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After a late night yesterday, we slept in till almost 10.30am. This was, after all, our last day at Banyan Tree…and we were determined to enjoy it to the max! We took a leisurely stroll down to the Banyan Tree Gallery to purchase some souveniers, and then to Treetops for brunch.

A candid shot of me taken by hubby…

Everything on the menu looked extremely appetizing…I ended up ordering the Nasi Goreng (non-spicy, please!) and hubby had the beef burger and oxtail soup. I almost fainted when they brought over our orders…it was HUGE!! Amazingly enough, they really managed to get my Nasi Goreng just right…ie…totally non-spicy, with no pepper to boot! And it was soooo good. It came with prawn crackers, chicken/beef/prawn satay and a grilled quail and a sunny-side-up egg on top…but the rice was the one that I kept waxing lyrical about throughout the whole lunch. It was abit moist, with bits of prawns and vege inside, just a tad bit salty…oh-so-very-very-good. Hubby gave thumbs up to his soup and burger too.

One of the best fried rice I’ve ever had!

Beef burger…”gwailo” size!

After lunch, we proceeded back to our room to finish packing…or rather, I packed. Hmpph. We’d been given a late check-out at 1pm since our ferry departs at 2.30pm (another brownie point to the resort customer service!)…we were done by 12.45pm and took a buggy up to the reception area to check-out. Checking out was as effortless as checking in, and we waited in the air-conditioned library for the minivan to bring us to the ferry terminal.

Playing with my camera while waiting in the library…

Oh..and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that express check-in at the ferry terminal (inclusive of use of the so-called VIP lounge) was already included in our package! Lucky thing too, cause the queue at the immigration counter was so long…but all we had to do was to pass our passports to the representative at the ferry terminal and wait in the lounge (free drinks too!) till it was time to board. I could get used to this…*grin*

And since the ferry crossing over to Bintan was so extremely horrible, this time, we bought a packet of motion-sickness pills and popped one half-an-hour before boarding the ferry. Looks like it worked, cause this time, we manage to take a short nap and didn’t feel the effects of the ship bumping up and down in the turbulent waters.

Thank god for these pills!!

One hour later, we were back at the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, and after a quick stop at the immigration counter (and a long wait for our luggage), we were speeding off in a cab towards The Scarlet, the hotel we will be staying in at Singapore.

The hotel reception area really lived up to it’s name of ‘Scarlet’, it was decorated in all blacks and reds…very drama…I like! We were brought through a maze of rooms to finally reach a lift to bring us to our room on the third floor. While the room was small, it was tastefully decorated…the silk curtains and the use of velvet made it look extremely opulent. Even the bedroom slippers were extra soft and comfy! Thanks a million to mvo for helping us to get a room (it was fully booked due to the Aerospace Convention)!!

The bed…

…bathroom…

…and little bottles from Flair

After our luggages were brought up, we quickly changed and headed out to Funan IT Centre, hubby’s favourite Singapore hangout place…hehe…=) We made a quick stop at Flair, one of the shops along Erskine Road, before taking a long long looooong walk all the way to Funan. Luckily, the weather was really good…nice and windy. We reached Funan about 30 minutes later, and first stop…Jollibean! for my favourite peanut and red bean pancake, and a cup of soya bean milk. Ahhh…

We spent about an hour there…hubby was searching for new PSP games and trying to get me to buy more iPod accessories (no! no! no! I shall resist!). From Funan, we took a cab to Robinson’s Walk…mvo’d recommended a pattiserie there called Canele, and since we didn’t manage to try it out during our last trip to Singapore, I was determined that we would go there this time. The cafe was quite small, and most of the tables were already taken, luckily, there was still one empty one left. As they serve ice-cream on Thursdays till Saturdays, I decided to try the L’amour, while hubby went for the Macha ice-cream. The counter was covered with delicious looking cakes and huge rose and violet meringues. Hubby ordered a Strawberry Shortcake and we quickly polished it off while waiting for the ice-cream.

My L’amour was just as good as mvo described it…it’s rose petal ice cream, and it came with a rose macaron, three rose meringue sticks, lychee and raspberry….sweet and tart at the same time! Very good! I didn’t really like hubby’s Macha though, I felt it was abit too sweet. I wanted to buy some macarons back for mvo, but there were very little left…=(

Strawberry Shortcake

L’amour

Hubby’s Macha ice-cream with chestnut cream, chunky candied chestnuts and almond crumble

Super huge rose meringues!

From Canele, we took a leisurely walk to Clark Quay and spent about one hour walking along the riverside (and watching the reverse bungee ride) before taking a cab back to the hotel. From Erskine Road, we took a short walk to Smith Street where we were greeted with a long row of hawker stalls….mmm….! I had a bowl of Sarawak Kolo Mee while hubby ordered grilled stingray and sausages. We didn’t manage to try Ah Baling’s Peanut Soup though….maybe tomorrow night!!

Smith Street at night

The rest of the night was spent watching telly on the comfy bed before I drifted off the sleep halfway through American Idol 5….zzzz….