Hello SG!

The other day, Leoby and I flew to Singapore for a day trip. We’ve been itching to go there for a visit and luckily we chanced upon an opportunity to say hello to Singapo-lah even for just less than a day.

My only booboo was that I forgot my camera’s battery! I charged it the night before, took the charger out of the power socket when I woke up and placed the whole thing in my little case. I left the case at home, thinking I wouldn’t really need to bring the charger. Only when we were in the taxi on the way to the airport that I realized I didn’t get the battery off the charger. I had the camera in my bag. Stupid me!

Anyways, we had about 10 hours to go gallivanting around the country we used to call home. Leoby wanted to check out Universal Studios but I kinda burst his bubble and said it might be bitin if we spend less than half day there. I was aiming for a leisurely stroll around the city so we didn’t have to rush and worry about getting back to the airport on time.

Our flight was at 7:15 am. When we landed in SG around past 10am, we were so famished that we just had to eat at the first place we can see. Guess where we had our first meal? Mcdonalds! We had hotcakes. Haha!

Our first stop was to a very dear friend whose husband is in critical condition in a hospital. He’s been in a coma for two months already after suffering from a major heart attack. Our visit was quick but very touching and meaningful because we saw how well he was fighting to make a full recovery. I really wouldn’t know how to call his actual state now, he wasn’t fully awake yet but one thing’s for sure, things are starting to look very positive. Seeing how upbeat my friend was and how positive she was in handling things inspired us and made us realize that we’ve got a lot to be thankful for. I’ve always known her to be a thoughtful person ever since, but I felt so abashed when she said she’s got something for us — pork bakkwa! — because she knew pork was scarce here. Imagine that! She even had time to think of us. Awww.

Next stop was Funan Digital Mall. Leoby had to buy a hard drive. I had to check out the Apple stores to touch lovingly and salivate over the Macbook Pros. I fought hard the temptation to swipe the plastic card so I can bring a spankin’ new laptop.

After doing the rounds in Funan, we decided to go to Glutton’s Bay near Esplanade. We knew we’d regret it big time if we leave without having our favorite Singaporean food – BBQ stingray with sambal! We arrived wee bit early (this was around 4pm). The stalls were still prepping and would open at 5. My feet were starting to hurt at this point, so I told Leoby that we’ll just hang out in the area and wait for the stalls to open, rather than walking around another mall, which would be Marina Square across the street.

So we chilled out along the bay and admired Singapore’s newest attraction — the Marina Bay Sands casino and hotel. It is a very interesting architectural structure, with what looked like a long cruise ship atop the three towers. Here’s the photo I took using my iPhone:

interesting architecture, isn't it?

After some patient waiting, we walked back to Glutton’s Bay and took our seats as we watched the stalls do their final preparations. We had prawn hokkien mee (S$6) for appetizer, which we gobbled up so fast we just had to laugh at how hungry and excited we were. Then Leoby ordered the biggest size of the stingray (S$15) and a small plate of seafood fried rice (S$4). He even wanted to order mussels, but I told him not to eat too much because we were still meeting up Tita Gene, who’s our wedding godmother and who used to be our housemate in SG (we rented a room at their place), for dinner. The food was just as delicious as expected. Oh how we missed them so!

From Esplanade we walked back to City Hall station and took the familiar train ride back to Jurong East. Then we took the other train to Bukit Batok where we were meeting Tita Gene. I can feel she was so excited to see us because she wanted us to order a lot of food at Pastamania. Hehe. In the end, we did some catching up over a bowl of pasta and two pizzas. Too bad Tito Jun, her husband, was getting off from work at 9pm so we weren’t able to see him. They were our family when we were in SG.

Soon after, we were headed back to the airport to catch our 9:40pm flight back to Jakarta. Our cab driver was a jolly uncle who immediately knew we are Pinoys.

It was a tiring and very bitin trip, but nevertheless we had fun seeing friends and family. Of course it would have been nicer if we had more time to go around, eat chicken rice and $1 ice cream, and do more shopping, especially since it’s Great Singapore Sale around this time. But it was just great to be able to ride the MRT again, hear Singlish again, and check out the old and new places (at least a few of them). We should go back there again one day, hopefully soon.

Advertisement