Singapore Day3

Phew ... After an exhausting day at the zoo, Sunday was the day we had to relax and get the local sight seeing and shopping done. We decided to take stuff from 31st and 4th Nov and finish them off on Sunday --- we needed to cover. This was too much planning for Sudhir to handle, I tell you - so Ravi and myself figured stuff out.

My feet had started hurting due to the Vibrams pressing against my ankle, and Sudhir suggested that we get the Scholl heel filler for shoes to alleviate the pain. We were to first go to Little India (where Mustafa centre is) :) :) and do cheap shopping as per Singapore standards. I'm pretty sure everyone is aware that Singapore is not a cheap place to shop / live in - it is one of the most expensive cities in the world. This being said, we got on the MRT and went to Dhoby Ghaut, from where we changed lines onto the North-East one to get off at Little India. Before flying, I had read articles about how the country had done its bit for Diwali - there were Diwali themed MRT trains, one street was covered with Diwali decoration etc. As we exited the station onto the main street, I was like "OMG ! This place is from the article I read !! Look at the decorations on the road for Diwali!!!" The entire street was covered with Indian-y decorative stuff and we could see that at night, it would be lit with LED bulbs.

We started walking down the decorated street a bit and spotted ... Guess what - MTR !!! And Sudhir was like "Duuuudes! we HAVE to eat there" - already the fellow had begun craving Indian food - and we were not even quarter into the trip. We went in, and like good children stood in the queue. The place was jam packed on account of Diwali - full of Indians and some foreigners. I ordered Rasam-idli, Ravi had Ragi dosa and something else, while Sudhir took the special meal :D

The food was awesome!!! Though I think this was more because of the fact that we had been having fancy food all along, and somehow... I don't know, you crave eating food that you grew up with after some time. Anyway we got done and then watched Sudhir take his time to go through 3 courses of food. The icing on the cake according to him was the curd rice that they served in the meal :D

Me going "DUUDES! This place is awesome!"

We walked down to Mustafa Centre which is "YUUUGE" (as Trump would say it). It's a massive structure - it has like some 6 entrances and apparently in the '80s contributed to a large chunk of Singapore's GDP ! It has 4 floors dedicated to electronics, accessories, health and personal care, jewellery, watches, stationery, clothes, phew, the list goes on and on... and obviously I wanted to see each and every one. Started looking for stuff from my "must buy" shopping list, while Sudhir and Ravi went to the electronics section - typical "guy mentality" I tell you. I didn't find quite a bit of what I wanted but still managed to pick up some things for my mom, dad and me :P

After we got done with a bit of shopping and checking out all the levels, we took the MRT to go to Bayfront (from where we decided to walk to Esplanade and Suntech city).

At Bayfront, we started walking towards Suntech city out in the open as Ravi told us the buildings are pretty impressive.

In that place, Ravi did some google-ing, so that the 2 guys could avoid walking too much as I had a pretty big list of shops-that-I-had-to-see. He found out that Sephora is there in Suntech city mall, so it is not like I HAVE to go to Orchard to buy stuff. I started jumping about saying - YES lets go !!!  He also told me that there is a Marks and Spencers at Esplanade. Why M&S ? Well, ever since he told me that he has a bathtub, I had been making them take me to all possible Watsons and Guardians that we saw while roaming around to see if I could get bubble bath. And we had absolutely no luck. I told him that I know M&S has the goods and that they smell amazing as well, due to which all this research was being done as to where is an M&S store. We didn't spend too much time in the store as we had  a lot of ground to cover. I found the Bubble Bath, and picked up 2 bottles (one was a gift for Subhi) and started off from there to Sephora at Suntech city :P

On reaching, I told them to go off on their own while I would do my special-much-awaited-shopping at my own sweet pace, post which I would join them, wherever they were. The Sephora there was massive (I think all their outlets are huge given the number of brands they carry). I had a few brands in mind from which I wanted to purchase a few things - brands which are not available in India. Got a Tarte blush (in shade Risque), Tarte eyeshadow pallet and a Benefit contour kit. Yippee !!! I even went and got a membership card. Lol, sadly the one I have in India won't work here,

Super thrilled seeing the brands I wanted to buy at Sephora

so got it off in Subhi's name (with my details of course). After spending a chunk of money, I step outside and what do I see ? These 2 bums standing there - with accusatory looks. Why ? Coz they had nothing better to do than to waste time waiting for me and according to them, I was the reason for it. And being who I am, I started feeling super guilty for taking so much time there and forcing them to get bored :-|

My sense got the better of me, I shrugged it off and told them that we should proceed to the next mall. We went to Esplanade Mall (which looks like the national fruit of Singapore - a durian) and looked around inside almost every single shop :P

We then started walking towards the biggie - Marina Bay Sands. On our way Ravi was insistent that we eat popcorn at Garret's and I was like - what's the big deal man. And he gave me that "wait and watch" look.

Oh.

My.

God.

The entire underground subway connection route was smelling of butter and cheese and corn and multiple delicious aromas. The popcorn is to die for. You get salted, caramel and cheese and even a mix of the last 2. Damn! wish they had stores in India.

Carrying the pack of popcorn and grinning like morons we started entering Marina Bay Sands. OMG OMG OMG !!! It is so bloody enormous and full of so so so many shops that we cannot even dream of affording !!!

Burberry, Givenchy, Armani, Also, Jimmy Choo *pauses to catch breath* Swarovski, Dior, Bvlgari, YSL, Tiffany and Co... You guys get the drift, right ? I think the only affordable places in that mall were Sephora, Bath and Body Works, the food court restaurants (some of them at least), Starbucks and maybe one or two more at max. Unfortunately, I didn't go to the Sephora there, having just splurged around 145 SD at the previous one, but I did go to the BBW store :P They had an offer going on their Signature collection (buy 4 and get 6) - so I went and got 6 pieces - had already decided who was getting what :)

Post this, we went up to the roof to take a look at the view. What I loved about the terrace is that there was soft jazz music playing from speakers that had been installed there, and people  lazing about minding their own business and ... It looked extremely peaceful and relaxing ... :)

On the left we could see the Singapore Flyer, while on the right there was the Marina Bay Sands hotel (the one with the ship on top with the Infinity pool).

By this time it was around 6 in the evening - boy does time fly when you are shopping, I tell you. Ravi was like there is this brilliant light and sound program at Gardens By The Bay (which was behind the hotel) and it would be better if we started walking there so that we could grab a good view point for the show which was to start at 7:15PM. We walked in to the pier and started doing all touristy stuff and amused the s**t out of the other tourists and locals :D

The weird lotus shaped building behind us is the Science museum where we decided to go catch the Escher gallery show that was on display.

Once we got done with our nonsense, we started walking. We walked, and walked, and walked some more until we finally reached the place - and I was exhausted by then, what with all the shopping and excitement and walking!! We entered and realised that this place also has tonnes to see, and we decided that we should do it the next day after the Bird Park.

While walking through this place, Ravi realised that the bridge where people were gathering to see the show did not have as good a view as he had had the previous time he came with Subhi. So we decided to find it. But by this time our feet were killing us again and I decided to plonk off on some random walkway that was there which gave a decent view of the place and which didn't have too many people - and most importantly it was right where we were at that point of time. We just sat off there and I decided to bug Sudhir with my spoils of the day *evil grin*

And then .... the entire place plunged into darkness, and the show began. Wow, it was spectacular - the music and the way the lights worked sent shivers down my spine. There were several songs from Chicago, and a few more popular ones as well, and the lighting work on the trees portrayed the mood of the music magnificently.

After this we walked back to Marina bay Sands and watched a fountain show going on at the waterfront!! The reason why the show was unlike anything I've seen before is that the water was sprayed to form a screen of sorts on which the show was projected. After we got done, we realised that it was getting a little late and that we should catch some dinner. Initially it was decided that we would go to Raffle's Bay, but as that was too far Ravi took us to a closer place that had a restaurant called Muchos. At that place, Ravi told me that Subhi had ordered a drink the Singapore Sling and that I should try the same - as it is a Singapore favourite, and is in the top 10 drinks of the roll and all that jazz. Fine, I ordered it. Jesus Christ ! IT SUCKED !! It was the worst thing I had ever tasted in my entire life ! I cannot, for the lift of me, imagine why people would make such a foul, evil tasting beverage and force people to pay for it !!!! I asked the waiter to take it back, ordered an orange juice and was happy :-|

Lamborghini showroom and I got to touch a car :)

Ravi and myself before the Gardens By the Bay show started 

Singapore - Day2

Saturday (29th October) was the day that we were to go to the Zoo, River safari and Night safari ... We decided to start the day at 9 AM, had breakfast at the Delifrance that is at the Toa Payoh MRT, post which we proceeded to take the uh ...The uh... ummm... Ok, this is embarrassing .... I've forgotten how we got there .. I do know we took a bus after getting down from the train, which took us to the zoo, but I have no recollection of which line and which stations we changed at. Hmmm.

Anyhoo, we got to the zoo around 10am (that's when it opens). My cousin had booked passes for the 2 of us to all the 4 animal related attractions - it cost 125 SD for 2 people :) Reached the place and got a map at the turnstile - Boy! are there a lot of animals to see ... Super excited and super charged up (at least I was), we proceeded to walk along the route suggested by the map. Slowly along the way we realised that if we only followed the route marked in orange, we would miss half the animals. Hmm, traveling salesman problem was at hand to be solved ! :) :)

As soon as you enter the zoo you walk along a bridge of sorts where you see river animals below (alligators, turtles etc). We walked the entire place and saw every single enclosure. I was the self-appointed navigator and I DID NOT MISS A SINGLE TURN or make any of us walk even a foot extra in distance :) So proud of myself :) The zoo is maintained very well, every single enclosure has enough space to watch the animals and see what they are upto (and this space is apart from what is there for taking pics). The place is so so so so clean (I will not be able to get over this and will constantly repeat myself). There are shows throughout the day where they have small events with animals. We just about managed to catch one of the shows (albeit the ending) - Elephants of Asia.

Here are a few pics of the animals we saw! The zoo also had 2 pandas - hahaha they totally reminded me of Po. Happy big fat lazy adorable creatures !

After we got done with the zoo, which was around 2PM (which is 4 hours of continuous walking), we sat down at the food stalls outside, which is called Mandai Mart (rofl !!), and stuffed our faces with food.  They gave us our juices in nice mugs (with either Zoo pics or Safari pics) which are ours to keep !!! 

We then went to the River Safari (it's in the same enclosure). The thing that I loved about the River Safari is the fact that you do not sit in a boat and are ferried around the place. You have to walk through the route, and they have created sections of the route for all the famous rivers in the world. We saw the Nile, the Ganga, Amazon etc! The Amazon river had its own boat ride where we saw animals in their enclosures (open areas with a most separating them from the public). The Ganga had the dolphin and the Ghariyal. There was even a section where we got to touch fishes and star fishes !!! :)

The starfish I touched :)

There is this massive tank where several river creatures are kept - it's incredible !

After completing the river safari (which included tonnes of walking), it was almost 5:30PM. The Night Safari entry was for 7:15PM and by that time we were so tired that we HAD to take a break. We got some ice cream from Mandai Mart to cool our throats.Thankfully it did not rain the entire day and was just overcast (had heard about how it always rains in Singapore, but we got lucky :)) and joined the massive queue that had started forming to enter the night safari area. I was so tired by then (had not eaten due to the bad stomach that I had), I just sat down on the road while we were waiting.

We got to enter the enclosure at 7:15 sharp. We did not take any pics as flash photography was not allowed (sorry folks, no pics to share). Most of the animals were not in cages. As luck would have it, as we approached the lion enclosure we read on the sign board that their feeding time was at 8PM ! We hung around there for 10 minutes (until the feeders came along). There were 5 lionesses and one of them was pacing up and down (seemed as though she was super impatient for food). As the time for their dinner approached we heard a  lion roaring!! Even though we knew that there is no scope for anything to happen, the roar did send shivers down my spine - loud, fearsome, majestic it was, I tell you.
We got to see hyenas and the cheetahs being fed - very cool :) but nothing as awesome as the king of the jungle. 

We finally got done at 9PM and headed home. Already along the way back, I was dreading the next day given the amount we would have to walk at the bird park ('coz as per The Plan, we were to go to Jurong Bird Park the next day). Then a brain-wave struck us - THE PLAN WAS NOT FIXED !!! hahahaha, so we decided to do some sight seeing and shopping from another day, and move the bird park to Monday. Phew, knowing that the next day was going to be a little light on our feet, we returned happily.

Once we got back, my cousin tells me that he has a bath tub. A BATH TUB !! OMG - I started hyperventilating !! :D I decided that the next day we were going to buy bubble bath and I was going to spend at least 1 hour a day in it :) (I love bubble baths - which I am sure if evident by now).

Thus ended Day 2 and we were already exhausted beyond reasonable limits. My FitBit tracked 25k steps taken on Saturday alone!

Singapore and why 8 days are not enough (Part1)

As mentioned, we landed and headed straight to Ravi's place. That Friday night (as per our itinerary) we were to go to Clarke Quay (pronounced as kee) - don't ask me why. Wait, I think it is best if I shared our itinerary with you guys - below is a snapshot of the plan. The finalized plan was an amalgamation of both places to visit columns ...

You can click on the image to see an expanded view of The Plan (yes, it deserves being a proper noun given the amount of time, sweat, blood, tears and effort that went into making it).

As per The Plan we were to spend the evening at Clarke Quay. First off, my cousin lives in Toa Payoh  (circled in black in the MRT map here) and is a 2 minute walk from it. We walked down to the place and purchased our metro cards. Boarded the North-South (red colour) line to go to Dhoby Ghaut (hee hee, even I was amused - reminded me of Bombay), which is an intersection point to change lines; and go by the purple line (North-East) to Clarke Quay.  (map attached on the side to give you an idea of the planning the city has and how everything is connected by metro - even though you can walk the distances :P)

Clarke Quay is gorgeous; I have no other word to describe the place. It is beautifully lit at night and is bustling with people who are busy partying or getting smashed out of their brains. The Friday we went was the Halloween weekend, and we saw several Harley Quinns, Marilyn Monroes, Batmans, Iron Mans etc :) Unfortunately I do not have any pics with them, but the mood was extremely lively and there was this electric buzz in the air.

Apologies for the poor picture quality, I had shaky hands while the camera as I was busy ogling at the way the place is lit up and the number of places there are to hang out.

Clarke Quay ceiling is extremely pretty !!! It is a huge place filled with places to eat / shop / drink and it has this fancy sort of cover to help people not get wet during the rains that come up at any point of time ! :) We walked through the place trying to figure out a place to have dinner. As luck would have it, I had an upset stomach (I NEVER fall sick, and of all the times something could go wrong, it was at Singapore - AAARGH !!). Anyway, I didn't let that get in the way of having fun, and we hopped through a few places. We didn't do dinner per se at any place, more like ate munchies at multiple places.

We had awesome ice-cream from Clmado (Spanish ice-cream) and it was scrumplicious ! The person serving us did those fancy tricks where he held the cone on a rod of sorts, dropped it, turned it around, faked giving us icr-cream etc) and we actually had to use our terribly poor reflexes to catch (rather, snatch) our cones :D

I took the cookies and cream flavour (safest bet as I do not think you can try out flavours there), while Sudhir had mango and Ravi took the chocolate (if I remember correctly).

After having ice-cream and watching the young crowd dance on the roads to loud music (in their Halloween costumes), we went to this place called Octapas - a Spanish outlet. There we had tapas for the first time, and let me tell you - they are perfect to have as munchies during dinner or while having drinks :) ... We took an olive dish which was soaked in vinegar and had pickles in it :) Super tasty, I tell you. Need to find a place in India that serves such a dish.

We hung around at the place till I think around 12AM (by which time we were dead tired) post which we walked back across a bridge (full of people chilling out) to the cab boarding point.
At the cab pick up point people politely waited their turn even though there was no "official" queue of any sort!! I was like, super impressed with this - wish it happened back home too ...

Thus ended Day 1 ....

Singapore - and preparation done for the trip

Myself and Sudhir have never been on an international trip together - hell, we have been on very few trips together :P That being said, we decided that it is good for us if we travel and see the world (everyone talks about how travel changed their lives and made them realise that there is much more to it than even money). So, we got our passports made and decided to go to Singapore as 

1. it is close by (to India)

2. there is quite a bit to see and a variety at that

3. my cousin and his wife there, so there will always be a friendly face around if needed

So we got our passport done some time last year and then 2 months back I started making our itinerary. I wanted to make sure everything to see is covered and that we have some time to relax and unwind, and take in some of the local culture. Decided that we would go there for 8 days - fly out on a Fri morning and come back Sat morning so that we have the weekend (in India) to get over the hangover of our trip :)
Spent ages figuring out what to do and where all to go, ate Shubhi's head in this process, but she was damn nice about the whole thing.. Unfortunately she and Ravi (my cousin) decided to have a baby at this time, due to which she was not going to be IN Singapore when we planned to go ... She super helped though, with the planning. I made an excel with the itinerary and sent it to both of them and we kind of finalised on one which merged what I had in mind, what Ravi said we should do, and what Shubhi said we HAVE to do :)

Applied for leave, got it approved and put those out of office emails - with so much joy I cannot begin to describe. It was my first long vacation from office (out for 9 straight days with 0 email and phone access). Once leave was approved we needed to get our visas done. We got it through an agent ('coz I don't think you can do it on your own) - the person charged us 3.2k while the visa fee is 1.5 ... Feel like we were ripped off, but I do not think there is any other way to get the visa.

The Friday before the Diwali weekend we chose as our date to fly to Singapore ! Booked tickets around 1.5 months advance through the Singapore Airlines website and got a round trip for both of us at a total of 53K INR. We booked the Silk Air one as it was around 12k cheaper (Silk Air is a codeshare airline of Singapore Airlines).

We got to the airport around 3 hours in advance (like we have been instructed to do so by our parents and the airport authorities), and noticed that none of the counters were open !! :D Goofed around a bit, while I tried to calm my nerves (I have a weird fear of flights and it began around a year or two ago when I was on a flight to Bombay and there was terrible turbulence. The plane actually made those screeching sounds while we bounced around in the clouds). I know flying is the safest mode of transport there is, but I still sh*t in my pants when I am told that I need to take a flight some where. To get over the fear, I have tried mind control but it did little to help. So what did I decide to do ? Not sleep - so that I pass out on the flight. Didn't even have coffee at the airport while we wiled away time. Once the counters opened, we checked in and completed our immigration process, exchanged some money at the airport (terrible idea) and then reached our terminal ... 

I used my cute Chumbak passport case to hold our documents, cards and some money. Oh, completely missed mentioning this point. We opened a savings account where we transfer some money every month - we made this our travel account, which we would dip into while traveling so that we don't hit our salary accounts and feel the pinch in one shot :)

While we were waiting for our flight to be announced for boarding, Sudhir's name was suddenly called out at the counter. I freaked out thinking that there was some issue and that he would not be allowed to fly. I wondered if I should pretend as though I did not know him and still board the flight, or if I should go and check what was going on and if I could be of any help. Turns out that he won some lucky draw and we got some vouchers at restaurants and spas at Singapore! yay :) (good thing I didn't ditch him :P)

Comfortable flight while going to Singapore :)

Finally boarded our flight at 10:00 AM (for a 9:45AM take off) and I prayed throughout the journey (I took a print out of the Hanuman Chalisa and was chanting it the whole time, or was at least holding the paper). No one was sitting next to us - loads of space to dump everything. In flight service was quite good, comfortable seats, enough leg room. But the in-flight entertainment was slightly sad - not much variety. We watched some random stuff and movies to kill time. 

Landed at Singapore around 15 min post our scheduled arrival. Immigration was super smooth and easy - everyone was quite helpful and it was a breeze :) Collected our luggage and spotted my cousin waiting for us at arrival. Went to his place and took some rest for a while while he cooked for us delicious potato fry in smoked paprika powder !

This is Ravi's home at Oleander Towers - Tao Payoh

Next few posts will be about the place and what all we did there and whether 8 days are enough to see everything properly as a tourist :)