Singapore Sling

The missus of mine wanted to head to Singapore again after reading about a couple of nice places to visit, pick up a Charles & Keith bag which is unfortunately unavailable in Malaysia, and to hunt for some retro Casio watches. I happily obliged to the road trip as i had intentions to take the Odyssey for a drive and have an autopass card registered for it anyway. Plus i like Singapore, and it would be our last road trip/holiday for the next four months. So, we hopped into the car after clocking in half-days work on Friday and headed to kiasu-land. To those of you Malaysians who constantly complain about Singaporean food, you need to pay attention to this blog post.

First stop was to check-in to our hostel (yes, its not a spelling error). Its a quaint little old house that has been creatively converted into a boutique homestay that is managed by an extremely friendly old lady named Irene. Who by the way thought EmilyT was "very pretty", i couldn't agree more really. One Florence Close as it is aptly named (its house no.1 on Florence Close, duh!) is conveniently located 3-mins walk away from Kovan MRT station and proudly has Singapore's Best Nasi Lemak situated directly opposite! We'll dwell on the nasi-lemak later on. One Florence Close is clean and affordable albeit the small rooms and the shared bathroom. Which isn't bad as the toilets are clean and designer like. I'm the sort that likes to splurge during holidays, and my standards in hotels aren't Burj-Al Arab but i'd like to come back to G-Hotel like type of Ambiance and facilities (G-hotel btw is my regular stay when in Penang nowadays, hehe), but for the money, One Florence Close makes the grade in my books. They could do with a bigger parking area though...it currently fits one.

(sorry as there are more pics of my car than the hotel, i'm a lil' engrossed with it at the moment)

Sleeping arrangements aside and back to Singapore's Best Nasi Lemak. Its called PONGGOL NASI LEMAK CENTRE, which really is only a corner shop lot. The amazing thing about this nasi lemak... is the QUEUE!! yes! the Queue! from 6pm till late, there's literally a Queue! And earlier parts of the evening/night sometimes sees the Queue going round the shop!! amazing.. utterly amazing! The nasi lemak is Chinese-style nasi lemak, with the sambal being a little sweet. They also serve up a smorgasbord of dishes. You can have luncheon meat with your nasi lemak, which is great! I honestly thought it was pretty good. Where's it at? Its located at the corner of Florence Close and Upper Seranggoon Road.

Ponggol Nasi Lemak

The mad Que forming...

Our yummy nasi lemak

The next day we took a one and a half hour trip to The Singapore Zoo, only to decide not to go as we wanted to catch the sunset at Changi (which is the other end of Singapore!!) and we had wasted 2 and a half hours waiting for some friends to arrive (tsk! tsk!). En route to Changi Point Boardwalk, we pit-stopped at Queensway Shopping Centre and another mall (i forgot the name) to pick up the aforementioned Charles & Keith bag and a pair of kicks. There's a food stall near the main foyer of Queensway shopping mall that serves up one of the best packet-nasi lemak and otak-otak combo and awesome curry chicken with bread. It is one of the more popular stalls, as we had to wait around to get a seat. And when we finally did, it was at the very corner of long bench-like table next to the ice dispenser! Must try if you're in Singapore.

A routine for me when visiting Singapore.

yummy!!

Then it was off to Changi Village & Changi Point Boardwalk. The sleepy hollow of Changi Village comes alive on the weekends as it plays host to a flea market and some lively entertainment. I'm a sucker for sunsets, which makes Changi Point Boardwalk a notable mention as it's probably one of the best places to catch the sunset in Singapore. Unfortunately for us (and a host of pro-looking photographers), there was heavy cloud cover and powerful as the sun may be, it's rays could not penetrate the darkside. Fear not! We'll be back!!. Word of advice though, be prepared for a whole lotta walking if you intend to visit. I'll let the pictures below do the talking.

Us in Changi Village

Changi Village Flea Market
En route from Changi Village to Changi Point

The boardwalk, that seems to stretch on forever

Children scurry away as Jwan approachesSights along the boardwalk

EmilyT strikes a pose!

"Don't let the sun go down on me..." (sing it)

After all the walking, and lugging the shopping around, we headed back to the hostel. I was supposed to head to China One in Clarke Quay with the missus and her friends, but my feet were killing me and i just wasn't in any mood to go squeeze with people in that tiny club that i honestly think kinda sucks (i was there during Christmas btw). The thought of going to that club again kinda just dampened my spirits even further. So much to the dismay of the missus, i opted not to go...which created much unwarranted inconvenience for her as she had to travel one and a half hours on the MRT by herself, which naturally resulted in flowing rivers and red eye generation when she got back. My apologies for my insensitivity my dear. Small sacrifices have to be made in the future.

We went to collect some family portrait photos from a studio the following day, then headed to Mustaffa Centre to hunt for some retro CASIO digital watches. For those not in the know, yeah, retro is in. Mustaffa centre is located in the heart of Little India which makes for a very lively and colorful place to be. EmilyT netted a couple of watches and a huge luggage bag, and we were off for some shopping mall hopping before heading back to KL.

BrekfastOne of the reasons we were in Singapore - going retro

Shanghai "small dragon bun" lunch

Pics by: EmilyT & Jwan

Singapore Swing

The family made a quick trip to Singapore last weekend to join my younger brother for his graduation ceremony. It was supposed to be in Perth Australia where he studied, but due to an unfortunate turn of events, we had to attend his graduation ceremony in Singapore. As i didn't bother with professional graduation photography during my grad ceremony in oz, we thought we'd get some taken for Jinn's graduation, which reminded me why i didn't take them before, family portrait pic: $SGD280/pc (for a small pic mind you!), solo graduand pic: $SGD110/pc. And you don't even get the soft copy!! But it was well worth it... i hope! We'll know after we make that trip to Singapore again to check out the prints.

Not surprisingly I netted myself a few spoils during this weekend dash to Singapore, including a digital camo phone pouch, a GOLLA laptop bag, and a pair of Asics cracked leather casuals. And my brother picking up 3 pairs of new kicks courtesy of Lacoste, Nike, and Asics. It's become almost obligatory to buy shoes every time we visit Kiasu-land... talk about being Kiasu. As how my Singaporean friends would say: "Walaueh! Like this soo-wer spend lot money wan-neh!"

Speaking of Singapore...Last year's scheduled trip to Zoukout was binned due to work obligations, i hope this year's planned Zoukout excursion with the missus goes according to plan. Anyone else interested in partying in Sentosa Island, drop us a tinker!

The proud parents & graduandStylishly lateMum & DadSpotted outside Raffles City... "rolling on twenty-fourz". Bling! Bling! And lastly... Digi-Camo on Digi-Camo... can't spot the phone huh? hahaha.