Been to Singapore and as soon as I came back, it was straight into the hectic life in Sydney with no time to sit and get depressed over... work, and the lack of holidays. That happened last year too, after Japan, when I had to go to work the day I landed =( Thank goodness I took the Monday when I landed off, was horribly jet lagged and spent at least 12 hours sleeping it off.
It is easy to forget and think that the holiday was all history, but that is why I like taking photos, because with one look at the photos, memories come flooding back,and all the fun, enjoyment, food and adventures become reality once again =)
I didn't keep a travel journal, so I don't recall all the places we went to, but the photos show what food we had and the interesting concepts Singapore had. Starting from Day 1.
Day 1 was actually Friday, because we flew on Thursday evening and landed in Singapore slightly past midnight. M and my sister came to pick us up, waving excitedly from the gates at the airport. Had a good night's sleep before waking up early... to the daily heatwave.
Our first meal was...
at Mos Burger opposite tt's hotel, Marine Parade.
I tried my first rice burger (two rice buns- grilled, with stuff in between). It wasn't as messy as I feared, and rather creative, but... I think I prefer bread buns when it comes to burgers ^^''
I don't really remember where we went, because the names of the places just flies right past my head (I was never good with names), but take a look at Singapore's MRT stations =_= sure beats Sydney train stations by miles. Singapore, the land of cleanliness? Yup, have to say it is.
Took a look at a huge shopping centre at Harbour Front. We actually visited that station quite a few times throughout our trip, because that's where we took the mrt to sentosa too. This really interesting concept restaurant, Carnivore, is a meat buffet. More on that later =D
Now is this cute or what? Ben&Jerry's is well known for its ice cream, but unfortunately, we didn't get to try any of it. When one considers the amount of food we took in during those 10 days, it's no surprise we couldn't fit in ice cream too.
Like a few Sydney Westfields (oh gosh, how can I even compare Westfields with the shopping centres in Singapore?!), there's indoors and outdoors, all which are connected via bridges overhead or underground. Taking a walk outside (and braving the heat away from the air con'd indoor centre), we saw shallow waters where people could take off their shoes and walk along, play and splash around, and it even looks like an artificial beach resort, with palm trees and... rather abstract and random shape blocks placed artistically around.
We arrived at Lunch 1- Marche. It looks like a marketplace, and upon arriving, we were each presented with a Marche card and directed to a table. Much like everything else in Singapore, cards replace cash and are used as tickets in many places. MRT uses EZ-Link cards, parking tickets are replaced by Cash Cards which can be topped up, and at Marche, you pay for your food using Marche cards.
Cute concept because we felt like we were shopping for groceries and fresh bread when it's really just... lunch.
Doesn't look very impressive? May I direct your eyes to the innocent-looking bowl of mushroom soup up there? It may not look like it's much, but then, one can't tell just how
delicious it is just from a photo.
And we were only getting started =D
This was their very awesome cheese sausage. I've only had this kind of sausages once in Sydney, where the cheese just oozes out when you cook it.... this was pretty similar.
Marche is known to have the best Cream of Mushroom soup in Singapore. Verdict? ... Well, it was the only Mushroom soup we had in Singapore, but it beats all the other mushroom soups we've ever had in Sydney (though I must say, the one at Shangri La hotel came very very close) and their Chinese clear soup was very nice too. I think that started my craving for clear soups.
Lunch dessert! Marche had much much more, like pasta and salads, breads and pizzas, cakes and dips, pancakes and crepes... this was a crepe made on the spot with dark chocolate ice cream and mango. Of course, one could put basically anything they liked on top, with a wide range of toppings to choose out of. My sister chose this for us. Seems like a weird choice (chocolate ice cream and mango?) but the ice cream was -so- good.
Yup, they sold drinks too (like freshly squeezed juice), but we figured soup will keep us happy, so we didn't order any.
Their foodcourt. Lanterns because it was going to be mid autumn festival soon. Going along the stalls, there were sugarcane juice, coconuts, typical hawker centre food like chicken rice, roast duck etc.
Ceilings of the food court was decorated with bicycles. It was kind of strange because Singapore roads have lots of cars and hardly any bicycles now. I'd imagine some parts of China would still have the hordes of bicycles on the road, but not Singapore.
Random picture from a pet shop, illegally taken because there's supposedly no photography in there. I miss having hamsters as pets =( There are no hamsters in Australia!!
Don't we just wish Westfields in Sydney are decorated as nicely and creatively as Singapore... maybe it might lift the boredom of being here just a little bit. Actually, it won't, not unless the shops decide to stop closing as early as 5pm when the sun isn't even down yet. It makes no sense at all, because when the working people get off work, they can't even shop for anything because the shops are closed! In Singapore, the business people get off at around 5pm, the shopping centres and retails close at 10pm. Good for traffic too, so it's not one big rush at 5pm, but two mini rushes at 5 and 10pm. Learn, Sydney, learn!!!
Dinner 1 at Momoya!! =D A very nice Japanese buffet. Funny, my sister and M thought that we would go crazy over all the Japanese restaurants in Singapore, but really, there are actually a lot of Japanese restaurants in Sydney and we've tried many already, so when we went to Singapore, it was more for the typically Singaporean food, cheap hawker centre food, and rare food that cannot be found in Sydney.
Nonetheless, we enjoyed a (considered cheap in Australian standards) nice Japanese buffet, ordering almost everything on the menu.
Lobster was complimentary with every 4 persons.
Chawanmushi! Haven't had this in a while, and I still can't get over how nice this simple dish is. The last time I had it was at Wasaby, Sydney.
Soft shell crab handroll. Fact: Soft shell crab isn't a type of crab born with a soft shell. They're actually crabs which had just molted (removed their outer shell so a new one can grow) and their new shell hasn't hardened yet. I only just found that out from wikipedia a few nights ago... o O
Haven't seen this in any Japanese restaurants at Sydney. Mushrooms on a skewer, grilled or smoked? I can't remember.
After dinner, M took us a on a drive around and we ended up at Mount Faber. By then, it was night time already and the heat wasn't so bad... though, being Singapore, the temperature doesn't really drop much below 28 degrees C. There was a place to chill called "Jewel Box" there. It looked rather romantic and posh, but there wasn't any dress code, so we decided to check it out, since my sister and M haven't been inside before either (and my sister was very interested to see how it will be like inside). Ambience: 10/10, complete with a very good live band that takes requests.
Inside, we ordered drinks (mocktails for me, tt and M cos he drives, and my sister, being the alcoholic -jk-, chose a lychee martini). This was M's "Cinderalla" mocktail.
Sister's lychee martini.
tt's "Shirley Temple"
And my... um.... I forgot my own drink. Oh well.
It was a really peaceful place, with the live band playing in the background, beautiful scenery (we were seated outside and high up on Mount Faber), the table was lit with a candle, drinks were nice... we must have stayed there for a few hours, requesting songs like "Love, Me" by Collin Raye and Beatles classics.
Fish at "Jewel Box". It really is a lovely place.
Got home. ZZzz. End of Day 1. =)
