14/7/12: Updated with SLR shots. Enjoy!
Saleem
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Saleem
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Saturday day: Routine doldrums
Yet another day at work, so nothing new to report there. Likewise, I headed straight back home afterwards to relax and back up my photo collection... I've filled up almost 60GB worth of photos already! That, and doing my laundry as well.
Lunch for the day: I got off the MRT at Somerset (NS23), heading to the Basement of the Centrepoint Arcade. Now this part I had walked by previous, but never looked into the Basement foodcourt. This foodcourt has a small range to offer, but I haven't seen any recommendations about the places - worth ducking your head into for a bite if you're in the area and starving.
Today's lunch was this Hainan chicken rice set (S$4.50), not bad for an average meal.
Yet another day at work, so nothing new to report there. Likewise, I headed straight back home afterwards to relax and back up my photo collection... I've filled up almost 60GB worth of photos already! That, and doing my laundry as well.
Lunch for the day: I got off the MRT at Somerset (NS23), heading to the Basement of the Centrepoint Arcade. Now this part I had walked by previous, but never looked into the Basement foodcourt. This foodcourt has a small range to offer, but I haven't seen any recommendations about the places - worth ducking your head into for a bite if you're in the area and starving.
Today's lunch was this Hainan chicken rice set (S$4.50), not bad for an average meal.
Night time: funtime! The plan for this evening was to go on the Singapore Flyer and Marina Bay Sands Skypark. Unfortunately things didn't quite go to plan though :(
After meeting up with Michelle and Andy at Bayfront MRT (CE1), we headed over to the foodcourt at the Marina Bay Sands Shoppes. Tonight, again, I stayed with a safe (and filling) selection of the beef pho.
Desserts: mango pudding, and fruit salad.
After dinner, we came back up to ground floor, just in time for the 8pm laser show from the Sands Towers. We had a decent viewpoint from next to the Art and Science Museum :) In hindsight, there was an even better position outside Shoppes section/Tower 2, but we enjoyed it from where we were.
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| Photographers hard at work |
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| Flower near the Art&Science museum |
Next we headed over to the Singapore Flyer, a massive 30 minute rotating ferris wheel.
Along the way, we walked across the Helix Bridge. Now there's shots here showing the bridge in daylight, but it's illuminated brilliantly at night!
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| A view back towards Marina Bay Sands |
Unfortunately, we were told the wait time would be about an hour. Bummer. So cutting our losses, we caught a cab over to the Merlion Park - none of us wanted to walk across the bridge, given how full we all were
Just a warning about cabs in Singapore - research the surcharges! Our short trip was only a few ticks over the minimum at S$3.44. Then there's the weekend surcharge of 25%, and also the Night City Surcharge of $3 after 5pm... which added up to be a S$7.30 fare!! More than double the indicated fare. So yes, just be careful.
Anyways, we had fun snapping away at the Merlion Park, taking photos of the fountain statue. We stayed there for the 9.30pm laser show of the Sands Tower, this time watching it from across the Bay (where I was on Wednesday night).
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| More images from my 'street' collection. Compare this to this one from Wednesday's post. |
And before calling it a night, we ducked into The Coffee Bean for a drink: cookie and cream for me!
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SUNDAY
This is the morning where we decided to nomnom at the Charlie Brown Cafe :D
Although we were the only ones eating there, it was still quite fun to be surrounded by Peanuts themed things everywhere, including the cocoa powder in the coffee cup, etc.
After being fuelled up, we started exploring:
First - ION Orchard's top levels to ask about the ION Sky experience: a viewing platform set 54 levels above street level. Along the way, I saw this Faber Castell store... for all you artists out there...
First - ION Orchard's top levels to ask about the ION Sky experience: a viewing platform set 54 levels above street level. Along the way, I saw this Faber Castell store... for all you artists out there...
Next, we headed over to Raffles Quay, and took daylight photos at the Merlion.
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| Who'd want to sit on this?! =P |
Next ticked off the list of things to do: a water taxi ride across to Marina Bay Sands sector for S$4.
Over by the main side of Marina Bay entertainments, we walked through the Marina Bay Shoppes again and over to the Sands Hotel complex. There, we found the entrance to the Skypark and bought tickets for tonight's admission, signing up for the free guided tour at 9pm as well XD! Just can't wait for tonight! (see more info at the bottom of this blog).
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| String quartet playing inside the Shoppes |
Lunch today was back at the Rasapura foodcourt, where I had a roast chicken noodle + soup, and also ordered my desserts at the same time as the dessert queues were getting longer: mango sago pamelo with black pearls and ice cream, and a chendol :) Lunch at MBS isn't cheap: this set cost me S$6.80 for the noodle and soup, and S$7 for the desserts... but yum-mmmyyy!
Afternoon we split up: Andy and Mich headed over to Clarke Quay to go on their Duck&Hippo river cruise, whilst I was happy to chillax at the Bayfront harbourside, enjoying the breeze, sunshine, and a chance to sit back and relax!
Not completely relax, of course ;) I devoted some of my sunshine time into capturing some nature shots around the Shoppes/Art&Science Museum forecourt.
At 6.15, we met up again outside the Singapore Flyer - I was rather insistent that we catch the sunset whilst riding the Flyer. Even though I got some twilight shots, my timing was off - need to plan it better.
What I mean is: I've read that the queues to go on the Flyer can be quite bad sometimes, up to an hour wait like last night. So we went into the Flyer sector, and found out the first part is a museum section commemorating the construction of the Flyer. That section you can rush through within 10 minutes, with the queue for the Flyer actual at the end of the museum. It was only a short, 5 minute queue for the Flyer tonight, so we boarded at 6.35pm. For the future, see if you can waste enough time in the museum until about 6.45 to 7ish, for a 7.15pm sunset.
What I mean is: I've read that the queues to go on the Flyer can be quite bad sometimes, up to an hour wait like last night. So we went into the Flyer sector, and found out the first part is a museum section commemorating the construction of the Flyer. That section you can rush through within 10 minutes, with the queue for the Flyer actual at the end of the museum. It was only a short, 5 minute queue for the Flyer tonight, so we boarded at 6.35pm. For the future, see if you can waste enough time in the museum until about 6.45 to 7ish, for a 7.15pm sunset.
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| Through the exhibits... going up! |
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| "My, how high does this thing get!" |
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| Gardens by the Bay - it does look pretty from a distance |
I call it: iPad-tography!
You get an iPad, tilt it at the right angle, then capture a photo of the reflected image. It turned out quite well, too!
Anyways... it was worth it in the end. Daylight - you'll see buildings. Twilight - get some view of some things. Definitely consider going up at night - but then you'll miss stuff from the Skypark perspective (below).
So after disembarking, we milled around for a good half-hour looking at souvenirs and other things at the gift shop.
Dinner tonight: I spotted this greasy place earlier: Popeye's. We don't have this chain of Cajun chicken fast-food in Australia, and I'm kinda glad: cause it wasn't all that good.
Walked over to Marina Bay Sands Hotel, along the F1 track (can't wait for September!!)
Then headed up to the Skypark.
Now the view from the top is amazing. They say you can glimpse Malaysia from the top... I think I saw the lights of Jahore Bahru, but I'm not certain.
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| Glimpses of the Garden By the Bay Project |
Anyhows, yes: if you come to Singapore, this is one of the features you MUST do at night. It was simply spectacular from up there!
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| I wanted to do that too... sit around and scroll through photos... |
Onto the terrace of the Infinity Pool :)
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| First glimpse |
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| Heyyyyy ... why can't I enjoy myself for a moment =D |
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| 'Tis a long way down if you fall off the pool's edge... |
Other views from the top: the layout of the Helix Bridge (blue) and the East Coast Parkway (road)... doesn't it look like a sword handle and sheath?
Skybar: on Level 57
Singapore Flyer at night, from 56 floors up:
Gift shop items. Didn't get any, but aren't they pretty =P
So that's pretty much it from such an elevated perch. We stayed up there for a few moments more, just to enjoy the serenity ('twas about 10.30pm by then, and everyone else had made their way off the SkyPark)
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| Me on top of the world. Relatively speaking, of course =P |
So that's about it for the weekend :D
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Summary overall:
Marina Bay in itself can be done in one day, so long as you plan ahead of time. For buying tickets and entries on the cheap, head over to ION Orchard - there's a tourist centre to the 'right' side of the ION exit (Exit E) when you come out of Orchard MRT (NS22). There, I saved 10% by prepaying for my S$29 Singapore Flyer ticket, and Andy and Michelle saved more for their combo ticket as well - for the Duck&Hippo river cruise, bus tour, and much more.
As far as I know, the Skypark tickets are only purchasable from the Skypark lobby, outside (not inside) Tower 3 of the Hotel. For S$20, it is definitely worth the view from 56 levels above ground. And MAKE SURE you ask about the Guided Tour: it's free, but only 3 tours a day, limited to 24 people at a time. We were early and signed on for the 9pm final tour when we bought our tickets at 2pm, but I noticed we were already at the bottom half of the list.
But yes: overall we had fun, and I snapped away and blasted my 32GB SD card again, racking up another 1200 photos to deal with later!
Catch this blog soon for more!
Marina Bay in itself can be done in one day, so long as you plan ahead of time. For buying tickets and entries on the cheap, head over to ION Orchard - there's a tourist centre to the 'right' side of the ION exit (Exit E) when you come out of Orchard MRT (NS22). There, I saved 10% by prepaying for my S$29 Singapore Flyer ticket, and Andy and Michelle saved more for their combo ticket as well - for the Duck&Hippo river cruise, bus tour, and much more.
As far as I know, the Skypark tickets are only purchasable from the Skypark lobby, outside (not inside) Tower 3 of the Hotel. For S$20, it is definitely worth the view from 56 levels above ground. And MAKE SURE you ask about the Guided Tour: it's free, but only 3 tours a day, limited to 24 people at a time. We were early and signed on for the 9pm final tour when we bought our tickets at 2pm, but I noticed we were already at the bottom half of the list.
But yes: overall we had fun, and I snapped away and blasted my 32GB SD card again, racking up another 1200 photos to deal with later!
Catch this blog soon for more!
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