ubin-ubin

This weekend, I went to the illdyic island of Pulau Ubin, located on the north eastern shores of Singapore. It was an outing planned several weeks in advance, for the celebration of my good fren(PF)'s 26th birthday.

All of us (basically the Yuppies Gang consisting of KK, PF, CF, WS, JH and VVN) gathered at the Marina Country Club on the outskirts of Ponggol. It has been years since I last visited the resort in Ubin, and perhaps also the same number of years since I stepped foot onto the shores of Ubin. Naturally, I was excited. I had planned for the whole event, including preparing for the steamboat food (which my mum helped a great deal since I usu return home rather late). Big bags of food and several bottles of mineral water, soft drinks and alcohols were carried on board the ferry which brought us to our resort in ard 25 min.

The clear blue skies and warm weather greeted us in the most welcoming manner possible. We got our keys from the counter and began unpacking our stuff for the lunch time steamboat in our poolside chalet. The lunch was simplu filling, and I reckon around 30% of the food was left over in the fridge.

The cake cutting session followed nex, with the delighted birthday girl (PF) opening up each presents. I gave her a necklace. After opening the presents, we went for a breezy biking tour of the island. Thankfully it drizzled a bit before-hand on an otherwise hot day.

Just before the end of the day, JH and VVn had to leave for the mainland, leaving the 5 of us taking turns to play majong. It's been a few months since I last touched a tile, and I must confess that I'm still in my losing streak.. In fact, all of us were, all except WS who won in total of $150 from everyone of us. Haiz.. Guess it's really a matter of who is lucky that day.

The next morning, we woke up feeling refreshed, well at least I did. We took the ferry out of Ubin. At that point of time, I was feeling kinda down. It's been quite a wild month so far for me, with almost all weekend occupied with something exciting. However, June is rather empty for now.. haha.. Can't always have fun I guess.

A new discovery: I didnt experience any motion sickness while on the ferry to and from Bintan the week before. I didnt had tat again to and from Ubin.. Does it mean my motion sickness has been cured? Hopefully so.

Bintan Spaventures

Excited group at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal

It was early morning on Saturday, the 3rd week of May 2007. Embarking on my 2nd overseas trip with my colleagues and feeling really tired but excited, I made my 1.5hrs journey to Tanah Merah MRT Station to meet the rest of my colleagues for the start of the 2D1N Bintan Spa Trip.

On board the Penguin towards Bintan!!

In all, 13 of us gathered at the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, anxiously waiting to board our ferry, Penguin 31. The ferry was full with lotsa holiday-makers (mainly aunties), which transformed the sea trip a noisy one.

Departing Singapore... ...

My colleague and I on the top deck of the ferry

Finally, after almost 2 hours of choppy waters, we arrived at sunny Bintan. The hot weather welcomed us with all its sunshine smiles as we meander our way thru the town centre towards the outskirt where our inland resort lies. Bintan Agro Resort is a sprawling holiday destination, with a huge variety of accomodation. As a big group, we had 2 cottages with 3 rooms each. Simple and clean, the self-sufficient cottages are not your typical 5-star hotel standards. They are more like homes you will find along the streets of Malaysia. But the place was well-maintained and spacious.

Harbour view of the Bintan Port Customs
Our accomodation, the nice little cottage

Lunch was a simple affair, but at dirt cheap prices. We ordered around 10 dishes amongst the 13 of us, and each paid only $8 for a superbly prepared and filling meal. After the great lunch, we were given a tour around the resort's ground by the friendly staff on a bike-tricycle. It was a fun ride and we were given fresh fruits plucked from the trees.

Waiting for lunch to arrive......
Complimentary tour ride around the resort by the friendly staff

View of the pool, from the Spa complex

The star of the trip was the spa session. I took up the King Spa, which set me back $74 for a 2.5hr session. It included a jaccuzzi session, followed by a body scrub using coffee beans. The scrub was relaxing (though I still feel the best scrub I had was in Bangkok). Then come the main dish, the oil massage. Frankly speaking, THIS MUST BE THE BEST OIL MASSAGE I"VE EVER HAD till now. The attention to details and the consistency were executed so well you are put into relax mode almost immediately the moment they started with ur feet. The whole session ended with a full body mask. After the spa session, everyone was drown in the siesta mood. We headed for a hearty dinner of crabs and fishes, and then sleepily returned to our cottages. I thought that all of us would have an early night since we were all in the mood to sleep. But I was WRONG!!

Night gathering at the common area of our cottage

Crazy snap shots

Games session commenced, with Twister being the main event. It was so funny stacking onto each other. It was almost midnight that we realised that we had purchsed too much food. As such, we played silly games to clear the food, where the loser will finish 1/2 a cup of the instant noodles. I had 1.5 cups.. Tell you, I will not wanna eat another cup noodles anytime soon!

Twister time, and everyone's really twisted!!

The nex morning, everyone woke up with panda faces. Yup, most of us didnt have enuff sleep. After an Indonesian breakfast, we split into 2 groups. One group went to the beach for sight seeing. My group went to the resort pool for a dip, and a second shot at the back massage. At just $10 for the almost 40 min session, I can tell you that not even a pizza comes that cheap! Cheap is one thing. The service was impeccable and the massage was itself a triumph. It was so relaxing that I nearly fell asleep towards the end of the session.

Poolside fun just before the ferry ride home

Well, good times have to end somehow. After the massage session, all of us gathered at the lobby for our bus ride to the ferry terminal. It was a short but memorable journey which left all of us looking forward to the next one.

A satisfied group at the Bintan custom terminal

Green Forest Cake

This month's special: Green Forest Cake. It's made up of pandan sponge cake with avocado fresh cream. Sounds easy to make? Well, this was the 1st time making pandan cake for me. The last time I dealt with avocado cream was in dry dry and cool cool Brisbane.. Now have to work with the hot and humid Singapore climate. As such, more fresh cream was added to the avocado cream to make it firmer.

The decorations' a bit old fashion.. I've made at least 20 of the cream flowers before the ones u see here below in orange cream. The split-level and tear-drop shape are also a 1st for me. And the day being Mother's Day, 1 of the cake was dedicated to my mum.

The round cake was shared amongst my colleagues, which hopefully provided a refreshing change from the current hot spell.

the most favourite TV family

IN anticipation of the upcoming Simpsons- The Movie, here are some seriously hilarious video clips to tilt your sense of laughter











Aren't you glad the movie is finally hitting the big screen this year? Can't wait to watch it!

the mask of emotions

On the 5th of May 2007, I finally stepped inside the Esplanade to catch the highly anticipated Phantom of the Opera. I've waited for 12 whole years for it to return to the Lion City, and I didn't even think twice when I purchsed the most expensive ticket of the theatre. Anticipation was building up as I walked into the foyer area, which is really quite different from the upper levels. It's almost like you have paid not just for the best seats in the theatre, you are also paying for the nice reception area, which has a wine bar complete with a snack counter. Huge Phantom of the Opera posters and boards were set up, with extra usherers standing by to offer that extra bit of nice service. Suddenly, I felt like I'm important, amongst a few hundred others.

The Lobby area

The stage set was magnificient! After the first segment of an auction scene, the draps were instantly removed, exposing an elaborated stage adorned with intricately crafted golden statues. The chandelier was jostled up to the food of the theatre and glowed luminously. The whole show was filled with unexpected humour, intense emotional plots, great vocals and superb acting skills. Basically, it was far beyond my initial expectation.

For the price of $145 per ticket, I felt that every dollar was well spent. The props and costumes were so elaborated they took your breath away. The highlight of the show was definitely when the song The Phantom of the Opera was sung, when Phantom rowed the boat amongst the thick blue-coloured smoke which symbolised the sewerage water. The many chandeliers created an almost magical yet mysterious setting that will forever be embedded in my mind. This compared to The Forbidden City when I paid almost $100 for a stage set comprising only an automated metallic gate with weak vocals.

Anyway, back to the show. This was definitely the only show to give me goosebumps several times. At lesat 7 times throughout. The last time a show gave me several goosebump sensation was Chang & Eng, which I think I had around 4 of such occassions. The vocal powers of these actors were simply divine and captivating. In fact, electrifying! I seriously dont mind watching it again, if not due to the costly price tag associated to being in the best seats. The Phantom of the Opera has definitely ignited my interest for theatre, and my appetite for the good seats on the block.

Oh, and one thing. While walking back to City Hall MRT station, we came acrossed this poster for the new Pirates of the Caribbean, with a super cheesy tagline, "Welcome to Singapore". Wonder how much the Tourism of Singapore has paid for Mr Chow to say out those words.. hehe.

bye bye bangkok (more pics soon)

The last day of our trip, and we finally forced ourselves to wake up for the breakfast, which was seriously rather disappointing as compared to my last trip last year. Then, I had this great spread of variety. This hotel only offered standard American Breakfast, which I didnt really eat much. KK, on the other hand, relished the pastry and eggs.

A sleepy look on the last morning of the trip

The rain had continued from the previous night to this morning. However, it didnt diminish our shopping spirit at all. We rushed out to MBK once again where I got myself a surf short, another singlet, and lotsa food goodies!. Kk got even more stuff, and had to pack all his goodies into a box for checkin purposes.

Lunch was a hurried affair, with local KFC, MacNuggets, and stir-fry instant noodles local style. Turned out these sinful indulgence proved to be mind-blowingly filling as well! And since we were almost late for our flight, we left our room in an utter mess. Bet the poor cleaner will be cursing when he saw the havoc we'd created.

Super Messy Room with left-overs of our lunch and many bags

Enjoying our Complimentary drinks just before we left for the Airport

Upon checkin out, we did an assessment of our luggages. We each came with only 1 bag, but there were 4 bags plus a box on the trolley. With that, we left for the airport for out SIA flight home.

Silly faces at the check-in counter

Our boarding gate back home... sob sob, end of my holiday

View of the Sky Lounge at the departure area of Bangkok's airport

We had each spent at least $600 excluding hotel and air ticket in Bangkok. That was an astronomical figure by any sense for me. Perhaps it was the last minute nature of the trip which saw me spending and spending without much planning. But overall, it was an fun and exciting trip. Hopefully, I'll get to enjoy another short trip soon. Hey, I will be 2 weeks later with my colleagues to Bintan for 1 night's stay!!. Hurray!

bangkok spa and retail theraphy (more pics soon)

After a super drunken night, we woke up really late on Day 3. And no surprise at all, we missed breakfast again. But then again, it didn't really matter much. Cos we went to MBK for an 'expensive' breakfast: Shark's fin soup and bird's nest with ginko nuts. A serving of Shark's fin soup with rice cost us only $150 baht, equivilent to SGD6. The bird's nest cost 50 baht per bowl. Plus a plate of Pat-thai and oyster omelette, it was belly bursting eating!!

The shark's fin store

Our bowl of shark's fin soup

Relishing on our tasty gourmet breakies

Today was our spa day as well!! We strolled to our spa palour near Nana BTS station. Hapa Spa is an individual building with sloping pitched-tiles roof and a nicely landscape mini garden on its front yard. The main door is a full circle swivel, which kinda tricked KK and me as we were trying to find a conventional doorway leading to our ultimate relaxation of the trip.

The Circular Swivel Door into Hapa's main lobby

We signed up for the Ultimate Spa Package, which included a body scrub, aromoatheraphy oil massage, facial and a hairwash for 3.5hours. An outside cabin with 2 massage platforms was already welcoming us as we stepped into it's warm environment with light fragrance and soft music. We were asked to changed into paper underwears, which was a tad too big for me and quite small for KK. Anyway, we were soon out of the shy stage as the massuers did their stuff with the best body scrub I've ever had thus far! It was so thorough and comfortable I felt like I could just be scrubbed for the entire session. After the scrubbing session came the nex embarassing stage: to shower of the scrub paste. The shower facility was in the cabin itself, but it was without any doors or walls. As such, we took turns to shower with only a glazed glass partition as our only mode of privacy. Needless to say, our paper underwears were still on as we showered, though it was kinda funny as the white paper quickly turned almost transparent under the warm showers.

KK and I waiting for our Spa session to commence

A new set of paper underwear, and we were swayed into another stage of relaxation: The aromatheraphy oil massage. The back massage was nice and soft, the pressure just nice for my liking (though a tad too soft for KK). However, that's basically where the whole massage session ended as the front body was not massage. Well, still have to give credit to them for the 1hr back massage. The facial was almost a face massage session, with lotsa cream being applied, massaged and cleansed away. The whole facial session ended with a black-head suction and a 20 min facial mask.

The hairwash cum massage session was a disappointment though. It was jus a shampoo and conditioning affair. However, the whole spa experience was still a great one, mainly due to the excellent body scrub and the superior back massage. My initial hangover from the night before was diminished after the relaxation.

When in MBK, Never say NO to shopping!!!

The rest of the day was dedicated to Bangkok's most famous shopping centre: MBK!! It was a mammoth 5-6 stories complex retailing merchandise so diverse and varied but at rock bottom prices that are still subjected to further bargainings. In short, this is a haven for shopaholics out for a great deal. Tonight, we combed only the Tokyu Departmental Store, and ended buying several T-shirts at ard 100 Baht each!! talk about cheap skate. haha.

Our dinner was a mini-restaurant chain of Thailand serving thai food. And again, we ordered just too much for our 2 tummies could take in. Then again, the food was nice and cheap, so no complains..

Back at the hotel in the night, we still had around 1/5 bottle of the Tequila left. We purchased a small bottle of wine to up the alcoholic excitment, but still fell short of the intoxication of the previous night. However, it still gave me a kick in the Hi department..

yet another night of soundful sleep as the alcohol took away my ability to hear KK's snorings for the 2nd consecutive night.. hehe.