Singapore 2

Orchard Road will never missed its place from our list when we talk about shopping in Singapore. From Orchard Rd. to Dhoby Ghaut MRT stations, there was a belt of continuous shopping centres with their own identities. We chose a few of them, walked around, and took some nice food there. There was a nationwide shopping fair during our visit. We managed to grab a few clothes with good bargain there, although we are not good in shopping at all (or should said not so interested in shopping).

On the right: Photo showing Betty on the walkway of Orchard Road. The rest showed the shopping centres- from antique to contemporary.

Vivo City, the largest shopping mall in Singapore, was a place that shopaholics should not miss. We went to Vivo City on our way to Sentosa Island and enjoyed a wonderful meal there.

The historical trails, which stretched from City Hall to Raffles Place MRT stations, promised a different view. The historical buildings were well maintained there, backgrounded by the skyscrapers with international brands. From City Hall Station, we walked towards seaside with great view of Cathedral of St. Andrew, crossed over Padang to War Memorial Park, took a great view of City Hall and Supreme Court, Victoria Theatre, Parliament House, Arts House, Asian Civilization Museum, and last but not least, the statue of Merlion at Merlion Park. That was the trip that we enjoyed the most, as we journeyed back to the historical part of Singapore (exclude the Merlion).

Clockwise from left: Merlion; City Hall and Supreme Court of Singapore, Victoria Theatre, The Arts House, and War Memorial.

Singapore really looks like our home country in culture and lifestyle. For us, we never feel alone there, as we could communicate easily with English and Mandarin, even with Bahasa Melayu there (Most Singaporean can communicate with English). Even the food there tasted almost the same with our food here. With assistance from my uncle and some of our friends, we were able to hunt some of the nice food around.

Wherever we go, we will not hold back with local delicacies. Clockwise from left: taking breakfast at Boon Keng Market (just a few steps away from boon Keng MRT Station) with local "kueh-muih"; view at one of the hawker centre; dim-sum and famous Singapore Chicken Rice at Food Republic.

There are some changes in Singapore - More Chinese speaks Mandarin now, rather than English, compared to my last visit. Besides, there are more motorbikes and bicycles on the road than the old days. I wish to share a scene that is not easy to catch in Malaysia - old folks from different races sat together at the food court, talking and laughing to each others in English. That scene really touched my heart!

Clockwise from top: MRT networks which look like shopping centre; advertisement in the station; bicycles were widely used across the residential area.

Going places in Singapore was easy with MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) network webbing across the island. So, an advice from us, stay near to the MRT station, then almost all tourist spots will become nearer to you. For more information about Singapore, well, there is a good map at Singapore Streetdirectory, MRT directory, tourist information at official site for Singapore Tourism Board and Sentosa Island. Of course, you can always visit Tripadvisor for latest ranking of hotels in Singapore.

Lastly, we wish to foward a big THANK YOU to Uncle Gregory, Peter and Magdalene for all the hospitality and warm assistance, nice to have you all in our way.

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Singapore 1

Singapore, a small lovely country south of Peninsular Malaysia, was an attractive destination that we visited June 2009. I visited the island for a few times before, but it was the first time for Betty. She went to Singapore first to conduct a workshop at Republic Polytechnic and I joined her three days later. We visited several places, which can be categorized into fun and thrill, historical and shopping trip.

For fun and trill, where else besides Sentosa Island? Honestly, the island didn't change much since my last visit a long long time ago. Port Siloso and Underwater World almost remained the same, while The Song of the Sea, Dolphin Lagoon are new for me, while the beach...uh, felt like getting worse by the heavily dotted ships stretching along the bay. However, all of the attractions were new to Betty! We did a little bit of screening as there were too many tourist's attractions on that small island. We decided to visit the old part of the island first- Fort Siloso, which really brought us back to the history. The exceptionally attractive part of the fort was the wax models, and the description over the role the fort played during War World II. The visit visualized our knowledges and the background of the country. Well everyone, the wax model exhibition is really worth a visit, they looked so real until the guard there scared me, once he moved from his standing post.

Clockwise from top: Gate of Fort Siloso; the entrance; wax-models; underground tunnels; and the model of one of the canons.

The UnderWater World was a attractive tour spot with few hundreds species of fish swimming around us. After the tour, I really amazed by the consistency of the management, which keep UnderWater World nearly unchanged for so many years. I met my old memories in a lot of the corners in that aquarium. The ticket to the UnderWater World is complemented with Dolphin Lagoon, which is 15 minutes away by shuttle bus. The presentation by the pink dolphins was spectacular- flips, spins, tail walk, jumping over the hoop and playing soccer were just like one two three, A B C to them. Well, frankly from both of us, UnderWater World is missmatched to Aquaria KLCC or Langkawi Underwater World in Malaysia. However, a chance to watch the dolphins presentation and visit the old Dugong was still a suprise.

Clockwise from top: Betty tried to reach manta-rays beside "touch pool" of UnderWater World; Pink Dolphin perfomance at Dolphin Lagoon; and fishes, squids, and jelly fish found in UnderWater World.

At night, we watched the "fire and water" show (which we think the Musical Fountain is not a suitable name for it)- The Song of the Sea at Siloso Beach. The stage was set up in the sea while we sat on the beachside, faced the sea, pampered by breeze, , took a great view of the islands far away, and enjoying the show. With blasting fire, splashing water, and blazing laser effects, the show should be rated five stars excellency, with lousy story line. But who cares about the story? Special effects talked louder there!

Great scenes from the Song of the Sea show.

Well, a solid day trip in Sentosa might end up with tiring muscles and souring legs, but not for us. We chose leisure and steady way, with a lot of resting, drinking, talking, and skipped many places of interest on the island (which might be saved until next visit).


Our trip continued...

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Bangkok 3

Our second day in Bangkok, we took BTS Skytrain to Mo Chit Station around 9 am, where we walked for another 5 minutes to reach Chatuchak Market- the biggest market in Bangkok, with its full strength of more than 10,000 stalls opened, only on weekends.

 Morning at Chatuchak. As you can see, there were not many people there yet. Some of the shop keepers were setting up their store.

The market is really "huge". They are few entrances to the market and we fought hard to memorize the the direction of the entrance that we came in. We failed. Then, we discovered a good way to ease the effort- by open our mouth and ask. "Skytrain, Mo Chit, Mo Chit, where?" Although the folks couldn't understand English well, they still could give us the right direction for us. Well, the way back to the hotel was a long one, as both our hands were full.

Crooked pirate needs a parrot, malnutrition arowana needs vitamin shrimps, or frustrated mom needs unbreakable household utensils, you can get what you need there, in Chatuchak.

A little bit shopping tips for you- try to go to the market early (around 9 am). The folks there were desperate to close the first sale. In their believe, successful first sale will bring good luck to them for the rest of the day. So, we might be offered with extremely attractive price, even without bargaining With that information, we managed to get few good quality clothes with really very low price. Anyway, please bear in mind as well, don't ask for the price for the things that you are not really interested in, which end end up with turning them down, even with "record-breaking-low" offer. You will discourage them and bring them a great disappointment (of course, only if you are their first customer of the day).

Chatuchak was really a place for us to learn how to communicate through language barrier- the simple is the best! We used simple English, just a few key words, plus a lot of body languages to roll through the market, alive and kicking.

Public transports in Bangkok (clockwise from upper left): Taxi, do you ever see a pinky taxi before? Tut-tut- the tricycle taxi, BTS Skytrain, decoration in the taxi. The public transport system in Bangkok is well-organized. We tried taxi (with meter, but still can bargain), tut-tut, Skytrain, MRT, and ferry. The Skytrain, MRT and the ferry systems are well linked. We didn't take any bus as we found some communication problem with the drivers, about the route.

Back to the hotel, put down all the stuffs bought from Chatuchak, we departed again to Siam Square Station. From there, we started another shopping spree- MBK Plaza, Siam Discovery, Siam Centre, and Paragon (again for the 2nd time). The stuffs at MBK were more likely meet our budget. During the spree, we took a short visit to Thailand Art and Culture Centre, a road side concert by unknown Thailand artists, street dancing at an overhead bridge in front of MBK, and contemporary music concert at Siam Square, in front of Paragon.

Photos above show the inside and outside of MBK shopping center (upper row), and the performance on the stage and on the street, just beside MBK.

 Our photos, inside and outside of Siam Paragon.

Siam Square, a place where arts meet the people, gave us much suprises by the creative decoration and performance. The photo above shows fountain ornamenting Siam Paragon far behind. The photo below shows the Banana Festival 2009 held in Siam Square. We were so lucky to catch up the last day's performance of local musical instruments.

Besides attractive landmarks and fruitful shopping, there was another attraction of Bangkok- the food! We tried many types of local food, such as pork rice, tomyam, Thai pad (noodle), western food, chinese food, fast food, and coffee. We suggested that you should not miss the pork rice, tomyam and oren-zui (made by freshly squeezed local orange). We can find all this delicacies all around Bangkok. Pork rice and tomyam can be found in food court in major shopping malls as well.

Mixed rice and pork rice, available all around Bangkok. The pork rice taste really good. The pork rice was sold at around 30 to 45 Baht per plate.
 

Clockwise from upper left: Thai chicken rice, noodle, western food, and tomyam. Thai tomyam is in "must try" category for us.

The attractions besides the main roads (From left): Phrakan Fortress, Victory Monument, and Statue of the King.

We like Bangkok very much. It was in fact a peaceful place. Although there was political issue running around the city, all the tourists' hot spots were left untouched. The streets along Thanon Yauwarrat and Thanon Charoen Krung were clean and peaceful. The markets were clean without irritating smells. Well, we will definitely return to Bangkok for second time in the future. For more information about Bangkok, you can visit Thaiway Magazine for good maps, Tripadvisor.com for comments on hotels, and any other webpage that we can get from search engines, such as Bangkok Hot Guides.

Lastly, we would like to express our special gratitude to our friend Alex Leong for his clear instructions and useful advices, as well as all the staffs at Salil Hotel for our wonderful time there.

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