Singapore 2011 - Day Five

five days in singapore and it feels quite enough. we got to see the shopping areas of orchard road and mustafa centre, the vibrant arab street and got to visit two parks. dividing our stay between sentosa and town was a good idea too as we could see both places properly without having to spend a long time in taxis. i do wish we had slot in the night safari into our itinerary. one regret was booking the holiday too close to the christmas period which meant triple surcharge and triple crowd. that had painted a bad light on the trip which actually wasn't too bad.

our flight home was after lunch so we had the morning to spare. we were not looking forward to venturing into orchard road again, so we had a very slow morning. we woke up late, had a leisurely breakfast and let the boys run around the room for a bit, before checking out.

taking our sweet time still meant we got to the airport pretty early so we spend quite a bit of time exploring what's there to be explored at the airport and was first in line to board. all in all, it was an okay trip. i think we enjoyed club med more but the two parks did make up for it.

Singapore 2011 - Day Four

apart than the universal studies, the singapore zoo is the other place i really was excited to visit on this trip (err...yes, only two actually. three if you include the night safari which we didn't get to visit). i've heard good reviews about the zoo from so many people. and the boys would absolutely love the place. we've been to a few zoos on our holidays, some good some, well, not so is a good description.

one thing about the royal plaza hotel, is that the breakfast spread is really very good. after two days of eating cold bread for breakfast in our room in sentosa, we were happy to be able to go down and sit properly and enjoy hot meal for breakfast. after breakfast we went down to the bus stand outside the hotel to take a bus to the zoo. i read the time wrongly so we had to wait quite a while for the bus. could have spent a longer time in the coffee house instead.

anyway, the bus ride was good. not many people on board. amir and asyraf, again with their psp. ariff just love buses so that's probably the only time he was under control. akmal had my berry, he listened to asmaul husna the whole ride.

we got to the zoo at about 11am. not too many people outside but we heard that there was a large crowd inside due to the holiday period. but its well spread so it didn't feel crowded. unfortunately, akmal had his one and only temper tantrum at the entrance which we were a bit upset about. he got over it quite quickly though, as we stepped into the zoo.

we took the tram first, going almost the whole area, stopping at the last stop before the entrance. we then moved on foot to look at all the animals, stopping to watch the elephant show. the boys were mesmerised by the elephants and their antics.

we had lunch at the ah menu restaurant, which served a wide range of food. it was still fully packed when we got there after 2pm but the patrons ate pretty fast and we didn't have to wait long for a table. after lunch we carried on to to look at animals stationed nearer to the entrance before going to the souveniour shop (a must at every tourist spot for me) while the boys were treated to ice cream.

this is where i bought baby jaguar who became akmal's best friend for two years, before he was finally stored away.

the boys had a nap on the bus back to the hotel. once we arrived, we decided to take a short walk around the area to see the christmas lights on orchard road.

Singapore 2011 - Day Three

we checked out from festive hotel quite early, at around 10am, just after breakfast. made our way out of sentosa to singapore's famous tourist area - mustafa centre. we planned on browsing the electrical items here but we didn't know how (we're not experts neither are we gadget freaks). we then walk towards arab street to have lunch at zamzam restaurant.

the boys were tired from the long walk, after lunch we took a taxi to our hotel, royal plaza on scotts road. we checked in, unpacked a bit and went for a walk on orchard road. we didnt enjoy being here at all. nothing much to shop for and nothing much to see. i did get some things at kikki-k but that's about it. we stopped outside taka to let the boys have a run around, while asyraf slept in akmal's buggy.

after dinner at one of the nasi padang restaurants nearby, we went back to the hotel to let the boys soak in the tub and watch a movie.