Singapore trip - Part 1

I had to go for a working trip to Singapore last weekend, and Hubby decided to accompany me since I was going alone. It was the first time that we had left Hannah for more than one night and we were definitely going to miss her. At the same time, we did look forward to spending some time together as we had not had a trip anywhere for a long time.

We were booked into a very nice hotel on Scotts Road (just adjacent to Orchard Road)called Royal Plaza on Scotts. The room was very nice and here are some pictures of us making ourselves comfortable :) More pictures of the room will be in my next post. Best of all, it had free internet broadband access (just plug in the cable - much better than wi-fi) and the items in the minibar were free too!



I had to go by the client's office in the afternoon after lunch, so when I finished work, we decided to take a trip to Singapore's newest attraction - Marina Bay Sands. The hotel itself is a magnificent structure which is 57 storeys high and right on the roof is a boat-shaped observation deck with an infinity pool and gardens for the hotel guests. Opposite the hotel is a super up-market shopping mall and what most people go there for - the casino! Incidentally, it was my first time in a casino (I have never even been to the one in Genting) so I was pretty curious as to what it looked like inside. Somehow it wasn't as I had imagined it to be (a.k.a. Las Vegas) from watching the television shows and movies. Hubby said I found it boring because I was not a gambler! Haha.. Anyway, it was free for "foreigners" like us (we just needed to show our passports) whereas Singaporeans had to pay a SGD100 entry fee. I suppose this is to discourage gambling! :p

The shopping mall was really pretty, with a canal built in the middle of it. Very Venice-like with the gondolas (or rather Singapore "sampans" as they call it). Of course, it was full of branded stores - Gucci, Chanel, Coach, Manolo Blahnik, Ferragamo etc.



Outside the shopping mall, there was also a beautiful observation deck with a grand view of the city, but for an even nicer view, we would have to go up to the Skypark on the 56th floor.



Since we were already there, we decided to go up to the Skypark even though it cost SGD20 per person (for non hotel guests). But for the view, it was well worth it! We regretted not bringing a better camera as the photos taken of the view did not turn out so well.



This was up at the Skypark too: outside the entrance for hotel guests.



Oh yes, this is what we had to eat on the first day. Lunch was at a nearby shopping centre to our hotel where we found Pontian wantan mee. The noodles were quite yummy and the sauce was spicy too, not like the usual wantan mee. The fried wantans were light and tasty as well. Total cost for lunch: SGD 9.90. I was told that we cannot convert SGD to RM when buying food as we probably would not eat anything! Imagine, RM23 for wantan mee!

Dinner was at Marina Bay Sands and believe it or not, since the place was quite new, there was hardly anything to eat! All they had were some super expensive celebrity chef restaurants, Coffee Bean and this duck rice kiosk which had a super long queue. So in the end we settled for Coffee Bean. I think this was the most expensive meal we had, which came up to SGD53.



On the way back to our hotel, we caught a glimpse of this at a nearby cafe. Isn't the layout interesting? :) More stories and pictures in the next post.