I finally made it down to Singapore this May. Singapore is quite far from Tokyo considering it's about 7 and a half hour by plane. I was also feeling really terrible the week before so I didn't feel quite sure I'd be able to make it. However it turned out to be the best decision I've made this year.
I made sure I had myself booked into nice hotels. I had bookings for the Conrad, the Hilton on Orchard and finally the Sentosa Resort on the resort island. All the hotels were wonderful especially the Conrad. Service at the hilton and Sentosa was flawless, except for this Japanese staff at the front desk at Sentosa. He hardly smiled and looked us in the eyes. Very strange. He must have been new or something.
I'll see if I can remember what I did in the Lion City.
Day 1:
I arrived very late around 2:30am in Singapore due to Delta being really delayed. My friend Patrick was waiting for me at the airport and I felt so bad to have made him wait so long on a weeknight. Anyway he promptly picked me up and drove me over to the Conrad. He also gave me a cell phone to use while in Singapore and an EZ Link card to use on public transport. He's so nice I swear and he is becoming a very special friend in my life. I arrived at the Conrad and my hotel was very roomy and comfortable. There we fresh fruits and chocolates on the table along with a teddy bear. There was another bear on the bed and two rubber duckies in the bathtub. During my stay they always furnished me with more water than I needed. I took a nice hot bath and went to bed.
Day 2:
I wake up quite early and feel a bit sleepy. But I get myself out of bed and head downstairs to get a bite to eat. I have some yogurt and croissant. I also had a few pieces of papaya but that's it. It's a buffet but i must watch my weight.
I decide to walk around the area. There are malls everyone around the hotel. It's located in the Marina Area and everything is connected by malls or underground corridors to help cope with the heat. I walk through these malls and they are mazes. I get lost and start to get hungry. I end up going to starbucks and getting myself a sandwich( it was very mediocre) and an iced coffee. As I drink my coffee, I'm wondering how I'm going to get out of the huge mall? I decide to just wing it. So after the lunch at starbucks, I wander around some more and see some signs saying MARINA. That sounds promising so I go out of the automatic doors leading outside. The heat surprises me with its intensity. It feels kind of good though after the air con and Tokyo's wet and cold winter. I walk around and see the Singapore flyer on my left. I can also see the Esplanade and decide to walk that way. As I walk, I also see the Merlion so I decide to walk over there. As I'm walking over the bridge going to the Merlion, I start to get so hot and sweaty i decide I have to pace myself as not to dehydrate myself like the last time. It's a nice a hot walk. I make it to the Merlion. As always lots of tourists taking pictures. So much has changed since the last time I was there. I see the huge Sands Casino in front of me. I also see new buildings that look futuristic in the back. This is awesome! It's time to head back to the hotel. I go through a beautiful and hot park and go through another mall. I buy a pair of eye bag fixing gel packs at the pharmacy. I go to my hotel room to take a shower and change. Today I meet up with Patrick and his friend Ricky.
Patrick picks me up at the hotel and we first go to Marina Barrage. This is a very modern dam that will help Singapore get their own water as well as to help prevent floods in the future. After that we go to this local place in the suburbs to eat some genuine local cuisine. Everything was delicious! We had some satays, hokkien mee and rojak, which were all delicious. I am overly excited because i've been wanting to try hokkien mee and rojak from the guidebooks! They do not disappoint. After dinner, we head to Katong to get a bowl of famous laksa and I swear, I never had such great laksa ever!!! This is the best and I never knew how good a good bowl of laksa could be! Thank you guys for taking me there! I also pick up some Peranakan sweets there. we head back to my hotel and I am happy and full from all that food. It was a nice start to my vacation.
Day 3
Another hot and sunny day awaits! Today I have an appointment with Dominic, my Second Life friend. It feels kind of weird to meet someone that you know from a virtual world but I look forward to it. Oh, the housekeeper is here. He wants to know if he can clean my room and I say ok. He's a super nice Indian guy. He starts chatting me up and he starts asking me the strangest questions. Some of the questions he asks.
Are you married?
Do you want to go to the sauna?
Do you want to meet after my shirt?
Well he either wants to scam money off me, wants me to treat him to dinner, or wants to have sex with me. Anyway this is the Conrad hotel so I'm a bit cautious and i leave it at that. he gives me more water than he's supposed to (6 bottles) but i'm happy with that. I offer some tip but he refuses.
Dominic picks me up at the hotel and we cab it to this restaurant in a horse-riding club in the jungle. It's quite out of the way, but this is the best part! I get to see places other than the tourist spots. The clubhouse is filled with guests for lunch and the menu consists of western food. I go for the crab pasta and eat most of the crab and just a bit of the pasta. It's really good but remember, I don't want to gain weight. I want to eat everything without gaining an ounce. However the manager comes over and suggets a piece of carrot cake and if you know me, i can never turn down dessert. we get it to take away and I eat some later. It wasn't that great though. hmmmm.
After lunch we go to the Asian Civilizations Museum. You can learn all about the different asian cultulres that have shapes singapore today. It's quite interesting and we took their tour, which lasted longer than it should. I thorougly enjoyed it though. Once we left the building, it started to pour outside! Luckily Dominic had an umbrella and we could go and get some shelter. We then took a taxi to a massage parlour as I was in need of a massage. It was a men-only place that he frequents but there is absolutey no sex invovlved. This was a ctually a good thing and one of the best massages i've ever had! I felt so good after that I was ready for anything! He took me back to the hotel and after a few bites of carrot cake, I got ready to go to dinner with Alan, another friend of mine.
Alan picked me up in his Mercedes(very cool car) and we went to the Majestic restaurant in the Majestic Hotel. Very cool designer/boutique hotel. The restaurant is nouvelle chinese and the food was fabulous! Unline any Chinese food I've had in Japan or the US that's for sure. Everything was subtle and sauces were never overwhelming. You could actually taste the freshness of the ingredients. We had crab claws, shark's fin cartilage soup, fish and more! Yummy. Alan was fun to talk to and also entertaining to be with. Really cool guy. After dinner we took the top off of his car and drove around on the highway to see the night lights of singapore! Cool ending to a fabulous day!
Day 4:
Had my usual breakfast of yogurt and fruits and a bit of bread. I go back to my room and again, my Indian housekeeper comes to do my room. I finally decide to ask him if he is gay. He says he is married and has kids and that they live in Malaysia. But now, he likes me. Interesting...Oh, he also gives me a kiss on the cheek. Isn't that nice? Isn't that unusual?
Today I decide to do chinatown on my own. I find my way to the nearest MRT station, which took me longer than it should have. I succeed on getting on the correct train and I alight at Chinatown! Ok, that was kind of cool and actually fun! first thing I do is pick up some curry puffs that are staring at me from this vendor. It was very tasty actually. i should have gotten one more. Next thing is the Chinatown heritage center, where i learn how the early Chinese immigrants used to live in singapore. It was a very moving exhibition and I will take my friend Michael here in August. You really do see Chinatown in a different light after you see this. I walk through all the roads that Dominic told me about. I also try to find club street however, i end up taking a wrong turn and I'm just walking and walking. I finally get lost a bit and I am sweating profusely in the heat and humidity. I finally find my way back and am in need of another massage. I jump into one I find and I get another fabulous massage! I think I fell asleep because it was just so good.
I go back to the hotel room to take a quick shower before heading to the MRT station again. I start to get a slight headache as happens when I get tired. When I meet up with Dominic, he can tell something is wrong. I tell him about my headache and he goes and buys me something from ORIGINS to help the headache. i swear he is just such a nice person. I kind of wish my boyfriend had some of his traits. Damn. This ORIGINS thing actually helps and I instantly feel better. We decide to go to a healthy Chinese restaurant, meaning this restaurant serves healthy foods using chinese herbs and lots of vegetables. This was one of my favorite restaurants of the entire trip. The decor was totally my style. New, modern and unique! The service was fantastic and the food was unique! I felt refreshed after the meal although we didn't have time for dessert. We had a play to catch! We went to see a play called Animal Farm and it was one of the most enjoyable plays I've seen in years! After the play, we went to Haji Lane, which is supposed to be like the Soho of New York. It's not really but it is very unique. People on the streets smoking water pipes and drinking. Very alternative scene. Very me in my 20s. We chose a place to relax and chat over some drinks. I got to know dominic better and I'm glad we've met. It is 1 am now and it was time to go back to rest.
Day 5:
I decide to skip breakfast and just have some fruits from my room. I also have coffe in my room so really, that's all I need in the morning. Next time, I think i'll opt for the wifi instead of the upgrade and free breakfast. Anyway, today I check out of this hotel and check into the Hilton on Orchard. This morning though, the Indian housekeeper comes in again to say hello. He actually looks sad that I'm leaving. He gives me his cell phone number but I have no intention of ever calling him. He gives me a little present. Another teddy bear with a Chinese hat one. It's supposed to be a special version that was given out to guests during Chinese new years. Very nice of him. He also gave me tons of water again. He said to take them with me so I put 6 bottles of water into my suitcase. hahaha. Well thank you Sam. Yeah his name is Sam. Today he decide to grab my crotch and kisses me on the lips. Oh my gosh, he's kind of hot!
I check out of the hotel and head over to Hilton where the really cute guy lets me check in early. Too bad he couldn't come into my room like the Indian guy. :) My room is clean but small compared to the Conrad. My view is very blah and bathroom is small. I miss the Conrad and my Indian housekeeper!
I meet up with Patrick and Dominic for lunch. We go to eat some sandwiches and carrot cake at this place called Toast. It's supposed to be run by a gay owner but you'd never know. After some walking around, we have tea at chatterbox. Patrick has to leave for a family thing so we say goodbye and Dominic and I head over to the Singapore bonatical gardens. It's really a beautiful garden and it's hard to believe that there is no entrance fee! Then it's finally time to meet up with my other virtual friend, Ego! Her real name is Dion, but we call her Ego, her virtual name. She's cute and has a vivacious personality. I like her on the spot! We go to eat dinner at GRAZE, this uber-hip restaurant serving Fusion Australian. The food was good! Strange though that no one drinks in singapore except the foreigners. it must be the expensive prices for drinks. Anyway, I needed a mohito. Damn, if this was in Tokyo, we would all be having 3-4 drinks by that time. Anyway, this is Singapore and people just don't drink like we do. During dinner, Ego and Dominic decides that we should go and pick my partner up from the airport tonight. He's arriving tonight to meet with me. Well, it turns out that he will also be arriving late due to a delay with Delta. He arrives at 2am or something like that and we're all pretty zombied out by then. We kill the time by eating kaya toast and taking pictures of each other. Reminds me of my teen years. Finally we pick Satoshi up and of course, he's totally surprised because we didn't tell him we would be picking him up there! We get back to the hotel and I say bye to my friends. I swear, everyone in Singapore is so nice.
Day 6:
We have breakfast at the hotel. I only had around 4 hours of sleep and I'm so tired. But as usual with Satoshi, he gets up early no matter how many hours he's had. We walk around Orchard and have lunch at the food court. I'm actually starting to get really tired and so we decide to just check out and go to Sentosa. We take the cab to Sentosa while listening to the driver chat non-stop about buddhism. It was annoying and I had to ask him to shut up halfway as it was just getting rediculous. We got to our Resort on Sentosa and it's very lovely, almost looks like a resort in Phuket. I decide to take a shower and take a 15 minutes nap. I cancel our dinner appointment with Patrick because I'm just too tired. Satoshi and I head down to VivoCity to eat some dinner. We have hotpot. It was steaming hot and my sauce was spicy hot! Really good food though.
Day 7:
Ok, I feel much better today after sleeping. Today we go to Universal Studios! Universal Studios singapore is unique in that it is very small. They also have attractions that are unique to their park. Since I've been to all the Universal Studios in the world, it was interesting to compare them to this one. They have the Jurassic Park ride but in a white-water rafting style. That was fun! They also have a double steel roller coaster which was closed during our visit. They also have Madagascar, which was also not open yet. We also got to ride the Revenge of the Mummy. It was good but not as good as I expected. I just can't put my finger on it, but something was missing. The ending to me was abrupt and the story just seemed to stop. It lost me. Fun way to spend the day though.
After the part, we stepped out to try our luck at the casino just across from the park! This was very cool! I only played around $50 but I ended up winning $120!!! Yay! Gonna buy myself some shoes now. After the parks and casino, we decide to go to the Marina Area today. Satoshi takes tons of pictures and we eat at Jing, a restaurant that overlooks the waters of the Marina and Sands Casino. I swear, the service was horrid and people around us were complaining. I, however tried my best to befriend the manager and after that, we got terrific service while the others still complained. All in all, it was a fabulous day!
Day 8
Before checking out, we walk down to the beach on Sentosa. It's a lovely, albeit hot and humid walk. As soon as you walk out of your room, 5 minutes later, you are sweating. We took one more shower before checking out and then checking back into the Hilton on Orchard. We decide to do a bit more shopping in Orchard and then took the MRT to Chinatown. I give satoshi a tour and I finally find Club Street!!! Well, this area has got to be one of my favorite spots in Singapore! The old shophouses lining the quaint street while the first floor of the old shophouses are taken over by cool boutiques and funky restaurants. Very very me. I could actually live here I think!
we meet up with Dominic, Patrick and Ricky for our last supper at a vegetarian Chinese restaurant. After dinner, Patrick took us up to Mount Faber and then a short drive around the Marina at night. we said our goodbyes and it was time to say goodnight.
Day 9
we get our wake up call at 3:15 am. Leave the hotel at 4:15. Arrive at airport 30 minutes later. check in. Wait. And then we board the plane.
That was basically a summary of my Singapore trip. I have to say I am so grateful and fortunate to have met such wonderful people. I am also happy to have seem my brother(not related of course) Patrick again. He is one of the sweetest person I know with the purest of hearts. His friend Ricky is now a friend of mine. Thank you Ricky for taking me to the laksa place and the yummy meat! Dominic is a real gentleman and one of the nicest persons I know. Thank you. Ego was the best lesbian friend ever! Too bad I did not have more time to get to know her. Next time! Thanks Alan for the lovely evening! ;) I even thank the Indian housekeeper, who wanted to make love to me at the Conrad Hotel.
