Kukup trip on Labor Day Holiday

And so we decided to be adventurous and take a coach to Kukup on 30 April 2017 (Sunday) (the next day is Labor's Day holiday!) with our family in Christ. Beforehand, we prayed (for a safe and smooth journey) of course and I kept reminding baby Rayes not to poop on the coach (as if he can control..hahaha). The boys are especially excited about this trip and kept asking if it's time to go Malaysia.....

After service, we waited for our coach which was supposed to reach at 12.30pm. We waited and waited and before we knew it, it was already 1.30 pm....But okay, at least it arrived eventually....

Yea! Getting ready to board the coach!

The traffic was quite smooth and I figure we would reach Kukup in no time, yea! However, when we reach the Malaysia custom, it was a nightmare! We were horrified! The place was hot and stuffy and packed with people. It didn't really matter if there were long queues, at least we could queue and moved on. The worst thing was we could not see any lines at all!

So we were trapped in this crowd, with our luggage in tow, 2 restless boys and a sleeping baby Rayes in my carrier. The boys' patience were running out in this hot and stuffy place and also tired from standing for such a long time. They took turns to be carried by my also tired hubby, Ray. We were inching and nowhere near the half way mark even after an hour. And I feared that baby Rayes could wake up anytime wailing for milk. 

However, even with such a situation, it's still a time to thank God. This is a teachable moment for my boys who are so fortunate to be staying in Singapore. 

Points for reflection and what we gained:

• Can you imagine the situation in wartime where the situation is much more chaotic? Refugees who are packed like sardines in the ships?
• Endurance and patience - What can you do to improve the situation? Telling jokes, encouraging each other etc
• Complaining does not help and definitely can't solve any problems
• Each little small step taken means we are nearer our goal
• Keeping our eyes fixed (focus) on the signboard (our goal)
• Be thankful for the fresh air that we are breathing and the freedom we have!
• Using the crowd here to imagine the number of Israelites crossing the Red Sea
• Learning a new idiom “人山人海”

As expected, baby Rayes woke up soon for milk and I am so thankful that I am a latching mama because I knew there is no way I could get out of this crowd to breastfeed. Hence, I breastfed Rayes in my Manduca carrier. After drinking, he fell asleep but not for long. This time, he woke up fidgeting and I knew it would be a challenging task to pacify him. 

Just as I was fretting, a path suddenly opened up in front of us and I saw our family in Christ gesturing for us to move on as those with young kids could go to the priority queue. (so thankful! but why only 1 hour later.......=S ).

So this is how we got out of the crowd! When we were out, we saw some people who could have fainted from being trapped in the crowd for too long as their faces were pale and they looked really weak and one even sitting on a wheelchair. What an eye opening experience for us. Moral of the story, never go Malaysia on a public holiday.

We waited for 1.5 hour more for the rest to clear the custom and due to some unforeseen circumstances, we waited for another hour on the coach. By the time we set off, the time was already 6 pm and it was raining cats and dogs outside. With a throbbing headache, I wondered how do we make our way to our resort at Kukup if this rain continued. I said a silent prayer to God, praying for fine weather when we reached. And I dozed off, exhausted........

When I opened my eyes, we have already reached Kukup and it was not raining! Thank God thank God thank God! We made our way down and walked for about 10 min before reaching our resort.

Don't expect hotel standard but our resort is bright, spacious and clean. Our room is air conditioned and the boys were thrilled to see the bunk beds and the room immediately became their playground.

We were famished and proceeded to have our dinner after putting our bags.

The place where we had our dinner.

The feast that welcomed us.

Fireworks while we were having our dinner.

It was 11pm when we hit the bed.

The weather was lovely the next morning!

We had a good breakfast before making our way to the kelong.

Really nice prawn fritters.

I love the soon kueh as well.

Didn't seem too happy about visiting the Kelong eh?

On our way to the kelong.

Reaching the kelong

Horseshoe crab

This poor puffer fish to entertain us...

There's actually nothing much to see at the kelong. It's still a good experience for the boys nevertheless.

Walking back to our resort under the really HOT sun.

We had some ice-cream at the KFC look-alike fast food restaurant, MaryBrown

One thing I don't like about Kukup is there are lots of motorbikes on the road (is it even a road with no lanes). Some are going at a really fast speed, it's so dangerous, I was really worried about the boys' safety and held on to their hands real tight.

And that's about all, we returned to Singapore after lunch. There was news that the jam at the custom was really bad in the morning but I wasn't worried at all because I knew that God will certainly plan well for us. And true enough, our journey back to Singapore was pretty smooth! There was some queuing but much better than when we came, at least there was still some order. At Singapore, we were Immediately ushered to the priority queue.

We enjoyed ourselves and are very thankful for the hiccups of this trip as they only make it a more memorable and unforgettable one for us. Every step that we took, we know that God is watching over us and I'm sure He is so happy to see his children having a great time together. Thank God for everything!

有时出游，不一定要事事顺利才开心

出现的每一个状况其实都能够得到宝贵的经验，

感受到神与我们同在，是无价的。

不害怕，是因为知道有兄弟姐妹在身边，

大家可以互相照应，神也一定会安排保佑。

When is our next trip?

PS: Baby Rayes bombed us with poop the very next day! Whew!!