Singapore Botanic Gardens

We fell in love with the trees and all the plant life thriving in this beautiful 74 hectares garden that was free for the public to enjoy even if we went after church at noon. It was my parents' first time there and they fell in love with this garden, as if transported back to the Chicago Botanic Gardens, which they went often to take pictures of the flowers. The people living in Singapore are blessed to have this huge garden that they can go to, with no mosquitoes and lots of heritage trees.

Swan Lake

Damai Staycation part I

I've always loved staying in hotels since a kid. A family friend generously let us use their hotel package/membership to gift us two nights at the Damai Beach Resort, which is about 40 minutes away from Kuching city. It is a popular staycation spot for Kuching-ners since it has a beach, which Kuching city does not have. I was going there more for the hotel than the beach but it was nice to watch the changing clouds and beach at the seaside for two days. It was a good family time too as we do not have any family travel plans coming up anytime soon. I thought of it as a mother's day pre-weekend celebration. As usual, dad and I love taking photos, and mom love exploring the outdoors, so the photos are a result of us being who we are.

Later we found the origin of these beautiful seed/flowers; they are from a tree nearby

 A coconut on the beach

 Mom was having a fun time being hit by the waves

 Walking barefooted in the ocean/sand.

 Sandals in hands, enjoying the beach walk.

 Mom found a blue canoe on the beach

 Bliss

The next morning, we went out to have a walk again. Most of these photos were taken by my dad as he has a keen eye for details in nature.

 Coconut trees and chalets

Patterns of nature:

 Found a sleeping cat

We walked over to Damai Central, a public area that houses several shops and restaurants. From here, you have the mountains view in the back and the sea in front of you.

The Sarawak Cultural Village:

We visited the souvenir shop and the restaurant (these two sections are free to enter, as long as you get a pass from the ticket booth).

 The view of the mountain from inside the village is spectacular.

Different types of 'cucur'/fritters for sale: banana, sweet potato, yam...

 Walking down the traditional Longhouse ladder

 The cutest kitten sleeping and hiding from the heat inside a flower pot

 Then we were back at the hotel for the afternoon. The beach in the afternoon looks like this:

 It was low tide so mom went exploring...

 Back from exploring

 We drove to Buntal village to see if there is any seafood for sale.

 It is quite a small village and we did not want to eat lunch at the restaurants there so we headed back to the hotel again.