Day 3 @ Singapore

Last Day

Part 1- Day1 http://chocmud.blogspot.com/2007/12/day-1-singapore.html
Part 2- Day1 http://chocmud.blogspot.com/2008/02/day-1-singapore.html
Part 1- Day2 http://chocmud.blogspot.com/2008/03/day-2-singapore.html
Part 2- Day2 http://chocmud.blogspot.com/2008/03/day-2-spore.html

This is the last day of our visit. We check out without having breakfast as the room charge actually did not include breakfast. Yesterday, the breakfast was on our own expenses. As we passed by the lobby, I knew I had to take a picture of the lounge. It was again, beautifully design with different sets of sofas. We did not have a chance to go there for a drink as we came back very late last night.
When I saw this, it reminds me of a dying fairy I once saw in a movie. This is another must-take photo. In M'sia, there will never be crocked lines like this. The first time I saw this, I had a laugh myself. You must think I'm crazy huh? Well, pardon me as this is the first time I went to Singapore.
We went to Vivo City to kill our time before our flight at 6pm. I saw this cute hanging reindeer be the escalator.
Coincidently, we bumped into a troupe of bridesmaid and bride+groom. They were there taking pre-wedding shoots I pressume. I wanted to go over to congratulate them if not for my baggage.
I feel silly taking all this while shopping. But that's what makes me different from others ;p I'm on my honeymoon...
We did not take breakfast this morning, so we were dead hungry by the time we reached Vivo. Sis recommended us to try the crab in No Signboard Seafood. As I thought she had tried it before and found it yummy, then it must be reasonably priced (quite cheap). Hubs leaded the way into the restaurant and I followed behind. As the sliding door open, it reveal this...
I went like Oh-shit! This must be a throat cutting restaurant. The ambiance and the deco will burn a hole in pocket. Surprisingly, the food is well, reasonably priced. A kilo of their famous crab is priced at SG38. Do not do the conversion, otherwise you will not want to even go in. They have quite a number of branches, namely Geylang, Suntec Center and Esplanade Mall.
We ordered stir fried water-chicken with dried chilli and a crab cooked in sweet and sour sauce.

This is the stir fried water-chicken. It does not taste so good as they are from water tank rather than catch it from river. The meat is not bouncy and it feels like there was only bones wrapped in skin (skinny froggies).
The crab that is worth the waiting and $$. When the captain brought this to our table, we had a shocked. It was so huge we can barely finish it. The crab weighted 1.2kg
See how big it is? The hand alone had already taken up the whole plate. After the meal, we were so full we can't move for a while.
When we came back and told Sis that it was pricey, then only she told us, "I told you it's expensive right?" and I went o_O.

We took a stroll around Vivo after lunch (with our luggage trolling behind). In the Sony center, I urged Hubs to try out the PS2 over there. He finally gave up after 10mins struggling to operate the controller. And he made up his mind to get a PSP so that he can still keep up with the fast evolving tech. He said, at least when next time his son asked him how to play, he can show them and not be like others. And so here's our new bought play station.

Day 2 @ Singapore

Part 2

Part 1- Day1 http://chocmud.blogspot.com/2007/12/day-1-singapore.html
Part 2- Day1 http://chocmud.blogspot.com/2008/02/day-1-singapore.html
Part 1- Day2 http://chocmud.blogspot.com/2008/03/day-2-singapore.html

We took the MRT to City Hall. After walking for 5mins, we saw it. Chijmes is such a beautiful place. You can never go wrong as the magnificient Church building greets when you step out of the MRT station.

This is the map of whole Chijmes. There several restaurant and pubs to choose from. You can see the list before hand at Uniquely Singapore's website.

Well, of course we did our homework before we go. So our choice is Carnivore. From the map, it was stated to be on 1st level. So we were stretching our neck finding for the signboard on the first level while we were still on the ground floor. The main building caught our attention and automatically I whipped out my lovely digicam.

Just as we walked over to get better view, we saw this directly beside it. So lucky!

And not long after that, this signboard was shouting out to us. Without much hesitation, we walked over and immediately attended by a waiter.

It was Christmas season, so they had a Christmas theme buffet dinner. One pax is around SG40+. If we don't do the conversion, it's so worth it. Even after we did the conversion, we still feel worth it as the food and ambience was so perfect. Just right for honeymoon gateaway. We started with the self-service appetizer.

Then they gave us a plate of don't-know-what-it-called thingy. The left side thingy is to be added if the meat is too salty and the right side stuff is to be added when you find the meat to be too oily. The balls in the middle was not something you will try anywhere. It was cheesebread ball. Not to Hubs liking as the cheesy smell is too strong.

We each ordered different drinks. Keep in mind that drinks are not included in the buffet. Their signature drink, Brazil's National Cocktail. It's called Caipirinha, freshly squeezed lime muddled with sugar and crunched ice, topped with cachaca.

I opted for non alchoholic drink, Carnivore's Specialty. Mine is called Guarana Antartika, the most famous guarana-flavoured soda in Brazil. Refreshingly apple-like, with a pleasant aftertaste.

There was something special on their buffet style. Although the appetizer is the same as those I've tried in M'sai, their man dish is somehow different. The normal semi buffet offered in M'sia, you can have freeflow of appetizer and dessert but the main course only come in a portion. Here in Carnivore, the main course does not come in a beatifully decorated plate. It came in walking skewers. Ehem..not the skewers can walk by themselves. Here is a qoute from their website.

Our knife-welding Passadors (meat waiters) come to your table and slice the meat from large skewers onto your plates. At Carnivore, the meats are marinated and cooked over fire till perfection. Our Brazilian chefs will pamper you with an array of meats – beef, pork, chicken, lamb and fish. A special selection of meats like crocodile, wild boar and ostrich is available during festive seasons.

A meat waiter live in action...

How do they know when to come and when to leave? By asking from table to table? Of course not. That will be very disturbing. If you want some meat, just face the card with the green side on top. If you had enough, and want a break, have the red one on top.

After the dinner, we walked thru the open area to get to the MRT again. This time, an outdoor theater has been set up. The giant plastic sheet was set on the floor and cushions were thrown around. The audience can to enjoy the MTV while laying under the sky, munching popcorns. How much does all this cost? Nothing. It was totally free. We wanted to join in but too bad, it started drizzling and so we had to make our way to the MRT station.

Somewhere near the MRT station, there was this giant christmas tree. I couldn't help but to take photo of every huge christmas tree I came upon.

Our next destination was to Clarke Quay. There our mission is to find Eskibar. This is the atmosphere at the streets of pub and bistro.

At last we found it after walking almost to the end of the road. It was quieter there compare to those pubs at the front end.

As we enter the pub, we were greeted by a section which is so cold, everything turned blue, including the waitress over the opening. Haha...just kidding. They made the sub zero section at the front to welcome you and give the COOL impression. There is another section just after the
opening. It is warmer and kinda stuffy too. So we moved back to sub zero room. When we couldn't stand the cold, we move out to take some fresh air ;p

This is the only warm lights in the sub zero room. Just for the sake of getting the place a lil warmer I guess ;p Nice deco for me to photograph. To kill our time as we waited for my friend to show up.

There was a Buddha statue right beside the entrance. Was it really for worship or just another decoration? I personally find it quite nice.

We missed out the chance to walk around Clarke Quay, the so called smelly big drain. We chatted until past midnight. No choice but to flag down a taxi back to our hotel. That was the first time we took a taxi in Sg and its charge was double....sigh.

Day 2 @ Singapore

Part 1

Part 1- Day1 http://chocmud.blogspot.com/2007/12/day-1-singapore.html

Part 2- Day1 http://chocmud.blogspot.com/2008/02/day-1-singapore.html

Today only I manage to capture my super lucky room number. So auspicious number for Chinese. Anything to do with 8 is lucky.

A unique collection of deco. If I saw this lamp before my wedding, I would have search high and low for it as a deco in our bedroom.

An illusion or a photo edits? Non of it. The glass is really one sided in real. Cool huh?

A view from our seats. You can imagine how our breakfast must be like. SO Yummy although we just take a light one.

Another lovely deco by the side door leading to the restaurant. It's just a bunch wire with lights in between but not all knows that by turning them into balls, they will look so unique.

Even the chairs are so lovely........

Right after breakfast, we were off to Bugis Street, the heaven for shopping cheap stuff in Spore. It says in the banner that Bugis Street is the largest shopping location in Spore.

As we approached a bun stall, I peep inside to see what is that big bread. I don't know how to read the chinese character, I just ignored it. While I was busy trying to figure out if it's real, Hubs read out aloud, " I am not real" in Mandarin. Haha....so all along this fake bun has been staring back at me shouting, "I'm fake" but I turn a deaf ear, cause I'm a banana... ;p

Bugis Street is so big they need signboard to show more shops over the other side.

A temple was built among the shop lots. I wanted to capture this shot for you to see and I totally did not realize there was a non-photo-taking sign just 10 feet away from me. Lucky I didn't get caught. Or else I'll be paiseh (embarrass) again.

There's nothing special about this roadsign. I just took it to show Hubs' best friend that he's so rich to own a mall and a street named after him...hehe

Lunch was taken at a nearby cafe, Breko Cafe. What is so special about this that we went there?

Well, to be honest, we did not plan for this. We happen to passed by with a hungry tummy and seriously in need of cool place. Coincidently this place has air-con, thank god!

Although hungry, we couldn't eat much. So we just order some drinks and a snack. While waiting for our food to come, we planned for tonight's journey. See the circles and arrows?

Hubs ordered a beer to cool off.

While I opted for an ice-blended chocomocha with cookies, I think.

For snack, we tried it's potato boat. It was a fist big potato, slit in the center and stuff with mayo+spices and top with fried minced meat. Yummy! It was just enough for two of us.

After the lunch, we walked around a little and headed back to hotel for a bath before going to Chijmes for dinner....

Penang Komtar in kiosk

Just a moment ago, I received email with this content,

"Do not use coastal highway back when off work as my boss brother just now told me said that now the UMNO racial is going to create mess and fight against differences of racial as they loss in BN.


KOMTAR now crowded with Malays and they started to riot already. Be careful of ya. This is real news as penang bridge already get blocked and all red comrades are standby there. Tell your colleagues as well ya. "

If only those babe realise that they can't fight much cause Chinese is the majority over here. What is the use of election if they will not bow to the result? If only they have a brain to think, they will see that no matter who took over, it's for the goodness of the island. I can't guaranteed there will be no corruption but at least now that there are a few parties involved, everyone will be more alert and don't dare to bermaharajalela. If the previous party ruling was soooo good, then why on earth will we vote for a change? One of the blogger mention, if we vote for opposition because we don't want developement, then all this while we must be wishing to stay on the trees. I really have to salute those babe for being so brainless and yet they survive till today.

“Do not marginalise the Malays. I want to ask Lim Guan Eng what are his plans for the Malays in Penang. What are his plans for the Indians in Penang. What are his plans for other minority groups in Penang?” said Abdullah.

Obviously, he's trying to show concern over the bumiputras in Penang since the Chinese is the majority group in the island. If he's so concern about minority group, well, we want to ask what are goverment's plan for other minority group (Chinese, Indian, etc.) in Malaysia? What we see so far was protection of right, interest and all other benefits to the majority group in Malaysia. What about us minority? Why do they only bring up the minority when it comes to Penang? I wonder.....

Can you spot a fake smile?

I was introduced to this when I check out howaboutorange.blogspot.com. Take a quiz, watch short clips of 20 individuals smiling and see if they're faking it. I got 13 out of 20 right.

Life as it is

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared; he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther.

Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were nature’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If nature allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been.

And we could never fly.

Writer: Unknown, shared by Yasmin Ahmad http://yasminthestoryteller.blogspot.com.