Posts Tagged With: Singapore

Day 23 Vietnam: travelling home and reflections on an organised, personalised tour

Posted on July 18, 2024 by Mel

We are travelling home from Da Nang airport – Singapore – Perth with Singapore Airlines on their $0 return flights. We generally have a good experience travelling with them although once again had to queue at the airport to show our visa date….this time to get the boarding pass. I do not enjoy that part at all about Vietnam!

In Da Nang we accessed the Orchid Lounge which takes priority pass ($27USD per person if paying directly) but in Singapore the stopover is only 2hrs so we will wander and then go to the gate. The orchid lounge was very similar to all the other “pay per use” ones we have been in although it is definitely one of the nicer ones! Comfy seats and snacks, drinks and power points are abundant. I can also lay down or put my feet up when we use the lounges if needed so for me it’s worth it when the wait exceeds 2hrs.

Home arrival time is midnight tonight…and I have a work meeting at 8:30am tomorrow. Then I fly to Brisbane the next day for a week at a conference. Lucky me! Also travelling with this sunburn is hideously uncomfortable. Do not recommend.

We got a lovely Singapore sky on our final leg!

Our Little Vietnam Tours experience

When initially looking into travelling for almost a month in Vietnam we ran into a few early issues.

1. We first looked at intrepid as we have been on their tours before. We quickly learned that their Vietnam tours are very heavy on the walking (an issue for me due to spinal condition) and they all included multiple overnight trains

2. The overnight trains were a hard no for me. I know they are an experience but a combo of anxiety, spinal pain and having to pee a lot (toilets are disgusting on these) meant they just were not going to work

3. Having started to adapt to travelling with a physical issue now (and being a lot more confident in saying that) i was aware the medical systems in Vietnam aren’t great. Unlike Thailand and Indonesia who have high quality private hospitals covered by our travel insurance, that’s not a thing here.

All of those combined meant I started to look at other options which was when I came across Little Vietnam Tours https://www.littlevietnamtours.com run by Annie (who is Vietnamese) and her husband (who I think is American). Annie works with you on a personalised itinerary, she books everything for you and arranges a consistent guide in each region. Did it feel a bit elitist? Yep. Did we both struggle with telling the guide when we wanted something different so we didn’t hurt their feelings? Definitely. Was it good value? Absolutely. It included all visiting/tourist site aspects of the intrepid tour + much better accomodation + private tours and came in slightly cheaper! We also got excellent restaurant recommendations in each place that were “local”.

Positives of this approach:

⁃ We knew the guides and drivers were paid properly by an ethical company

⁃ The restaurant recommendations were all spot on. They were worth their weight in gold!

⁃ Everything was done for us. When I had a question I just flicked a quick message and got a reply within a few mins. We also had contacts if we needed for an emergency so we were reassured we would have an English/Vietnamese translator if needed

⁃ They organised an itinerary that made sense in terms of where we went and when, how we got around and the order of “visits” in each place. They did this with what I wanted in mind, for example most people got south to north or north to south…but we knew we wanted to finish centrally for the beach stay. She made it work south – north – central!

⁃ We had a hotel issue at An Bang and Annie was able to speak with the manager about it which helped to get across our concerns and work towards a resolution

Challenges specific to us:

⁃ we had one guide we just didn’t vibe well with. That was a bit awkward as we had the same one for three days. We also had a guide we felt was not representative of the company’s usual quality. That guide didn’t listen to us, expected us to buy lunch every day for him (not an issue, but not discussed at all!) and took us to see all his mates shops in the markets which really got to B. He also took lots of photos of us with his own phone after being asked multiple times not to. We gave appropriate feedback afterwards and he will receive some additional training on expectations

⁃ I didn’t build in enough rest days for us. A private guide is a hell of a lot of mental load in terms of having to talk and engage constantly + the additional physical toll of a stupidly humid location and the physical movement of visiting places. We also found out halfway through that the one guide was not clear I had a back issue even though we had been told they understood. We found this out after a day of climbing 700 stairs and me not being able to walk the next day! That particular activity impacted almost a week of the holiday as I couldn’t get my feet to stop swelling afterwards

⁃ We were not very good at taking advantage of this services if I’m honest. I like to be in control and I struggled to rely on the guide having all the info and contact details for some parts. This also meant I didn’t use some of the extra services eg booking food tours, arranging extra locations, arranging private drivers for additional activities, changing start and finish times to suit me. It didn’t matter how many times someone pointed out I was paying for the individual service and could arrange whatever I wanted…I felt weird about it

Would we do it again?

Good question and one we are considering now for a Thailand trip. I am very glad we did it in Vietnam for the peace of mind and for the really good hotel and restaurant recommendations. I’m a lot more confident travelling in Thailand and I think I would likely organise my own drivers, guides and activities there. I do acknowledge having a consistent guide makes some things easier but we also found it was a big mental load as introverts…which honestly had not occurred to me.

We do highly recommend Annie’s business (Little Vietnam Tours) though. She was very supportive, helped us find things in each place to suit our interests and the accomodation and restaurant suggestions were spot on. I would have searched for hours and still not come up with hotels that were the same quality and in the locations she chose! Local knowledge was definitely an asset.

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Phuket Days 1- 3: Poolside room, day trip with driver and food glorious food

Posted on November 15, 2023 by Mel

Since we have been here quite a few times now I’m consolidating my posts. There’s also only so many photos of me relaxing I can share haha. I will say this has been a well earned trip after an extremely busy year!

Day 1 and 2: travel, eat, pool!

We did a 6am flight from Perth this time via Singapore which was a lot better than the 1am one. Our 4hr Changi stopover was spent at the rooftop pool in terminal 1 airside (follow signs for transit hotel) which was lovely. Costs $27 SGD to enter but a really good way to spend a few hours on a longer stopover. We only brought carry on this trip (one bag life!) so just made sure we had a dry bag to put weather bathers in after a swim – they give you a towel.

We arrived in Phuket at 5:15pm local time and our pre booked Phuket Shuttle transfer had us at the hotel by 7pm. We have once again stayed at Burasari in Patong due to it hitting everything we want in a relaxing trip: pool, close to the beach, walkable to many food markets and they make great drinks. This time I spent a bit more and got a pool access room though with private entry point. Aaaaaaaah bliss.

Day 1 dinner was at Chino Yard which is a 2 min walk away facing the beach. We had pad Thai and a pineapple smoothie.

Day 2 was spent doing relaxing Patong Beach things. Sleeping in. Eating the included buffet breakfast. Swimming. Poolside reading. Food. Drinks. Dinner was at the attached restaurant to the hotel (Kantok) as they have a buffet, charcoal grill and Thai dancing on Friday nights.

Day 3 started with breakfast where I have made friends with a Deaf server at the hotel named Suu…and she gave us sign names! Sign names are a big deal in the Deaf community and are not something you just make up, someone who is Deaf has to give it to you. So we both now have one! Mine is an M/E mix in thai sign language and then an L. Bs is the Thai sign for bread haha…amazing because our niece calls him Uncle Bread-Bread.

On Day 3 we booked a 4hr half day trip with Phuket Day Trip. This meant we had a private driver and were able to work with them to build an itinerary of where we wanted to visit which was all sorted out via whatsapp. I spent ages researching this because I didn’t want a group driving tour and there are certain things I wanted to avoid – island trips are out due to Bs motion sickness and I won’t engage with any of the unethical animal programs. I knew I wanted to see a few things (the big Buddha, promthep viewpoint) but let the driver make some other suggestions as well. I specifically chose this company as the driver was also a guide – I read a lot reviews where they were only a driver and people were left to their own devices.

We started with Big Buddha. This was about an hour drive from Patong and the roads are nuts, I was very nauseous by the end. You also drive past Tiger park and an elephant camp where there is a baby elephant on display – I found it distressing so just a heads up.

We then went to Wat Chalong temple which is beautiful and learnt some history about the monks.

After this we stopped at 2 view points on the way back – promthep cape and Karon viewpoint. Both had wonderful views of different areas of the coastline.

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Day 9: Leaving Singapore…final thoughts and a final review of Hotel Fort Canning

Posted on January 3, 2018 by Mel

Positives from this trip:

⁃ The public transport here is cheap, efficient and easy to use. An EZlink card was only $5 and most trips within the city area are 0.77c so we counted it as a must buy.

This is probably the easiest public transport system I have ever used and I would have been totally comfortable on my own….which is not something I have ever said about a PT system in a new place before! Gold star for you singapore.

⁃ The weather has been pretty good for this time of year. We knew it would be wet and humid but that also seems to have kept crowds of tourists away so we were happy! A poncho and good waterproof or water friendly shoes are a must at this time of year. B wore travel hiking shoes most places and I wore quick dry sandals. Be prepared that nothing shuts down in the rain, people only really freak out about lightning

⁃ Most things didn’t have too much of a line up in late Dec/early Jan. A lot of the reviews and online comments I read suggest we got lucky with both timing and weather in regard to this. We had very short lines for the pandas at River Safari, Gardens by the Bay, cloud forest, universal studios and other things. We also got our own carriage on the Singapore Flyer champagne flight! That was seriously an amazing experience for $78 each. The only time we really saw huge lines was bloody Marina Bay Sands.

⁃ I am putting Hotel Fort Canning in both the good and not so good categories! It was a great compromise between my desire for a resort stay and B wanting to be in the city. It also got a big thumbs up from B due to its lovely surroundings, the very quiet pool area, it’s 5 min walking distance to the MRT, the fact we could Uber most places in the city for under $10 and the free drinks from 6-7pm each day for guests. The bath tub was my highlight. I loved those tubs soooo much.

⁃ The hawker centres were amazing and all visitors should try them! We visited two, the Maxwell Food Centre and the Hong Lim Complex. Amazing food for under $5. We were lucky enough to get to Ah Heng at 10:15am when there was no line at all

⁃ Changi Airport has The Haven Lounge which is in arrivals Terminal 3. Although we have qantas club access, we realised we had to clear immigration to get to it….which you can’t do without a boarding pass….which we weren’t going to get until 7:30pm at night! So we discovered this place. Basically you select a time and pay a fee and you can use their guest lounge. They provide free drinks, snacks, lounges, wifi, powerpoints, one shower and one meal. You can also pay a bit more for a nap room. What a good idea!

Not so good things:

⁃ Hotel Fort Canning has (mostly) been a positive experience for us, with two notable negatives. If you are like me and don’t sleep like the dead, be aware the doors are really not 5 Star Hotel level and offer no soundproofing AT ALL. It’s like being in a cheap motel in that regard. We ended up staying in two areas of the hotel (level 1 room 111 and level 2 room 216) and in both rooms we would be startled awake by guests next door closing their doors as normal and it rattling the walls, rattling our door and sounding extremely loud. You could here all hallway conversations as well. The second issue (out of their control) would be the fact the MRT return trip is only doable by going up extremely steep stairs or a very slippery footpath. I slipped and fell on the footpath. Not ideal for many travellers wanting to stay in a 5 Star Hotel! We did wonder why no shuttle but I assume that’s because as quite a pricey hotel, they figure many guests will taxi.

⁃ SGD and AUD are very close to on par, B tells me the aussie dollar is slightly weaker at the moment. Things here are not cheap AT ALL. Think Australian tourist pricing and then some because alcohol here has a significant mark up. A bottle of prosecco here is $40+ and a bottle of jack Daniels is $90+ so imagine how that translates to bar pricing! Most cocktails ranged from $17-$30. I would compare the costs here to visiting somewhere like Hamilton Island in Australia in terms of drinks, attraction pricing and “normal” eating. Hawker food centres are obviously an exception 🙂

⁃ It’s humid as hell at this time of year. Literally. So be prepared with sensible clothes and shoes. You will sweat like nobodies business!

Stuff still on the to-do list (and yes, we both agree we will definitely come back to do these!)

⁃ High tea at The Raffles (closed for renovation until mid 2018)

⁃ The skywalk at gardens by the bay which was closed due to wet weather when we went

⁃ Visiting some of the outlying islands, one is apparently inhabited by lots of friendly cats. They recommend you take tons of cat food when visiting. Seriously. They only have two ferries a day (10am, 2:45pm) so we gave this idea a miss on this trip

⁃ Explore more of Sentosa Island than just Universal Studios. There’s zip lining, beaches and so on.

– I still really want to stay at Marina Bay Sands just so I can get in that damn pool!

⁃ Singapore night safari and Singapore zoo in the day time because….polar bear!! POLAR BEAR! This is me staring longingly at the polar bears butt from the “sneak a view” window in the other zoo

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Singapore Day 8: Relaxing and then eating Jumbo Seafood at Clarke Quay

Posted on January 3, 2018 by Mel

Today = pool, naps, reading my first 2018 book club book, more pool, more naps and when it started to rain and we had to vacate our glorious day bed next to the pool….I had my last bath in the wonderful deep soak tub.

A few days ago I went on a google mission to find the best chilli crab in Singapore. Turns out, that’s really hard! However, Jumbo Seafood at Riverwalk kept coming up again and again and again. So I booked us a table and off we went!

We went to the smaller one along the Riverwalk side but there is also one called Riverside further into Clarke Quay. It was about an 8 min walk from the hotel through the lovely Fort Canning Park and across some very pretty bridges.

When we arrived for our booking, they explained the seating was for 1hr 15mins which was no drama to us. I know that timed seating can piss people off sometimes but we love it – it means prompt service!

I’m allergic to shellfish so I ordered the salted fish and chicken fried rice. It was REALLY good and a small serve ($16) was more than enough for two people. B ordered the chilli crab of course! It was the small crab at around 800g. His comments were “it was really good, the sauce had a nice tang but wasn’t too crazy hot – more like sweet chilli”. He definitely recommends people try the chilli crab here.

After dinner, we wandered back through Clarke Quay. We got very lucky with the rain again and it turned from a rainy afternoon into a lovely evening. Clarke Quay is obviously the centre for night clubs etc. It has a loud, colourful, drink filled vibe. We got some cool photos and had some shots at the shots bar.

HFC perk 7: they have given us a late checkout of 2pm tomorrow so we will be able to go out in the late morning, collect our souvenirs for the kids and then come back to the room and shower before heading to the airport

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Singapore Day 7: review of Universal Studios Singapore!!

Posted on January 2, 2018 by Mel

We left the hotel at 8:30am after a small breakfast and walked 7 mins to Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. This is not the station we have typically been using (Fort Canning) but is handy because it is on the right line! The walk is fine in dry weather although very slippery in wet weather – I went ass over tit the other day trying to go down the there! We then caught the MRT to Harbourside and walked up to the Sentosa Monorail. We used our EZ Link cards to pay the slightly higher than usual fare (see day 2 post – can’t recommend getting these cards enough) and off we went! It only took about 25 mins in total to get from the hotel to Universal Studios. Coming home, the fares would have been $9.54 and given the pouring rain I opted to taxi….which was only $14!

First things first: buy an express pass and buy it online EARLY! We bought ours close to 2 months ago and it meant it was only $50. I believe they were $120 at the gate today. It was a lifesaver and significantly shortened the ride lengths today…not that our lines were that long! The longest we were in was sadly the one that was shut down due to rain – the express queue was 30mins when the normal queue was 1hr 30mins.

Rides we went on:

– battlestar galactica (human line)

– Jurassic rapids

– Canopy Flyer

– transformers

– puss in boots (for kids)

– Revenge of the Mummy

Rides we missed:

– battlestar galactica (cylon line) as it closed just before we got on due to poor weather

– the treasure hunter one (for kids)

– pretty much anything in Far Far Away Land and Madagascar as those are very much pitched at young kids

Other stuff we tried to do!

Waterworld: this actually a show but you get drenched if you sit near the front, even if you’re only in the “mild splashing”

Zone.

A photo with a (dancing) transformer!

The typical globe pic. Of course.

Things we learnt today:

1. See earlier comment on express pass purchasing and being there before 9:30am to avoid being at the back of the queue

2. Bring a damn poncho. We really needed one today. Also it turned out that coming in the wet season (jan) has advantages in smaller crowds but the rain does impact on the enjoyability of the experience and closed a few of the rides

3. Wear shoes and clothes you can cope with getting wet. Not just because of the rain! Multiple rides had the capacity to soak people

HFC perk 6: We ate dinner at the hotel tonight after 7+ hours of trekking around. It was delish! Laksa, dessert, Singapore slings and tiger beer.

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Singapore Day 6: review if Chinois Spa and Spago Bar & Lounge at Marina Bay Sands

Posted on January 1, 2018 by Mel

We started our day with a spa treatment at Chinois Spa which is based at The Legends, a function centre adjacent to the hotel. We both had the “imperial” which was a body scrub, soak and massage over 2hrs. I always think a massage is a good way to start the year! This was no exception and was well received after a little to much bubbly last night. We also got a 25% discount as hotel guests.

When we returned to Hotel Fort Canning, our room had been changed and they had moved all our luggage. I wrote a negative trip advisor review about the hallway noise (which seemed unusual for a 5 Star resort) and the guest manager approached me to arrange a room swap and to personally apologise for his staff being far too noisy when the door soundproofing – based on their code restrictions from the heritage listing -is…well….a bit shit. As part of the apology, they offered a room upgrade.

After the spa and luggage shift it was nap time (for B) and bath time for me. Do you know what makes a deep soak tub better? Reece’s Pieces!

We had booked evening drinks at Spago Bar and Lounge. This was a suggestion I came across when reading really negative things about the observation deck at Marina Bay Sands. We tried to go up a few days ago but the line was insane. Basically, lots of things I read said we were better off booking in at Spago Bar and Lounge, spending $26 on a cocktail instead of an entry fee to the sky deck and enjoying that view. What a view it is!! It even includes the pool. There’s no fee to book but you are required to purchase something from the menu – they have cocktails (yum), mocktails, soft drinks, wine, hard booze and food.

HFC perk 5: when you get upset about stuff they actually fix it. Hooray for a 5 Star Hotel! Also, after going to MBS and riding in the lifts you don’t have to fight for lift space along with 65 other people here 🙂

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Singapore Day 4: review of Nox – Dine in the Dark restaurant

Posted on December 30, 2017 by Mel

This is a detailed blog post dedicated to our experience at Nox – Dine in the Dark on Dec 30th 2017. We paid full price to take part in this and it is not a sponsored post.

Our original NYE plan (tomorrow night) was to go to Nox Restaurant and then into Marina Bay for the fireworks but apparently over 350 000 people are expected at and around the fireworks. Roads will close and there will be entry and exit checkpoints set up to control numbers. That’s insane and will not be enjoyable for either of us. Instead, we moved Nox to tonight! As a side note, I rang up this afternoon to request this (super late notice) and they were wonderfully accommodating about it.

Now, Nox is pretty unusual! Their website says: A reservations only restaurant, NOX challenges guests to a multi-sensory journey of heightened taste, touch, smell and sound as they dine in complete darkness. Guests will find themselves expertly guided by specially trained blind and visually impaired servers, resulting in a truly rich human experience where roles are reversed and the blind now become their eyes.

Basically, you rock up and they take all your stuff (phones, watches etc) and then you eat your meal IN TOTAL DARKNESS! Before you go in to the dark dining room, you choose a drinks package to match your meal. This has to be done beforehand as you can’t change your mind once inside since….it’s pitch black.

All the servers are vision impaired (which I thought was awesome) and the aim is you experience your food with your other senses. At the end, after you head back down to the bar, they show you what you have eaten and you get to discuss it.

We arrived about 15 mins early and were warmly welcomed by the bar staff. They gave us a glass of prosecco and some appertifs while we chose the drinks to match our meal.

We went with the 3 wines ($50 each) to match the NYE $118 meal we had each picked and pre-booked. We then had a short briefing on the restaurant including the fact we should pee first, checking allergies, that our waitperson will be legally blind and it is important we introduce ourselves with our names so they can recognise us and how we can get our waitpersons attention in the dining room. They also explained the table layout and how to eat (clockwise starting at 6pm) for each course. This handy diagram from Rubbish Eat, Rubbish Grow shows the layout:

Then…we went up the stairs! We had to hold on to shoulders to enter the dark room. We later found out there were 4 spaces upstairs and they have a ratio of one serving staff member to 6 customers across all spaces. They had 65 people booked for tonight so had around 9-10 staff on. Our server was Hafiz (spelling – sorry) and he was wonderful! Very cheerful and understanding that I kept losing my spoon. The image below (from the Nox website) gives an idea of the process of getting from the bar to your seat.

Quote one for the night (after my second glass of wine):

Me: I’m feeling around behind me and there’s just a wall. I’m going to feel to the side now

B: you can’t feel to the side, there’s people!

Me: it will be fine. I’m being subtle

B: there’s no subtle way to grab a breast or a beard. Stop it!

Side note: gaps between tables are a little bigger than expected to allow for ease of movement and presumably to stop weirdos like me accidentally feeling up strangers.

We ate quite quickly (80mins) but you could definitely go slower if you wanted to. Hafiz kept reminding us we could slow down but we were enjoying ourselves too much! There was no pressure to rush or to leave though. You have to ask for water and it costs extra, you open the bottle yourself. Hafiz taught B how to serve water to us both (using his finger in the glass to measure) which worked really well the first time. The second refill ended in a bit of a mess…c’mon B….you had one job man!

Quote two for the night:

Me: STOP BLOWING ON ME *awkward pause in the whole room*

B: *hysterical giggles*

Me: I mean…literally…stop it.

He was blowing air in my face from across the table and seeing how much it took until it annoyed me. Seriously. Bloody science-minds.

At the end of the eating part, we came back down to the bar and filled out a little worksheet guessing the different courses and then had them explained to us with pics. The person doing this for us happened to be Jose (spelling) the general manager who was also an Aussie. He spent AGES answering all my questions and didn’t seem put out at all by them. He was great! He also told me that the Braille on the wall all around the bar area spelt out “Nox – Dine in the Dark”

We finished with some chocolates and then headed back to the hotel.

Positives about Nox – Dine in the Dark

⁃ It’s an awesome, one-off experience to try. Both B and I felt it was something we would recommend to others

⁃ As most of you know, I work with young people who have experience trauma, so any environment that supports those with additional needs is of interest to me. Nox employ vision impaired people as their waitstaff which is WONDERFUL. Jose told us that the majority of their staff are late in life blind and are often struggling to find a direction again after such a significant life change. Our server (Hafiz) was absolutely fantastic, he apparently use to be an air steward for Singapore Airlines before a detached retina caused his vision impairment. Nox also employ their staff at a “normal” Singaporean wage and pay the equivalent of what we Australians call “superannuation”. That’s a big deal. I was really happy to hear that and also impressed with the honest response to my (rather rude!) question about pay

– The food and paired wines were tasty and well matched, the dessert wine in particular really adapted to each option within the set dishes

Things to think about before going to Nox – Dine in the Dark

⁃ While the food and drink was pretty good. I tend to agree with some other online commentators and reviews that 4 small dishes per meal (12 dishes in total spread over 3 courses) can be a bit much and as they are all quite different it makes it harder to focus on the experience. We also lost track of appetiser versus main. Having said that, ALL THE FOOD WAS GOOD!! Seriously. So full now

– Nervousness about the dark wasn’t mentioned at all in the briefing. I did A LOT of reading about this place before we went so I knew I could leave the room if I needed to, and how to do so. However as a person with anxiety I do think some mention about this, or even the option to ask, would help. I didn’t feel anxious up in the room but I did find I fixated on the one tiny dark space anomaly (infrared camera) quite often which helped me stay calm. I also had wine. A lot of wine

We both recommend it as a 5 out of 5 dining and “fun things to do once in your life” experience and were REALLY impressed with the food and the service. Our final bill was $338 SGD for 12 (filling) degustation courses each, 3 x matched wines each, 2 x glasses of prosecco on arrival, an appertif and chocolates at the end and a bottle of water to share. Excellent value for money!

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Singapore Day 4: Another Chinatown Hawker Centre and Gardens by the Bay

Posted on December 30, 2017 by Mel

We started with a late breakfast at Maxwell Food Centre in Chinatown where I got to try the authentic Singaporean dish of Haivanese (chicken) Rice. It was so tasty I forgot to take a photo! Our cooking class the other day told us there were three main things we should aim to eat while here that are truly authentic, traditional Singaporean food examples:

⁃ Chicken rice

⁃ Char Kway Teow

⁃ Carrot cake (the name of this is very misleading!)

⁃

So, one down two to go. B has also added chilli crab to this list because he doesn’t care if it’s not authentic…he intends to eat it! Apparently it’s the national dish and very popular, but isn’t a traditional dish as Singapore was originally not a wealth country and crab is too pricey.

After breakfast, I bought some dresses and pretty tops in Chinatown (I’m still refining my bargaining skills but they are getting better) and we also searched for presents for the kiddies back home. I’ve started a tradition of stuffed toys for the nephews and niece from each country we visit.

We then caught the MRT to Gardens by the Bay. We used the shuttle service to get from the entrance to the Flower Dome ($3 well spent as my back is playing up) and started there. All up, for both domes and the shuttle x 2 it was $62. The flower dome was very impressive!

B was particularly taken with the dragon sculpture.

We then went through the cloud forest (second dome) which was also amazing! The lines were quite short but I can imagine how crazy it must get when busy. The cloud forest was my favourite of the two domes.

Before starting the Skywalk, we had lunch at Majestic Bay under the flower dome. The food was quite tasty but pricey and there were screaming children everywhere…to the point where B had to repeat himself so I could hear him say “this reminds me, I need to book that vasectomy”. We had Shanghai dumplings, Peking duck pancakes and 2 cokes and it ended up being over $65 so not a cheap option, but very convenient. The food was good too, shame about the noise level.

After lunch (and with my back feeling a lot better) we headed up to the skywalk. This is an additional cost of $8 and unfortunately it was closed due to the rain, and had apparently been closed most of the day so far. We asked if it would re-open as the rain had stopped at that point but couldn’t get a straight answer. Some googling indicated that it often closes for the whole day after rain so we opted to head back to the hotel for a bath and a rest and try again another day.

HFC Perk 4: the bath tub in the room is amazing. I’ve had three baths since we got here!! It’s a great deep soak tub

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Singapore Day 3 cont’d: Chinatown and Marina Bay

Posted on December 29, 2017 by Mel

Today we did our first ever cooking class at Food Playground in Singapore! I wrote more about it in a separate blog post, including lots of photos, which you can find here: https://travelseeshare.wordpress.com/2017/12/29/singapore-day-3-food-playground-cooking-class/

After finishing the class at 12:30pm, we decided we were full of good food (naturally – since we cooked it all) and energy, so headed off to explore Chinatown for a little while. I think we will go back again as some of the food looked amazing. It was very humid today, and the markets were very crowded, so after about 40 mins of wandering we opted to head back to the hotel. Let me tell you, the walk up the stairs from the MRT station was KILLER.

The afternoon was spent relaxing in the pool – which we pretty much had to ourselves – and napping.

Our evening adventure was a trip on the Singapore Flyer with champagne. I read quite a lot about the history of the Singapore Flyer before booking this as it seems that the Marina Bay Sands viewing deck has basically put it out of business given that they are notably cheaper. I figured as first time visitors, we would give both a go at night to see which one we preferred.

Singapore Flyer

After doing some research, I opted to buy us two “champagne flight” tickets at $79 each rather than standard entry for $36 each. In theory, this meant we chose a date and time, got priority boarding and also had a glass of champagne.

I did consider the dining option but it was very pricey and you share the capsule with others which felt a bit weird. All went well until it got closer and closer to our boarding time of 7pm. Something was obviously going wrong and I was getting grumpy….at about 7:15pm they took us through a different way to other VIPs and in front of a whole queue of people we boarded A COMPLETELY EMPTY CAPSULE! Maybe we were the only champagne people? Maybe they were planning to put us with a later group and my grumpiness scared them? Who knows, who cares….it was amazing!

After alighting from our marvellous, child and people free flyer experience (40min round trip) we walked across the river on the Helix Bridge – visible to the left of the below pic – to Marina Bay shops.

We then had dinner at the DC superhero cafe. This was full of memorabilia and totally themed to DC heroes!

I had a Batman burger box and an atlantean hero cocktail. B had a Green Lantern quesadilla and a Mr Freeze cocktail. While it’s not an experience I’ll ever repeat (the bill for that was a whopping $137!!) it was worth doing it once it for the novelty value. My wagyu burger was also pretty damn tasty.

We also had a beautiful view of the colourful fountain and light show while eating.

After resting and rejuvenating, we headed for the sky park to complete the Marina Bay Observation Deck (SkyPark) comparison. What a failure that was! We got down there at 9:20pm and the lines were obscene. The queue for tickets was winding into the queue to actually go up.

Nope. Nope. Nope. I literally went down the escalators and straight back up. Maybe we will try again next week but for now….Singapore Flyer is a winner!

HFC Perk 3: we have seen very few kids staying here and the ones we do see are very, very little. This means the pool is actually RELAXING and there is minimal screaming. Sorry friends with kids but I think it’s awesome and wish more hotels we stayed in were like this!

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Singapore Day 3: review of Food Playground cooking class

Posted on December 29, 2017 by Mel

This is a detailed blog post dedicated to our experience in a 3hr cooking class at Food Playground on Dec 29th 2017. We paid full price to take part in this and it is not a sponsored post. The photos have been adjusted by me to obscure B’s face as per his request when I blog 🙂

This was our first ever cooking class!

Food Playground was recommended to us by friends from Canberra who had tried it, but it also comes up as the top search result on Trip Advisor and most google searches for cooking classes in Singapore. The booking process was very easy ($99 each, all done online and paid with PayPal a few months ago) and as well as immediate confirmation of payment, we also received an emailed reminder in the 24hrs leading up to the class.

I have a shellfish allergy which I mentioned on the original booking and reminded them about via email a week before. Not only were they great with it on the day but Daniel (the owner) emailed me back – on Christmas no less – and made sure that my cooking partner would be happy to miss out the fishy side of things in our dish. Mr B appreciated being asked although he’s used to me taking that choice away for him lol.

Our trip to the cooking class venue was an easy one, we hopped one MRT stop to Chinatown and then walked about 7 mins. In total, it took about 19mins and cost 0.77c each from Fort Canning. I had read quite a lot about this cooking class beforehand and noted that one of the (very few) less positive reviews mentioned the venue lacked character. I didn’t feel this way at all! It’s smack bang in Chinatown and surrounded by all the local sights and smells.

The class started at 9:30am on the dot and we commenced with introducing ourselves and then playing a guessing game that led into discussion around some of the different authentic dishes in Singapore and their heritage. It was also made very clear at this time that we would have lots of photos taken of us and they would be emailed out after. Obviously B just sighed (he’s an anti social media man) but I thought it was a great idea and it meant I focused a lot more on the experience as the memory capturing was being done for me. I have, as always, obscured B’s face in all photos on this blog at his request.

We learnt about the dishes we were going to cook for this lesson – laksa, spring rolls and hoon kueh. Our class was on a Friday but they do a different “menu” each day. We started with dessert (corn hoon kueh) and folding the tiny baskets made out of leaves. We then created the jelly mix with mung bean flour, coconut milk and sugar + some corn kernels. Filling the little parcels was tricky as the jelly set so quickly!

After dessert went into the fridge to set, we made the mix for the spring rolls as a group. While working on this part we learnt about some of the differences between vegetables. For example, these spring rolls had local turnip in them which is a brown root vegetable that’s similar in consistency (and sweetness) to a pear – that’s definitely not what a turnip in Australia is like!

Then, we started on the laksa. I had a special veg version because of my shellfish allergy and we all made laksa paste FROM SCRATCH. It was hard work on my poor little arms. While I worked on pounding the paste, B was in charge of chopping ingredients for the paste (chilli, lemongrass, shallot, blue ginger) and also wrapped our spring rolls ready for cooking.

We then used our laksa paste to create an amazing laksa sauce. Ours had water instead of prawn stock and B said the prawn stock one tasted much more savoury – I still thought mine was good though. When we served everything up, B even got to put a prawn on his at the end so he didn’t entirely miss the shellfish part 🙂

We then all sat down to eat our efforts! We were the only people who ate everything and didn’t leave with a take out container – is that really a surprise though?

Finally….as some of you may know, my day job is working with young people who have experienced significant trauma and are disengaged from education. As a result of this, the social values and mission of this company really spoke to me. They aim to provide flexible working conditions that enable stay at home mums and senior women to re-enter the workforce. Wonderful!!

All in all, it was a 10/10 experience from me and I would certainly do this again on a future trip to Singapore.

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