The Chornycles of S'pore: The Merlion, The Bitches, and The Tiger

We had a great blast even though it was just barely three days. Medyo corny nga lang kasi bitin ang 2 day "travelling". We were ill equipped travellers, only bringing a map, a guide book, and each with an EZ link card--for the train and everything else. We had planned to mark all local attractions with an X unfortunately not all that we marked was trekked upon. We tried to go to every attractions that is Uniquely Singapore so we squeezed everything up with our limited time.

Prologue - Arrival Night 1

Changi Airport - Budget Terminal

8:00 PM
Arrived at Changi Airport Budget Terminal. We exchanged our dollars and felt bad because we think changing PHP-SGD is better than PHP-USD-SGD, but we bought SGD anyway. We took the free shuttle bus to Terminal 2 for the free Internet.

9:00PM

The ride was long the airport was huge and _clean_. Definitely a good impression on Singapore. Finally spent 5 minutes in McDo to try out the free Internet. Shortly Mam C fetched us to her place.

Mam C's place

Hanged out and planned our trip till 3am. The original plan was to wake up at 6am and start at 7am.

Chapter 1 - Holy Thursday Day 1, Night 2

The buds were 'early risers'. We were all done at 9:30AM. Took the train to Harbour Front and found our way to Sentosa cable car.

Unfortunately the cable car was not in service for the whole month of April. Why, we later found out from Mam C that a cable car fell. So we just took the free shuttle to Sentosa. So our journey officially begins...

Sentosa Island

Sentosa is an island attraction and one should plan carfully which to visit to make most out of S$. We haven't covered everything up and we didn't go for the available packages so... but we went to what we think were the best attractions in the island.

Butterfly and Insect Park (S$10)



I was really hesitant to go here in the first place, then I was greeted by preserved butterflies. I didn't come to see dead butterflies but thankfully as we walked further we came upon an butterfly haven. They're beautiful but it's not worth spending $10 and a first day for this one unless you really love insects and butterflies, I would have to reserve this for last. I am not fond of butterflies anyways. *grins*

Sentosa 4D Magix (S$16)
They say it's similar to 4D experience of Enchanted Kingdom but I haven't experienced it. For me $16 is much expensive for a 15 minute movie. I prefer Rialto over this one ;P

Carlsberg Sky Tower (S$10)

At last something worth paying for. This viewing tower stands 135m above sea level and I've conquered it! Great, but if you can sit beside a window in the airplane then it's definitely a better view of Singapore. But this one's alright even if only for 5 minutes viewing time and it has the 360 degree view and window.

Sentosa Luge (S$8 - 1 ride)
An alternative for go kart that is manually maneuvered that I really enjoyed. And a shock came after the race. I sat in the chairlift (used for transporting the cart-sled back to its place) only to find out it was rising. Though we didn't have the cable car experience. the chairlift was great that I learned to love it. Cable car has glasses and enclosure and the chairlift has your legs and feet hanging from above. Here we met Aries, of Laguna who talked to us after he heard me swear.

Underwater World (S$19.60)
The best thing I loved here is the touch pool where one can touch the fishes (blowfish et. al) and stingray with bare hands. Belmond even lifted the long fish on its tail, poor fish.

Here Ludwick had a big catch. A European or Australian dugong?




Fort Siloso & Siloso Beach


Dolphin Lagoon
This comes free with Underwater World. The main attraction here is the pink dolphins. The show in Ocean adventure was better but you cannot miss this for its pink dolphins.

Done with Sentosa so we fought our way to our next stop.

Chinatown
This place reminds me of Divisoria only one can freely take pictures with the camera and worry about nothing. There is no scary place in Singapore. It's one bright red long street with temples and market stalls. We ate fried seafood noodles here which costed S$6, definitely NOT a bargain. If you're planning to buy souvenirs then be sure to check this out first or else you'll end up depressed like me and Belmond. The bargain is found deeper and deeper within the market.

Little India
We went here because Belmond wanted to look for whitegold. Unfortunately Indians are not find of white gold, they want the real yellow shining thing. I still stick with the notion that there is no scary place in Singapore but what I hate about this place is the city-wide 'smell'. It smells like curry, Mexican chilli, jasmin perfume, and-you-know-what all in one. I swore I am not going back here.

Orchard
The shopping district and I didn't enjoy much looking around because I can feel my legs are getting number as we are walking further. I haven't found any bargains too. we met up with Mam C here.

Raffles City

Suntec City Mall



Giordano in S'pore is definitely a bargain than our Giordano so Mam c and the buds ended up shopping here, but I didn't buy anything.
Suntec City - Fountain of Wealth
We were too late but only found out the "touch session" (the ritual) hours. So we just passed by. Our legs and muscle hurt. But we walked further.

Esplanade

We went outside for a good view of the Esplanade, an architecture icon that resembles 2 durians. We saw Paolo Contis here but we weren't able to take a picture with him. Our legs and muscle hurt. But we walked further.

Merlion
We walked at the river side from the Esplanade to the Merlion. It's like walking in Baywalk, Roxas Blvd although there is no smell and garbage. We took pictures of the Singapore Icon. Finally we were done so we took the cab back "home".

Malay Village
Dropped off at Haig Rd and Went to Malay Village first to look for food to eat but when we saw the servings we thought twice. We were so hungry and tired and the buds were not ready for experimenting. I was ready to eat anything just to get some rest.

So we went back at Mam C's place and ate the heavenly Argentina corned beef. I slept deeply...


To be continued........