We decided to leave the island at last minute notice for just one night ( work obligations ).
It was short and sweet and extremely lovely, a successful last minute vacation does do wonders!


On the ferry to our destination. Randomly picked the nearest island which is like 55 minutes away ferry ride but of course, it is out of the country which means you need to bring your passport.


Our resort.. massive! Which seriously impressed me, I was expecting something far more shabbier for the amount


Our hotel room was fantastic and indulgent, we even had our own veranda


Whoever knew lying on a plank of wood ( extreme right ) could be so comfortable!




The obligatory bathroom picture


Check out their massive shower head, like a UFO spaceship!


They had a lovely bathtub which I soaked myself in. The first two times, I find myself nodding off to sleep. The third time when it happened, I forced myself to get up else I will end up sleeping in a hot tub for the rest of the night!


Having fun with the monster shower head



Drinking and chilling at a nearby town's local.


It was a lazy rainy arvo in an old-fashioned coffee shop with worn-out chinese decorations and 90s chinese songs


I listened to his anecdotes while we sipped beer, twas languorous

We met this security guard who offered to take us around and earn a few pocket money of its own. He negotiated with him and after a long while, we had ourselves a makeshift tour guide. The whole incident was just hilarious.


He recommended us to this Kelong place. We don't usually go for such pushy 'tour guides' recommendations but since it was raining and we wanted dinner, we settled for this.


A weekday afternoon and a school season, it was a massive open air restaurant with only the 2 of us dining.


Can you believe it, they even own their shark?


The resort opposite this Kelong, according to our tour guide, costs only SGD 70cents a night!






This is Bahari, our tourguide, but we call him Ferrari cause he speeds and drives like an Initial D racer. We were in his car observing how he manages to drive in the dark with no street lights and entire winding paths and still speed!?!?!
It is very dangerous to drive in this country since the terrain and the infrastructure is way under developed but Ferrari did it so well we had to applause. The maximum speed on the sign says 40km/h he drove 80km/h, when it says 80km/h he drove 160km/h!
We were at the back hypotized by his Fast and Furious driving skills, seriously, he is the best driver. I believe we must have reached our destination 1/3 the time others usually take thanks to him!


Dinner time, you get to pick your own seafood




Live crabs


chu chu, the type of seafood I don't know its name in English


I saw this Goroupa fish which had really pretty scales but it swims in a slanted manner, it's freaking hilarious to see a seng-eh ( slanted ) fish. When it reaches the side of the pool, it fell completely flat 180 degrees and stuck to the wall! LMAO. Must be the shallow waters.. seng-eh fish


The view outside


Such a huge restaurant and just the 2 of us. Talk about romantic


Rice bucket


Chilli crabs


Veggies


Chu chu, imitating the sucking sound since you need to suck its meat out, see how its name is being derived from?


Teochew style fish ( no its not the seng-eh fish )


Really cheap seafood, the bill came out to be just SGD$53 for so much seafood and they were delicious and fresh!


We took our own sweet time to savour each and every dish and polished them clean. By then, it was literally sunset. We took 2.5 hours to finish them, it was lovely.


his mess, i just had to snap a pic of that! tsk tsk


beautiful sunset

Ferrari is very nice and warm but the thing is, he is annoyingly pushy ( can't blame him though ). Throughout the entire trip, he kept recommending us to visit Tanjong Pinang... Tanjoing Pinang here.... Tanjong Pinang there... Its like 1 and a half hours from our place and the trip will amount to SGD$100! We simply were not interested but he kept pushing.
I didn't understand Indonesian but my mate could so he did all the negotiation, still it didn't matter, cause I understood what Ferrari was trying to urge, every other sentence he says had a Tanjong Pinang... Tanjong Pinang Tanjong Pinang.... we tried to change the subject for like several times but he would always lure us back to Tanjong Pinang, incredibly nauseating. My mate joked one more time he speak to us of Tanjong Pinang, we will slam the entire Pinang ( betel nut ) into his brain!!!

The next stop we INSISTED on a local village to see the ways the locals live. He merely drove us there for 10 minutes and then rushed us off, I think we spent too much of his time which he didn't expect and the price we agreed on was for just 4 hours, dinner alone took 2.5++ and he was feeling quite restless about it.


So we just took a quick spin around the place


We compensated him with another SGD$10 for his time even though we weren't very satisfied with how he left us rushing towards the end, yet, he has been extremely patient and he is always courteous and warm.
No point giving that guy a hard time, we left for our resort soon after, even in the car, he still speak of Tanjong Pinang *faints*
Oh yea, this was also when he sped which was fucking exhilirating and hypotizing!

Back in the resort, we went to the terrace lounge for a drink. It was so comfortable to just lie in its huge outdoor lounge bed, it was a dark night and just the two of us talking and chilling.



I love their service, in fact the resort's service is excellent and extremely friendly, you don't sense that kind of silent discrimination that resorts or hotels possess at most times, the service staff treats everyone equal regardless of how you dress or how you look, it is just so rare and so wonderful.


I had the MOST AMAZING pina colada that I finished the entire glass without being knocked out. The bartender is really skillful with mixing the appropriate amount of alcohol to balance the taste, I requested for less rum and it turned out ... oh so delicious!!!!!




We brought our drinks to the beach for a stroll. Balmy breeze, waves and sea, quiet night with the best pina colada, couldn't ask for more.


I was even more impressed with the resort having their own beach!




Bedtime


The next day in the morning, the weather was fine so after brekkie, we decided to visit their beach








Beautiful beach




It was low tide and I picked up a seashell





You could hop on their banana boat or jetski which seemed super fun but too bad we were leaving...




There is always next time












The villas which have their own pool, awesome



We left the island during late afternoon reluctantly, it was just so lovely and surreal. Can't wait to return back there again and chill and just relax! I had such a memorable time, although it was just 1 night, it felt more than that and we were like 2 little kids playing hide and seek discovering the resort and the island, such amazing fun I haven't experienced for a long long while :)

Yesterday after work, I met up with Huixian ( my pri school classmate whom I have lost contact for 7 years and then bumped into in uni, foreign uni!) and Liming ( also a pri school classmate whom I have not met ever since pri graduation) and a brilliant impersonator- Calvin. Huixian has not visited Singapore for almost 10 years every since she migrated to Oz so I was highly anticipating her visit, there were a few other primary school classmates who were supposed to attend as well but couldn't make it in the end due to unexpected changes.

Me, Liming and Huixian

The Xmas lights don't normally go on so early but this year, Obama is visiting! ( APEC 2009 )

Huixian wanted to ride the Singapore Flyer so we headed to our journey. LiMing was our tour guide of the day.

You don't normally realize how massive the flyer is until you're under it. The first thing we uttered when we did was WOAH!

giant capsules

Calvin, Liming and Huixian in the flyer

The Flyer moves so slowly that you hardly noticed it is even moving, still, it was a great experience

The F1 Grand Prix track 

More construction

Suntec city, Pan Pacific, Mandarin Oriental and the rest of town

dazzle dazzle

The highway tracks looks beautiful from above

This is Singapore right now. The landscape continues to change every time, it is different from last year, or from the year above. This photo might even expire the minute you see this! Ok... I am kidding, but you get the point.

City of blinding lights

The entire city is enlivened with bright lights and tints

Get ready for this!

Marina Bay IR ( Integrated Resort )

*psst mab! you wanted me to update you on the construction, this is how it looks like now!

I was completely blown away when I saw this. It looked exceptionally spectacular especially from aerial's position. It is in its latter stages of construction and should be ready any time next year for inauguration.

You know, it is really funny how when every time I return back home I see the same old construction going on and on like an endless spin. I left for melbourne in 2006, returned by the end of 2006 when the construction began. Every year when I return, the major part of our island is always under infrastructure, polluting our lovely landscape, I see nothing but cranes and bulldozers and concrete. But this year when I return, it is becoming to take its form and I see its silhouette emerging amongst the industrial.

I always thought of the IR construction an endless routine, a never ending process.. until this.

Isn't it interesting how the moment you neglect and turn away just to find that it has miraculously appeared to become something great?

Lo and behold.

A surge of patriotism overcame me when I saw this sight, how magnificent this city is.

Somehow it reminded me this must have took placed in some sci-fi blockbuster movie

According to what I was told, the other side of the reclaimed land will be shoved with more tourist attraction proposals! The government has conserved a wide stretch of land to build another botanical gardens which will be grander than the national one and stock up species of exotic variations from all over the world.

Seems to me the Singaporean government has launched its offensive to attract more foreigners (investors) to our island and is fervently hammering away everything to revamp the country- they have conserved huge masses of land to engage in even more  places of attraction for the future. From what I see, they are doing a really good job in putting Singapore on to the global map.

I can foresee the future Singapore to be some sort of cosmopolitan theme park. 

Somehow, I can't wait to see the new changes to our tiny island.

To top it all off, we had Max Brenner at the Esplanade for desserts, choco-oragasm! It was really fun hanging out with them and Calvin's silly impersonations. There was this inside joke about how the Youchakwei ( Chinese fried donut ) is derived from the legendary General Yue Fei of the ancient times.

Otherwise, we had heaps of good fun rekindling old times and just enjoying each others' company.

the chocolate souffle had me salivating like Pavlov's dog 

Blisssss

I hope you enjoyed the rest of your vacation in Singapore Huixian! :)

My mum mistook the calculator as a handphone