the day after national day

He just made his way back to the US again...
For the past 2.5months, waking up with him by my side, sending me to and picking me from work almost everyday. And now gotta get used to life without him nearby again..

But its great that this is his final year! Getting closer and closer to the future we have worked so hard for.... =)

I will be waiting~~ I love you dear!

Hospitality and tourism in Singapore

Ubin seems like its a rather popular place for Singaporeans, cos three of the guys met their friends there. How coincidental can it get?

I also noticed a trend of more people spending their weekends at the nature trails att bukit timah, hsbc tree top walk etc... think Singapore really getting more and more boring. Its true, though I am a Singaporean and I should be proud of what we have, but the tourist attractions in Singaporea really pale in comparison to other countries.

Just a week before Ubin, Ah C and I accompanied his younger sis to spend a at Sentosa. We went to the Cineblast for the new "Desperado" big-screen video game and "extreme log ride", damn horrible la.

1) First, must wait very long, like 45mins for the log ride

2) the service horrible + terrible +atrocious

3) the system got major problem - the ride stopped for three times because they claimed someone removed their seatbelt, when apparently no one did. Because they said someone in our car removed seatbelt, and the 6 of us in our car stared at each other innocently.... like what the hell.

4) the ride was neither extreme nor thrilling nor fun - even Ah C's 10-year old sister who hasn't taken a roller coaster before said so

5) the stupid ride costs $16 for 10mins (i rather pay $70 to go disneyland/universal studios/seaworld/cedarpoint for one whole day and take over 10 MUCH BETTER rides)

And we went spent $8 each to go up to the Merlion. Hmm to see a lot of trees. Waste of $$.

And I also totally don't recommend anyone to take the Singapore Flyer. I went there about a year ago during one of our CG (company) outing. The ride up was still ok, though there is really nothing much to see cos the IR is still in construction. I was dying the ride down cos its so boring.I definitely would't pay $30 for that ride, maybe until the IR is up. I am so glad I didn't pay for that ride.

Some time back, a visiting intern from Hong Kong asked me where I can recommend her to go to. Sure, a lot of 'tourist attractions' came to my mind. But as I was thinking through to give a more valued opinion, it struck me that there is nothing I could really recommend.

Forget about the 'tourist attractions' if you come visit Singapore. Just go to the cultural sites such as Chinatown and Little India, and eat the food I say!

Pulau Ubin

One saturday a few weeks back, Ah C and I, together with his primary school good friends, whom we meet up with every holiday he's back, went on a day trip to Pulau Ubin - my first time in 24 years!

I didn't know its so near - only 10-mins ferry ride away from Changi Jetty! But its quite troublesome to get to Changi Jetty la, its all the way at Changi Village hawker centre. Have to take mrt to bedok, then take bus #2 for half hour to Changi Village. Anyway, we rented a bicycle each to get around in Ubin, and the bike rentals are cheap - only $6 each for one entire day. Of cos, you can get those better, newer ones at $10-$12 also.

We cycled on the east trail for two hours in the morning, before we stopped for lunch near the jetty (Pulau Ubin side). The zi-char was pretty good and reasonably priced! We had sambal stingray, kangkong, hot plate tofu, butter fried prawns, lemon chicken and the meal for 7 of us costs about $80, including drinks. And I love the coconuts at pulau ubin.. but they are called thai coconuts so I am not very sure if they are from thailand or pulau ubin, hehe. Anyway they are big, the juice is sweet and refreshing, the flesh is soft and easily scrapped from the shell and cost only $2.50 each. Ah C and I had 5 in total!

Some pictures:


After lunch, we embarked on the west trail for about another 2 hours. The west trail is so much more fun! Cos rambutans are in season and we saw a lot of rambutan trees! haha damn bo liao, but we actually stopped and tried to pick the rambutans - by throwing sticks and all sorts of objects at the bunches of rambutans high up, hoping to hit them down. Super hilarious.



Anyway we failed miserably cos after almost half an hour of effort, only one rambutan dropped. And the worse thing is, we only took a small bite before Ivan accidentally dropped it on the floor..... so heart pain! We decided to give up and continued cycling west. But before long, we saw one Malay auntie and his friend picking rambutans also. They are super professional, cos the guy climbed up the tree and used a fruit picker to pick the rambutans. Their rambutans drop from the trees.. in bunches. And they were very nice to give us a few bunches! The auntie said that they stay in Jurong and goes to Ubin every week to relax... so cool!

Our gifts - rambutans! Very sweet and yummy cos the rough skin doesn't stick to its flesh (probaly cos they are freshly-picked):

We settled down before a lake/quarry to savour our prized possession haha!

It was a tiring, but lovely day spent =)

PS: If you go to Pulau Ubin and are not as lucky as us to meet the Malay lady who gave us their rambutans for free, you can still buy them at $2.50 a bunch near the jetty =P