I have been in and out of Singapore for some of my stay in Canon because it used to be our regional office. I never got to go around though because the days were primarily spent in meetings. Last year, I was fortunate to accompany five handsome Canon photographers *wink* for a trip sponsored by the tourism board of Singapore.
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| With Mark Floro, PJ Enriquez, Edwin Martinez, Jay Jallorina and Jo Avila. |
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| Arrival at Singapore with our tour guides 🙂 |
One of the places we visited was Sentosa, of course. This was at the S.E.A. Aquarium.
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| Photo by PJ Enriquez |
At the S.E.A. Aquarium™, you can observe more than 100,000 creatures from 800 species like sharks and sting rays. They are all swimming in 45 million litres of water!
One-day pass would cost you S$38 or a little over PHP1300 for adults. Operating hours can be found
here.
I also visited one unassuming place, Yong Siak Street and there I found my little heaven. A bookstore called Books Actually!
I fell in love with the place instantly. Not only does it feature local authors, it also has a very creative feel.
Cute cookie brooch!!!
I love this so much!
And of course, I had to take some home. 🙂
We also visited
Gardens By The Bay. The photo below is a shot of the Supertree Grove. According to their website, these Supertrees have canopies with environmentally sustainable function such as harvesting solar energy to light the trees at night while others serve as air exhaust receptacles. To learn more about the Supertrees, click
here.
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| Photo by PJ Enriquez. |
Gardens By The Bay is located at 18 Marina Gardens Drive, Singapore 018953. Check out
ticket rates and how to get to the gardens
here.
We also visited the MegaZip Adventure Park in Sentosa. I was caught unprepared. I thought we were just taking pictures around Sentosa. [Un]fortunately, we also had to ride the MegaZip.
According to their website,
MegaZip is at 75 meters high, 450 meters long and heart pounding speeds of 60 KMPH.
I am not really frazzled by heights. In fact, I take every opportunity to ride ziplines because of the adrenaline rush it brings. Unfortunately, the shoes were not appropriate for the occasion.
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| I was just trying to look bored. Hahaha. But really, I was hanging on to my dear shoes. |
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| From the jungle, I landed at Sentosa Beach. Haha. |
For my last feature for this trip, I present to you my second most favorite destination on my list (after the bookstore, haha) – Marché 313@somerset!
Marché is a self-service Swiss restaurant that is supposed to mimic the warm and cozy ambiance of the Swiss Alps.
According to them, they shipped original Swiss chalets from the highland around Bern, Switzerland.
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| Sorry for the blurred photo. |
Marché has a very wide selection of gastronomical offerings ranging from their own fresh bakes, salads, an open grill, pizza, anything you can think of! Each guest is given a card which you use to “purchase” your food at the different stations. You will surrender the card and pay at the end of your meal. Pretty awesome!
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| Creamiest mushroom soup ever! |
And yes of course, the dessert that comes with coffee!
Burp! Marché 313@somerset is located at Level 1, Discovery Walk, 313 Orchard Road, Singapore 238895. You can check out their website here.
I stayed at Park Royal Pickering and I realllyyy loved the hotel. Unfortunately, I was only able to take very few photos of the hotel (my bad!). But just to show you how it looks like, I got some free to share photos from a Singaporean photographer, Erwin Soo to show you how beautiful this hotel is <3
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By Erwin Soo.
(Flickr: LIME restaurant at Parkroyal on Pickering.)
[CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
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By Erwin Soo.
(Flickr: Closer to nature than to stone.)
[CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
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| On the way to my room. |
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| The roof deck. |
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| My own lousy phone shot of the infinity pool at the roof deck. |
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| Twin bed rooms cost S$290 or around PHP10,000. |
Park Royal on Pickering is located at 3 Upper Pickering Street, Singapore 058289.
So there goes a little throw-back about my Singapore trip last year. To know more, visit Singapore Tourism Board’s website at
www.yoursingapore.com. Shiok!
xx,
Balot
PS. According to
urbandictionary.com, ‘Shiok’ is commonly used in Malaysia & Singapore […] it essentially is used to convey a feeling of sheer pleasure and happiness. For example, if you really enjoyed a particular dish, the way ‘shiok’ would be used is ‘Wow! This dish damn SHIOK, man!’.
