Singapore Day 6

Day 6 in Singapore! Nearly thereee… Second last day

Okay this post is more about what we did rather than what we ate… and more photo spammy! Because.. its Universal Studios Sentosa Day! Been looking forward to the ‘fun’ part of the holiday all week. I know, a lot of people have said USS isn’t worth going and I can see why. The reason we decided to go is because we’ve never been to a theme park together and its probably the closest we’d get to a Universal Studios (no plans to go Japan or US!) and Luna Park is crap.. so we paid the overpriced + peak season fee to go there. More on USS later..

First! Breakfast! We did get SOME good food in our stomaches that day ;D

Conveniently across the road from our hotel, Value Hotel Thomson was a super mini hawker centre (there were like 3 stalls I think) thats known for some pretty good Bak Kut Teh!

 

Tiong Bee Bak Kut Teh

My ears dropped when the lady said it is SG$8 for the set :S Apparently this mini food centre is one of the more expensive places for hawker food in Balestier (and attracts alot of Tycoons)

I wish we had just gone to this place all the other mornings when we couldn’t decide what to eat! I can still remember the flavours and tenderness of my bowl of bak kut teh. I love it when its not overly MSG and you can taste the herbs used in BKT. Be sure to get the whole set! with the fried donut sticks (for dipping into the sauce) and rice to compliment it.

I also wish it was a bigger serving! We only got one bowl of BKT to share because.. we also got Bak Chor Mee from the next stall..

Noi’s Mushroom Minced Meat Noodles aka Bak Chor Mee!

Bak Chor Mee – SG$5 (They had the $4/$5 option)

I have read about this place on ieatishootipost when researching places to eat near our hotel, it appears that it was once really good and now his blog readers said its not as good anymore since they changed owners or something. I can’t compare to what it was before but can compare it with the other bowl of bak chor mee we had (highly ranked in SG) at Tai Hwa it was like heaven and earth. Heaven – Tai Hwa, Earth – Noi’s. It notably lacked the vinegar which has made me realize what a significance vinegar adds to this dish. It was just O.K for me, despite the photo above says so otherwise – looks mad appealing. Even I get misleaded by my own photo @_@

We then took the bus to Vivocity, for the cable car ride to Sentosa… and on the way, we saw this beautiful church..

Churches in Singapore are so pretty! like St Andrews Cathedral near City Hall was amazing. Makes me want to get married in one! I don’t recall seeing much white churches like these back in Syd :/

We followed the signs to the Cable Car entrance. We got on the ‘Jewel Cable Car’ which costed SG$24 for a one way trip! pretty damn expensive… and SG$26 if you want a return trip… only the extra $2 then why not.. might make the ride a bit more worth it. I have to say though, the views were pretty damn amazing (despite all the construction work happening in the area, mainly Sentosa)

On the way back, we even saw a couple dining in the cable cars.. what an experience.

Constructions bottom right hand corner :/

We arrived at Sentosa and appears that it is bigger than we imagined. We had to take a bus from the cablecar stop to Universal Studios (take the red line!), its a free shuttle that drops you off at certain tourist points at Sentosa e.g. the merlion – which we missed out on! .. but saw from afar on the way back in the cablecar.

Really had to follow the signs here as the shuttle drops you off at the carpark closest to USS, we eventually found our way to the rotating Universal Studio globe. (Looks smaller than I imagined)

Had to be quick to jump into a spot before another group of tourists jump right infront of the globe!

Luckily we bought our tickets online beforehand.. we dodged this queue at 10:30am, which by the way the kids are on School holidays in SG.

The moment we entered, we saw this lady in bright red, which was none other than ‘Betty Boop’! We (okay I) rushed over and hopped into the short queue for a photo. I love that USS staff helps you take the photos with the characters, so its our one day to have people take photos of both of us! And….Lucky boyfriend.

Our USS plan was to start from Far Far Away, watch Donkey Live and progress our way through to the other recommended rides aaand leave Hollywood strip for the end when we do our souvenir shopping. It was hard resisting going into the souvenir shops! I have a weakness for those at theme parks!

Fairy Godmother’s Potion shop!

Boyfriend buying us a slurpee

Photo with Shrek and Princess Fiona!

Donkey Live show! Was pretty good, entertaining. I was impressed, the stage was a screen and you have Donkey engaging with the audience. I mean seriously talking to specific people in the audience. Don’t know where the spy cameras were but it was pretty cool how the voice actor could coordinate the body movements and all. I began thinking it was pre-recorded but was later on impressed. Loved Donkey for pulling out some Singaporean jokes and talking with ‘Lah’

We queued up for Canopy flyer at Jurassic Park! The queue looks crazy long in the photos but we only had to wait like 5-10mins, it was pretty quick for a peak day. Luckily we didn’t splurge on an express pass.

We’re in Ancient Egypt!…. at Universal Studios..

We also went on the Revenge of the Mummy Ride.. it was probably the scariest ride for me because it was pitch black most of it and there were ‘mummies’ appearing out of no where.. and the sudden drops.. but it was fun haha.. I wish we bought the photo from the ride where it captured me screaming and eyes closed..oops Again, there was barely a queue with this ride!

Y SO SERIOUS?

Hungry time = Lunch time! We ate at the Discovery Food Court which apparently had selection of Singaporean food, we’re in Singapore so I figured we should have as much Singaporean food possible :S They had sets to choose from. We got 2 x Laksa sets (as shown above), no drinks included.. but it came with a rice pudding for dessert (not pictured) – not a fan. Probably the most expensive Laksa we had in Singapore.. for about SG$10 a set.. it was average, not expecting much from theme park food. It filled us up at least.

Next stop! Transformers! The newest addition to the theme park! I couldn’t believe it was actually opened, when we were in Singapore! Well because I read news that it won’t be officially open till December or something.. but it opened the week before we arrived for ‘testing stage’. I was sad the water rides in Jurassic Park were closed temporarily but Transformers made up for it!

Took photo with an autobot!

Longest queueee for obvious reasons! We waited probably 30mins or more looping around.. but they had all these screens giving you a rundown of ‘the mission’. For the entire waiting time we were scared/uncertain what sort of ride it is. The guy at the front said its a 3D simulation ride… so apparently you won’t be moving that much but it feels like you are?? (simulation).

You actually sit into a cart thingy and our curiosity was finally answered. The cart drives from one end to another infront of 3D screens (we wear 3D glasses btw) with scenarios that make you feel like you’r falling face forward off a building! So exciting it felt so reallll… yes they had the whole fire (insert heat).. water (light water spray) too!

Can see why they had these warning signs up! Fortunately I’m not prone to any of those! phew! Because that was the best ride in the whole theme park! I wish the queues weren’t so long cos I’d wanna go agaiiin!

It was raining heavily when we got out, sadly USS isn’t as rain proof as it should be for Singaporean weather.. so we had to get drenched.. and found ourselves joining the Poncho squad. SG$2 ponchos. The rain didn’t last long enough to make the most of it though… boo!

Madagascar!

Forgot her name.. the female woodpecker..but she wasn’t available for photos :S

We did our souvenir shopping (finally ), sadly there weren’t much to choose from! It was sooo limited that I actually didn’t know what to buy back for my siblings (of course I finally decided on something muuuch later) I bought myself a Gingy Plushie too!

That was the end of our USS trip – theme park was incredibly small.. I can see how people could’ve done it in 4hours… we did it in 4-5 because we took our time.. also how expensive it is for the time you can only spend in there (SG$72/pp during peak season) Was sad that we didn’t get to take photos with enough characters! Like Po from Kungfu Panda! Oh well I hope to see them when I go to… Universal Studios in California! (whenever that is), but it was probably the one day that we took the most ‘couple’ photos in.

Outside of USS we spotted several random ‘characters’ (like the tin soldier) about taking photos with people.. most recognizable one was Alice in Wonderland! She’s so pretty though I must say the teapot hat looked a lil silly ..

Tiger sky tower (right) aka Singapore’s tallest viewing tower. We did not check it out though since.. we already been on the SG Flyer.

There was a Hersheys store in the area so we checked that out and bought some sweets to bring back. First time having Hershey’s Kisses… I know I’m a late one! But yum cookies and cream kisses! <3 We were tired and wasn’t keen on spending a few more hours going around Sentosa.. since we are pretty sure there is a next time in Singapore… and hopefully by then most of the construction work we saw would be done!

On the cable car ride back was when we realised how worth it it was.. first Singapore sunset with a beautiful view.. I say good timing! It was like a 10min ride back to Vivocity so it was a good chance to just sit back and enjoy the ride.

We MRT-ed ourselves to Clarke Quay where we planned to hop on the River Cruise at night, (it was the 2nd last day of our trip so we had to use up that voucher!).. we were so tired that I didn’t take much photos.. instead did som videoing of the area and the ride.. so you will see more of CQ when I get the video together :S

CQ pretty cool place though; so much history but dressed up to fit in with the modern day crowd. We went there during the day and doesnt compare to its night life (when the bars and restaurants are actually lively!). It was also another colourful part of Singapore! Look at the colourful buildings!

In terms of the River Cruise – we loved it, it ran for about 45mins from Clarke Quay to Boat Quay to Marina Bay. It was lucky too that the boat we got onto at 7PM had a lady playing a Chinese string Instrument (the Piano? ‘kum’ in Chinese..). (There is usually a guided tour but they replaced it with music for that ride) Live music – good old chinese classics with the beautiful night views of Singapore.. a really nice way to end a long day. You will see when I put up the video!

So that was day 6, pretty much our last full day in Singapore

Stay tuned for our very last Day, Day 7! Hopefully in the next 4-5 days before I get back to Sydney!

x Clarissa