Summer sure is here, eh?
It's scorching hot and just sunny the entire day. So, I guess we better take advantage of the good weather and travel while it lasts yes?

And I sure did took advantage of the good weather and went on a 4d/3n trip to Singapore with my officemate Devs. It's my first time to travel out of the country without my folks. And I discovered it's easy as pie. And more fun too since I get to walk around Singapore without worrying if anybody's having a painful joint or what. But I sure do hope I'll get to travel there with my folks soon.

We arrived at Singapore around 10am. We're expecting a bus to pick us up along with other people since we're in a tour package, but to  our surprise, a man who's as old as my dad holding a sign with my name on it approached us. I was kinda surprised to discover that we're the only one he's picking up in the airport, making this huge van so big for the two of us and our luggage.

So anyway, we arrived at our hotel; Fragrance Hotel Selegie. It was a small hotel with small rooms and toilets, but quite acceptable because the bed is comfy and it's near to almost everything. But that time, we arrived too early for the check-in time so we decided to look for a money changer and grab something to eat. There's a money changer inside an arcade just a couple of blocks away from the hotel. Then after that, we headed at Little India Station so Devs could get her EZ Link card and I could top-up the EZ Link card Carol lend me. After getting those done, we rode the MRT to Harbor Front Station so we could grab a bite at Food Republic in Vivo City.

We almost didn't find Food Republic since we're too scared to roam around. Good thing it went on our minds that we're at the building's basement since the MRT is underground. Haha! So we went all the way up at SG's largest mall (srsly? malaki na yun?) and found Food Republic. After eating, we went out at the mall's rooftop, where you can see Sentosa. Picture taking galore here of course. We went back at the hotel by 2:30pm to check-in and rest a bit and also to meet up with Carol's boyfriend so I could give him her padala. We roamed around Bugis Street that night. Found Books Kinokuniya in Bugis Junction. Had some Hazelnut Milk Tea at Koi Cafe. Day 1 over.


School of the Arts Singapore near our hotel

Bugis Street

Hazelnut Milk Tea from Koi Cafe

Day two will be represented by photos now.:P
- City Tour in our own coach around the whole city. (Sosyal!)


The Merlion Park by day

The Marina Bay Sands by day

The ION Orchard Mall

Mt. Faber Point

Ice Cream Sandwich for only S$ 1

- A supposed meeting with another officemate that never happened. Me and Devs end up putting all our badtrip by taking photos at Merlion Park at night


Merlion Park at night (So sparkly!)

Marina Bay Sands at night

Singapore River

One of the memorable part on our second day there is when Berna stood us up when we're suppose to meet her at Makansutra Gluttons Bay for dinner. Me and Devs almost got lost, walking on a different direction to our meeting place, The Merlion Park. My feet and back were aching from too much walking  and carrying around my DSLR. Then some unknown number kept on calling me, making me loose huge chunks of load from my cellphone account. Then later learned it was Berna canceling our meet up, calling using the cellphone of a guy she just met on the MRT. I was super pissed off that night. That's why me and Devs end up sitting behind the mer-lion statue, looking like we lost a game or something. Super tired and super annoyed, we tried to change the mood and took photos, walked some more (our feet were dying already) as we look for Raffles City Station. We even went inside Fullerton Hotel just because we found this underpass that connects to the hotel. The hotel looks creepy without people, srsly. We went to bed super tired and late that day.

Oh and I almost forgot, I finally stepped inside one of the biggest bookstore I've ever been into in my entire life. Books Kinokuniya at Takashimaya was heaven on Earth. It's one whole floor of book goodness! From English titles to Chinese and Japanese, this bookstore is a dream come true for me. If only I'm alone that time, I might have spent the entire day, derpin' over the Japanese books, magazines and Rilakkuma stuff there. I told Dev's I'll just look around for 30 minutes, but to be honest, it's not enough. I almost spent 20 minutes deciding what Japanese magazine to buy! I guess we stayed there for almost an hour. I ended up splurging there that day, buying two Inio Asano mangas and a ViVi Magazine. I'll be sure to be back there and spend an hour or two browsing books at Kinokuniya.


Japanese-y!

Day three means USS and meet up with Paulita. USS was okay. Not as great as it was all hyped about. But The Transformers ride sure is the best thing in the entire theme park. I recommend everyone to ride this and watch Waterworld. Those two are awesome! After we almost rode all the rides at USS, we went back to the hotel to get some rest and grab our pasalubong for Pau. We met at Bugis Junction and she gave me some of her very sosyal pasalubong for me and for the bagets at the office. She walked around Bugis Street with us, along with her boyfriend. It was our last night and it was tiring still. Good thing the air conditioning in our room always gives us a good nights sleep.


Universal Studios Entrance

Far Far Away

Vintage Diner
On our fourth and last day, we went pasalubong shopping at Mustaffa Center. We tried to ride the bus this time. It was a fail, but fun. Haha! Bought chocolates, key-chains, nuts and some stuff for my mom there. I even saw a DVD of the live-action BECK. I was tempted to buy it, but no. Had lunch at Raffles City Mall after we checked out by 12nn. Looked for some Rilakkuma stuffed toy but failed then returned to Bugis Street to have our final purchase; 2 cute bags for S$30.  Then we returned just in time for our driver to pick us up to take us to the airport.

I SWEAR, I'LL BE BACK, SINGAPORE. SOON. ^_^

Labels: friends, fun, photos