I always ask first, “have you been here before?”, “where/what did you go/eat in the last visits?” before I babble out about what’s good in Singapore, because they might have already known so much about Singapore, might even known better than me. Traveling to Singapore is not so special anymore. That’s why having a Singapore-virgin tourist like this friend of mine, brought me a simple joy.
Saturday morning I went to Harbourfront terminal to pick up my friend who crossed the sea from Batam. It supposed to be 45 minutes ferry-ride only, but this time took about 1.5 hour plus 1 hour queuing in immigration, due to heavy traffic tourists in the long weekend. First hour waiting in the arrival hall was not bad since there was a good-looking foreigner guy waiting there also, but when he’s gone I got bored easily watching people passing by.
After I met my friend, we had lunch directly in Banquet (halal food court) nearby. I introduced her to Hainanese Chicken Rice. And then we went to Sentosa, walking from Siloso Beach, Merlion to Resort World. We did not enter any attractions, only sightseeing and taking a lot of pictures. Too bad the iconic Universal globe was hidden under maintenance.
In the afternoon I brought her to Raffles Place. The Singapore icon Merlion, which used to have fountain from its mouth, now is hidden inside a red box. It is actually a luxury hotel room with Merlion in it, during Biennale art event. It opens to public until next month. The room is fully booked at $150/night, but free admission during daytime.
Then, we crossed the bridge to Esplanade and Singapore Flyer. I let her take the Flyer alone, since I have tried it twice (day and night). $29 for the 3rd ride in 20 minutes Flyer-ride is definitely not worth it. So I waited her downstairs where Sakura Festival was held.
Walking back to Esplanade to have dinner in my favorite place Makan Sutra (see this post). It was Saturday night in a long weekend, but fortunately we could still get some seats (by sharing table with a couple). We had Cereal Prawn and Sambal Kangkong (my favorite) and Roti Prata since my friend wanted to try Indian food.
The next day was shopping time. After walking around Chinese Garden (see this post) for a while, we went to Orchard to have my favorite Ayam Penyet Ria (haha I always make tourists come to this place! See this post) and do some shoppings. Around 3.30 PM we decided to walk outside the malls. There were so many people, waiting to watch F1 cars passing by Orchard road from Mandarin Gallery to Ion (which was closed for any other vehicles). This was not happening often, so we decided to join the crowd and waited until 4 PM when finally David Coulthard drove his car.
After that, we moved to Bugis, Arab Street and Kampong Glam (see this post). Some replicas in the yard of Malay Heritage Center were gone, they’re soon closed for renovation. Then, in the night we went to Chinatown. When we passed by a foot and body massage place, my friend directly asked me to take 15 mins foot massage together for our tiring feet after these 2 days non-stopped walking. It’s very relaxing, and making my feet light again.
Around 8 PM, we went to Harbourfront terminal where my friend took the latest ferry back to Batam. I went home and ended my week by watching the latest episode of 1N2D (Korean TV show haha). Argh Monday comes again! I can’t wait for next weekend which I will be going to Jakarta to meet the sweetheart(s).