20081215: Singapore Day 3

GOOD MORNING ALL!

Today is Monday, and is a working day for most.

As usual, holidays mean garnering enough rest. And enough rest means a good 9 to 10 hours of well deserved sleep.

Breakfast and brunch was skipped.


Our next date was with my 2 decade old classmate from A-Level days too from Raflles Junior College. He's now a top notch solicitor, much like Gene Hackman in "THE FIRM"
Our rendezvous was to be at his offices in THE GATEWAY.
Our MRT took us to City Hall again and we took the Raffles Link to cross over to Suntec City.

And what a small world it was. Fancy bumping into another Macuser here!
After a pitstop at the Wheel of Fortune at Suntec City, we connected via a bus, which took us past the rear of the GATEWAY. After legging it on "Bus 11", we discovered that we were on the WRONG path. We only found the GARBAGE entrance at the REAR of GATEWAY, as there was NO rear public access. Dismayed, we contacted our advocate and rescheduled the rendezvous point to the PLAZA for some Dim Sum lunch.
As we reached the PLAZA, our enquiries for such cuisine was met with startled stares, as they only had a Japanese outlet plus a few Ma & Pa mixed rice stalls for the typical office crowd.
Situational awareness brought us over to the Park Plaza hotel where there was dim sum lunch, but only found out that it was only DURING WEEKENDS. After some patience, the phone was used to redetermine the situation, and the conclusion was MISCOMMUNICATION.
The new rendezvous point was actually down at SHAW TOWERS, at Ah Yat Abalone Restaurant.
After easing myself in the exquisitely design lavatory in the Park Plaza Hotel, we hopped on the next bus, down to our intended destination.

Fortunately this was the correct place, as our gastric juices were working up in our stomachs already.
We finally met up with my legal partner and another IT CEO, running his business in Singapore for the past decade.









After a hearty rendezvous, we strolled around the Shaw Towers for some window shopping. A super large Lampberger outlet was on the 1st floor, with an astonishing array and selection of lamp variations.

Next pitstop was the St Andrew's Cathedral. Just a quick visit to view its pristine interiors.




Proceeding to the Fullerton Hotel at Raffles Place, we took the MRT from City Hall which sported an egyptian themed MRT waiting platform.



The decor within the Fullerton was dressed to the nines, no doubt. Christmas decorations were aptly decorated without much fanfare.








The lobby water feature had its fair share of its Japanese Koi.


Even the weekend Dimsums were affordable!



After the ubiquitous Daniel Boulud pose at the Fullerton Tea Garden, we passed by the concrete jungles, through Raffles Place MRT enroute to Orchard MRT to our next pitstop, Takashimaya.

This Japanese anchor tenant at Ngee Ann City featured a fabulous affordable food court.
















Feeling tired, our next pitstop was a good rest in a cinema. The nearest was the Lido at Shaw Towers, where a movie UNAVAILABLE to our IMMATURE Malaysian audience was shown. This was an R rated movie (for above 18 years old), entitled "Sex Drive". Surprisingly, 2 months later, this movie was ACTUALLY shown in Malaysian cinemas. How much censorhip is up to YOU to find out!

As usual no cameras were allowed, so the only trailer you can see of this movie is at this link. You can view the lobby of the cinema here though.

After the movie ended circa 1115pm, we managed to catch the last train back to Tanjong Pagar MRT. What a tiring day!

Good night!

20081214: Singapore Day 2

A good nights rest means having the luxury of 9 hours sleep in a serene and cool environment with a firm bed.
Upon waking up, hunger pangs set in. Brunch was on our minds.
The nearest spot was the Tanjong Pagar Hawker Centre, just across the road from the Hotel.
This is situated above the Market.
To our amazement, the food prices in this little republic hasn't varied as much as our Malaysian hawkers. (Could it be due to greedy landlords, where more than half the price of the food goes to unnecessary profiteering rentals?)
I could recollect that back during my A-level days, 2 decades back. prices were quite similar.
Drinks are still at about 80 cents to a dollar.


Our vermicelli soup noodles with FRESH fish slices (Yee Peen) were only $3.50 / bowl. Fruit juices were just $1.50.
Food ranged from a typical $2 to $5.

Somehow our Malaysian rate of inflation had gone through the roof!

Today's agenda is to achieve 2 rendezvous locations. In the afternoon to my spouse's cousin's abode in Pasir Ris and in the evening to my old friend's maisonette in Bukit Panjang. When arrived at the terminal, it was raining. Thanks to our purchase of an umbrella from the NTUC, just opposite our hotel, we didn't get wet. I was clad in my warm balaclava, thus no problems for me too. We boarded the connecting Bus # 111 to alight at Pasir Ris St 4, where we were met by Jessica's cousin at the bus stop.
As we approached the lift lobby, some notices struck our awareness. This is all due to the government's initiative of providing clear public announcements, where pertinent information related to wanted criminals are properly disseminated to all facets of the nation.


Another notable improvement in the society's safety level is the retrofitting of brand new lift doors with visible tempered glass, as a safety precaution against unforeseen elements such as petty thieves, or having people stuck in lifts. What a brainchild! Simple yet effective. Yet to see this implemented in Malaysia.
Once again, being guests, we were feted with a full course afternoon tea (sort of a late lunch at 4pm). Some delectable home cooked delights were savoured as folllows:








As evening drew near, we left the premises at 530pm to reach the Pasir Ris terminal to transcend the island over to Bukit Panjang enclave.
This was all across the island on the mideast. The MRT ride took us directly to Jurong East where we changed over to Choa Chu Kang. From there, we took our inaugural journey on the LRT directly to BANGKIT station.
We were met by my 2 decade old friend, who's still in Citibank Singapore. Thank goodness, he's still employed during such dire economic situations.


We met up with his spouse, mum and his baby daughter. They had choreographed a spread of delectable dishes. The curry looked enticing, and was not overly spicy, much to my spouse's delight.
As the evening drew to a close, we had to respect the host's schedule by not overstaying our welcome. Fortunately we had some excellent parting advice. Use the BUS service directly downtown to reconnect to Tg Pagar. What excellent advice. The bus ran down the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) without any traffic jams, as the proper bus lanes are adhered to, and DOES NOT cause congestions unlike in Kuala Lumpur, whereby the tight bus lanes were implemented as an AFTERTHOUGHT, without proper urban planning! Am I criticizing too much here?

The bus took through Orchard Road again where we caught another glimpse of Xmas lights, this time in front of the Paragon Shopping Centre.
We alighted at City Hall, where we visited the Raffles Hotel Boutique. Even though it was jam packed with people at 10pm, we only discovered that they were actually closed for business as they were conducting their stock check.
Alas, we just did some window shopping before proceeding over to the City Hall MRT which then took us back to Tanjong Pagar after a full day's Singapore's Trans-Island Escapade.

Good night!