Live passionately; Laugh heartily; Love unconditionally: 2008

A bit unfortunate to not have the chance to meet up with one of my aunt and 2 cousins due to human nature. R.I.P. uncle.

Anywayyy, I had a blast in Singapore! I have been part of a "blogger touristy" mood this time, so I have more pictures.

We took Malaysian Airlines to Singapore and thought we could be there by 10.30am to catch up with my sister and cousin over lunch, followed by the last minute Christmas shopping.

But, after half an hour looking at our plane from the Boarding Area, the announcement came in to say that there was some technical error and we'll be delayed for another hour! What! Of all things?!?!

The next thing followed was to see the air-stewardess and pilot getting off the plane with their luggage. We followed them to our newly assigned Boarding Area.

Another Boeing 737 came to the rescue.

After an hour's flight, I finally set foot in Changi International Airport again! We were both so happy to be back! OK, for a lot of various reasons and partly due to the fact that we're on (long) leave and celebrating Christmas in Singapore.

Changi International Airport

I walked a little bit faster while taking a few pictures and finally saw someone waiting patiently for us at the arrival gate. Also somebody that I look forward to meet so much.

My sister!

Left him with the luggage

It was raining when we arrived Singapore. Very wet indeed. I had my fingers-crossed while we were in the cab, on our way back to my aunt's place in Bedok.

We washed up, took a rest while watching AXN Beyond for about an hour. Then, we took the bus and then MRT to City Hall to meet up with my cousin for lunch. Darling and I suggested New York New York. They serve one of the best pizza and pasta.

Affordable too :)

Our drinks

My spagheti and pork

Cousin's spaghetti with fish

After lunch, we proceeded to Orchard Road! We spent a lot of time browsing through clothing and other stuff. Didn't really started to buy yet.

Certainly, we never felt a single pinch of the recession environment when we were there. Look at the pictures and see for yourself. People are everywhere!

We were unable to take a picture of that Louis Vuitton Store in Takashimaya due to the amount of people passing by that strategic spot! I couldn't imagined my eyes at first when Kenny Sia took a picture of it last week. People were lining up to get into LV! Unbelieveable.

Anyway, we had a little drama when we were on our way to Marina Square for dinner as my best friend, Kai Pei, and her boyfriend are waiting for us there. To my dismay and much awe, I present you the following picture to see the amount of people OUTSIDE the subway tunnel towards the Orchard Road MRT Station.

As you can see from the picture above, we were not even close to the station. Babies were crying due to the crowd and people getting short-tempered. One thing about Singapore is that they have security measures in everything that they do. What makes them different from us (in my opinion) is that they take it seriously and much more efficient. If this were to happen in KL, a rampid would have happened.

Anyway, since it was already packed with people before we could even get down the subway towards the MRT Station (which was still very very far away), my cousin suggested the bus. So we walked down a few roads and took the bus.

Well, the bus took us back to the street we walked passed previously and suddenly stopped. He The bus driver kept mumbling something that we all couldn't hear. He then got down the bus and came to the back door, and then went back to the driver's seat. We then knew that the back door was not working.

If this were to be KL bus drivers, just heck care. Just continue driving.

After trying a few times with the button to close the back door, he reported to the headquarters and off the engine. Naturally, everyone alighted the bus with very much disappointment. All of us too!

Then, we realized that it started raining heavily. Sigh.

When we turned our backs, the bus started the engine, was able to close the back door and just drove off! What the heck?!

I gave up. Darling gave up.

We took the cab to Marina Square, which only costed us S$8. We arrived in less than half an hour but already late for our dinner date.

We had dinner at Billy Bombers!

All of us catch up during dinner, but didn't really have our best appetite due to the amount of walking and squeezing around with the crowd. No doubt, Billy Bombers serve very good burgers, steak, chops and I totally love their Cheese Fries.

Oh, I got to meet Jackson who just arrived from Osaka too!

We all went back with big full stomachs and tired feet. But surely very happy to have spend Christmas Eve with our close friends and family. Oh yea, Jackson went on to a party, he didn't go home. I wished I have so much energy like him. :)

Day 2: Merry Christmas!

I woke up quite early despited the previous late tired night. My sister had a flight to catch to Perth at 5pm, so we didn't plan to go out far together.

I walked out from the room and went straight to my aunt's room to catch this little baby out from her cozy bed. I was lucky that she still remembers me. :)

Darling and I took public transport down to Orchard Road, which was already blocked from cars.

Christmas carols are played through speakers all along Orchard Road, people are taking pictures with their love ones. The decorations are superb! We were both in such christmasy mood :)

Look at the amount of people

And then we found a perfect spot to take our best shot. Yes, in the middle of the road, when the lights turned red to stop the cars from zooming.

Darling and I were in our craziest shopper mood by the time we stepped into Zara. The sale was crazy and marvelous. I do not have a picture of me looking at the pile of clothing or people in Zara. Obviously, I was too busy.

Day 3 : Boxing day

Since my aunt and uncle are not interested in going out during this festive season where the crowd is everywhere, Darling and I were both left to roam free by ourselves.

I took this shot from the bus

As you can see, there are development/upgrading everywhere as we go. Of course, not forgetting the HDBs.

Took this shot at the MRT Station. We always take the one towards Boon Lay.

Since he promised me a trip to Sentosa, we decided to take a visit today. It has been a very long time since I visited Sentosa. My last trip was when I was still very very young; I could hardly remember how it was like back then.

We proceeded to the ticketing center to purchase packages, as it would be cheaper. We have targeted a few places we would like to visit, which are the Underwater World and Pink Dolphin.

But, to our surprise... we weren't the only ones interested in the Pink Dolphin.

!!!!!Look at the amount of people!!!!!

People were lining up since early morning. You can't see the ticketing center from the picture as it is right at the end of the line to the left of the picture.

One can also opt to take the cable car to Sentosa.

But we opted the bus as it was free and it will drop us at Rasa Sentosa Hotel, which is just beside Underwater World. Perfect.

The Underwater World tickets were bought together with tickets to the Dolphin Lagoon at S$22.90 per person. Not too bad.

One can try to touch and feel the fishes, starfish and stingrays.

We both started our journey into the Underwater World. I saw a lot of underwater animals. Some really big. Some very tiny.

Like this little one, who can only live in water as cold as 2 Celsius.

We can only see them through that magnifying glass

Look at how amazing the world can be

These little fishes are called the Sea Angel.

Then, we proceeded into the tunnel where everyone could feel like they are part of they are down under with the fishes. We can either opt to stay on the moving belt or walk at our own pace. I chose to walk.

Darling asked me to look out for a dugong. And I finally found her own my way out from the end of the tunnel.

Her name is Gracie. You can click on the picture to read her life story.

After the tunnel, I was attracted by these jelly fishes as they all change colours after a few seconds. Now it is pink, after a while it'll be red, orange, purple and so on. A very beautiful sight that are beyond words.

Please read the following picture:

So they were actually 30% larger than what I just saw?!!!!!

Ok la then, good to know that Sea Angels would not be so tiny to the fact that even snails couldn't see them with the antennas.

From the bus, something captured my immediate attention.

"Ben and Jerry!!!!!!!" I said so excitedly.

Darling went "So?"

So cheeky.

I love them so much that................

I find their rubbish bins cute too!!

Isn't it cute?! :D

And the perfect thing was that the Ben and Jerry stall was near the beach. A very nice place to have ice-cream on a hot and sunny day.

Anywayyyyyy

Yeah, I got my share of Ben and Jerry :)

All thanks to the man :)

Next stop, the Dolphin Lagoon. I wonder if pink dolphins would actually look really really pink? Like highlight pink, sweet pink or light pink?!

One thing I dislike about Dolphin Lagoon is that we're all sitting by the beach. It is a beach-setting.

Being only at the average body height, OK, FINE, maybe lesser.... somethings would happen.

You see, I can only see the uncle's bald head

And when there is a lot of people during peak seasons, the crowd may not have enough seats for every single person. As Singaporeans would be very good in planning, they announced as to those who are willing to sit by the shores, they can do so by not opening their umbrellas.

Perfect, now I would have a lot more heads in front of me even though they will be seated/squated.

But some people are just too stubborn. They would open their umbrellas when the Dolphin Lagoon personnel are not watching, or stand up when the heat from the sun gets unbearable.

Some of those who were standing behind the seats got into a little argument too because they were blocking one another!

In the end, I would say the show wasn't that fantastic at all. The dolphins were pink, but patches pink. Not highlight pink. And, I couldn't see them unless they do their touch-the-ball-with-your-nose jump.

Bah...I love Ocean Park better. Their seals and dolphins are much more energetic, the announcers were pre-recorded videos so that they won't speak in some authentic language that some may not be able to catch and the audience all get a place to sit in their very large stadium-like hall. Everybody get to see their cute sea lions.

Including the short and little one like, yours truly.

Next, Darling was about to bring me to somewhere...forgot the name. Anyway, I would just have to follow. With my brilliant sense of direction, he is the man to the read the map at this point of time.

We had to take the bus. So, we walked the trail down from Dolphin Lagoon towards the bus terminal in Sentosa.

Half way through, I got irritated by people in the bathroom that do not flush the toilet and also wet the toilet seats after doing their business. Can't people just remember or LEARN? Sigh.

Anyway, more people again. The crowd never ends!

Being the most efficient map reader, Darling saw the other bus going to the place we were heading to. We ran up the bus and got nice seats for both of us. :)

Ah, now I remember, we were going to the Merlion. Hehe.

Of course, who could miss a chance taking a picture with the Merlion before leaving Singapore? I wouldn't.

For those who were curious how is the development for the Resort World (by Genting) is going on, here you go.

I do not know what can you see, but I could only see steels and more cranes. It would only be done in the year 2010. One more year to go. :)

After the Merlion, Darling wanted to let me try riding the Luge something something. It is like car racing, which I woud love to play. However, I could only envy those who were already on the track with their Luge because the line was very long and it started raining. Bah~

And so, we took the monorail back to the main island for more shopping at Vivo City. We were both so hungry and our legs are too tired that they felt numbness. So, we went to Food Republic to chill out and have a drink.

On our way, I spotted one of my favourite shops.......

Daiso!!!!!

Sorry for the pole, I still couldn't understand why should they put a pole in between the walkway towards the main door of the shop.

Daiso is a brilliant shop because they have almost everything from food, drinks to house necessitiesm make-up and underwear. All sold at the flat price of S$2 !! OK, only a few things may be sold for more than S$2.

Bad news was that we were too tired that we forgot to get into the shop. Good thing also-lah, if not, we'll be buying stuff again

This is Food Republic in Vivo City. Reminds me of China Town.

If you realised, I have not really blogged about a single authentic Singaporean food. One thing is that, maybe, Singapore has no authentic food? OK wrong, every country has its own authentic food. Just that I find their Korean food or Japanese food taste better than the authentic ones.

Pei said I haven't tried the best stalls, which I agree. Basically because we had most of our meals in malls.

But I do love this one. It taste sourish and a little bit sweet.

And we finally get to taste Anything?

Funny thing was that the aunty at the counter asked me if I want Anything? in Orange, Yellow or Black (if I didn't remember wrongly). I didn't know which to choose, so I said Yellow. Just in case the colour of the bottle matches the colours of the water, at least I am not busted.

I thought Anything? should be a carbonated flavoured drink where we would not get to choose our flavours. But both Darling and I saw them writing the flavours on the can. Just a tiny one. Written : Honey Lemon.

It taste not bad. I love it. So does the man. :)

Day 4: Animal Day

My sister arrived from Perth at 7am, woke both my cousin and me up. I went to wake the man up. Then, carried the baby out from her room and her cheeky brother out from his cozy bed.

Since my little cousin brother is having a bit of a cough, my aunt decided not to tag along to the zoo with us. :( I love to see how children react to animals! There would only be 3 kinds of reaction.

1) Excited to see the animal that they started laughing and cheering.
2) Too scared that they started crying out loud
3) No reaction at all because they can't find the animal

So, we went to the zoo. Only Darling, my cousin sister, my sister and I.

We took the MRT down to Ang Mo Kio for the direct bus towards the zoo. Convenient, eh?

Look at the line and amount of people queuing for the 138 bus to the zoo! Scary!

We couldn't get a sit except my sister. She deserves to seat because she hasn't slept for the pass 12 hours. She slept for the next hour on the bus to the zoo. We all stood. By the time we arrived at the zoo, we were mumbling again.

So many people?!?!?!?!?!?! Is this the line queuing for the bus or the ticketing counter?

Wah lau, still so long lor! We couldn't even see the gate of the zoo yet. *shakes head*

But since we were already there, we decided to just go ahead and lined up. The queue wasn't too bad because it was slowly moving. Just that to get to the end of the hall, it took us half and hour. And then to our dismay, we finally saw the words "TICKETS" but the queue was still so very long.

Even before we got into the zoo, our legs were already very tired due to the queue. Great.

We arrived the zoo at 12pm, we were still queuing at 1pm. But we finally saw the ticketing counter. Well, barely. Because in front of the ticketing counter still has that zig-zag-u-turn thingy to go through.

Suddenly, we felt so hungry already. I saw KFC. OK, and also Ben and Jerry. But now is not the time for ice-cream. I need meat.

As I always said, he's the best...he went on with the queue, while us girls proceeded to look for a nice spot and get our orders from KFC. :D

Wow, KFC cost the same amount as the one back in Malaysia. Just that the symbol in front was S$ and not RM. Hah~

We ordered the crispy set meal (which is their spicy chicken) and the original set for my sister.

Their spicy chicken (or Singaporeans call it crispy chicken), is not spicy at all. But no doubt, taste the best because we were all very hungry. Of course, Darling had his Dinner Plate instead of the 2-piece set like the rest of us. My sister wallup her chicken in less than 10 minutes. I swear. I think when she's tired, she can eat very fast.

At about 2pm, we started our journey towards the gate into the zoo. I gave a friendly suggestion to the ticketing person at the gate.

"I think you should have one person going through the line up to the end of the tunnel and to the back of the hall to have everyone's order of tickets in their hands. So when they get to your counters in front, you won't have to take time asking how many tickets they would want to buy. At least, this would save you about 5 minutes each."

"Oh really? We already have that!"

"Is it? No you don't. Just a suggestion"

"Thank you" he said with a big smile.

Darling said "What was your complain about?"

I said "NO, it wasn't a complain. It was just a suggestion. A little suggestion to make things better"

And then we started our journey.

We saw a lot of animals. We were lucky to have got in during their feeding time. We caught the one at the Orang Utan corner.

Do we look like them or they look like us?

And then, something caught me extra attention.

If you read carefully, the picture above stated that "At one time in New Guinea, one bird was worth eight pigs or ONE WOMAN".

What the heck.

Finally, I got to touch the kangaroos!

Their fur feels just like my teddy bear I used to have when I was young. :)

And, I screamed with excitement when I saw my favourite hippo's butt!

Don't you think hippo has the cutest butt in the world?!?!?!?!?!

If you are aware of it, the White Tiger was on the news early last month due to some crazy thing somebody did. I got to see all 4 White Tigers at the Singapore Zoo. Very beautiful animal

I think this was the one that was on the news? Because he was so restless and extra fierce

A shot of us both. Please excuse my hair. I know.

My aunt asked "Of all animals? Both of you took pictures only with the Lama?!?!?!"

"Oh well, that was the only one that has nobody in front of their area!" I said.

This polar bear is really huge

I think Madagascar is a real story. The ziaraffe, Lion and Zebra were all quite next to each other. Except the hippo.

Look at the aligator's fat legs!

We were all so tired by the end of the 2-hour tour in the zoo. Darling was extra glad to go home. We all gave up the bus.

So, we took the cab.

My sister's (don't know what) camera from Japan

Day 5: Shopping Day

As this would officially be our last day of shopping in town, we all decided to explore Marina Square. My sister and cousin gave up with our (Darling and I) shopping, they decided to catch a show and join us again later on. Haha.

Darling bought most of his stuff. I bought nothing. Amazing, eh?

Sports shoe were very cheap and all half price! But don't have my size. Sad.

Since I was a little bit hungry, we decided to go for McD. I ordered Mega Mac for the mega man, McWings for myself and tried the Apple Dippers.

Apple Dippers are actually fresh apples and we were given caremal dips. Tasted OK.

After shopping, we met up with my cousin and my sister, we all went to NTUC, or some people call it Fair Price, to buy the 7D mango which I love and the mash-potato my aunty recommended.

My uncle and aunty brought all of us out for dinner at the nearby restaurant in Bedok. The little girl was the happiest when she's around food.

Isn't she adorable?

I didn't have time to take pictures of the food we had for dinner. It tasted not bad. I was too busy feeding the baby girl.

After dinner, we went back home. But stopped at the playground so the kids got to have some fun and exercise their little muscles!

We had to explore how those games were played

My two little ones that I miss dearly

Day 6: Going back to reality and our tanah air

Even though our flight was only scheduled at 1.45pm, we woke up at 6am and followed my sister to the airport at 7am. For what? Shopping.

Haha! Of course not la! You think I am so crazy-ah?

My sister had a flight in the morning and suppose to report by 7.30am. Since there wouldn't be anyone to at home as both my uncle and aunt have to work, we had to follow my sister.

After kissing my sister goodbye and peeped into the cabin crew's briefing area, we both went to the basement to have breakfast at the foodcourt. After breakfast, we sat at our breakfast table for another half an hour because I was still in sleeping/zombie mode and the shops were not open yet.

At about 10am, we started to walk around in the Terminal 3 area. It is still very new and nice. And a fantastic shopping place. They even have Fair Price so people could have grocery shopping after a whole day's work!

Even their toilets look good and always clean

Powder Room and Changing Room for the women

We proceeded to check-in at about 11.30am. We walked around their array and rows of shops. I love the environment in both Terminal 2 and Terminal 3. We took the Skytrain to the Terminal 3 for some shopping and then back to Terminal 2.

We were hungry again. So, we ate Secret Recipe out from the sum of money we got from the Tax/GST Refund. Yep, Singapore is a GST Refund country. It only makes shopping so great!

Our lunch (from the left): Tom Yum Noodle (good) & Tom Yum Spaghetti (bad)

OK, I bought something here. Oops, not only me. It was both of us. :)

The flight was good. Just a little bumpy but not too bad. We were back in KLIA right on time at about 3pm.

KLIA's sattelite building is still under major renovation. So you see shops and booths everywhere along the walkway.

By now, you must be wondering at the amount of things that I have purchased from Singapore. Like I told my colleague, Joe, I still had a sufficient amount of Singapore Dollars with me when I came back. I was penniless when I came back from Hong Kong!

OK, here we go.

Coach