Bkt Baru & Ujong Pasir DG Retreat

This year, the church has decided to organise smaller scale group retreat instead of a church camp.  Reason: Andrew wants to spend more personal time with small groups of members.  Though this is neither Andrew's or my DG, we joined the Bkt Baru & Ujong Pasir DG as there are kids in this group whereby my kiddos could mingle around with.  This is the second DG retreat in the year.  This group made plans to visit HS Farm in Muar for their weekend getaway. 

We left around 2pm on Friday.  The journey was smooth and short.  It only took us 45 minutes to reach our destination. We were warmly welcomed by Kelvin's family.  They were here since 1pm and had been waiting for the rest to arrive. 

The entrance of the resort

Kelvin and Hui Lee showed us to our room

Our room is one of the bigger one compared to the rest. The downside is, the air-cond took longer to cold down the room.

As soon as we settled down, the children and I roamed around the place exploring.  Brendon acted as our tour guide.

There were a few dinosaurs in the compound.  Picture time!  Say cheese....

Elyse and Erwyn love dinosaur.  But Brennice preferred to stay at a distant.

There's a mini zoo in this farm.  But what caught my attention was this little meerkat.  Couldn't help but to take a photo of it.  Isn't he adorable?  Sitting there waiting to be photographed?

Longkang fishing: still remember the good old days?

It isn't as easy as it looks.  Perhaps the fish here are well trained.  They are very alert whenever we go near them and swim away swiftly.  We caught none the first day.

Amy joined in the fun as soon as she arrived.  But she too, didn't catch anything.

Next, let's dip our feet into the water for a fish spa.

The first session started at 5pm and the kids gathered in our room for a board game challenge.  We played Blokus, Ghost Busters, Othello, and etc.

We headed out to a Chinese restaurant in town for our dinner.  A little hiccup on our way there.  Our car's tayar was punctured, but thankfully there was a tayar shop nearby which was still open.  The mechanic fixed it within 10 minutes and we were back on the road.

It took us longer than we expected to reach the restaurant as there was a traffic jam. But the food served was delicious and the amount was huge.  We had fish, duck, pork, chicken, taufu, vege, 4 seasons, and etc.  All for the price of RM260 per table.  Thanks to Hui Lee's father, who is a local there, for striking a good deal with the owner of the restaurant.

There were supposed to be another session at night but it was cancelled as time was running late.  We reached the resort around 10pm.  With a full stomach and a sleepy head, I doubt anyone could take in anymore spiritual food.  So, we called it a night.

The next morning, just before the session started, we took a stroll at the mini zoo again.  The worker was cleaning and feeding the pets.  And I took the opportunity to carry this fellow.  Ok, this trip is definitely worth while.

Compared to a Koala Bear I carried years ago in Australia, surprisingly, this fellow is not as heavy nor as smelly as I thought it would be.  And its fur is also very soft.

The morning session started and my baby-sitting duty also commenced.  I arranged a fun time (so I thought) of t-shirt painting with the kids.  To my disappointment, the kids were too excited to wet themselves in the swimming pool which I have promised to do so after the painting.  They finished off their painting in a blink of an eye.  Of course the result was not satisfactory.

Finally, I 'let them go, let them go....'

Time flies when you have fun... soon, it's lunch time and we went to a famous Asam Fish shop in town.  Thankfully they also served eggs and taufu.  At least there's something for my kids to eat.

The next itinerary is Pony Farm.  There's horse/pony ride available in the farm but each ride is charged RM10.

However, we were given free rides in this pony farm.  The pony seemed to be in a bad mood.  Nevertheless, Elyse, Erwyn, Brendon, and Amanda took turns to ride on it.

After that, we headed to a bee farm.  The worker even showed us how he extracted the honey out from the bee hive.

Our final stop is Hui Lee's father's orchard.  There we enjoyed fresh coconuts while some of them helped themselves with "jambu air".  By then we were all tired and went home for a nap.

Kong Peng was pretty good at this... even Amy was marvelled!

yummylicious... fresh and cooling - thanks to Hui Lee

Plucking the 'jambu air'

Dinner - time to get your hands dirty and drenched in your sweat - Barbeque hour

Free bicycle rides in the compound of the resort.  Daddy finally has some spared time to entertain the children while everyone was still indulging in their food.

The night was still young.  The children sang a few songs at the karaoke lounge before the night session began.

Day 3: Last day of the retreat

Young and old sang their heart out to God

I've decided to let the children go free instead of doing activities with them.  Brendon, Brennice and Elyse preferred splashing away in the pool whilst Erwyn determined to catch some fish.  Well, he did it this round.  Caught 3 fishes, though one of them was a dead fish.

I, too, caught 4 fishes.  Reminiscing my childhood, perhaps....

Happy boy

 After that, last round of fish spa....

A final wefie at the swing in front of the rooms before we went home...

Goodbye, Muar!  It was a good fun time for the kids but I was exhausted... as though taking care of 2 kids was not enough.  Baby-sitting job ain't that easy.  I surrender.