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Rendezvous #1 -
Hongkong
Rendezvous #2 - Singapore
Rendezvous #4 - Malaysia
Rendezvous #5 - Seoul, South Korea
I took the 11:30pm flight via KLM from Bali
to Singapore. It was one of the most interesting flights I've had.
Passengers were still standing in the aircraft fixing their hand carry luggage
in the overhead bin and the aircraft started to taxi out of the tarmac.
I guess the KLM pilot was such in a hurry since the
flight was already delayed and he did not concern himself with the
passengers on board.
When I arrived in Singapore, I was impressed
with the cleanliness of the city state. The roads were nifty clean and
the plants were perfectly trimmed. Since I arrived around 2:30am,
Singapore taxi had to
charge extra, airport fee and midnight fee. Good thing, all Singapore
cabs accepted credit cards.
I stayed at
Fragrance Hotel
- Emerald. It was a chain of hotels with various gem stones named
for a different location (Pearl, Ruby, Sapphire). It was a budget
hotel for ``on-the-go`` travellers like me. It was better than a
backpacker`s hostel but not as good compared to 3-star Hotel 8 or Courtyard.
I can recommend Fragrance Hotel to ``no-frills`` travellers since the rooms
were very small with very basic amenities.
The Marte and Duterte couples arrived at about
7:00am. With them were new tour members Myra Barrientos, Liza Du and Lourdes
Damalerio.
I was surprised with an additional member, Rhea Chu who was supposed to be
with a different group. Apparently, Rhea`s initial two (2) tour mates
decided to drop their travel plans. Hence, Rhea met up with the Martes
and Dutertes at Manila airport and joined them last minute.
We had breakfast in one of the numerous
restaurants near the hotel and from there, took the bus to Marina Park.
Our first stop was
Raffles Hotel and took a short walk to the
Marina Bay.
Within the Marina Bay was the
Singapore Flyer where we had the chance to see Singapore from the top.
Ticket was S$29.50 per person or about US$23.40.
From the big ferris wheel, we walked along
Marina Bay and had pictures of
The Helix,
ArtScience Museum, Sands Expo and Convention Center. As we went our way
to the
Merlion Park, the famous Mermaid/Lion statue was
covered due to a hotel construction.
The ladies were already
complaining of leg cramps yet we only had a short walk! They wanted to
take the Singapore
MTR subway
to Orchard Road for
some window shopping. When we disembarked at Orchard station, it
rained so hard so we got stuck in one of the big malls. Paeng,
Joel and I decided to stay in a coffee shop and the 2 of them were so tired
that Joel had to take a nap!
From Orchard Rd., we went
to Sentosa Park
and took the subway to Harbour Front station for the
Cable Car ride. Round trip cable card ticket was S$26 or about US$20.60.
The price included entrance to Sentosa Park.
Sentosa Park was a theme
area that also had Universal Studios. We did not go inside Universal
because it was already late in the afternoon and it would take at least 1
day to fully enjoy the Hollywood theme park.
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