2D1N – Singapore Day (Day 2)

After we woke up from the previously mentioned sleeping saga, we were (obviously) starvin like marvin so we decided to have something close from the hotel. After asking our hotel concierge for recommendation, we went to Toast Box in the Esplanade, which is just 5 mins by foot from our hotel.

Toast Box                                                

Esplanade #01-01/03

Sun – Thu & PH: 7.30am – 10.30pm, Fri – Sat & Eve of PH: 7.30am – 11pm

Homepage

Instead of having their popular kaya toast set, I felt like having Mee Rebus, which is basically noodles with boiled egg and prawns served in sour, sweet and spicy gravy. A bit too stuffy for breakfast, but the taste was fantastic. Fits my Indonesian tongue perfectly.

Holy Moly…..

After breakie, we went to take a walk around the Promenade, which is right in front of the Esplanade. Took few obligatory Marina Bay Sands pictures, however could not take pictures of the Merlion there since it was under renovation. Luckily we took the one in Sentosa so it wasn’t a big deal for us, but other tourists were visibly and unexpectedly upset.

View from the Promenade

Then we walked along the Promenade until we reached the famous Raffles Hotel at the Beach Road. We decided to enter the hotel to check out the interior, only to be surprised by the strong smell of the hotel. I believe it’s perfume but it smells bit like pee, which is obviously noone could stand, so we left at the speed of light.

Raffles Hotel Exterior (Credit : Wikipedia)

From the hotel, we walked along the Singapore river aimlessly. We did not plan in advance where to go, since we decided that this is a “chill trip”. On our way, we spotted an upstairs cat cafe called “Neko no Niwa” and since it was very hot outside, we decided to go in to cool down a bit.

The entrance fee is SGD $12 per person for the first hour, and SGD $5 for every 1/2 hour thereafter. Drinks and desserts are also available.

The cats are all rescued, it’s very interesting to see how distinctive their personalities are. Some are shy, some are more outgoing and friendly. But all are soooo cute that we had to leave before we got overdosed by cuteness. Do come visit this cafe is you happen to be in town, the lady who I believe is the owner was super friendly, taught us a lot about how to deal with cats, and told us stories and showed some funny videos of those cutie pies.

Neko no Niwa Cat Cafe

54A Boat Quay (Level 2) Singapore 049843

(65) 6536 5319 (Reserve in advance on weekend)

http://www.catcafe.com.sg/

By the time we left the cafe, we were starving again (yeah… I know) so we were looking around to get something to eat, however the restaurants around the Singapore river didn’t open at noon time and only open in the afternoon so we went further to Clarke Quay which is only around 10 mins by foot away.

As soon as we arrived at the Clarke Quay, we saw this awesome-ass ride called G-Max, we wanted to try it out but it did not open until few hours later 😦 FML 

Photo credit : G-max website

Then we proceeded to Central Mall where we found a Ya Kun Kaya Toast and we stopped by to buy some kaya spread and also try out some of the foods there. I chose this Kaya Butter Steamed Bread which I have never tried before.

I like this one much better than the normal toast, I find the normal toasts bit too dry. Yummerrr…. But not enough to fill our empty stomach, so we left to look for some “real” foods.

Ya Kun Kaya Toast  

6 Eu Tong Sen Street, #01-31 The Central, Clarke Quay Central, Singapore 059817

Mon to Sun: 11.00 – 23.00

http://yakun.com/

We didn’t really know where to go next so I suggested maybe we should go to Orchard Rd, coz earlier that day I saw one of my friend’s Instagram picture of this very nice Japanese rice bowl restaurant in Orchard Rd area and it looks so good on picture that I really wanna try, so there we went… Orchard Road………….

Since it was Sunday, there were people….. so many people….. way too many people…. like soooo many people… Do you feel me? Like can you imagine how many? Like sooo many that you can’t really see anything else but people. So in short, it was crowded.. sorry I mean super crowded….

The restaurant name is Tanuki Raw Bar, located at Orchard Central. We arrived at 2 something so they were still offering the lunch sets which we found pretty reasonable. I paid around SGD $12 for the Salmon Don, which is a mixed-grain rice bowl with salmon sashimi, seared salmon, and salmon roe on top. The set comes with a bowl of steamed veggies and miso soup.

Salmon Don

The set

The foods were alright, nothing special but not as good as it looks like on friend’s picture. Which btw makes me wonder why all foods I capture look like poo poo while other people’s food pictures look super good?

Just a little problem tho, the service was bad, particularly this one lady who gave us what we call the “vagina face” (let’s not go into details). We asked her for the wifi password and she said it very quickly with the worse vf I have ever seen in my life, while walking away. We couldn’t hear what she said so naturally when she returned we asked again for the password, she shouted the password at us with an even worse vf as if we were biggest annoyance in her pussy life.

Tanuki Raw                                                                                                                    

181 Orchard Road, #02-03 Orchard Central, Singapore 238896

Opens daily from 11:30 AM – 10:30 PM, lunch sets available from 11:30 AM – 3 PM

http://tanukibar.com/

After the lunch we went around Orchard Road for a while and decided to return to the hotel to rest a bit and pack our belongings. We checked out at around 7pm (we paid half of the room rate to extend our check out until 7 pm) and stored our belongings at the concierge and the we headed to the Event Plaza at the Promenade, which is right in front of the Marina Bay Sands to watch the laser show.

Sorry guys…. These are the best pictures I got, I know….. I know I have something to improve on

We arrived around 5 mins late and as expected there were so many people so we couldn’t find a seat and had to stand at the very front instead. Wasn’t too bad since we could have a closer look. The show itself was alright…. Basically laser and water show lasted for 15 mins, the website claims it as the biggest water show in Southeast Asia. I personally don’t find it too amusing but if you (again) happen to be around Marina Bay Sands at around the show time (details below) do give it a shot.

WONDER FULL

Event Plaza at the Promenade

Show time: Sun – Thur: 8:00 & 9:30pm, Fri & Sat: 8:00pm, 9:30pm & 11:00pm

After the show we made a quick stop at the Gardens by the Bay just to snap few pictures before heading for dinner. The escalator from the mall to the garden was terrifying, I almost passed out from my fear of height.

Singapore night view

For dinner, we made a reservation at the famous Jumbo Restaurant. We went to the River Walk branch since it is the closest to our hotel. In addition to the Chili Crab, we ordered their fried rice and cereal prawns. Bit too much for 2 people but somehow except few small pieces of the crab, we managed to finish them all.

The cereal prawns were super yummmmm, the chili crab was also very good, definitely lived up to its popularity. The fried rice was normal…. but I will not order it again if I ever come back, instead I will order the pita bread which seemed to be ordered by all tables except ours.

The foods weren’t too expensive either, we paid only around SGD $80 for 3 dishes. Not bad at all….

Jumbo Seafood Restaurant                                                                                      

20 Upper Circular Road, #B1-48 The Riverwalk, Singapore 058416

Tel : 6534-3435

Lunch : 12pm – 3pm, dinner : 6pm – 12am

They also have few other branches, visit their website for more info.

After dinner, we decided to walk back to hotel since our stomach was almost exploding, so we walked along the singapore river where we were earlier today. Then we took our luggages and hailed a cab to the airport.

Goodbye Singapore, it’s been fun. I will definitely come back and stay longer next time ❤❤❤❤❤

Love,

T ❤

2D1N – SINGAPORE (DAY 1)

Last week, me and my friend  H went to Singapore. This was my second time to Singapore, went there like 10 years ago and never even thought of returning, it is pretty surprising that I have only been there twice considering the close proximity between Singapore and Indonesia or even Hong Kong. I think this is partially because back then the internet was not as advanced as now (or at least my skills weren’t) and I could not properly plan for the trip, we only went to few places that my parents know like China Town and Orchard Rd., also we joined a city tour but the tour guide was not helpful at all and only took us to places I can’t even remember, thus I don’t have pleasant memory about the trip.

Fast forward 10 years later, I was having quite a tough time at work and needed a break but I didn’t feel like taking too much of my already limited leaves,so I could only squeeze in a weekend trip, also with CX promotional fare to Singapore (only HKD1500!!), naturally Singapore was our only choice.

We took a red-eye flight, departed from Hong Kong on a Saturday at 1.45 AM, arrived in SG at 5.25 AM.

Upon arrival，we decided to take cab to our hotel in Mandarin Oriental which is located in the Marina Bay. The taxi ride was around 30 minutes and I think we paid around $20SGD for the fare (we took a regular taxi, there are different types of taxis in SG, which of course charge different fares, visit this website for more info on that http://www.taxisingapore.com/ )

Since we arrived such early morning, we booked the room from Friday so that we can check in, take a bit of rest or maybe even nap before starting our day, but it turned out to be such a waste of money because after we stored our belongings in the room and freshened up a bit, we went straight down for a buffet breakfast.

The breakfast was good, there were a lot of food selections, such as noodle bar, pastries, Chinese, Indian & Malay foods and so on…. (Apologies that I didn’t take any pictures because I was too hungry and couldn’t wait to chomp on every single thing there).

After we filled our tummy, it was finally time for the highlight of our trip *drum rolls* UNIVERSAL STUDIOSSSSSSSS *drum rolls*  Universal Studios is located at the Sentosa Island, which is an island resort. We went there by MRT which we found quite convenient and efficient., took us around 40 mins to reach from City Hall MRT station, but that’s included the 15-mins walk from our hotel to the station. Other than MRT, there are also other options like bus or cable car, here are the detailed directions I got from the USS website: By train/Sentosa Express:

1. Take North-East line or Circle line to HarbourFront station.
2. Take Exit E to VivoCity and proceed to level 3 to board the Sentosa Express. Alight 1 stop later at Waterfront station.
3. Walk straight till you see Chili’s Restaurant on your right. Turn right and head towards the Universal Studios Globe.

By bus:

1. Take buses 65, 80, 93, 188, 855, 10, 30, 97, 100, 131, 143, 145 or 166 and alight at VivoCity.
2. Board bus RWS8 from bus stop 14141 at VivoCity or bus stop 14121 at Merrill Lynch, HarbourFront. Alight at Resorts World Sentosa drop-off point.
3. Enter via The Forum and turn left to take the escalator up to level 1.
4. Turn left and walk straight till you see the Universal Studios Globe.

By cable car

1. Walk towards Exit B within HarbourFront train station.
2. Follow the directional signs leading to Singapore Cable Car station at HarbourFront Tower ll.
3. Board the cable car and disembark at Imbiah station.
4. Take the Sentosa Express and alight 1 stop later at Waterfront station.
5. Walk straight till you see Chili’s Restaurant on your right. Turn right and head towards the Universal Studios Globe.

We arrived at around 9.45, the queues to enter the park were already very long though the park itself opens at 10. After lining up for around 20 minutes, we finally entered the park.

bellow……

I went there on Saturday, therefore the park was crowded as expected. Luckily, since we bought an express pass, we could use the express pass and the line was wayyyyyyyy shorter than the regular queue. I think the longest waiting time for us was around 10 minutes. 

The express is quit pricey (more on that on the next paragraph), however I find it worth every penny (lemme tell u, u will feel like a royalty for while walking on the express lane, passing through all these pissed regular pass holders who have been lining for hour and hours, the feeling itself makes the pass worth the money). So, I suggest to buy an express pass if you have few extra dollars to spare.

There are 2 types of express pass; the one that we got is the regular Universal Express which costs SGD30, with this pass you can only use the express access once per ride and the other type is the Universal Express Unlimited which costs SGD50, grants you unlimited express access to the participating rides.

The most popular rides in USS are the Terminator and The Battlestar Galatica : Human vs. Cylon, both located in the Sci-Fi City. I suggest taking these rides as soon as you arrive at the park because the line gets longer and longer later of the day. We went to ride the Terminator the first thing, but the line was already 15 minutes long. But, again since we went through the express lane, we only had to wait like 2 minutes.
(all hail express pass)

The Battlestar Galatica : Human vs. Cylon basically consist of two roller-coasters, a red one and blue one. The red one is just a normal seated roller coaster, while the blue one is an inverted roller coaster. Though both are equally fast, I think they are the fastest roller coasters I have ever ridden in my whole life, with sudden turns and stops. I thought I was gonna pass out or at least puke rainbows from the shock.

     The Battlestar Galatica : Human vs. Cylon

Another ride I found very interesting is “The Revenge of the Mummy” ride, which is located at the Ancient Egypt zone. We rode this one right after we rode the Battlestar Galatica twice in a row, we were very dizzy and feeling nauseous, so we were looking for a fun relaxing ride to calm down a bit.

Therefore, obviously I wasn’t expecting anything from this ride, coz it is indoor so one can’t really see what’s going on inside and there were like millions of kids lining up, so I thought it must be either a 3D show or a kids’ ride.

Ohhhh boy…… was I wrong!

As soon as I sat on the car, I knew this was a bad idea, and by the end of the ride, my organs were literally shaking a dog shitting razor blade.

Long story short,  The Revenge of The Mummy is basically 3 minutes sitting in a car moving backward and forward and side ways at the speed of light in a room full of crazy mean scary mummy laughter IN TOTAL DARKNESS *gasp!!* yes ladies and gentlemen in total darkness. Sounds fun doesn’t it? Now try riding it after riding the Battlestar Galatica twice, I guarantee you will lose some weight (and body parts).

The Entrance of the Revenge of The Mummy (photo courtesy: wikipedia)

We left the park at around 3pm, completely exhausted, which mainly due to the fact that we haven’t properly slept for more than 24 hours. Though we initially planned to watch the firework at 9pm (only on Saturdays and certain public holidays), however our exhaustion had taken over and we HAD to go home.

Though we left quite early, thanks (again) to our express pass, we rode almost all of the adult rides there, leaving mostly the kids’ rides (except merry-go-round, coz come on… who can resist merry-go-round?).

After leaving the USS, we took the Sentosa Express to the Imbiah Station, which is only one station away from the Waterfront Station where USS at, to see the Merlion Statue.

 Sentosa Merlion Statue

After that the exhaustion really kicked in and we had barely enough energy to breath, let alone to walk around the city, and so we had back to our hotel after making a brief stop at the Marina Square to take away something to be eaten at our room.

Our initial plan was to take a one/two hour nap until 6 or 7 pm, then go to watch the light show at the Marina Bay and the head for a nice chili crab dinner at Jumbo Restaurant, however little did we know that our bodies had another plan…………

The next thing I know was my alarm was ringing, so I woke up to turn it off. However, when I woke up, something was a little off, the sun was way too bright for 6 PM, when I checked my phone, it was 9AM…. not 6 PM… it was 9 AM… the next morning…… we slept for 17 hours straight, skipped dinner, skipped chili crab, skipped our only night in Singapore. eng ing eng………………… but regardlessss, we had a wonderful sleep. lol.

Anyway, that’s it for Day 1…. I will continue with Day 2 in my next post.

Ciao!

T ❤