131023 – 26 Malaysia JB

23^rd

We went shopping some more and eventually managed to find the liquor at Raffles place cold storage. Had Menya for lunch too.

Also managed to go Orchard to book the trip for Melaka. After that we returned home to pack a bit, before we headed off to Woodlands and the Malaysia custom. The thing is, 00 was having exams these few days, and he needed to get a spot with good connection so he could do his test. So we ended up at starbucks…

I had my dinner there, which asn’t too bad anyway.

Our hotel was 5 star Grand Paragon, which is pretty near the customs.

It’s big!! And comfortable!!

And there’s a nice scenic view from the top.

The funny thing about booking at these JB hotels is that they require at least $50-$100 deposit in SGD. The price of the room was about $100/night so you might as well pay the full amount. =_=

24^th

The reason why we spent so many days here is actually mainly because the hotels here are big. And cheap. 

The buffet breakfast is also marvelous.

Our hotel was near KSL mall, so we walked over and shopped for the day. There was actually not much to do except eating and shopping. We had a  good meal at this place called Tang Shifu. 

Then dessert at Seasons (previously known as Swenson). 00 fell in love with the hot pan ice cream apple pie. It was having a 50% promotion for some anniversary too so it was well worth the price.

25^th

Breakfast was great as usual! We stayed 2 days at the same hotel. But don’t ever eat the paos when you see them. The meat sucks… 

We then checked out and took a taxi to Grand Bluewave, for free.

The thing is the driver quoted a ridiculous price and wouldn’t turn on the meter, so I had to argue with him to turn it on as I didn’t believe in the price he quoted. When we reached the hotel, it was actually about 60% of the price he quoted. Because he thought we were stingy foreigners, he decided to save his face and tell us not to pay, as he will get angry if we do. Tsk. Hate it when taxi drivers try to cheat me. Pui.

Anyway our room this time was kind of like a studio suite, so there was a kitchenette inside. It wasn’t spotless clean but it was good enough. I read reviews that there were baby roaches, but thank goodness I didn’t encounter them.

The bed is big and there’s a tub in the bathroom~ yaaay

Headed off to City Square, as it was just within walking distance. We ate Ayam Panggang for lunch… but it was not as good as expected, and pretty pricey. Bleahs.

We also watched an animated movie called Cloudy with Meatballs or something (difficult name to remember). There was a nice waffle place near it.

Since there wasn’t much to do, we went exploring the hotel. There’s a nice pool at the top but too bad we didn’t have our swimming costumes… and then we retired for the night.

and we ran around the hotel corridors. yes, we're that bored. but mainly it was because 00 kept complaining about the poor wifi speed and how his roaming couldn’t work properly. And it was all  because of the stupid game Devil Maker he was on that he needed the mobile plan. God it gets on my nerves, terribly. He purposely scouted around the hotel to find the best spot where roaming works. Talk about getting obsessed…

26^th-28^th

And breakfast!

We’re supposed to meet up with my parents and have dinner together, but they reached so super late, and it was super rainy. We went over to City Square in the day, then waited for them to come pick us up. It seemed to be a difficult place to find and neither me nor the hotel staff could explain properly, but thank goodness they found it anyway.

We had bah kut the at the place with red wine chicken, and the famed curry chee Cheong fun the next morning, after a night at my JB house. Since there was a car this time, dad could send us to the Wu Fu Cheng shopping centre too. I think by then poor 00 was already sick of shopping bt there’s really not much we can do in Malaysia!!

After another night, we decided to get back to Singapore and also to prepare for our Melaka trip the following day, so dad sent us to the customs to go back. 

Back in Singapore, we checked in at a hotel in Bugis called Hotel Marrison - which looked promising in pictures, but was really not a good deal for the price. It was about $110 or so, but the room was awfully small with no windows!

They also didn’t provide toothbrushes, and I had to complain to them to get one. What’s with hotels that don’t provide the essentials!? Wifi was also not available, you had to pay like $10/hr to use it. Really ridiculous. The bathroom was also super small, just fitting 2 person with no room to move, barely. The shower head is just above the toilet bowl from the picture here.

We missed the breakfast but I read reviews that it sucked anyway, so not too sad about it.

131021 – 22 Batam

We woke up early to catch the ferry to Batam at Harbourfront. Batam usually has those $38 deals so I bought the ones at Hotel Mercure. For the price (excluding a $28 port tax and tour guide fee), you get a bus guide, ferry tickets, 1 night at a pretty good hotel, breakfast buffet, seafood lunch and massage. Not too bad, considering the prices of hotel in SG is over $80 for just a night, and the room is always so small…

we bought couple shirts from Onepiece at Uniqlo!

Went to the usual choco factory, kueh lapis place and local Batam goods which 00 wasn’t very interested in except the white chocolate. Ended up buying a bag of it and eating it for the next few days.

There was a temple trip included too so we dropped by that as well. Not too bad, there were interesting statues.

00 kept saying the middle one is Dman. Lol.

The seafood lunch wasn’t very appealing to 00 as well T_T I guess it’s because it was shared with another 6 person and doesn’t look very hygienic/tasty.

We visited the mini town that I couldn’t go last time with Yvonne cos of the rain so we had a visit this time. The houses were actually rather poorly built and the animal statues were also not very well made.

We had massage/shopping after that. Massage was done in a couple’s room… never knew there was such a thing. Massage was pretty good as usual! The area around it had shopping centres so we went to explore those as well. I got 2 pairs of contact lens, at less than $8 each. Cheap! We also had our dinner there at Breeks. What a bad choice, I never knew the food was this bad. We learnt that you should always ALWAYS choose a restaurant that has guests (or is packed). Breeks, though the menu looked good, had no guests at all! We had cream spaghetti and baked potatoes and both were horrible. The cream spaghetti almost tasted like water and the cheese on the potato… don’t even know if that’s cheese at all! We were afraid of getting tummyaches so we didn’t finish everything. The oreo smoothie was terrible too. It was just milk + oreo pieces, and very diluted.

Despite the horrific dinner, the day ended with the awesome hotel~! 

Though I think the last hotel I was at, Harmoni, was much better. Still, compared to the small hotels in Singapore, this was good enough. I had to take a call for one of my project, which happens to be an Indonesia-based one. Our toilet couldn't flush properly and we had to call the repairman. zzz.

Our breakfast the next morning also made up for all the bad food we had. Well, I guess nothing can go wrong when there’s bread and cereal?? Heh.

Back in SG, we went over the MBS and Orchard duty free shops to try to find the liquor for my dad. Didn't manage to get anything though.

We checked into Hotel Victoria at Bugis, which I realised is part of the Santa Grand chain. Not too bad. Had dinner at a chinese restaurant near the area. it was already 10+ so we ate it in a hurry and it was served really quickly. Still nice and cheap though!

131020 German Cafe - Stuttgart Blackforest Boutique S-Cafe

Today was pretty lazy, we woke up and went to the German café nearby for brunch. Wonder who will ever be able to remember the long name of the cafe...

It was not too bad but service was awfully slow even though I hit the service button for at least 300 times. They also served the wrong dessert. Zzz. Food wasn’t so bad, but not awfully fantastic.

There wasn’t much people there too. However, the interior decorations were pretty and exotic, and there’s a mini German market for German food. Not too bad, but I wonder how long it’ll be able to sustain.

We also went to the nearby Art Friend to get some materials for the prop. Ended up making the prop for the day after that… T_T

Oh we also frantically searched around for an internet place cos 00 needed a station where his strange device for his online test could work and my laptop was just not installed with the right things. Made me realize that we don’t really have a lot of lan shops around..!

131019 USS Halloween

So on the first day of 00’s arrival we went to USS Halloween at night~ it was actually one of the main reasons why one should visit Singapore in October, since USS is totally different during Halloween as opposed to normal days.

We had dinner at Chilli’s before the night starts, around 7pm~

The theme this year was Chinese opera-centred and they began the night with a magic show, where the performer disappeared to another cage nearby. Still can’t figure out how they did it as I couldn’t see any tunnels linked to the cage, as it was floating in midair. Whoa.

They have some nice projections where there's stuff crawling on this wall - and this is all projected image - not real!

There wasn’t much chance for any rides so we only went on Mommy and Transformer. Unfortunately Cyborg and Human was closed and we took about 2 hours queuing for each haunted house T_T there was 3 in total but we only had time for 2. The waiting time, as we both agreed, is the most horrific event of the day. We nearly went mad because of all the waiting in queues. While trying to book the next hotel in between.

Still, the houses were pretty scary. I remember the opera house where there were heads and wigs hanging and you had to push to get through. And another in the kitchen where a living butcher was chopped loudly the moment you enter, and there were jars of body pieces around the room. Ew. And 00 kept pushing me near the scary people while saying that they're just human. =_=

Found a nice Queen Akasha w followers~

After the night is over, we back to the hotel. Here’s Dear staring blankly at me as I snap a photo of the room. Hee hee so cute.

Since the hotel was just near my office – I brought him up for a night tour since I needed to take some stuff from there. Heh. Our office was Halloween themed too by the way (pictures were taken in the day, since it was all dark with no lights at night..!) 

131018 Arrival

Finally! It was sad to celebrate my birthday without him T_T got to the airport right after my work ended but had to wait quite a while since 00 was caught in the security check for the Attack on Titan prop. Jeez. His luggage was basically the prop/materials and like 3 pieces of shirt. Gg…

Well anyway we took the train to Hotel Bencoolen to rest. It was crazy. We took a taxi from the nearest train station (Bras Basah) to the hotel and it costs 8 bucks!!! It was just a 5mins walking distance but we had no choice because of the rain. GOSH. And we were still pelted by the rain cos the pathway was under construction. Zzz.

It was late by the time we got to the hotel so we just slept the night away.