Singapore Day Three

For $74 we were picked up from the hotel at 9am and driven to the Universal Studios Singapore’s (USS) front door. This included the entry ticket, $10 in food vouchers and a $5 gift voucher. Arriving at USS we had to take photos with the trademark globe. The biggest challenge was trying to find a spot that didn’t have another 20 people in the photo.

Hannah, Jami and I taking turns in front of the Universal Globe

We walked into USS just as the rain hit, at least it gave us time to plan our attack from Mel’s Drive In in Hollywood, where the milkshake was more like a soft serve ice-cream with a straw. Safe to say USS earn an extra million from ponchos and umbrellas that morning.
USS is a circular park, and by the end of the day we were able to make it the whole way round; despite having to double back a few times for show times.

USS Map

From Mel’s Drive In we headed anti-clockwise around the park starting with a trip through New York, where Steven Spielberg’s Sound Stage showed us what it would be like to be in a level 5 hurricane. I won’t spoil the ride for you but be careful of the splash factor. From here we moved on to The Rockafellas’ Street Show, B-Boys who may have shown more comedy than dancing but their moves were definitely impressive.

Heading into Sci-Fi City we saw what we’d been looking forward to: 2 intertwined roller-coasters that twisted and spun above our heads. We had to try that first and after trying both the 3 of us agreed you have to admit the Cylon coaster was the best. Moving next door to the Transformers Ride we had our minds blown by the incredible standard of 3D effects now days. Jami decided this was his pick of the day and I have to agree that it was incredible!

The Battle Star Galactica Roller-Coasters

We ran back to Hollywood to catch the Monsters Rock live show in the theatre, in terms of singing and dancing they were very good. We may not have been the target audience but they were entertaining enough. Personally I was a little disappointed that from the half an hour show there was only one and a half rock songs, the rest being top of the pops, so much for monsters rocking. But when heading out of the theater we did catch a couple celebrities on the street for photos.

Jami with Marilyn Munroe and me with Beetlejuice, my favorite star

Circling back to Ancient Egypt we raced to the indoor roller-coaster The Mummy’s Revenge. Mostly dark this roller-coaster was more shocking than scary, with unanticipated backwards turns and fire bursts. After this we decided it was time for lunch so we headed into The Lost World where we sat down for hotdogs, (yes they were amazing! with bacon and cheese!) and the largest coke I’ve ever seen. Seems that fast food sizes follow after America in Singapore.

Jami and his super coke

While in The Lost World we headed to the Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure where while waiting in line you can purchase a plastic poncho for $3, we didn’t. The rapids was more of a gentle boat ride past dinosaurs with a few timely splashes, of which all seemed to hit Jami. We were warned about a 2 story drop at the end of the ride but I think they meant 2 meters. At the exit drying pods are available for $5 per 10 minutes.

Moving anti-clockwise again we entered Far Far Away where we relaxed our legs while watching Shrek’s 4D adventure, a visual, auditory and sensory fun show. Enchanted Airways was our next stop, a smaller roller-coaster.

Jami and I in front of the Far Far Away castle

Through to Madagascar we finished the last ride (excluding those for little kids) A Crate Adventure through Madagascar sets and scenes. This is where I realized I had read my watch wrong and that we’d missed the big Water World stunt show. Needless to say I’m still kicking myself for that.

With the remaining time we had a few more runs on the Cylon coaster, ate churros and had photos with the Hershey’s chocolate bar and numerous other candies at the entrance of USS. We walked down to the harbor front and looked around before heading back to the the monorail and the connecting train to get back to the hotel for dinner with the parents.

Getting cozy with candy

Singapore Day Two

It was easy to say Dad got the better hotel. We ate breakfast and met him afterwards where he bragged about his two story buffet with every kind of food you can imagine from croissants and bacon to dumplings and pasta.

Hannah loved this: No durian!

To say the least I was more than ecstatic to see my family as we walked from Bras Basah to Orchard Road, stopping in various shops along the way. We turned to corner and walked down to Far East Mall where Marie had shown us the basement of bargains. Hannah had a ball there and we all got new shoes!

We stopped for lunch where we all had noodles and the chinese lady serving at us yelled at us about almost everything as she went, at least the noodles were good. The restaurant next door got lots of giggles as it promoted ‘Thai Hor Fun’, couldn’t pass up that opportunity for a photo!

“Thai Hor Fun”

We then walked back to the hotel to drop off shopping and kept in that diction till we reached the Arab Quarter. Arab Street was alive and as colorful as ever with shisha on every corner. We wandered down a few streets and saw the sultan’s mosque which has beautiful mosaic murals on the walls in front telling of how Islam had reached Singapore.

After walking what had to be half way across the country I realized Singapore is not so big, and also kinda regretted buying my 3 day train pass, so as not to waste it Hannah, Jami and I dropped on a train back and raced the parents. Funnily we only beat them by about 5 minutes, though we did lie and say we’d been there for ages.

Dad, Jane, Hannah and I, Jami’s behind the camera.

Singapore Day One

After a quick flight across the sea we landed in Singapore with enough time to dump our bags at the Bencoolen Hotel before jumping on the MRT down to Orchard Central mall.

For the first time we decided to buy the daily tourist pass, unlimited travel on state trains and buses for 1, 2 or 3 days. It was $30 per person for 3 days, including a $10 cash refund for the card at the end of the time period. Which proved to be pretty worthwhile as it also included the train to and from the airport.

At Orchard Central Mall we were super lucky to be able to catch up with one of our best friends, Marie who was in Singapore for the day, originally from Columbia but having travelled and lived in countless cities around the world Marie is not only one of the smartest people I know,but also one of the kookiest. It was Sushi Tei for lunch with Marie and a few of her friends, where amazingly the prices are the opposite to Jakarta with the main dishes being cheaper than buying a few plates of sushi.

Marie being her kooky self and Me trying to catch my breath.

After this it was a quick walk down Orchard Street and around the corner to Far East Mall where the girls got their nails done and Jami and I walked around checking out a few piercing places and tattoo parlors. Shoe stores and korean fashion is also in abundance here for avid bargain hunters.
After we sent Marie on her way to catch her flight out we jumped on a train back to Bras Basah to go to the Rendezvous Hotel to meet the fam!

Walking into the Rendezvous was definitely a far cry from when we threw our bags into the Bencoolen with a large white lobby, complete with tour desk and bell boys.
It was easy to find the blonde teenager in the mix of asians and it definitely tugs on your heart strings when you only see them once or twice a year. I was so happy to be able to talk and laugh and hold them again.

My little sister is now officially taller than me! I think she’s chasing my oldest brother who has hit 6 foot. She’s not going to be far behind, even now she’s 170+ and she’s still 16, or almost 17 as she likes to say.

My sister and I in the hotel room.

After putting the bags upstairs we walked around the corner to a small food market where we were not starved for choices, everything from Hainan Chicken to Roast Pork and Fried fish was on the menu and all for under $7.
My choice was the Hainan Chicken and rice, Jami had the pig organ soup and Hannah stayed safe with fried rice. After being peer pressured she finally agreed to try a small sliver of chili but it didn’t last 3 seconds in her mouth before being spat across the table. We should have seen this coming from the girl who thinks even onion is spicy.

After catching up with Dad, Jane and Hannah and all their recent antics we called it a night, dropped them off at their hotel and packed it in.