travel; weekend escape to singapore

//edit// I have decided to turn this long blog post into 2 parts, just to save your mouth from over salivating

What you are about to encounter is, a blogpost where 90% of it is made up of food photos, I’m serious. If you think you and your stomach can handle this ,then read on. (If you are reading this in the wee hours of the night, I wish you extra luck that you’d make it through without having to visit the fridge).

We, were in Singapore for the Weekend last August 2013. How we even come to impulsing on this idea is beyond me. For one, I know that FlyScoot was in MEGA SALE mode again and chances are I was tempted but had little hope that we would make any plans. I recall jokingly saying, “we should go to Singapore for the weekend!”. It didn’t take more than an hour for Alfred to agree with me and on that same day.. voila Singapore tickets. Booked! To be honest, I felt like I won the lottery there and then. I love impulse trips the best, as it means countdowns are often shorter. If you were wondering, how BIG of a sale it was to make us go ahead with this idea? Well, what would you do if you found out it only costs $350 return trip? Initially, we had thoughts of visiting Tasmania again during that time, but for the same price… although you spend many more hours in the air, we chose Singapore.

Our itinerary was simple, and somewhat silly: Eat, Eat, and Eat, of course with our Singaporean friends.

Now off to Singapore we go!…

(Photos taken with Fujifilm X100s)

Day 0

Our Singaporean friends greeted us at the airport and an hour or so later we found ourselves slowly melting away in the heat at a local hawker centre (Bedok 85 Food court). As I always say, our friends spoil us too much – we barely had to leave our seats AT A HAWKER CENTRE and food just kept appearing in front of us. As we didn’t order the food ourselves, our knowledge of what we ate is iffy but will try name what I can remember. If our Singaporean friends are reading this *blushes* feel free to correct me on dish names! Here we go.

Sugarcane juice to help with the heat, is a must!

Beef Intestine Soup

Oyster Omelette

Soupy Bak Chor Mee (apparently this is a well known dish at Bedok 85)

Wonton Noodle Soup

Ngoh Hiang (Pork wrapped in tofu skin) and Chicken satay

Satay Bee Hoon

Sambal Stingray… first taste of this in Singapore.. yummo!

Hokkien Fried Prawn Noodle

Another version of sting ray dish

Mind blowing chicken wings with a squeeze of lime juice 😀

We stayed at BIG Hotel for the whole trip. Reason we chose this hotel because it was in one of our favourite neighbourhoods, Bugis which has a fair amount of shops and dining options. It was affordable for the quality of rooms and…. it had a different feel to it, unlike your ordinary hotel. Did not take any photos of the hotel room unfortunately 🙁 We loved this hotel and would definitely stay here again.

Loved the “communal” feel of their lobby area.

Famous beancurd was a stone throw away from our hotel, score! Supper time.

I love beancurd in Singapore!

Summary of Day 0

Dinner at Bedok North 85
Checked in at Big Hotel, Bugis
Supper at Rochor Beancurd

Day 1

For the past 3 trips, it seems like a ritual of ours to start off our first full day in Singapore with a traditional Singaporean breakfast. That’s right – Kaya toast and soft boiled eggs! (Not so much of a ‘teh’ fan though) and more specifically at the original Killiney Kopitiam branch on Killiney road.

Eat and forget about that slab of butter *which probably went straight to my face*

It wasn’t even 2hrs later until we met with a few more Singaporeans for Lunch at Pow Sing in Serangoon Gardens, we were there for their Hainan chicken!

Only ever have fried bean curd in Singapore, and it is yums!

We had to find somewhere to chill before our other activities that afternoon, so we found ourselves at Ben & Jerry’s at Dempsey Hill.

Highlight of the trip (other than all the food we’ve eaten!) would definitely have to be experiencing this “Escape” game concept which has been quite the “thing” in Singapore right now. Simply put, you get locked up in a room with your group of friends, you have to search around the room for clues, solve them to unlock other clues and ultimately unlock the door… before time (45min) runs out. We failed our first attempt at The Escape Artist but the process was still fun!

Wandered through Gardens by the Bay, to Marina Bay Sands…

We checked out a few exhibitions at the ArtScience Museum! I’m not a big fan of Museums, but have come to appreciate the experience after this trip! I thoroughly enjoyed looking at mummies as part of an Ancient Egypt exhibition and even more so wow-ing at some amazing photographs at the National Geographic exhibition.

We went for round 2 of Escape games, this time at a different venue “Xscape“, this time we got out! Xcape’s themes are rather different to the earlier venue.. much more detective/crime scene like! Oh and we held the ‘escaped in the shortest amount of time’ title of that room at the time.. probably overtaken by now :\

We had a late dinner or rather supper, it was like 11PM something, but we had to answer our tummy’s calls. Duck noodles/rice from a near by stall.