At Chicago, I decided to turn on my Touch Pro quickly to check out the BPL result. Thank goodness, Liverpool won 3-2 away against Manchester City, after being 2-0 down on half-time. That made my day anytime, and the flight fatigue was overshadowed by the joyous feeling.

At Houston, I went over to Hertz to collect the rented car. No “Never Lost” system this time round, again courtesy of company’s travel policy. Well, I was never prepared to ‘study’ the route to the hotel, especially considering how tired I will be after a long flight journey. I am sure my brain will need some guidance, and hence I had brought along my travelling car kit comprises of phone charger and cradle. After setting them up, and positioning my Touch Pro, I turned on the Garmin Mobile XT installed on my Touch Pro, and crossed my finger that I could get acquistion fix, fast. It didn’t disappoint me, thanks to the Quick GPS, as Garmin Mobile XT received the fix within a minute, and I manage to get my way to the hotel within 30 mins, with the usual familiar navigation guidance voice.

Touch Pro to my rescue again, thankfully.

This was probably the first time Yeez and myself had an holiday with Kang & Ray (and their parents of course, our sister and brother-in-law) so we were naturally very excited.

The ferry ride was a non-event (thank godness!), sea was not choppy and we got ourselves a good seating arrangement, all thanks to Kang’s “leadership” in getting the good seats reserved! So finally we arrived at Bintan Lagoon Resort, which is about 10 mins bus ride away from the ferry terminal, I had to say it had not changed since the first time I came to the resort 10 years ago. Still, it was a different experience given that this was the first time we spent with our nephews in the resort.
As expected, almost every activity in the resort cost money. I guess that’s how they are able to price the accommodation rate so affordable. A 10 min go-kart ride would cost $27, and a guided kampong tour would cost $100. While it has never our intent to shortchange our holiday by avoiding all these costly activities, sometimes, it may not be a bad idea to just laze around instead with your loved ones.

We spent most of our time in the beach, leisure centre and swimming pool. The laser quest game was the most physical draining one. Well, perhaps not to the kids, but nonetheless, it was fun. Ray was too scared to join in the game, so Yeez had to take over his position, and we teamed up to play against Kang and Luan Boo. Despite ended up as the top scorer, I was so dead beat that all I could recall was me trying to catch my breathe throughout the 10 minutes game. Then Ray decided that he was ready to play the game, not after 3 days of courage building. So we had another round of laser quest game on the last day, but he almost “chickened” out on the last minute. With more coaxing, and special request to have the light switched on so that the “battlefield” appeared less creepy for Ray, he finally relent to have the gear put on and reluctantly stepped into the room. The next moment, you can hear him back to his usual self, running, screaming and shouting, enjoying himself obviously. Ray came out as the top second shooter, not bad for somebody who took 3 days to muster some guts for the game huh?

The time spent on the mini-golf course was brief but hilarious. Kang and Ray had a mini golf competition, but all we witnessed was constant rushing and pushing of the golf balls in the 9 hole (mini) course. Considering that they had rented an hour of golf putters and they spent less than 30 mins finishing the 9 hole game … Next generation Tiger Wood in the making? Probably! LOL … The whole mind-relaxing trip was marred a little by a commotion at the resort Mediterranean restaurant. You see, other than six of us, there were only 2 other diners in the restaurant. So the ambience was rather tranquil, until our presence. Then again, Kang & Ray were actually at one of their best behaviours, although their best behaviour may not exactly be appreciated in a fine dining restaurant. Still, it’s probably acceptable given that this was not really a fine dining restaurant, and the other two diners were happily enjoying their meal and conversation. Not until a Caucasian man with his Asian female partner came in later though. Shortly after the couple had settled down, we could overhead Caucasian guy commanding to the waiter, rather loudly if I may add, that we were too noisy for him. Kang & Ray probably had made a bit of noise at some points, but I thought he and his partner could be more tolerant and excuse the kids. Just as we were about to leave, the Caucasian guy made such a loud sigh, so loud that one would have thought his business had failed or his female partner had just announced a break up with him! Oh well, just as I thought we could have done better in terms of keeping our noise volume low, this guy certainly did not show he’s any better than us with his ungentlemanly behavior.

有人说：“钱是赚不完的，身体是累得跨的”。在工作岗位上奋斗了那么多年，虽然还是个打工仔，但也付出了不少汗血，所以决定给自己和意一点物质上的鼓励 — 环游台湾岛吧！

去台湾不是一个很难的决定，但行程的安排，确实有一点难倒了我这个懒人。想了一想，还是参加旅行团，省了麻烦的筹备功夫，拍拍屁股就可以上路了吧! 朋友于是给了一些意见，参加旅行团，必须要有因行程紧凑而疲惫的心理准备。鱼与熊掌，不可兼得。我们最终还是报名加入旅行团，但也选择在行程后再延长多两天，一来希望不会把疲惫的心情带回家，二来还可以在台北逍遥自在地逛一逛，一石二鸟呀！

十二月的十二号，就是我们出发的好日子！