't wait for their next installment next year!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Musical

I am not a 100% favourite fan of Roald Dahl (anyway he has a very interesting love life), so I wasn't really following on their musical. My parents got some tickets and decided to whizz the family off to join them in their very first musical. Initially, I thought the musical was not very well received because there were so many promotions going on. Turns out they are having an extremely long run in Singapore from 19 May – 14 Jun 2026 (almost a month). 

My parents were extremely excited and took photos with almost everything and anything! Lol! To be fair, the musical is not too bad and the whole theatre was packed, but not iconic in my humble opinion. The wardrobe and props were really impressive and the Charlie's mother had a great singing voice. It was visually my most impressive musical to date. But the songs were not catchy enough (like Wicked), so I left not having any potential playlist. 

It was my first time taking the back-middle seat. I thought it was not too bad, you can't really see the cast faces and expressions. I am kinda of regretting for always picking the side-front seat for the ballet. Now I will never know should the spacing between dancers. Unfortunately no golden tickets for us. 

If you are not too particular about the seats/ production, I have learnt that it is ok to wait. Money Saving tips: You need to have a UOB Card. If you want to get MBS cashback, you need to go to MBS to purchase the tickets at the counter. Otherwise, just buy online, it is easier. As and when, there is always some promotions. I don't see any patterns to date, you just need to follow them. But it is never for the best seats!

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Musical: https://www.klook.com/en-SG/activity/174225-charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory/

** Use the discount code "BABYNFAMKLOOK" when you book through Klook for a 5%  Discount. Applicable to All Klook Activities with min. spend of SGD50. Discount capped at SGD15.

Edge - Best Buffet in Town

Back at Edge again for their "sea of flavours" cos I just can't get enough of them. This is one buffet place that I keep getting cravings for. I love their variety and how there is something for everyone. I also like how they continuously improve. Their oriental soup used to be very average, but now it is something I go for when I am there. 

Like my fellow Singaporeans, I decided to "attack" the seafood table. My favourite is always the snow crab. They are always generous with the pincers and each come with succulent chunks of meat. Diners usually swipe off a full plate for their table. Try to be there when they refill it. My husband went for the crabs, it was cooked in various gravy. Joy for the tastebuds!

Dishes to look out for this time round includes the Lobster Bisque with Cognac, House-smoked Pork Belly and 12-hour Braised Tajima Wagyu Beef Short Rib. I was super surprised to see Frog Leg being served too. Must try is the Mayura Station Chocolate-fed Wagyu Beef with Ponzu and Braised Leek! For the adults, the selection this time round was insanely awesome! I ate so much, I didn't have any room left for sashimi!

During our 3-hours long meal (yup that's how long we stayed), we even had mini quizzes and htht within ourselves. The kids didn't even watch any shows. I knew that was how engaged they were. After our chat breaks, we continued on with the desserts - the kids went for their favourite ice-cream and chocolate fondue. If you have limited capacity, skip their cakes cos they are not as outstanding as the rest. 

Best buffet in town, it just never disappoints. A perfect place for diners (especially big families) to celebrate any special occasions. For those who want to try "sea of flavours", it is here until 21 June 2026 (Fridays to Sundays from 6pm to 10pm)

$128++ per adult | Inclusive of free flow of soft drinks

$64++ per child (6 to 12 years old) | Inclusive of free flow of soft drinks

Top up an additional $78++ for a bucket of five bottles of The Portman Lager

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** To get additional discounts, you can use the discount code "BABYNFAMKLOOK" when you book through Klook for a 5% Discount. Applicable to All Klook Activities with min. spend of SGD50. Discount capped at SGD15.

Best Indoor Playground - HappyWiz

For those who are living in the East, lucky you, I just might have found the best indoor playground to date. First of all, HappyWiz is huge. It easily has the tallest indoor playground slide in Singapore - I tried it myself, it is very thrilling even for the adults. It has the typical pretend play kitchens, hinoki pit and ball pit.

What stood out apart from their very tall slide was a cow which you could milk and feed. I truly have never seen anything like that in any other indoor playgrounds. It was pretty intriguing for the children, I think they might have spent a good half-an-hour just milking it dry. Lol. 

For other play sections, HappyWiz does it better that their competitors. There was also a car repair area with costumes and a trampoline area which is linked to a screen, so you could see yourself hopping up and there. In the ball pit, there was a basketball hoop and a giant float which you could climb on to shoot. As the area was huge, their structure hid many slides, obstacle areas and even a mini flying fox. Some of the obstacle areas even lit up! You probably can even play a legit game of hide and seek!

The whole place was very vibrant and well-lit. Not a priority but every photo came out awesome! :P As a parent, I am quite torn between playing and taking the chance to take a breather. I ended up climbing the structure and sliding down most of their slides. Like most places, they also offer the birthday packages and they have proper space to host. Off the top of my head, I can only think of 2 places/locations which can do that. 

Their only disadvantage is that they are in a rather new mall - imall. It is not the most convenient. But we did a bit of exploration and found it was still worth to be a destination place because imall have an interesting food selection which you probably won't find elsewhere. Either which, you could just cross over to Marine Parade, Katong Streets or iKatong to find something yummy to fill the tummy. 

Like the children, I absolutely adore this. I just hope that they have a little more outlets so that groupbuys will be launched. :D Would suggest going for a 3 hours package because trust me 3 is not enough :D

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Happywiz: https://www.klook.com/en-SG/activity/199036-happywiz-indoor-playground-in-singapore-marine-parade

** Use the discount code "BABYNFAMKLOOK" when you book through Klook for a 5%  Discount. Applicable to All Klook Activities with min. spend of SGD50. Discount capped at SGD15.

Mother's Day Quiz with Pigeon

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there. If I may be honest, being a mother is one of the most tiresome journey. There are days I would if I didn't have kids, I probably would have so much more spare time. But how I use it would probably be a waste of resources (watching more dramas maybe). At the same time, it is also meaningful, sharing your day, knowledge with the (appreciative) little ones. They still hug, kiss and massage me. Can't be sure if they are older it will still be the same. 

Pigeon launched quite a cute quiz on what sort of motherhood care we are. It is incredibly accurate and it phrases every type of care beautifully. The why we do it is very true! It is a bit of a fairy tale like storyboard with scenarios that are extremely relatable on a day-to-day basis. Very fun for mothers and maybe even fathers :P

Food Tour 68: Yummy Food at City Gate Mall

Recently, we were around City Gate area and decided to pop into the mall. It was such a nice surprise for us because I didn't even know there was this mall. And there was quite a nice variety of food that was not seen in other areas before there. 

1. Palapa 

Palama was such a happy find. It serves authentic Indonesian food. The portion was generous and delicious and the price was very affordable. There were even set meals for the kids, which consisted of fried fish. I particularly the flavoured rice but not the children. The stall owner was kind enough to provide me some white rice. The noodles were a little spicy for the children. So if you have toddlers like me, do remember to change the carbs to white rice instead. Indonesian food is always a little too heavy on the salt for me. Apart from the soup, everything else was not too salty. They have a few outlets, so do give them a try and your nearest outlet.