Left Melbourne on the
3.30pm flight…… goodbye Melbourne, bye house, bye Snoopy and MistyKashmir…. See
you in a month. *sob*
Arrived on time in
Singapore at 9pm local time. Went back to mum and dad’s dropped our stuff.
Vince and Mei came to pick us up from home and we went to Zouk. Sat at the
lounge area, had some of the renowned Long Island Iced Tea…. oh my… it was
strong! Also had a light snack of bangers and mash, Zouk style. Served in
plastic cup, mash, onions and sauce in the cup with a sausage on a satay stick
for presentation! We were feeling really chilled out…. and given that it was…..
mmm 3.30am Melbourne time (1.30am in Singapore) and after a long flight next to
a crying baby…. we were feeling the wear…. nevertheless, we still ventured into
the main dance floor… had a white wine at the ‘members bar’ (thanks for making
us feel VIP Vince and Mei!!!) we got hooked a bit on the music and went down to
the main floor and danced a little. But by just after 4am, we were beat. Headed
home in a comfort taxi…. Home sweet home to bed…..
5.15am my alarm rings.
Uurrgghh…. Supposed to get up to pick Et up from the airport… his flight
supposed to arrive at 6am. As my alarm was ringing, I got an sms from him –
He’s already here!!! SIA early once again… =) So he caught a cab, came up and
snoozed some more. Woke up around 10am – yes!!!! First real meal. So we all got
herded into the car and Dad drove us to Toa Payoh food court. There we had
Hokkein fried prawn mee, mee siam and congee with mince pork (Singapore style).
Had some Singapore style coffee too – kopi. Priss loved the fried prawn mee.
Next stop, we went to the Buddhist Temple to visit both my grandma’s which I do
every visit. Usually it’s a quick visit just to say a few words to both of
them, but with Priss there, I took the opportunity to also take a tour of the
temple – something that I should have done before but never have. I didn’t
realise how BIG the place was!!! And peaceful and beautiful too! Did some
prayers – not that im Buddhist but since I was there… =P Had also some
vegetarian food and we went back home for a rest and a bit more shuteye. By
1pm, we were on the road again, this time to Sim Lim Square in search of
Priss’s new camera. But of course, before we went bargain hunting, we had late
lunch downstairs of Sim Lim in another food court. There we had Ba Kut Teh, Ba
Chor Mee Pok and Po Piah… yumm. So full again. Went upstairs and pretty much
found what we were looking for straightaway. S$310 later, Priss had herself a new
Olympus FE320 fully automatic camera, jammed packed with features AND free
extra battery, 2x2GD memory cards, free case, tripod and screen protector. AND
she gets GST back too! Bringing the final spend of S$299 – approx A$230. With
camera shopping done and out of the way, we decided to head to the infamous
Orchard Road shopping heaven. Main aim of the shopping was to find things for
my wedding, so we did some shoe shopping, watch shopping etc etc. Even got $10
vouchers at Robinson for tourists – yay for Priss and Et (but really me, since
I used it to buy moisturisers – heh heh… paid $25 when it should have been $45
– woooppie!). It was getting late, and we decided to grab some dinner at
Killiney Road Chicken Rice place. Yum the food was good yet again!! For
dessert, we went to the newly refurbished outdoor food court in Newton Circus.
Mmm looking at the selection there, we should have gone there for dinner!!! Oh
well, next time – for dessert, had bo bo cha cha, chendol and DURIAN ice
kachang. So full I had to roll out on home. Once at home showered and comfy,
dad put on Sunshine on his projector – not a bad movie. Sucked me in big time,
even though I was dead tired, I still watched it to the end. Exhausted –
bedtime – 2am. *yawn*
Day 3 SENTOSA DAY!!!!
Yay~! Was up at 7.15 out the door by 8.30am. Went to Thomson for Ya Kun Kaya
Toast and coffee with runny eggs. Mmm… brings back childhood memories – runny
eggs with soy and pepper. I had to go to Kallang to pickup my new passport from
the Immigration Office but was way early (traffic was good). So here’s
Singapore efficiency for you – my appointment was at 10am, I was there at
9.30am, so I took a ticket and before I could even find a seat, my number was
called! I was outta there in 15mins! Woah… So with time on our hands, we went
down to the cheong sam place featured in the papers down at Laguna. The cheong
sam was beautiful, but without trying on others, it was hard to just buy it. So
we went off our merry way, down to Vivo city to for our Sentosa day out. Went across
the street to the open air hawker centre for some local feed. Et had roti prata
and char kuey teow (the black kind) and Priss had char kuey teow too. I had
vegetarian bee hoon with fake duck, fish and some vegies. Mum had her fish
congee. Over the road to Sentosa – bought out tickets and headed up on the
cable car with will take us to Sentosa Island. Once on Sentosa, boarded a bus
to the Oceanarium. Being a suba diver myself, I always love sea creatures. My
favourite is the Touch pool where you could feel the leathery skin of baby
bamboo sharks and puffer fishes and the Ray pool where a few types of rays
would come up to you and suck on your hand and allow you to feel the smooth
texture of their skin. After Oceanarium as part of the package we had a 3D
virtual reality log ride – including funky 3D glasses (check out the pic!).
Then it was lunchtime, but everything was so exy that Subway was the go. After
lunch we bought another package for rides where we visited the Tiger Beer Tower
(300m above sea level – gave a good view of the city from up there), Images of
Singapore history wax museum – where Priss got a bit of historical flavour of
how Singapore came to be, Luge and Skyride (chairlift) – Mum actually tried the
Luge!!! Good onya mum!, Pink Dolphin show – so cute those dolphins, the Merlion
– how the merlion came about and went through the Merlion walk, and finally the
Songs of the Sea water and light show, and took the return Skyride chairlift
back to the cable car station and back to Vivo city where dad picked us up to
take us to East Coast Seafood Centre for….. CHILLIE CRAB! Yay! Tiger Beer,
chilie crab, fried baby squid, drunken prawns and you tiao stuffed with sotong
paste. YUM YUM YUM… again rolling on out of the seafood centre and back home.
So quick… day 4 and its
Laksa time!!! Mum, Et, Priss and myself jump in a cab and off we went to Telok
Kurau. Woooo my childhood favourite laksa still there! Had a big bowl of laksa
(yes mum, I shouldn’t eat so much but this is soooooo ggooooooooddd!). Much
walking today… first to Kembangan MRT station for a taste of public transport.
In less than 15mins, we were at Orchard Road yet again! More shopping cheong
sam trying and shoes shoes shoes. By 2pm, it was again time for lunch. Taka
food court Priss had thai chicken rice, I had Thai beef noodle, Et had Ban
Mein. And then off watch shopping again until 6 and we headed down to Boon Lay
MRT station to meet up with Dad and we went to his Yatch Club Raffles Marina
for dinner – at the restaurant called ‘Captain’s Table’ for – believe it or not
– Chinese food!! We had the set dinner and the Peking Duck. It was pretty good,
but again too much food. Had some takeaway to bring back with us… =) Then it
was rush rush rush for Dad as mum packed quickly for him for his business trip
to Istanbul.
Day 5…. Drove Et to the airport for a 9.25am flight to Macau. Had to be
at the airport at 7.25am. Bye bye Et… *sob* see you in 4 weeks!!!! Went back
home and slept some more. Until about 10am, got up to do…. more shopping!!! The
sky looked threatening as we ventured out to the bus stop. Usually we’d catch
the train coz the bus takes ages, but thought Prissy would get more of a
sightsee on the bus vs the train tunnels. After giving her half cooked
commentary as we approach Raffles City, we hop off for some brunch. Upstairs in
the Raffles City food court, we had roti prata and the much anticipated teh
halia that Raj insisted Priss had to try when she was in Singapore. We also had
fried carrot cake and a tonne of tropical fruit… need that to keep regular
that’s for sure!!! We then walked towards Suntec City via the Link shopping
mall ducking in and out shops along the way. We finally arrived at Suntec City
where we had a look at the Fountain of Wealth. They also had some chinese zodiac
horoscopes on display, so we spent some time reading that and some of the
zodiac characteristics featured upstairs at ground level of the fountain. Next
was more shopping – went to Carrefour and bought a whole heap of discount
goodies. Then we went to XX food court which was the renovated food court in
Suntec City. It was pretty quaint (as you can see in the pictures), it looked
like we were in an old bookshop and really old furniture and fittings. COOL…
Priss and I had prawn mee (soup) and fried hokkien prawn mee again! Wanted to
get Priss to try goreng pisang, but unfortunately it was sold out when we got
there! After lunch and again extremely full, we decided walking back through
back to City Hall MRT station was too much (esp since we went a bit nutty with
the Carrefour shopping) so we took the free shuttle bus back to City Hall MRT
station. Hopped on the MRT and headed back to Orchard road. Was shopping along
orchard road when the cheong sam shop rang. They have samples of the materials
on the cheong sam I liked! A quick 5min check of the material and it’s
ordered!! Yay!!!! 1 more box ticked. Mmm. I also found my watch. This has been
a fruitful trip… We then walked over to Killiney Road Post office to buy some
stamps for our postcards back to Australia. A further trek down the street into
NTUC Fairprice (i.e. safeway) for moe trip supplies and cabbed back home. Time
to do some last minute packing and to the airport we went… that was it…
Singapore leg finished. As we braced ourselves for a 28hr travel to Ibiza…
party town… Here we come!!
