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Finally…uploaded all the pics at Photoblogum - Eric’s 30th Birthday @ Banyan Tree & Singapore! No time to edit though…=(

Boo hoo!! Our last day at Singapore…=(

One last look at our hotel…

The morning was spent packing, packing and packing. We checked out at about 11am and left our bags with the bellhop since our flight was only at 5pm and we wanted to do some last minute shopping! Ended back up at Orchard where we headed to Wisma Atria for lunch at Din Tai Fong. Surprisingly, it wasn’t packed (I’d read a review about the Paragon branch and apparently, it’s always full!) and we got a table immediately.

The food was pretty good…I particularly liked my noodles which was extremely tasty with the fried garlic and mushrooms. The Xiao Long Pau was a letdown though…or maybe I was having too high expectations? Again, the skin was abit too thick…sigh…what’s the diff whether it has 18 folds, 20 folds or 5 folds when the skin of the dumpling is so thick? Still can’t compare with the ones at Chef Loong @ SS2!

Food, glorious food!

After lunch, we walked over to Paragon where I went to take a last look at the wallets and purses at Gucci. Managed to find one that I liked, but the leather was in baby blue. The design is quite special though…instead of a clasp, there’s a zip all around (though I really wonder how I’m gonna zip it when it’s bursting full….with bills, not money!!). I kept asking the staff if there’ll be a pink one coming out, but she said she didn’t think so. I was contemplating between this baby blue design, and their new pink ones (the pink is really lovely and sweet, but I didn’t like the colour of the leather…off-white, and damn hard to maintain!)…hubby said the pink ones were more special, but my heart told me to go with the baby blue one (12 card slots…woohoo!!!). We went back to Gucci after taking a walk around Paragon (and buying more red bean/peanut pancakes from Jollibean in the basement…*grin*) and I finally purchased the wallet…yay!

Yay yay…my new wallet!

And a peek inside…

The cab driver of the cab we took to get back to Scarlet, and subsequently Changi, was a talkative fella! He was telling us of his experience when he visited Malaysia…he and his friend got robbed, and almost carjacked…and best of all (this is just so typical M’sia), when they went to make a police report, the police asked for more money from them!! Aiks…so embarassing lar, I tell you!

Anyways, we arrived at Changi a good two hours before our flight, and spent a long portion of it at McDs perusing the newspaper for jobs in Singapore…hehe….=) Went to do my GST refund (a measly SGD21), made another stop at Gucci and got dragged away by hubby who insisted that we were running late…=)

We arrived at KLIA at 6pm, made a quick stop at the Duty Free store, and then it was the usual stuff of getting a cab, unpacking, etc. Ohhh…and we polished off the Jollibean pancakes in the cab…yumyum!

And there you have it…five fun-filled days…! And my ‘great find’ (other than my Gucci wallet)…? This super-duper cute bunny eye cushion thingy from Banyan Tree. It’s lavender scented and oh-so-cute! Hubby has been stealing it from me every night…

Isn’t it adorable?!?

I had to drag myself out of bed, but the thought of breakfast at Desire made it considerably easier. The shower in our room is absolutely heavenly…the pressure is so strong (one of my must-haves in any hotel room)…and soon, I was wrapped snugly in the bathrobe and busy getting ready for a full day of shopping…=) Breakfast ended up being a quick affair, I wasn’t very hungry, and although my Asian set looked really good, I only managed to take a few bites of the nasi lemak and polish off half a bowl of the congee. Was eager to start shopping, I suppose…*grin*

A cup of steaming hot green tea

Fresh flowers on our table

My set came with congee, fried mee and nasi lemak

…while hubby got yogurt, muesli, croissant and some funny looking fried thingy…*grin*

After breakfast, we took at 10 minute walk along Maxwell Road to the Tanjung Pagar MRT station to catch the train to Orchard Road. As soon as we reached Orchard, hubby went off to Lucky Plaza in search of his elusive memory stick (elusive because he wanted it cheap cheap!), while I headed off to DFS Gallery to take a look at pink Gucci wallets and Dior bags. Couldn’t find anything I liked (or could afford…*grin*), so I ended up walking over to Palace Renaissance to buy some of Marmalade Pantry’s to-die-for cupcakes…yum yum!

I bought TEN. Yes. TEN. To share, of course…

We met back up at Wheelock Place where we spent quite some time at Borders before making a quick stop at the Apple Centre, and then off to try a new restaurant called Sun with Moon Japanese Dining & Cafe on the 3rd floor. We had to wait about 30 minutes before we could get a table (there were lots of Japanese patrons, which increased my confidence that this restaurant must good!)…I spent it wandering and staring curiously into Browhaus and Strip (Browhaus does brow shaping and brow related stuff…hehe…while Strip, strips. Brazilian, anyone? Ouch!).

Finally, our names were called and we were promptly shown to a table next to the window and given the menu. Hubby went for a plate of Salmon Sashimi and the Beef Sirloin, while I chose their Teriyaki Chicken and California Maki lunch set, and we both shared a Banana Smoothie. We didn’t have to wait long for the food…and boy, did it look good! The banana smoothie passed my ‘thick-enough’ test, the California Maki was scrumptious, and the Teriyaki Chicken was slightly burnt and covered with sticky sweet Teriyaki Sauce…mmmm….! Too bad we were too full to try the dessert…=(

Salmon Sashimi

Super thick banana smoothie

Yummylicious California Maki

Teriyaki Chicken

Hubby’s Beef Sirloin Set

A close up…

We ended up wandering about Taka after lunch…went to drool over more bags, hubby ended up in the kids section looking at toys…hehe…spent some time browsing around in the stationery section where I ended up purchasing two notebooks and seven pens. Yes, s.e.v.e.n.

Next stop…Coffee Club for their Muddy Mud Pie! While waiting for the food to arrive, hubby went off to Kinokuniya to search for more photography books. I ended up polishing off more than half of my order of fried stuffed dough (stuffed yau char kway) by the time he came back grinning ear to ear cause he found some photography books…=) We finished the Mud Pie in record time, and headed off to the taxi stand to get a cab back to the hotel.

Fried Stuffed Dough with Mayo…mmm….

We’ve had Muddy Mud Pie everytime we visited Singapore…it’s just soooo good!

We stopped by at Flair before going into the hotel. I’d planned to buy a Luxe Sydney guide for hubby’s boss who has been posted there for 6 months…and I ended up purchasing not only the Sydney guide, but one for Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai for ourselves too! I regretfully put the Singapore guide back on the shelf…maybe next time.

Luxe Travel Guides

Back in our room, we took a quick rest…I was typing out my blog entries to post later, while hubby had one eye on American Idol 5 which was on the telly, and the other on his new photography book. We left to hotel close to 6.45pm to catch a cab back to Wheelock Place for dinner at 7pm with J & K at The Big O. Most of the restaurants were packed by the time we reached there…luckily we still managed to get a table.

Dinner was a big catch-up and gossip session with J in between bites of delicious food and dessert…=)

If this doesn’t get you drooling…hehe…=) Seafood Chowder. Fried Calamari. Bacon Wrapped Chicken. Baby Ribs. Fish and Chips. Blackforest cake. Forgot-the-name-but-looks-really-good dessert.

We got a ride back to the hotel after dinner (thanks, J & K!!), witnessed a cab driver fighting with the bellhop at Scarlet, hung around the lobby to take some photos (photos of the decor, not the fight!), and finally, went back up to our room…sigh…our last night in Singapore…=((

The lobby…all done up in black and scarlet!