Monday, December 31, 2012

Singapore Trip Day 4, Happy New Year's Eve!!!

Today, I woke up only at 11am, got dressed and heard the thunder storms. It rained heavily at Orchard. I kept my fingers crossed on Little India and Chinatown not raining as heavy otherwise my day trip would be ruined...

Unfortunate for me, it was drizzling and gloomy the whole day. Below are photos that I took for the day and I myself am upset with it as it is not what I expected. Blame it on the rain...

Here's Little India...
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There was a jungle themed restaurant with "zoo keepers" asking passerbys' to go in for meals. It looks cool from the outside, but unfortunately not as attractive for the level above. I did not enter but just pass by...
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After walking around for a few hours, heading to Mustafa for some shopping, I got some cheap stuff and also a camera stand finally for only $25. It was good enough and not so bulky.

Spent 2 to 3 hours at Little India before heading to China Town. In my book, I was told that the market starts at 5pm. It turns out, my book is outdated. It's open the whole day already since a few years ago. By the time I arrived, due to the rain, some of the shops have started packing already, getting ready for New Year's eve countdown celebration I guess...
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As I walked along the stalls, I bought a few souvenirs for my friends and then walked on to shelter. I saw some uncles sitting around, gathered in one place, playing chess!!! What a sight to see! It's like those scenes you see in movies. 
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A blurry zoomed in picture of the uncles playing chess...
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From where I stood, I took this nice picture of the temple and wet floor... ><
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Then, I took a walk at Chinatown Complex and bought some chinese new year angpow wrappers with my surname on it for my mother. This place is indeed very chinese...
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Checked into Foursquare and realized that there's a "Tuck Kee Ipoh" restaurant nearby. I was so surprised to see a Ipoh's delicacy here and went ahead to google map it. Walked past a few nice building such as the Chinatown's famous visitor centre.
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Here's the temple picture from the front.
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Walked on and passed by a food street...
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Walked on and passed the Night Market and Heritage Centre. After what seemed like forever, I finally arrived Hong Lim Complex and found the shop I was looking for...

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Unfortunately, IT WAS NOT OPEN!!! And also, it's not the kind of food Tuck Kee in Ipoh is famous for! >< Walked so far for nothing...


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In the end, I googled the nearest MRT Station and found out that actually I was in between Clarke Quay and China Town. Since I was stuck in between, I decided to walk to Clarke Quay and check it out since I am meeting KK, CK and Sophie there tomorrow. However, as I reached Clarke Quay MRT station, I got so tired and instead, took the MRT back to Orchard...

Walked a while at ION and found a high class supermarket just like Cold Storage and bought myself some Somersby, with packaging, 2 apple ciders and 2 pear flavours, which could not be found in Malaysia yet. Their packaging was so cool. It was in a plastic square bag which you could just add ice and water to chill the bottles! Smart. Good for picnics and gatherings!

Sat outside with strong breeze and sounds of the crowd cheering below, on Orchard road. I heard the fireworks going off but the view was blocked as I was at the other side of Singapore. I saw the fireworks on TV and heard the live sounds. It was quite an experience as I enjoyed the night with Somersby and some Lays chips by myself.
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Here's a vlog I did after the countdown...

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Singapore day 3, Singapore Tour with pals

Woke up at about 10am this morning, got dressed and camwhored while waiting for Seong to arrive at Orchard to meet me. Here's a picture of me enjoying the view...
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Since Seong left his home late, I went down to take a few pictures of the environment of ION. Here's a beautiful Christmas tree...
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Here's a picture of the nice colourful statues right in front of ION.
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As I received Seong's call, I met him at the MRT station at City Hall instead to head over to Suntec City. We were in charge of buying tickets for the Duck Tour with Jason.
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Before Jason arrived, we took a walk around while looking for the Tour counter.
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After buying tickets, we had lunch at Pepper Lunch, a place which I ate once at Singapore years before. It was still quite good as I remembered. Thanks to Seong, I get to eat this meal for free :)
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After lunch, we met up with Jason to go on board the Duck Tours!!! Check out our cool ride, boat on wheels!!!
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And here's our tour guide... He was quite nice and funny. He laughed along to Jason's craziness...
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Drove by the Singapore Flyer and couldn't resist taking a picture...
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Here's a picture of me and Seong in the Duck Tour bus.
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We reached a point where we splashed into the water in our ride. Seong got all wet. Luckily I had a batik cloth with me so he could wipe himself dry...
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Here's some photos of the scenery from the tour...
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As we arrived back to the mall, we took a walk around the mall and Jason had to pose with the Christmas statues...
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We had ashort tea time, laughing and talking all the way. Jason is really a joker. Seong as a shy friend of mine fitted in right away with Jason being such a talker. Here's some pictures of us!!!

Here's Jason.

 And here's Seong!!!

 I saw this Singapore Trolley outside as we headed out to take the free shuttle to the Singapore Flyer.
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This is the boat we sat in earlier on to splash into the water for our tour.
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Jason headed somewhere else to watch the sunset. Seong and I went ahead to the Flyer to queue up, with our hopes up in seeing the sunset so we could see the day and night view! Such bonus huh?
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As we queued up, we went past the detectors and a few exhibitions. The last time I was there, there wasn't any of these entertaining exhibitions and tight security.
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However, miscalculation led us to disappointment. We queued up for about 1 1/2 hours and ended up in the Flyer only after it turned dark at 7.30pm. Oh well, I did experience the day view before and it wasn't that special. The night view is SO GOOD!!! Enjoy my pictures below!!!
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As we got off the Flyer, we walked around, trying to find our way to the Gardens at the Bay but got lost. In the process, we saw some cool Christmas decorations...
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After walking a few wrong ways, we decided to walk back to the Flyer for some dinner...
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I saw this uncle making rock sweets which I ate in Ipoh before. His wasn't crunchy but chewy, which wasn't Seong's cup of tea. I loved it though coz it felt just like chewing gum or White Rabbit sweet!
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I ordered a Beef Kway Teow Soup which was not bad. Not too expensive also. My first paying meal.
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Here's the picture of the Rock Sweet.
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Here's a coke bottle I ordered. Small bottle yet so old school. I actually plan on bringing it back to Malaysia with me! I know I hvae weird collections...
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Finally, we walked to the Gardens by the bay, THE LONG WAY. We misunderstood the directions and ended up having to walk through Marina Bay Sands. Here's a few pictures I took along the way...
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By the time we walked to the bay, we were so exhausted we sat at the bench, overlooking the beautiful scenery above. Such a romantic night with a friend. If only my other half were here. I had someone special to be there with me to see it with me...
We then took some pictures using my tripod and camera via self-timer. My first time testing out my tripod I bought from Mustafa...
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As we walked to the MRT station, we approacjed this long mirror filled walkway which I couldn't resist taking pictures of. Can you imagine holding a flash mob or dance workshop here?
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We then bid farewell and walked our separate ways, after a long day of touring. It was the longest time I have been with Seong since the day we met in college. Due to his shyness, we never did hang out for so long, just the two of us before. It was a great day and he was a very good companion. I'm so thankful that he came out to meet me during his off day. :)

As I got back, I took pictures of the big Christmas Tree in front of ION.
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Time to sleep. Tomorrow's going to be another day!!!