Brews And Bourbons: Travel

Hey guys!

Thank you for your patience.

Day 4:

The first 2 days, I couldn’t explore the neighbourhoods of Singapore. So on Day 4, I decided to explore Chinatown and hawker street of Chinatown. So I hired cab to Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Chinatown, one of the main cultural heritage site. It is believed that the place houses the artefact of Buddha’s tooth relic. Thus the name, duh! The temple has array of stupas lined on the wall and each of them individually lit. One of the main tourist attractions, people across any religion can offer prayers inside the temple. There are some workshops ‘Discovering Buddhism’ that’s held for the public.

Adjacent to the temple are the Chinese eateries and souvenir shops. I walked across the street to Maxwell Food Centre. This is full of food outlets selling mostly Chinese and Singaporean Cuisine. A visit to this hawker food street was already there in my list. So I showed up hungry and 70% out the outlets were open. The best time to visit this place is 12 PM when all the outlets are open. I had Hainanese chicken rice at the Tian Tian Chicken rice stall. This place is world famous, thanks to Anthony Bourdain who covered this food shop in one of his documentaries. The plate is just $5 and the food is amazing. The rice is cooked in chicken broth, accompanied by pieces of juicy boiled chicken and veggies and sauce. Hainanese chicken rice is so tasty that, it is declared as SG’s national dish. Ah!!! I am drooling, just thinking about Hainanese chicken rice!!!! Ah Tai food stall, I heard, is even tastier than Tian Tian but to my bad luck, it was closed. Porridge at Zhen Zhen and Noodle soup at Marina South Delicious should never be missed at Maxwell’s. At the end, finish the meal with sugarcane juice.

After strolling around Chinatown for a bit, I met Will at Orchard Road. This road is full of malls and is a shopper’s paradise. We had prepared our list of items to buy; time to take out the list! So in our list, across each item, we mentioned their Indian price, just in case we needed comparison. And that’s when did I realise SG is actually VERY expensive. The same items were priced double and sometimes triple in SG. Like, what?! A simple Paco Robane perfume costs around 6 grand while in SG it was 11 grand. The same was the case with Samsonite travel suitcase to Under Armour shoes to The Body Shop facewash to basically everything. By now you should know what happened next! Anyway, after buying couple of soft toys for Bagheera, we went to a café at Tangs for sandwich and coffee.

Day 5

I started out early to explore the main attraction of Singapore, The Merlion Park. The landmark of Singapore, Merlion is an absolute beaut of its own. The statue is the face of a lion on the body of a fish. This overlooks the sea and very touristy.

From Merlion Park, I walked a couple of miles to Singapore Flyer, a giant Ferris wheel. The ticket costs $33 per adult. The flyer stands 165 feet above the ground and the entire city can be seen from the top once you are inside the capsule. One complete rotation takes 35 minutes and you don’t even feel that the giant wheel is moving. Gardens by the bay, the sea, the Merlion Park, Marina Bay sands, everything can be seen from the top. It was exhilarating to stand at that height and overlook the city. After 40 minute ride, I had some Satays from the food court at SG flyer. It was tasty as well as cheap. I started walking to Cloud Forest but had to cancel because of heavy rains. I took cab to hotel to check out.

So I checked out the hotel and Will joined me after office and we headed to airport with 7 hours in hand for our flight. Once we entered airport, we put the luggage in baggage room and started exploring the airport. We moved from terminal to terminal exploring major shops. If you hadn’t shopped, Changi Airport is the place to shop. It houses over 140 brands across four terminals and is a shopping mall of its own. We bought some grocery items which we normally don’t find in Indian grocery shops. We bought skincare items for our moms from Sum:37. The best part is when you buy skin care goodies, they give you loads of samples that would last for 1-2 months. It was time to check in. After checking in, we shopped some alcohol for friends and perfume, duty free. By then, it was time to board.

Until next time, SG!

Hotel Jen Tanglin

Some of you had asked about the place of stay. It is Hotel Jen Tanglin. Also it’s not fair from my side not to mention them. Their hospitality is top notch, the breakfast even for a complimentary one, the spread was huuuuuuuge. The lunch and dinner spreads were even huger. The spas, the pool, a mall attached to the hotel, I guess it should take another day to completely explore them. It was an amazing stay after all.

Much love,

Sindhura

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Day 3:

It was Day 3 and Will had to attend his conference, the main reason of this trip. I was alone at hotel in a dilemma between shopping or visiting Universal Studios, Singapore. I chose the latter. I was excited, got ready, smeared loads of sunscreen, hired a cab and after 15 minutes of cab ride, Viola!, I was standing in front of Sentosa Resorts where Universal Studios, Singapore is located.

This better be a guide to solo visitors who are visiting Universal Studios, Singapore (USS). Make sure to avoid USS on weekends and public holidays because crowd could be huge and you don't want to miss any ride. USS opens at 10 AM and I was there waiting in line for tickets. The best part about going solo is, there is a separate queue for solo riders and mostly it is empty and you can just storm to the front.

The tickets cost $76 per adult which includes all the rides. There are some websites offering discounts on the tickets such as Klook and Sentosa's official website.

So after checking in, I enter this happy world, no exaggeration. People are happy, laughter everywhere, you are greeted by big structures of Hello Kitty and Minion, bubbles flying in the air coming from nowhere, colourful carts on the road, Jurassic Park theme playing at the background, sound of those roller coasters, etc. I was excited.

I wanted to ride all those adventurous rides at the very start itself because queue would become long as the time passes. The first ride was Transformers the ride. It was a 3D ride, once you sit in the Evac, you are inside the world of transformers. The ride is thrill, fun-filled one.

After Transformers, I went to the world of Mummy through the ride Revenge of The Mummy. This ride is also a thrilling and extreme one. The girl next to me took a minute to come out of the shock or might I add, awe. It was that good. To me it was THE BEST RIDE.

Then the much awaited Battlestar Galactica - Human and Battlestar Galactica- Cylon. These rides are roller coaster ones in open setting. Since I am an avid fan of adventurous rides, I didn't miss this one. It looked so thrilling from outside but Mummy won the best for me. Nevertheless this is a must-go ride.

Then I entered the world of Jurassic Park. Probably Jurassic Park Rapids this is the only wet ride in USS. So I gave it a miss and went to Canopy Flyer. A light, not-so-thrilling ride.

Then I strolled around for a bit and reached Far Far Away Castle to the world of Shrek and his love story.

USS is full of food courts and you can munch on your favourite items ranging from milk shakes to churros to chicken wings and parattas. Make sure to have your lunch after 2 PM so that you get to ride all the extreme rides before horrible wait time up to 50 minutes.

After my lunch it was just breezy and light rides covering Sesame Street, Magic Potion Spin, Merry Go-Around, Madagascar, etc.There were shows (Lights, Camra, Action! where Steven Spielberg explains how movie effects are made), live shows happening all around USS at a particular timing. So during strolling I almost covered all the stage shows. Hey, I even took a pic with Marilyn Monroe!

Since I had finished all rides early, I had enough time to go to SEA aquarium and Maritime Museum. Before that I took enough videos, photos. So I came out of USS, bought tickets to SEA aquarium. The ticket cost $34 per adult with free access to Maritime Museum. This museum explains the ship route, how maritime expeditions took place, goods handling, etc. I guess Will would have found this more interesting since its his area of expertise.

The SEA aquarium just makes you feel you are inside the ocean witnessing those beautiful corals, sharks, jelly fish, turtles and various other fishes in all sizes. I think it brought a calm end to the day.

But hey, I went back to USS and gave another round to all the extreme rides excluding Battlestar Galctica, thanks to the wait time up to 45 minutes. So glad, I tried those rides in the morning itself when there was no queue at all.

Thus my day at Sentosa came to an end with lot of smiles and memories :)

Tips:

Begin the day early.
Wear comfortable clothes, shoes or flip-flops. If possible, carry another set of clothes.
Smear lots of sunscreen.
Tie your hair into a tight bun or ponytail.
Wear hat. A MUST.
Carry water bottles to save money. There are water-booths everywhere so you can re-fill and rather not spend $2 for half-litre of water.
Plan your rides well. Try rides first, then sovereign shops, and then you get enough time to take pictures.

Stay tuned for Day 4&5!

Much love,

Sindhura

3 comments

Hey guys,

What's up?

Why have I been MIA, which is very bad? I got very busy with my work? Nope. I was lack of inspiration to write. I didn't want to write anything random just for the sake of it, because it would be visible in the post and I can't afford to do that to my small set of readers, yes, You.

So last week, I went to Singapore for a 5-day trip with William. Actually, it was his work trip and I tagged along coupling the weekend for the trip.

Before the trip:

We made a huge shopping list mentioning their Indian price converted to SG dollars.
Prepared a Must-Visit in SG list with some guidance from Matt's travel tips vlog.

Day 1:

So we landed at Changi International Airport at 6.30 AM and it was such a beautiful, enormous terminal with cafés to chill and relax with free WiFi. We hired cab to our hotel and it was around 25 minutes travel. We checked in, relaxed in our room and headed to breakfast lounge. Oh my God, I should mention that the breakfast buffet was huge and the spread included mostly continental and Singaporean cuisine. I started looking forward to breakfast for the remaining 4 days. It was so good.

After breakfast, we took nap and got ready to go out for lunch. Will's friends were meeting him. We headed to this beautiful hill called Dempsey Hill for lunch. So this hill is basically a food village, a village full of restaurants, pubs and cafés serving all authentic cuisines ranging Chinese, Italian, English, Indian, Singaporean, etc. The place is colourful, vibrant at the same time, cheerful and calm. We had lunch at Muthu's Curry, an Indian restaurant, with vast outdoor setting.

~ Dempsey Hill fountain ~

~ Muthu's Curry ~

After lunch, we headed to Suntec city in Marina Centre. The place has a huge fountain in the middle of it, surrounded by malls. We didn't find anything to shop in the mall since everything was pricey. We just went to the top of the mall for the view and the city was getting ready for F1 race the next day.

~ Fountain of wealth at Suntec City ~

~ Suntec City Mall ~

After the boring Suntec experience, we went to Arab street. The place sells Indian cloths, Arabic drapes, etc. The Haji lane in Arab street is filled with colourful, pinterest-y cafés. The bright walls, the colourful lane would contribute to your Instagram feed. Next time you are in SG, make sure to visit Haji lane and have coffee at one of their cafés. Singapore's coffee culture (Kopi) is strong and they have many varieties of coffees and shakes.

~ Kopi ~

~ Haji Lane ~

From Haji lane, we walked to Bugis junction. This place is for the ultimate shopper in you. It has almost all brands catering in all price range. We strolled around for a bit and spotted Innisfree store. Since I am well versed with their prices in India, I found their prices to be much lower. We shopped our skin care goodies. Its Skin, Laneige, Tony Moly are all located at Bugis Junction. Bugis village, next to Bugis Junction has interesting line of small shops selling dresses, makeups, sovereigns, foods at throwaway rates.

~ Bugis Street ~

It was dinner time and we went to Le Noir at Clarke Quay. Since it was weekend, the place was very crowded as is the Quay itself, thanks to live bands and loud music. Clarke Quay place is very touristy and has lots of international restaurants. It was buzzing with tourists and F1 enthusiasts and there were interesting events being conducted by F1 sponsors.

~ Clarke Quay Central ~

Day 2:

Day 2, we had breakfast at hotel and went to Dempsey hill again for lunch. This time we went to P.S. Café at Harding Road. The café is very cute and filled with colourful flowers. I have a thing for quaint cafés and I was busy admiring the beauty of the café. The cute tables, the hanging lights............ I loved the ambience. We walked to Jones, the Grocer for desserts. This place sells age old wines, exotic noodles, bread spreads, etc. The ambience was bit laid-back, so was their service. But their sticky date pudding was to die for.

~ P.S. Cafe ~

~ Death by Chocolate at Jones the Grocer ~

After Dempsey Hill trip, Will and his friends got ready to go to F1 while I retired at the hotel.

Day 3, 4 and 5 were the most happening for me since I explored the city all alone and totally loved the experience.
Stay tuned for that!

6 comments

Hey peeps, What's up there?

After quite a hiatus, feels wonderful to post again.

Lets's start the tale, shall we?

Who hasn't travelled in city buses? All of us, right? Like it or not, you cannot ignore the experience. We get to meet lot of people; rude ones, attention seekers, girl with a smiling face, boy whose mobile game mode on, that adamant kid who make you swear not to have kids in your life and what not?! I gonna share some of my experiences travelling in Kolkata bus. And at the end of the day, they brought smile to my lips.

So I have thyroid for the past 10 years and the medication is intake of a tiny tablet every morning before breakfast. That's all and you are ready to face the world. My ideal weight should be 52-55 kgs which I successfully maintained for nearly 9 years. Not deliberately though. My system just refused to gain weight but tummy. And now my weight just shot up to 65 kgs in one year. My mom calls me idly moonji (idly face - just 2 big idlys stuffed inside my mouth on each side). Sometimes she is very concerned that I am exceeding my ideal weight way too much. On the contrary, my MIL likes to see me this fat bahu. To her, the more you weigh, the more happy, healthy and wealthy you are. I never bothered about my weight until I started travelling in Kolkata public buses. So what's motivated me? The seats!! Whoa, the seats of the buses are so long that only one and a half bum (butt cheek) could fit in. The person occupying the window seat occupies 3/4th of the seat and the person sitting on the aisle occupies the remaining space adjusting half bum to sit on that.

the actual space

I am sure I must have gotten lots of blessings from so many people because I always offered my aisle seat. And if I sit next to the window, I am that rude, brutal, arrogant and unkind woman. I try to occupy the 3/4th of the seat and still someone would sit next to me, squeeze me after squeezing themselves to fit in. What if I happen to sit on the aisle? I came up with this hack. Sit sidewards; perpendicular to the person sitting next to you. In this way , you can cover both bums to fit in the seat. You are not comfortable, you sit on the edge of the seat. But that's okay. I can sit with two bums now and this idea is breeze. Like this :

my hack!!!

But wait, the driver brakes the bus and before you realize this, your head bangs on the handle bar and you slide zuuuuing to the front with your bum hitting the front seat after your cheeks. So let's stick to being the one who is kind enough to offer the aisle seat.

And now I stand up.

A girl steps on my toe's little finger with her block heels.

Me undergoes excruciating pain because just a day ago I hit my little finger on the sides of the table, and just few minutes ago someone else stepped on the same finger with her wedge heels.

Also Me: Looks at the person who stamped on my little finger. Tries to stare at her. Nope, she just won't see me. My deadly stare gets wasted.

She kisses her fingers and walks off. Seriously? Aren't you supposed to kiss my hurting kutty little finger? Okay Po, I forgive you.

During my initial days in Calcutta I called everyone by 'Sir'; autowala, conductor, grocery shop person, dhobiwala and everyone who are part of my life. That's how we address everyone in Bangalore. And then, my husband told me to address everyone as Dada convincing me that's 'respected Mister' in Bangla. Just utter the word now and feel. So much love and respect oozing out, na. I started addressing everyone as Dada. Coming back to my bus tales, everyone in the bus called me Didi. Didi please move, Didi hold this bag, stuff like that.. I always had this impression that Didi means 'Miss' as opposed to Dada meaning Mister. And now after one year of ignorance, I recently came to know that Didi means elder sister.

My reaction: What?! Come again!! Yes, Didi means elder sister.

WTH, I allowed everyone to call me Didi. Right from bus conductor, to senior people asking for my seat, elders to hold their bag, mothers of school kids proclaiming me as Didi to them, same mothers proclaiming me as Didi to their kids also. "Didi hold my Beta's bag", "Beta, sit on Didi's lap"

My reaction: Dude, I myself am sitting on half bum. Me Looks at Beta and says, "You sit Beta". And then I see the mother taking my seat (WTF, I offered the seat to your Beta) and making her Beta sit on her lap while beta sliding zuuuuing to the front seat before me placing my palm so that her Beta doesn't hit his head. A deadly stare from the mother. (Really? I just saved your son's head). Deadly stare continues......

And by this time the bus unloads half of the passengers at famous stops and me again combing for the window seat. Everyday story and I am loving it.

Lots of love.

Pic courtesy

Pic 1 and 2 : My phone

Picture 3 : herohunter.com

2 comments

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