Day 9 -- Singapore

01/02/2014 Thursday

I have a dinner appointment at my high school friend's house tonight but other than that, there wasn't anything planned. So, I decided to go Bugis Mall.

Took the mass rapid train (MRT) and you can see how clean the train is. Food and drinks are not allowed in the train. Do note that chewing gum is not allowed in Singapore. 

Once we reached the mall, I went straight to the basement where the food are sold.

After getting some snacks, we went outside.

As seen in the picture below, the buildings in green and blue are residential buildings where most people in Singapore live. It is like apartments. Housing in Singapore is very expensive as it is a small island, so most people live in apartments. There are very few single family homes in Singapore and they cost a lot (starting from a few millions of dollar depending on the location as well).

Afterwards, we went to Marina Bay Sands as we brought our passports this time so that we can enter the casino without any fee. I couldn't take any pictures inside the casino but in case you are wondering, the casino inside is very plain. Nothing like the ones that we have in Las Vegas. The casino has rows of slot machines and tables for playing. 

I took a lot of pictures of the hotel and its surroundings since the last time we came, it was night.

More pictures outside the hotel

 

 

The buildings in the picture below are in the financial district of Singapore.

After this, I went to buy some durian which is my favorite fruit. I know that some people can't stand the smell of it but I love it.

Then, it was time to go to my high school friend's house for our gathering tonight. Everyone brought a dish and we had a good time drinking beer and talking about the past.

My friend, Freda, even brought up our yearbook and I had to snap this picture since I wasn't sure where my yearbook is at.

Day 8 -- Singapore

01/01/2014 Wednesday

Today, I am meeting 2 groups of friends for lunch and dinner. My best friend from elementary was coming to pick me up for lunch. So, after breakfast at the hotel, we went to a grocery store near the hotel to buy some snacks as I wanted to bring some snacks home to the States. These snacks are unique to Singapore and I can't seemed to be able to find them in the States.

On the way there, we pass by the Orchard MRT station.

We also passed by the mall and it has several of the brand name stores that we have in the States.

 

After getting the snacks, we went back to the hotel to wait for my friend, Jenny. She came shortly after we returned and took us to a restaurant for lunch and also to meet up my other friend, Sharon. They are my friends from elementary and we have kept in touch all these years. Jenny moved to New Zealand when she was in second grade but every year, she would come to Singapore to visit us and she would always stayed at my house. 

We had lunch at a famous restaurant serving chicken. After lunch, they were asking where we like to go. Initially, we were planning to go to Sentosa but since I have another dinner appointment with my other friends, we decided to go to Gardens by the Bay instead as Sentosa is quite large, so it will take a day to finish touring.

I have been to Sentosa multiple times when I was growing up. However, Sentosa has changed quite a lot since the last time I was there. They now have Universal Studio and also one of the largest aquariums in Asia. I didn't get a chance to go but Anthony went after our trip since he stayed for a couple more days for business after I left. I would definitely recommend visitors to go at least once to Sentosa.

I haven't been to Gardens by the Bay either as they were opened in 2011. There are 2 gardens: Flower Dome and Cloud Forrest. We went to both gardens, going to Flower Dome first.

Jenny with her family.

 Sharon & her family

Us girls

 Entire group

Next, we went to the Cloud Forrest which was next door.

Here are the SuperTrees.
 

Marina Bay Sands Singapore

The Ferris Wheel in Singapore which used to be the tallest in the world from 2008 to 2014 before the High Roller in Las Vegas took over the record as the tallest ferris wheel in the world.

 

After the 2 gardens, we went for some snacks before Jenny send us back to the hotel. We took a little rest before leaving to meet up my middle school friends. We went to Newton Food Center for dinner. It's an open area food center where they sell a lot of seafood. Since it was open area, it was quite hot to eat there. Anthony was sweating the entire time we were there.

The husbands came along as well but we didn't take a picture with them. It was just us girls in the picture. Anna and Joanne are my best buddies from middle school and we have done some crazy things together. It was a wild teenage years that we shared.