Yesterday, being Darius’ 1st birthday, I took half day leave in the afternoon to bring him and Catherine down to East Coast Park as a way of celebrating his birthday. The park sure felt very different on a weekday, where it was a lot less crowded and peaceful.

The first place we planned to visit there was Polliwogs, a place which consisted of both indoor and outdoor play areas for kids, similar to Fidgets at Turf Club (see Trip to Fidgets). It is located behind the Waraku restaurant and next to Burger King.

Similar to Fidgets, only the children had to pay for the admission charges, at S$8 for children under age of 2 (weekdays and weekends) and S$16 (weekdays)/S$18 (weekends) for children above 2. Unlimited playtime was given for weekdays while it is restricted to 90 minutes for weekends.

Being a weekday and Polliwogs a relatively new installment (since it’s not known by many), the emptyness of the place made it looked like we had booked the entire place for our dear birthday boy! ^^

Darius was of course very excited when we place him down near the entrance of the play area (he was already getting very impatient while we were packing our stuff at the cafeteria area) and quickly roaming around on his two feet on the cushioned flooring. With him able to walk by himself now, bringing him to these playgrounds has become more fun for both him and us.

Polliwogs' mascots

Peeking out from the tunnels

Darius passing through the obstacle course

"I'm going to be swallowed by them!"(placed on top of a huge ball-pit by mummy)

The three of us had a lot of fun there, climbing the playgrounds with him, going down the slides together, letting him slide down the smaller slides with us holding his arms, or just simply following him around as he walked all over the place. In fact, Catherine and I seemed to be the more tired ones, as we had to constantly bend our backs to move through the low-ceiling areas. ^^|

Having been to both Polliwogs and Fidgets, we now actually preferred Polliwogs for the following reasons:

- There are more interesting play areas for the younger kids, like the small slides and the bigger ball pool.

- The bigger, multi-storey netted play area does not have obstacles that will prevent adults from going up and moving together with their children.

- There are more interesting toys/obstacles at the bigger playarea too, such as big air guns which shoot out small spongy balls at a press of a button and a chimney-like device which shoots out the same spongy balls into the air when you place them through an opening below.

- Last but not least, there is a free flow of coffee and tea. ^^|

However, there were also some undesirables:

- The slides were very slippery — Catherine bruised herself when coming down the spiral slide with Darius. Attempt to slow down results in friction burn of skin.

- No auto-cleaning machine for the ball pits (Fidgets had one installed in their bigger ball pit).

- No stall at the cafeteria selling warm, cooked food. Two vending machines selling tidbits are available though.

As with Fidgets, there was a much higher ratio of expats/causacians to locals at Polliwogs. It appears that local parents might not be as keen to bring their kids to these places?

After an hour of fun in Polliwogs, Darius started to get tired (so were we!) and he soon fell asleep in his stroller. We then left the place to have our meal at the Burger King outlet nearby.

(continued in Part 2)

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