Long Weekend at Bintan

With a long weekend coming, from Good Friday onwards, we decided to get away from the city buzz of Singapore. 3 days of break probably meant that a short trip nearby would fit the bill perfectly. The destination would be Bintan. The resort? Blue Lagoon. The room cost $232 per night and a ferry ticket to and fro cost $65. From our understanding the room rates were considered pricey as rooms booked much earlier would probably be in the $100++ region.




Day 1

We headed to Pasar Oleh Oleh for some good massage and local food. The single way taxi fare costed $22 and it took around 15 - 20 minutes. Once we reached the place, we were spoilt for choices which massage parlour to go to. The guides at Pasar Oleh Oleh each tried to persuade to each of the massage parlour. The interesting thing is, each massage parlour is paired up with a restaurant. Usually the massage parlour you opt for will provide you transport back to the resort.

Lunch was settled there. 3 of us ordered Ayam Penyet while 1 ordered Bryani. Honestly, we weren't used to paying $12 for a meal of rice and drumstick that was probably only slightly bigger than the bbq chicken wings you see in hawker centres in Singapore! It tasted not bad but not worth your money. Bryani wise I guess it was ok (we didn't sample it). I guess if given a choice I would have to say Singapore's Ayam Penyet was definitely a more decent meal overall.




After lunch, we walked around Pasar Oleh Oleh before heading for the massage session. The place was filled with shops selling wooden handicrafts. There were also some provision shops for you to stock up.

After a while we went for one of the massage parlour and it costs around $55 per person.
What it includes
1. 1 hr body scrub
2. 1/2 sauna (in this small cubicle)
3. 1 hr massage

The massage was good, so was the scrub. Money well spent!

Dinner was at place recommended by a friend. Haha its called 'Cafe Helo Helo' (nvm the spelling). Mee goreng and cha kway teow each cost $3.5. We also ordered chicken wings, bbq prawns and cuttlefish as well as satay. All in all plus the drinks it costed $43 bucks (same as lunch!) A more generous spread vs lunch (ok... a very generous spread of carbon too ....) Chicken wings, mee goreng and cha kway teow was good, the rest not worth the mention!




After dinner we headed back the resort. We went to the beach and stoned for a while, enjoying the breeze and the lovely moonlight. The sand was really fine and the beach was really clean. Day 1 was wrapped up.






Day 2

Shirley and I woke up early to have breakfast. Breakfast was ok, with omelette 'stealing the limelight'. Well, you pick your mix of button mushrooms, union, cheese and bacon and on the spot they would fry the omelette for you. After breakfast, we took a stroll by the beach. The waters pretty clear (as compared to Singapore) and occassionally you would spot fishes swimming near to the shores. And to our pleasant surprise, we caught 2 hermit crabs by the shore! I caught 1 first, Shirley wanted part of the fun so she combed and very quickly caught 1 too! Well.. honestly the 2 crabs were not too lucky, cos they were the only ones we managed to find!!



We really enjoyed the sea sports that followed after that. We kayak for and hour - $18 where Shirley was happily feeling the waves splashing against her. Really felt like 'natural jacuzzi'. We would align our kayak perpendicular to incoming waves and the 'jacuzzi' would follow shortly. It was fun. Next thing was the banana boat. $18 per person. Damn.. later did I realize very much of the fun from banana boat was supposed to come from the boat capsizing!! The ride was really bumpy, suddenly the speed boat in front slowed down and SPED UP, MAKING A TURN! That's it - all of us in the waters. My eyes closed to a fine line, feeling really silly in the pathetic state when I could hear the laughter of Shirley behind.. What a contrast! Later, the boat capsized.. AGAIN! OMG why would anyone pay $18 to get himself capsized!!!! Ok.. I gotta admit it was fun still haha

For the rest of the day, it was raining, and we just slacked in our room till dinner. We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant (and it ain't as bad as what Shirley's friends said!) A bit pricey - how much was it again? Let me try to recall..

Night was simple but fun. We played mahjong. It costed $10 for renting a mahjong set for 3 hours. Day 2 ended.

Day 3

Haha. 1 word - Mahjong! We had a heavy breakfast and played mahjong till the time was right to take the resort bus that fetched us to the ferry terminal. A short but fun trip, long enough for us to start missing our beds in Singapore though...

Supper in Canopy @ Bishan Park

Sick and tired of the bustling city? Have a relaxing day in Bishan Park. On this day, Mark and I lazed at home and played some board games. After dinner, we decided to try out Canopy bar which we passed by during our morning jog a few weeks ago for supper. We haven't chilled out together for a long time.

It was way too dark for my humble 2 megapixel phone camera to capture clear photos. We sat outdoor at the garden bar just beside the restaurant. The ambience was great. Here's a photo of some decor on the tree just beside us:



Mark ordered Baileys and I had one of their signature dessert - Sticky date pudding:

It's really good. I give 5 tumbs up! Served with vanilla ice cream, the date pudding is sweet, moist and a little sticky. But its texture is more like soft cake.

I forgot what is this drink. We shall wait for Mark to update :P ( Mark: Haha.. Ok I gotta admit I don't have the name in my head... but this drink is really refreshing! I believe its some lychee drink with crushed ice and minty feel..)

Christmas Eve Dinner

This is a long overdue post covering our Christmas Eve celebration together. Wanted to give Shirley a surprise and I started feeling cocky when she made all the wrong guesses where I was about to bring her. And well.. sigh.. as usual the surprise turned to 'no surprise' as she still managed to figure out it was 'Chocolate Buffet' treat she was in for eventually!



We had a short stroll along the river before heading for the well anticipated Chocolatey treat which starts at 8pm and is available till 11pm. According to the website, Chocolate Buffet is available on Fri and Sat, however on Christmas Eve, a Thu, it did not disappoint chocolate loving peeps like ourselves looking to pamper our taste buds during the festive season. It costs around $60 a person and comes together with dessert wine (we thought the wine was nice).

A place I wanted to bring Shirley to for some time already. The Fullerton Hotel's Chocolate Buffet was well-known and recommended by many. Well, the treats were equisitive but the experience fell short of our expectations, factoring the rave reviews it has earned over the years.

As we step into 'Courtyard' for the buffet, our eyes combed the place, expecting long stretches of tables displaying chocolate desserts, however our eyes were the not getting the treat as expected. Visually it could have been more impressive. What the place had were a) small round table displaying assorted chocolate cakes and desserts




b) section where you can choose from a variety of solid chocolate which the staff will melt together with milk to give u a chocolate drink ( u can choose to infuse Rose Petal, Lavender, Szechuan Pepper, Chili, Star Anise, Black Cardamon, Wasabi, Lemongrass, Ginger and Coffee into your drink but we say it doesn't taste that different) and




c) a fondue area where u basically mix and match fruits and mush mellow for a sinful chocolate dip!




With that said, it was still no doubt a worthy trip to uncover all that hype behind the Chocolate Buffet. A place we will still visit, but maybe well.. not that frequently? Below are some pictures covering those sinful looking faces indulging in a chocolatey evening..



That's all for 2009! Have a great 2010 to all!

Singapore flyer

Last Sunday, we finally got onto Singapore Flyer for the first time!
Mum's right. Evening is a great time for a ride on Singapore Flyer.
We boarded at around 7pm and managed to catch the sky darken to night.
Here's a compilation of the photos and videos I managed to take with my humble 2.0 Megapixel phone camera:

01 Nov 09 - Picnic by the River

After a long long time, we finally have something different to blog about..
We have been living in Singapore for about a quarter of a century. Like most of the other Singapore couples, we have kind of ran out of idea for dating spots.
Yesterday, we decided to bring our son out to our last Vday spot.



Instead of going for posh crusine, we were thrilled by a great variety of local favourites under the candlelight and the nice scenery by the river. Picnic by Kallang River is quite ideal if you're sick of typical posh restaurants and joining the crowd in Orchard on the special day. Since it was just a normal day out, we did away with the candles and wine glasses which we brought along during V day.

So where exactly is this spot? At the open park opposite the row of restaurnts behind national inddor stadium. This is the view right in front of our picnic spot:





Like last time, with a much smaller budget compared to the price of usual v day set meals, we went to Kallang Airport Market to buy our food from numerous famous stalls. Here's our wonderful spread:

1. Seafood Mariana Set inclusive od Mushroom Soup and Garlic Bread
2. BBQ Chicken Wings
3. Laksa
4. Oyster Omelete
5. Chicken Chop
6. Soup Sop Drink
7. Mango pomelo
8. Papaya milk







After having our dinner, we spent our remaining time flying kite... or should I say trying to fly one! It wasn't very windy that day. But we managed to fly it for a couple of minutes every time we tried. Though we tried to take a video of it, it was too dark to see us running around like silly lil kids. :P

4 Oct 09 - Bottle Tree Park

Our afternoon was spent in bottle tree park. Mediacorp has introduced this place a couple of times on TV already. It looked like a huge park with lotsa fun activities to do. So I brought Mark along to explore the place before we introduce it to our friends.

Bottle tree park was set up by 3 locals who dreamed of setting up a concept village with sports, recreational facilities, conference rooms, eateries and of coz nature, admist the bustling city. I believe that the idea is appealing to most singaporeans who spend most of our time in a very fast paced environment. It's a nice place to visit if you are sick of typical shopping centres and movie theatres in town. However, I found that it has not differentiated itself much from the other existing nature parks or beaches that we already have.

The highlight of the park are the exotic plants and trees which the owners have bought over from Australia. If I am not wrong, I heard that each bottle tree costs SGD30,000!!! WOW! I wonder if it's hard to maintain! There are a few spots for dining including a seafood restaurant and a pub. The pub is pretty cool. i would like to visit the place again in the evening.

The website boasts of various fun activities avaliable but I didn;t really get to see all of them. We only visited the prawn and fish pond, paintball playing field and 2 tracks for RC Car racing. The fish pond is especially popular amond the kids. It's kinda interesting watching the little kids trayign to scoop up small fishes all over the pond. Ha...

Overall, I feel that it's a refreshing place to visit if you are sick of the typical Singaporean weekend activities. However, my advice is not to allocate too much time for the place. It was actually quite a disappointment for me.

Address:
Bottle Tree Park
81 Lorong Chencharu (Yishun) Click here for Google Maps
Singapore 769198
Restaurant : 65 6759-7077
Office: 65 6759-5771
Fax: 65 6759-5796