Greeting the Merlion - Singapore - Welcome to Sweet Surrender

Singapore Trip 29/12/2010-1/1/2011 â€“ Part 9

February 4, 2011September 12, 2013 sweet surrender No Comments

After visiting Marina Bay Sands, we went back to Bugis and had our lunch at Alex Eating House. It’s located at Beach Road in Bugis. I’m not sure about the direction to get there, was quite blur, I didn’t even know where they were heading to, I just followed. I only knew that we’re going for lunch ;p

The place is a coffee shop, famous for its roasted duck. When you’re there, definitely you’ll order the duck dish. I don’t quite remember the taste, I think it was pretty salty. Anyway, I won’t say it’s the best roasted duck, I had better ones back home. Just not my type.

Left: Roasted Duck and Char Siew Rice (SGD4).

Right: Char Siew Wan Ton Noodle (SGD4).

Left: Roasted Duck Noodle (SGD4).

Right: The condiments for you to choose.

Price wise, I think it’s pretty reasonable for Singapore standard. Portion wasn’t bad but there’s really nothing to rave about the taste.

After lunch, we went back to the hotel for a rest. Then, we headed to Tampines to pay a visit to IKEA.

You can get free shuttle bus to IKEA in Tampines daily. We waited for almost an hour for the bus! The queue was crazily long because the bus also went to Giant and Courts. When the bus arrived, we tried to squeeze ourselves into the small bus. It was sardine packed! Can’t even move an inch!

Just some photos of the place. I did not dare to take my camera out to take photos of the place. That’s all I have. So… That’s how IKEA looks like *LOL*

Hungry? They have food in IKEA too. We didn’t eat here, we directly headed to the bus stop to wait for the free shuttle to send us back to the MRT station. We wanted to beat the countdown crowd.

Day 3 not finish yet… Still have ;p

Food Porn, Going Places, Greeting the Merlion - Singapore

Singapore Trip 29/12/2010-1/1/2011 â€“ Part 8

January 30, 2011September 12, 2013 sweet surrender No Comments

Third day, new year’s eve. We went to Marina Bay Sands in the morning. Took a taxi there, that’s the easiest way to get there. I forgot how much was the fare but it wasn’t that bad provided you’re not going during rush hour.

See the structure on the top most of the building? That’s where the infinity pool is located. That part is called the SkyPark.

Stretching longer than the Eiffel tower laid down or four and a half A380 Jumbo Jets, with an impressive 12,400 square meters of space, the Sands SkyPark can host up to 3900 people. The gravity-defying cantilever is one of the largest of its kind in the world.

Didn’t go up because need to pay unless you stay there. For those who are thinking of taking photos up there with your DSLR, you will not be allowed to do so.

PROHIBITED ITEMS
The following items are PROHIBITED and therefore not permitted on The Marina Bay Sands SkyPark:
-Luggage, prams, professional photographic equipment, professional video-recording equipment, …

It’s like Pavilion, Kuala Lumpur, housing all the shops selling premium brands. Did not go in any shop except Sephora.

First, we went into the casino. It’s so different from the one in Sentosa. Camera not allowed, so cannot show you. The interior design was very simple and felt that the atmosphere felt very serious and business like unlike Sentosa’s with lots of colours, fun and relaxing.

Again, I didn’t donate my money there nor earning money there. Went in to see see look look and came out. There’s two floors, one for smokers and the other for non-smokers but it makes no difference. The smoke still manage to fill the whole casino duh~

The view across the river. There were barricades and river was filled with white spheres, I think it was for the new year’s countdown celebration that would happen that night.

Outside the building. It was a very hot day that day.

We were looking for a bridge to walk to the opposite but couldn’t find it so decided to go back in again for the air-con.

We walked to other levels where the ice skating rink located. The food court, Rasapura Masters surrounded it.

Sarawak Kuching Kolo Mee spotted! LOL…

We were deciding whether we should eat our lunch here before heading back to Bugis. After finished surveying the food court, looked at the time, still early and decided to not eat here.

Left: The skating rink from the level above it.

Right: We continued to search for the bridge outside ;p Managed to find it after asking some constructions workers there but it’s too far to walk and it was soooooooo hotttt in this concrete jungle. We walked a short distant only and went back to the building.

This is the staircase leading to the bridge. Can you spot Singapore Flyer?

The very first photo in this post was taken from the bridge. The spiraling structure at the bottom left corner is the bridge. You can also see the portion of the bridge in this photo. Doesn’t look like one but it’s a bridge.

That’s all about Marina Bay Sands. We took a taxi back to Bugis and had our lunch there. Gonna blog about it soon.

Going Places, Greeting the Merlion - Singapore

Singapore Trip 29/12/2010-1/1/2011 â€“ Part 7

January 22, 2011September 12, 2013 sweet surrender 2 Comments

The final post of day 2… After Sentosa, we went back to Vivo City to have some food before heading back to Bugis. Had early dinner at Food Republic.

Tutu Kueh, SGD2 for 4 pieces. First time had it, I thought the outer layer texture was some sort like pao but it’s more like huat kueh texture but drier. Bought 2 with peanuts filling and 2 with coconut filling. This stall is the one similar to Chinatown Tan’s Tutu Coconut Cake.

Left: Rojak, it tasted different from Kuching’s. The taste of a spice was pretty strong. I don’t remember how much was this.

Right: The black one was braised intestine and the other one was bak kut teh. At least that’s what my dad said he had ordered. Hmm… Was suprised that their bak kut teh was different from ours. The soup was peppery unlike what we have in Malaysia which consist of herbs.

Left: For supper, after shopping around Bugis, we went to a noodle shop, QQ Noodle House, somewhere in Bugis, no idea of the exact location, we simply walking around and saw it. On the wall, “Sarawak, known as Bumi Kenyalang (Land of the Hornbills)”. We laughed ourselves silly. Sarawakian came all the way to Singapore to eat Sarawak food?!?!?

We just settled our supper here, lazy to hunt for other place and it was 10pm already, was tired and many places were closing.

Left: At first we thought must be kolomee but after we saw the poster and newspapers article, they’re serving kampua!

Right: We ordered Fried Tang Hun (SGD5.50). Tasted like there’s a lot of MSG used.

Left: QQ Specialty (SGD5), the kampua. Wasn’t that bad.

Right: After eating, we went back to the hotel for another round of supper. Guess what we bought earlier at Bugis? Durian! Went all the way to Singapore for the durian LOL! Bought this one box for SGD10(I think… Or is it SGD20? Don’t remember), it’s the famous Mountain Cat Durian if not mistaken. I was against it at first because you know how heaty durian is and the smell can be unbearable! Oh well… Dad still bought it anyway and we smuggled it into the hotel room. Good thing, no smell at all unlike the Durian from Sarawak.

Thick flesh, tiny seeds. Not bad. Taste wise, it’s not that overwhelming compared to what we had back home. The smell didn’t last, could easily wash off and the room didn’t smell also. Even when I burped, no durian after taste. If you have durian from Sarawak, it’s another story, the smell could last for very long and the whole place would smell of durian! Could even smell it from far away no matter how you try to conceal the smell. So it’s a good thing it didn’t smell ;p I couldn’t smell much of the smell at the stall too. Not very satisfying though. Better go back home to eat own durian but till now I don’t see any local durian in town. Hmm…

That’s the end of day 2.

Food Porn, Going Places, Greeting the Merlion - Singapore

Singapore Trip 29/12/2010-1/1/2011 â€“ Part 6

January 13, 2011September 12, 2013 sweet surrender 3 Comments

Now, heading to the casino. My bro couldn’t go in because he’s below 21. So he and mum walked around outside while dad and I went in.

So many people! The crowd was almost like this everywhere in Singapore tourist attractions.

Left: The car outside the casino. No camera allowed. No photos to share but it’s colourful inside and there’s many magnificent and colourful glass sculptures. Went in there to see see look look and drank the free drinks ;p It’s divided into smoking and non-smoking zone and we noticed that only tea, plain water, and coffee available at non-smoking zone while there were so many choices of drinks at the non-smoking zone. Hmm…

Right: After came out from the casino, we waited for my bro and mom as we had promised to meet out here. Who knows… We waited and waited for at least half hour and didn’t see them. I tried to call my bro and just realized that his usual SIM card was with me and I didn’t have another number of his! -.-” Rather than waiting, I told my dad I wanted to walk to the end of building since I had not gone tru’ the place while he waited there just in case but he followed me. So we walked, walked, walked and found them sitting at the end of the building waiting for us. GOSH! If I didn’t suggest to walk to the end, we would be waiting for each other at two different ends for don’t know how long. The case of miscommunication.

Lake of Dreams, the overview of the water feature that I had mentioned in previous post where there were 3 launchers to activate the water feature.

Left: A sculptures found at Sentosa FestiveWalk.

Right: Walked into the building from FestiveWalk, it’s these. Adam and Eve. Cute ;p They didn’t wear a thing.

Left: This side, all branded stuffs. Jimmy Choo, Valentino, Coach and more… In fact, there’s Valentino, Retrospective: Past/Present/Future exhibition happening that time but need entrance fee(SGD12) and I doubt no one was interested so I didn’t bother mention about visiting it. However, there’s complimentary guided tours on every Wednesday night and Sunday morning. Limited to 20 people per session. It’s OK… I’m lucky enough to see it on Facebook as someone posted it so I now know what’s in there, camera allowed but no flash can be used.

Right: I’m not sure what was this but you can enjoy the animation(the arc is where the animation can be seen) and sound of nature and soft music while you go down the escalator.

Left: Going back up…

Right: One of the animations.

I don’t remember which hotel was this. There’s 6 hotels there. I think this should be Festive Hotel.

That’s the end of Sentosa from me to you but day 2 not ended yet ;p

Going Places, Greeting the Merlion - Singapore

Singapore Trip 29/12/2010-1/1/2011 â€“ Part 5

January 11, 2011September 12, 2013 sweet surrender 4 Comments

It’s Sentosa again, there’ll be several posts for day 2.

The smell of the popcorn was so strong, it came from Garrett Popcorn. Automatically we went for it. Just for the sake of trying out since the smell was so inviting.

I bought The Chicago Mix(SGD8, small). It’s actually a mix of CheeseCorn(yellow) and CaramelCrisp(brown). I almost wanted to buy cheese popcorn but luckily my brother saw The Mix this so we bought this. I don’t like the cheese popcorn, kind of yucky and the colour kind of stained our fingers. Not sure how to describe the texture, it’s just weeeeeeeeird. On the other hand, I love the caramel popcorn even though it’s quite sweet.

Guess what?!? Gone in 60 seconds? It took us 3 days to finish this popcorn ;p That’s when the fridge in the hotel came in handy. Was our breakfast starter for 3 mornings hahaha… Munching it while watching the TV and waiting for the rest to get ready since I’m the one who would be the first to use the bathroom and all to prepare. It’s hard for us to finish the popcorn even though it’s small but I don’t think it’s small for us. Caramel was quite sweet and cheese was weird, couldn’t eat too much in one go. However, I’ll buy it again(gonna try other type) if got the chance. It’s the most expensive popcorn I ever had in my life.

We had our popcorn under the candy tree to rest the tired legs. I really love the tree.

Camwhore time… These were outside Candylicious. Spent quite a long time in the shop and bought some chocolates. Camera wasn’t allowed in there though.