Travelling with kids to Taiwan 2016 (PART 2) - Spiderman & Pirates theme rooms at Sato Castle

Continue from (Part 1)...

I fancy everything with themes...eg themed parties, themed desserts, themed cafes, themed hotels, themed costumes etc...

It just bring out that childhood fantasy in you, and certainly brings every photo to life.

Sato castle is a theme hotel located at Jiannan road MRT station, 15 minutes drive from Shilin Market and 5 minutes walk from a couple of shopping malls. The hotel offers 51 different theme rooms which are categorised into King, Queen and Castle. All rooms come with a spa bathroom and a jaccuzi. The differences between the categories are probably the size of the room and the different unique themes.

Hubs had been eyeing the Spiderman theme room (Queen category) from Sato castle for quite a while, and he finally arranged for us to spend the last two nights of our Taiwan trip there. Since each theme only comes in one room, the hotel cannot guarantee that you may get the room you requested. Therefore your best bet is....booking your stay on a weekday during the non-peak season, or to inform them during your booking.

After booking the hotel directly from their website, Hubs emailed them to request for the Spiderman room, and on the following night, he requested to switch to another theme, Pirates and Carribean. That means we get to explore two different theme rooms over our two nights stay there. On the week of our arrival, he made another phone call to remind and make sure that our requested rooms were confirmed.

As described by the name, Sato is really similar to a real castle with flaming towers, knights amours and draw-bridge that made the kids go "wah wah ..."

We kept the Spiderman room a surprise from our boys and only let them know that we were going to spend a night at a castle. This already got Rboy shaking in excitement!

It didn't take long for them to recognize the familiar red spider logo that greeted us once we opened the door.

Spiderman Theme room

 

 As usual, the boys aimed for the super comfy bed. The first place that I check out when entering a hotel room is always the bathroom. And the bathroom of Sato Castle blew me away! A sauna, a steam room, a rainforest shower bed, a television, good sound system and a jaccuzi huge enough to fit a family of 4....all these in our own private bathroom! Too awesome or what? It just give you good excuses to stay long in the "toilet" !

How nice to enjoy a hot tub under the watchful eyes of Spiderman.

This tub fits a family of 4 perfectly!

The toilet, sauna and steamroom lined in a row

They offer a very good range of toiletries, from lotions to comb, shaver and even sanitary pads!

Pirates Theme room

 

Since we booked two nights at Sato castle, we requested to change to another theme on the second night. Pirates and adventure theme is certainly every kid's childhood fantasy! Is there a boy who doesn't love to have a bed on a pirate ship?!

 

The giant octopus tentacles leave lots to their imagination. Honestly the boys were a little intimidated by the tentacles, the hanging skull head and skeleton..oops!

Rboy immediately asked if we can return to the Spiderman room haha! It really took them a while to "warm up" to their new living space for the night. And it helps after hubs pretended to be the octopus's ally by swimming up the bed to grab the boys' legs, while I took the role as the boys' captain and instructed them to steer the ship away or hide under the comforter. The boys had a real blast with our crazy pretend play and got settled well in their room in no time.

 

Satisfied with their cosy pirate ship bed

 

The little pant-less pirate wannabe

The pirates' stash hidden here

 

 The inviting jacuzzi

To compare, I would personally prefer the Spiderman theme room for the kids to this Pirates theme room.

Reasons being: 1)Spider man room is way more spacious for the kids to run around. Due to the unique design of the pirates ship, the room was rather cramp. 2)The pirates theme interior design is a little scary for younger kids. They may not be comfortable having the skeleton skull on the wall watching them when they sleep. 3)Hazardous steps , corners and gaps that may cause younger kids to trip and fall over or get stuck (pic below).I've to constantly watch over the boys and stop them from climbing all over the boat. And we discovered an uncovered pipe which would turn burning hot if the steam room is being used. Had to make sure that the child doesn't go near it in since it was not even well-protected at all.

Holes and gaps between the boat and the wall and the exposed hot pipe at the corner bottom of the toilet, which may not be very safe for younger children.

 

To sum it all, if you are bringing younger kids along, I would strongly recommend the Spiderman room than the Pirates room. Of course there are still so many other different themes to explore and you may find one that's even more fun than ours!

 

Useful Tips for Family with Kids checking into Sato Castle:

1) Check in timing is quite late at 6pm and they are pretty strict on that. Still you can leave your luggage with them and walk to the nearby malls (5-7 minutes walk) to dine or shop first while waiting for your room to be ready. Or bring the kids for a ride on the giant Ferris wheel at Miramar mall (also walking distance). We took quite a few nice family photo together in our ferris cabin.

 

2) Sato castle is also considered as a love motel in Taipei , therefore free adult (PORN) movies channels are available in their normal television programme. So it's advisable to keep the remote control away from the kids.

 

3) Not all themes are suitable for children. Do your research first and have an idea on the theme you want, then try your luck by requesting. Inform them that you have young children with you , so even if the theme you requested is unavailable, they will at least assigned you to another kids appropriate  room.

 

3) National Taiwan Science Education centre is just a 10 minutes taxi ride away from the hotel. It is similar to our Singapore Science centre and on certain period they do showcase a few very interesting exhibitions , 3D theatre shows or kids-related events. These are constantly updated from their website. However do avoid visiting during Taipei's school holiday, the crowd is ridiculous! We visited the "Upside Down House" exhibition there but the crowd was too much for us, so we left in less than half an hour.
There is an outdoor children theme park next to this science centre but because of the drizzle that day, we chose to explore their National Science Centre instead.

 

Almost suffocated inside. Warning: Do not visit during their school holiday period!

 

During the last two days, we explored Shilin night market by taking the train situated right next to Sato castle. We have to switch trains twice and the whole journey took around 45 minutes for us to reach Shilin. I would suggest taking a cab instead which is more convenient, travelling time is only around 15 minutes to reach and the fares are reasonable. Walking down the market with a toddler and a baby leave me with no hands to take much photos there. It was drizzling a little and we have to battle with the crowd inside Shilin market as well. However my adventurous boys had fun stalls-hopping with us under the drizzle, tasting all the food that they've never tried before...such as the deep fried milk and the stinky beancurb!

 

We spent our following day at Ximenting...more food and shopping again! Everytime we come to Taipei, we never fail to join the queue for the famous Ah Zhong mian Xian. Take note that there are no seats or eating space in the shop. We are supposed to have our mian Xian standing along the street.

 

(The mianxian from the Shilin outlets in Singapore is a total crap)

 

Ta-dah~ Found the stall!

 

Slurping this during the cold weather is simply heavenly~

 

There are many family-friendly KTV outlets in Ximenting...cheap and good...enough said. We thought it would be a good idea to get a room for ourselves to sing , at the same time let the boys rest , have some drinks and snacks or they can nap on the couch if they want to.

 

 It didn't take long for them to wake up and took control over the mic.Our idol...BabyK!

This is finally the end of our 5 days 4 nights easy peasy Taipei trip with our sunshine boys . I hope the information given has been helpful in planning one with your kiddos too.

Here is PART 1 , the first 2 days of our Taiwan trip where we had our farm stay at Flying Cow Ranch. Click HERE if you've missed it.

Looking forward to more memories with our sunshine boys in the year 2016! Ta-ta!

Travelling with kids to Taiwan 2016 (PART 1) - Farmstay at Flying Cow Ranch (MiaoLi) + Sato Castle at Taipei

Details of our trip with kids (3 years old & 1.5 year old): 

Location- Taiwan- MiaoLi & Taipei

Duration- 5 Days 4 nights

Time- Mid January

Temperature -10-15 degrees. Perfect weather.

 We spent the first two nights at a farm called Flying Cow Ranch at Miaoli and the next two nights at a themed hotel called Sato Castle in Taipei.

The trip is arranged in the way that it is uncomplicated, easy and comfortable for our sunshine boys.

Our Farmstay at Flying Cow Ranch in Miaoli

How to get there:
1)From TaoYuan airport, take the railway train station to Tong Hsiao Station (1 hour 30 mins), then either take a shuttle bus or a taxi right to Flying Cow Ranch (15 mins ride at around NT250).
2) Or else just hail a taxi from the airport to go straight to the farm. The fare ranges from NT2500 to NT3000 (SGD$100-$130). Journey time will also be approximately 1hr 30 minutes.

We took a morning flight and by the time we reached the farm, it was in the evening. Our room was pretty decent with all basic toiletries and well-equipped with hot flask, fridge and etc.

In this photo, Rboy's crankiness was driving us up the wall. But I've forgotten why....either he was mad that he couldn't go out to see the animals or he was complaining that he didn't want to put on his jacket. Oh well...

They have a daily timetable that shows us all the DIY activities which we can participate using the vouchers given to us on the day of our check-in. After our dinner, we were just in time for the last activity of the day; pouch making workshop at 8pm. Basically is just a simple cut and paste activity and it was easy for the kiddos to complete.

The next morning, the kiddos were thrilled to begin their exploration . After our breakfast, we checked the timetable of the farm activities and proceed to the barnyard to visit the animals.

The barnyard was a 20 minutes walk away from our accommodation. As mentioned earlier, the cooling weather was simply perfect, so we took our time to get there ,enjoying the green pastures and taking selfies with the cattle.

 The boys only get to see farms from storybooks and TV programme...finally they get to see (or smell) a real one!

While waiting for the cow milking and ducks parade sessions, we spent some time feeding the goats and sheep. Rboy was more caution and made sure he kept a good distance from the animals. BabyK was the opposite. This little daredevil even attempt to pry open their mouth to see if they have any teeth. The next moment, I've to stop him from trying to pull the long tongues of the poor animals.

I was so paranoid and imagined that babyK will get chewed alive by the cattle, so I constantly kept a very close eye on him.

The boys were contented with themselves for completing the tasks assigned to them, awesome! Rboy participated in the milk feeding and was so pleased that the cow finished all the milk from his bottle.

The farmer scattered food around us so we can have close contact with the white fluffy ducks. As expected, my paranoid Rboy clinged on to me like a koala. At the same time, I was trying to grab hold of mischievous BabyK and stopped him from riding on the ducks.

Our morning at the farm was fulfilling and filled with lots of shrieks and laughter...mainly comes from me though.

We walked back to the restaurant to for their signature fresh cow's milk hotpot for lunch. Soup was flavourful and healthy-tasting, complements well with the soft cabbage.

The boys savoured every last bit of rice immersed in the milky soup.

We were provided with vouchers to redeem their daily milk and the boys always finished them up on the spot. Rboy loves the malt flavoured one which was a tad sweeter than the original milk, whereas BabyK just love anything related to dairy!

After our lunch, since the boys were too energetic for their nap, we decided to forgo naptime and proceeded straight to the strawberry farm!

How we get there: We got the hotel staff at the reception to recommend us the nearest strawberry farm and arranged a taxi to bring us there. The journey is around 40minutes and we paid NT1500 (SGD $65) for 2 ways transportation.

The boys were each given a basket and we wasted no time because the boys automatically knew what to do.
Either because we didn't come in the morning or it wasn't really a good season, the strawberries were miniature and the kids have to really dig and look for larger red ripe ones. Each time they found a good spot with more ripen strawberries, they would call out for each other to come over. Very good team work indeed.

I was absolutely impressed by babyK. He needs no instructions and can carry out this job independently. This 1.5 year old baby somehow knew that he should only look for the red ones to pluck. He loves this strawberry picking activity so much tat when I told the boys that we were leaving, BabyK began his tantrum and hysterical cries to stay longer.

Although the strawberries were not as pretty as I expected, they tasted sweeter and creamier than those tat I often bought from Singapore NTUC. BabyK loves the berries and finished all we've plucked, and that's like 2 baskets of loots!

Our taxi driver was waiting for us outside the strawberry farm the whole time. Before returning back to our hotel room, he brought us to a DaHu WineLand Resort (5 minutes drive away from our strawberry farm), which looks like a town market that sells mainly their local food and strawberries products.

There were many unique food made from or with strawberries, such as the strawberry sausage, strawberry pizza, strawberry fish fillets, strawberry popcorns and deep fried strawberries drizzled with chocolate sauce! It's like a challenge taken up by the stalls, the one who can come out with the most creative food ideas with strawberries will attract the most customers.

DaHu Wineland resort is not as big as it sounds, as we took like less than an hour to complete visiting almost all the shops there. However it's a nice place to explore or to shop for their local products, especially if you intend to visit the strawberry farm.

On our second morning, we planned to participate in one more DIY activity before we leave.

Our last activity happened to be one of their favourites... ICE-CREAM making !

All the ingredients were already measured and provided, so it was really an easy task of mixing and stirring only.

The best part is of course eating the ice-cream they made themselves

Click HERE for the PART 2 of our trip...

travelling down to Taipei and our castle stay, showcasing Spiderman room and Pirates room!

Staycation with Kids at The Canopi, Bintan Island

The attractive factor of The Canopi is definitely their crystal lagoon;

 an enchanting man-made beach with treated sea-water that is gorgeously turquoise clear.

 

Ever since I posted the first picture on my Instagram (aderearian), I received at least 4-5 texts on the same day asking where this place was. One even asked if this was Maldives!

Nobody guessed that we were only an hour ferry ride away from Singapore.

The Canopi offers a unique "Glamping" experience, which means "glamorous camping" or camping in luxury! We slept in huge spacious safari tents and at the same time, we get to enjoy the outdoor camping features. I described this as "camping cheating" , which is recommended for young kids though! You want the kids to experience a camping vacation but at same time you want to keep it safe, comfortable and enjoyable .

The poster bed and Victorian lamps bestowed the room a slight touch of luxury. The furnishing is interesting with wooden trunks as cabinets and attached with an open-concept rainforest bathroom. I can see their effort in bringing guests closer to nature as much as possible. The bed and pillows are really comfy and an extra day bed is provided in each room.

Rboy playing with his legos that we brought along .

 

This was actually a trip specially planned for Rboy and his friends for their yearly Xmas gifts exchange gathering. (We did not take BabyK with us but we'll make it up to him haha.) 

 

I was so looking forward to try most of the activities at their sports centre but were disappointed to be informed that most of the activities were fully booked or not available. All of their rides were under maintenance..zzz. What a great let-down! It was during the December holiday and probably since The Canopi is a newly opened resort, they are not really prepared for the sudden influx of visitors during the peak period. Only the AVT rides were suitable for the kids but the adults were not allowed to ride together with them. This was a new rule just made on the same day when we arrived.

 

The kids were jumping in joy once they saw the AVT and everyone cant wait to give it a try. However they were too young to handle the ride by themselves, so I was really upset that we were not allowed to ride on it together. Still, the kids were also happy enough to take turns on the AVT for that short 5 minutes "test drive" around the centre.

There is a distance from the sports centre and the reception area to our tent, so we made the right decision to rent an electric scooter on the second day to get around the resort. It was Rboy's first scooter ride experience and he LOVES the scooter so damn much that he didn't even mind riding under the sweltering heat.

So without the chance to book any activities on the first day, we decided to head straight to the beach! Very soon the kids got themselves very comfortable with the water and sand play.

The sand was not the white and powdery kind which I've expected, but no complains from the kids though. They were satisfied with whatever kind of play that were thrown to them.

 

The crystal lagoon was the main attraction of The Canopi and the kids love every single moment spent at the water. The heat from the sun was quite a killer but the kids were engrossed in their play so much to even bother about the sun.

We haven't got a chance to try this challenging floating platform because we thought it was too hot for the kids to go up on it. Another time then!

Our tents came with an outdoor Jacuzzi and it was also a hit among the kids! I was actually preparing a bubble bath for myself but the rising bubble foam captured the kids' attention and they began their own bubble fight with one another! Lots of play, screams and laughter makes a very memorable trip for the kids!

 

 

 

During one of the nights, we arranged for a BBQ dinner right under the beautiful night sky littered with stars. The ambience was perfect for a night of buddies-chilling session, and that was what the daddies did, right after they completed the task of serving the wives and kiddos with the bbq food.

 

Another highlights of this trip for Rboy was our fireflies mangrove tour. While strapping on our life jackets ,I had second thoughts on whether to let Rboy get on the dubious tattered-looking boat. I was afraid that the darkness would scare him and began to imagine the worse fear that may happen, eg. the boat capsized into the mangrove swamp infested with crocodiles!

 

It was a mixture of excitation and confusion for my 3 years old. He did not understand and did not know what to expect from the mangrove tour, but he was very impatient and can't wait to get on to the boat immediately.

 

In the end, I was glad I was steadfast in my decision. Rboy showed no signs of anxiety even when we entered the dark mangrove. He was only very curious and kept asking repeatedly where the boat was heading. Very soon then, he was mesmerised by the surprised fireflies that floated out from the bushes and trees along the swamp. I was really touched to see that smile of awe in his face when he tried to hold the glowing fireflies in his palm. Overall it was an unforgettable new experience for us.

 The only blurry photo I got from our mangrove tour

 

Some "not-so-goods" of The Canopi

 

- No telephones are provided in the room therefore each time we need to make any room service request or enquires, we've to walk all the way to the reception area to do so. All bookings of the land and water activities have to be made personally at the sport centre too, which is NOT walking distance from the tents if you've kids. We need to walk to the reception area first and wait (at least 10 minutes) for the buggy to arrive and bring us there. This is rather time consuming just to make a booking.  

 

- Anywhere outside the tent is non-air-conditioned, even the lobby or the café which is really hot and stuffy during the day. You probably have to wait patiently and bear the uncomfortable heat at the non-airconditioned/no-fan lobby if you arrived there earlier than your check-in timing.

 

- The carpet is really rough and prickly , but no bedroom slippers are provided.

 

- No hot water in our shower and our Jacuzzis.

 

- There's only one café inside the resort which is infested with flies that terrorised Rboy (My spoilt boy is not used to sharing his food with flies). Food is mediocre and price is almost the same as Singapore's restaurants. (Average $15 for a pasta). Breakfast is included in our stay but you definitely wont miss out anything even if you skipped it. We tried the breakfast on the first day and was determined to forgo it on the second day.

 

- The Canopi advertised strongly on their broad variety of land and water activities but most were unavailable when we reached there. (Most of the rides were under maintenance...during peak period???..wth..)

 

- Lots of mozzies at night (because it's so close to "nature") , so bring lots of repellent!

 

The Canopi resort is truly an innovative resort great for some adventure fun with kids, especially if you're looking for a short and affordable getaway near Singapore. Nevertheless, it still has so much room for improvements which I hope for them to polish up before I decide to make my way back again.