Journal on Short Trip to Singapore (caution: long writings inside!)

It was my third time to this country. Maybe that's why I didn't really feel hype while being there. Don't get me wrong. I like travelling, love that indeed! It's just a quite strange settled feeling I had, not as my first or second time. Like everything was new. But still, I treasure the experience. 4 days, 3 nights, with two dear friends, cai2 and Olin who has already resigned from her longtime work. Here's the journal!

27 March
Flew with Lion Air - suprisingly on time - at 11.30. Landed on the best airport in the world at about 13.30. Took a skytrain (pretty cool) from the arrival terminal to terminal 1 and got an exit to MRT there. Niceyyyy.... Love the edgyness, totally! Took about 45-60 minutes to arrive at our place, People's Park, Chinatown. It locates right outside the MRT station. Oh boy, love it!!! We rent a room in a 754 unit of 11th floor. As common as it is, the maid is an Indonesia mbak2 - a sophisticated one though.
Right after we checked in, an acquaintance of Olin texted her and invited us for a welcome dinner. Cai2 had another appointment, so only two of us went to meet Mr Andy Lim at Eunos Station. Mr Andy Lim brought his wife and two colleagues. One of them, named Wednesday (it is her name!), a Chinese, is also a friend of Olin's. The other one, a guy named Cha Sung (at least that's how it sounds for me ;p), a Singaporean with an Indonesian rooted mom. We were taken to a place that serves the best chilli crab in town in Still Rd, but the crab was already ran out and it was not even 7 pm yet. So we took cabs to East Coast and had our big dinner in Jumbo Seafood. Yummy!!! We ordered 2 chilli crabs, 1 black pepper chilli, 1 scallop yam (this one is a killer, delicious to bone!), 1 kangkung cah, 1 japanese tofu, 1 bun (crunchy!), 1 cereal prawn. At least that's what I remembered :D The food tasted just great, but I still think that Springhill Seafood Kemayoran does better, hehe... After dinner, we took a walk along the very clean beach. We were approached by a guy who told us that they were celebrating Earth Hour and there's Star Party for us to attend. Intrigued, we went with the guy. It turned out that they had set some telescopes for people to take a look at the stars. Honestly I couldn't see anything, hahahaha.... Then they gave us kinda short speech about stars, constellation, etc. It was funnnnn and impressive. Each of us took home a bottle of Singapore purified water, NewWater. They purify the 'jamban' water! And it tastes.. normal. :) 


28 March
It's Cai2's birthday. Too bad we didn't find any idea to celebrate it -sigh-, so just a handshake and cipika cipiki to wish her happy birthday. That day we went to Bugis, Cai2 wanted to buy a duffel bag there. Nice shop, must come back later. Then enjoyed ourselves in Bugis Junction for a superb Yong To Foo (different from here!). After that, we were off to Mustafa, an Indian-organized supermarket with low price. We got off at the wrong station (terkecoh sama Little India, padahal mestinya di Ferrer Park!) and walked for about 30 mins. My two mates got tired so we cancelled our plan to Henderson Waves, the highest pedestrian bridge in Singapore. We met up with Jessica, my dear friend Tessa's little sister to bring her stuff, then we went to Anchor Point & Ikea. We found cute stuffed dolls - very good quality - and they are 'made in Indonesia'. Wow. Olin threw away the dolls soon after she read the label :D. As requested by the doll thrower, we got prata for dinner. We went to a restaurant in River Valley (forgot the name), ran by Indians and waiters were so busy, argh. Another treat yet, hehehe...


29 March
Took a walk at Orchard! We went to the real malls, hahaha... went to Kinokuniya in Takashimaya (hiks, couldn't buy Royce) where Cai2 bought To Kill A Mockingbird, had lunch at Burger King (tried its Rendang Burger, well it doesn't taste as I expected tho) in Ion, then off to Vivo. From there, we took a skytrain to Sentosa, yay!!! We went directly to the beach station, and found out that the show we wanted to see would start on 7.40. It was about 5 that time. So we strolled along the (artificial) beach, enjoyed ourselves there, and by about 6.30, we went back to show venue. An hour waiting only for a 20-mins show. It was fun, it was good, I mean with all the water show and fireworks, but it didn't move us that much to come back. Bought some souvenirs in the Oscar & Co store. Oh, the staff took pictures of every visitors, of course they charge 15 SGD for a print-out. Surely we refused. Hahaha. Had dinner at Vivo. Love this mall, more than Ion. Only, I love Ion's toilet better. Hahaha.

30 March
Our last day. Our flight was at 14.55. Before the time, Cai2 went to Plaza Singapura, Orchard to buy some animated hats she saw someone wore the night before. I accompanied Olin to meet her friends, who turned out I also knew, in Vivo. We had our brunch at the Food Republic, chitchatted, then left them at about 12.30. We took the wrong exit in the Chinatown Station and caused us went aimlessly for about 15 mins T.T I was afraid we would be behind the time. With a single-wheeled baggage, Cai2 was quite tough for this long journey to Changi by MRT. We checked in at about 14.30. Phewww....
We landed at beloved Jakarta at 16.00. And welcome back to the heavily-polluted and super jammed traffic of this great village.


So long Singapore, til I see you again!!!