singapore nov ’08 – full report

Prince of Wales Backpacker Hostel in Little India

As mentioned earlier, we stayed at the Prince of Wales Backpacker Hostel in Little India. I’d seen it before — when FA and I were in Singapore last year, we stayed at the Perak Hotel, also in Little India. There were lots of people drinking and generally having a good time at the POW when we passed by the place, so that kind of stuck in my mind.

Hostel guests get S$2/3 off selected booze, so it was S$5 for a bottle of San Miguel. I know, I know… normally I’d rather drink my own urine than to consume San Miguel, but… I have no excuses.

Singapore Nov 2008 - Paul, Suanie and Fireangel at the Prince of Wales Backpackers Hostel in Little India
Paul, FA and I with our beer. Photo taken by Bob

Would I recommend the place? Sure, if you don’t mind the surrounding noises by the pubs and clubs around Little India.

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Nasi Beryani Ayam @ Singapore Zam Zam, Bugis

Bob suggested that we check out this restaurant in Bugis that apparently serves good nasi beryani and murtabak. Luckily he knew the way (I’m not familiar with Bugis) — it’s right opposite the Sultan Mosque. The place seemed popular and we had to wait a while to get a table.

Singapore Nov 2008 - Nasi Beryani Ayam at Singapore Zam Zam,Bugis
Nasi Beryani Ayam, Singapore Zam Zam

Doesn’t the photo above makes you want to attack the plate of food? Well, I randomly take okay photos sometimes, so lesson #1: photos can be deceiving. I was unable to finish my dinner, and Bob had a hard time with it too. It was edible lah, just terribly bland and tak sedap. Oh well.

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Esplanade – Theaters on the Bay

The next day we headed over to Esplanade for the reason we were in Singapore — Avenue Q. There was a massive jumbled-up hula hoops thing on display.

Singapore Nov 2008 - Art at the Esplanade
Obviously someone else appreciates this more than me

Art is perspective indeed. I don’t remember the description, but it had a very canggih and artsy-fartsy one. Looks like MS Paint to me.

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Avenue Q The Musical

OMAIGOD the show was more than brilliant! We had the best cheap tickets (‘cos we bought them in July) and everything was more than fantastic! The set, the songs, the costumes, the puppets, the actors/ actresses… I loved loved LOVED it!

Singapore Nov 2008 - Suanie posing in front of an AvenueQ poster
I heart Avenue Q!

It was a mostly Filipino cast, which was why the songs didn’t sound the same on the soundtrack. Still bloody awesome! We laughed so hard, we clapped after every song, and we laughed again. It’s on-going till Nov 16th, so go catch it if you can! Go alone, doesn’t matter, just go!

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Subway in Singapore

… has bacon as in BACON, and ham as in HAM. And honey mustard! Absolutely fabulous!

Singapore Nov 2008 - Subway  Melt in Singapore
Tidak ditanggung halal

I don’t think I’ll be able to eat a Malaysian Subway sandwich for a long time after having the Singaporean ones.

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Brewerkz at Riverside Point, Clarke Quay

My only must-go place in Singapore is Brewerkz after Edwin introduced it to me years ago. If you’d notice my blog banner, it’s a photo of me drinking a Brewerkz Golden Ale. It just makes me happy 😀

Singapore Nov 2008 - Having a great time at Brewerkz
A few of my favouritest people!

I think we were the loudest table there, heh. Sorry, but we had a most amazing time!

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Ramen @ Ken, Orchard Plaza

After our pints and a whole beer tower, we decided to have ramen for supper at Ken in Orchard Plaza. Edwin and Pinky insisted that the ramen there is absolutely delicious, and the fact that they close at 2 a.m. (while stocks last) is a major plus.

Singapore Nov 2008 - Hot ramen
Japanese ramen with char siew, stewed egg and other random bits

It was delicious 😀 Patrick stopped by for a couple of Asahi, more talking and yapping and gossping — I had an absolutely fantastic time! Thanks! 😀

Click here to view the entire Flickr set for Singapore, Nov ’08. 19 photos in total.

singapore trip report – part 1

So we went to Singapore last week, courtesy of Nuffnang ( thanks to us dressing up as pirates for a Nuffnang event ). It was a 3D2N stay, so I asked Pinky if we could crash at her place for a night, then transfer to the hotel the next day. She being the lovely, awesome creature that she is, agreed.

The journey to Singapore was ok lor. Not like I’ve never taken a bus there before, heh. But this was the first time in a bus where we were served food, fruits and a hot drink. So this was me camwhoring with the food, for oddity reasons.

Camwhoring with Aeroline food

We arrived at around 11.30 p.m. at Harbour Front. Attempting to get a cab at that time in that area was tedious, tiring and not awesome. A cab driver finally took pity on us and allowed us to share his cab ( he was waiting for a regular customer ), and took us to Pinky’s house. Showered, bla bla bla, crashed for the night, and woke up early ( for me ) to leave with Pinky ( cos she has to work mah ).

Tim said earlier that Ming wanted to belanja us makan etc, so earlier we made arrangements to meet Ming for breakfast. He showed up with HotIntern Hui Wen ( who was wearing Nuffnang colours, heh ). Took us to the Nuffnang SG office…

The Nuffnang SG team

Then took us to have bak kut teh, Singaporean-style. The reason why it can never be confused for anything other than Singaporean style is because, the soup was laced with tonnes pepper! If you did that in KL or Klang, you’d get weird looks. Heh it reminded me of the black pepper pig stomach soup that my mom used to make… damn a lot of pepper… Ming loved it though, said it was his favourite BKT place evar. Oklor… 5 hours bus difference and tastes in food changes by leaps and bounds 😉

Singapore bak kut teh with Nuffnang Singapore team

Thanks Ming for breakkie, heh 😉

Then Ming took us to our hotel at Perak Lodge. It is a quaint little place along Perak Road ( d’oh ) in Little India, beside Tekka Mall, opposite Sim Lim Square… see, I know my geography 😉 This is Ming posing in our room…

Ming in our room at Perak Lodge

After he left for work, we snoozed until 3 pm, then FA woke up ‘cos she was damn hungry. We had lunch at the food court next to Tekka Mall. One of the things that I like to eat in Singapore is pieces of braised duck and pig’s intestines… YUM!

After lunch, we took the MRT to Clarke Quay to Brewerkz, where Suertes was already waiting for us in the shortest possible pants of running shorts…

Suanie at Brewerkz with Suertes

Summary: Golden Ale is still awesome, though not as awesome as the first time I had it. Cherry ale sucked ass. Dr Buckaroo had high fever so he couldn’t make it. Sicky bugs suck ass. Overall Brewerkz was still awesome. I heart Brewerkz.

Then camwhored a bit along Riverside Point, walk walk a bit, look see here and there…

Suanie at Clarke Quay with Fireangel

Then FA went to meet her friends and I headed for the hotel. Too tired, tak tahan, old already…

back from singapore

Getting better now, cheers 😀

I met up with the Ed and he brought me to this place called Paulaner. The Ed’s a premium member of that place and one of the perks is that he gets to drink from ‘his own’ mug.

Edwin hearts his Paulaner... mug

Me being just the tourist drinks from the ordinary glass but it wasn’t so bad; actually it was GREAT!

My first introduction to Paulaner

We also had sausages… they were YUMMY!

sausages

I like the third one from the left the most. The first from the right ain’t bad either. But the second from the right’s got girth! W00t!!!

*snaps back to reality”

Suanie and Edwin in Singapore 02

Suanie and Edwin in Singapore 01

I also went to this club called ‘Thumper’. The resident band was SO FUCKING GOOD, WHY OUR KL NIGHT SPOTS NEVER HIRE PEOPLE WHO CAN ACTUALLY SING?!?!?!?

When I felt better I did some shopping. Bought books, some clothes, this that.

Back from shopping (but it ain't mine)

Hahaha nah those weren’t mine. But it’s fun to pretend.

Back to normality.