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About 80% of the pics are up at my Flickr account…*click*…more to come soon.

Food was GOOD all the way….we pigged out like there was no tomorrow.

Weather was so-so…rainy and overcast during the evenings, which didn’t make for good photo taking, unfortunately. It was extremely sunny and hot in the afternoons though, and despite applying sunblock, for the first time ever, I came back from a beach holiday with a tan. Horror of horrors!! And it made me *quote* look like a brown monkey *unquote*…

Lots of La Mer Whitening Essence, religiously applied twice a day finally got me back to my original colour (phew) although my left wrist still has a slightly noticeable white band when I don’t have my watch on.

Back to the food. I can’t tell you how amazing it was. Three places that have stuck firmly in my mind:

1. Naughty Nuris - best pork ribs I’ve EVER had. EVER.
2. Ibu Oka - the babi guling is to die for. OMG, so damn good…if I could tapau back I would.
3. Mozaic - fantastic gastronomical experience. Even the foam had taste. Put it this way…it’s twice (or even thrice!) as good as Lafite for half the price.

Fly me back there for a day to have Ibu Oka for brunch, Nuris for lunch, and Mozaic for dinner (incidentally, all three are located in Ubud) and I’ll love you forever.

Boo hoo…our last day!

After packing, we took a short walk over to Marmalade Pantry to purchase some of their famous cupcakes to bring back to KL, followed by a last minute stopover at Borders to buy some magazines for M. We then went back to the hotel to check out and move our (much heavier) luggage to the car.

We’d originally planned to go to Din Tai Fung for lunch. Unfortunately, the queue was so long that we had to scrap our plans and we ended up having lunch at The Soup Spoon @ Paragon instead. While I didn’t try the soup, the Breaded Buttons with Garlic Aioli and my mushroom sandwich was pretty nice. Hubby had the Boston Clam Chowder which he said was really thick and creamy.

Bostom Clam Chowder

Mushroom sandwich

Breaded Buttons with Garlic Aioli

Potato wedges

After lunch, I dropped by at Canelé Pâtisserie Chocolaterie to buy some macaroons for M and we were all ready to leave only to find that it was raining again! There was no way we could get back to the hotel without being soaked, so we ended up waiting for the rain to stop by browsing around in Muji for almost an hour (bought a see through magazine rack too!)…

By the time we emerged, the rain had finally stopped and it was time to head back to the hotel, get the car and start our journey back to KL. On the way to the Tuas checkpoint, we drove past Marina Bay and I managed to snap this photo from the car…

The Singapore Flyer is still under construction and is slated to open by early 2008!

The drive back was plagued with intermittent bouts of rain all the way from Johor through to Malacca…luckily there were no accidents, else our journey would’ve taken even longer! As usual, part of me was glad to be home, while another part wished we could’ve spent a longer time in Singapore!

Here are the addresses/contacts of some of the places we visited in Singapore:

Crocs
Marina Square Shopping Mall
6 Raffles Boulevard,
#03-134/135 Marina Square
Singapore 039594
Tel: +65 6337 0134

ASlurping Ape
Marina Square Shopping Mall
6 Raffles Boulevard
#03-362/363 Marina Square
Singapore 039594
Tel: +65 6338 5386

Tony Romaâ??s Singapore
#B1-007 Suntec City Mall
3 Temasek Boulevard
Singapore 038983
Tel: +65 6337 9055
Opening hours: 11.30am to 11.00pm

Pantry Magic
43 Jalan Merah Saga
Chip Bee Gardens
Singapore 278115
Tel: +65 6471 0566

Shermay Cooking School
43 Jalan Merah Saga
Chip Bee Gardens
Singapore 278115
Tel: +65 6479 8442
Opening hours: 01.30pm to 07.30pm (Tue - Fri & Sun), 11.30am to 07.30pm (Sat), closed on Monday

The Soup Spoon
Paragon Shopping Centre
Basement 1 Unit K4/K7
Opening hours: 10.00am to 10.00pm (Mon - Fri), 09.30am to 10.00pm (Sat & Sun)
Tel: +65 6738 3860

Canelé Pâtisserie Chocolaterie
B1-25 Paragon
290 Orchard Road
Tel: +65 6733 8893
Opening hours: 11am to 10pm daily

Feeling well rested from a good night’s sleep, we were more than ready to head out the next morning. Hubby was planning to spend half a day at Funan, while I had plans to go to Browhaus, followed by lunch with J at Marmalade Pantry.

Hubby took the MRT to Funan, while I walked over to Wheelock. Luckily, there was a slot available at Browhaus, and I settled in for a quick threading session…quick because I regularly tweeze my eyebrows already and all I wanted was to shape it. It was the first time I tried threading, and while the threading itself didn’t hurt, I found my eyes tearing! How embarassing…haha…!

At about noon, I walked over to Marmalade Pantry to meet J for lunch. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to reserve a table earlier, and I was told that a table would only be available at 1.30pm! We quickly scrapped our plans to have lunch there and headed for…guess where? Sun with Moon! Lunch was great as I got to catch up with J, and the one hour that we were allocated (yes, we had to vacate the table by 1.30pm coz it was actually reserved!) went by too fast. J ordered Yakiniku, and it came with a cute egg-timer…she had to wait for it to run out before eating, probably to ensure the food inside was cooked to perfection. I had California Maki and Dobin Mushi…both were equally good.

Tick tock…tick tock

Beef yakiniku

California Maki

After lunch, I headed to Paragon to buy Jollibean…

Jollibean!! Yummy tau foo fa with barley seeds…*slurp*

…before going back to the hotel to wait for hubby to come back from Funan. He arrived back at the hotel close to 4pm with a lot of purchases and a little gift for me…a very very tiny 2GB USB thumbdrive!

So small you could lose it…

Our next destination was no other than Chip Bee Gardens at Holland Village to pay a visit to Pantry Magic and Shermay’s Cooking School! I was like a kid in a candy store…but I had to rein in my excitement (and wallet) and ended up purchasing just a few silicon muffin trays and a rolling pin. At Shermay’s, I stocked up on Valrhona cooking chocolate and a bottle of Madagascar Bourbon vanilla bean paste. I don’t know when I’m going to use it, but I really had to have it!

Digressing slightly: I really like Chip Bee Gardens. There’s a long stretch of shops consisting of delis and restaurants (and a pet shop!), and it looks like a nice place to hang on out weekends. Would really love to go back there again the next time we’re in Singapore! As for Shermay’s Cooking School…I’d originally wanted to attend the Macarons & Biscotti workshop conducted by guest chef, Joycelyn Shu of Kuidaore which was coincidentally held on that same weekend. Unfortunately, all the places were already taken by the time I wrote in. I did manage to get a glimpse of class in progress though, when I dropped by to buy the Valrhona chocolates!

We were planning to head out again after dropping my purchases back at the hotel, but the heavens opened up and it started pouring cats and dogs. Where else could we go but to DFS Galleria next door? Luckily, I resisted temptation and managed to avoid going into THOSE shops on the third floor…you know, those shops that start with a D, and a L, and a C and a G…

Luckily, the rain had stopped by the time we emerged. We dropped by at That CD Shop @ Pacific Plaza and spent nearly one hour in there browsing through CDs. What I like about this shop is that you’re free to test their CDs, plus the staff are very friendly and helpful. They are more than willing to recommend CDs if you have a certain genre of music in mind, and I ended up testing and buying two CDs that I normally wouldn’t even pick up!

Hubby wanted me to try the *famous* chicken rice at Meritus Mandarin, so that’s where we went after making a quick stop at Wheelock’s Apple Centre. Famous or not, it was definitely super-duper expensive!

Chicken Rice @ Meritus Mandarin

I wouldn’t say it’s fantastic or out-of-this-world, but the rice was definitely very fragrant, and the chicken meat was tender. I guess I would call it a ‘eat once and will never try it again coz it’s so freaking expensive’ experience! As the portions were pretty huge, we ended up feeling too stuffed for any desserts…so I had to wave byebye to my plans for some Muddy Mud Pie at Coffee Club…

Hubby and I drove down to Singapore two weekends ago for a weekend getaway. Ok…hubby drove. I slept…heh!

We had originally planned to start our journey at an ambitious 8am, but before we went to sleep the night before at 1am, I suggested 9am instead…hubby readily agreed. However, we overslept and dilly-dallied the next morning…so we ended up driving off at 10am instead! Still, it was a nice leisurely drive…no speed traps, I hope…and we arrived at Tuas checkpoint at 1pm.

I was feeling stressed out about having to navigate from the checkpoint to the hotel since I got us all lost the previous time we drove to Singapore in December! Not my fault, really…I usually navigate pretty well (proof would be that we’re back in Malaysia and not still stuck somewhere in New Zealand, k?), but the roads in Singapore are just so confusing! Nevertheless, we arrived at the hotel, Royal Plaza on Scotts, safe and sound. Phew!

This was our first time staying at the Royal Plaza (we usually stay at Pan Pac @ Marina)…it had just been renovated, and for the price we paid, I feel it was pretty reasonable considering we were staying right smack at Orchard Road/Scotts Road and next to DFS Galleria (be still my wallet!). A plus point for me was that the whole hotel is a smoke-free hotel…no offense to smokers out there, but one of the things that can totally ruin a holiday for me is having to stay in a room that smells of stale ciggie smoke! My only complaint would be that the car park is not connected directly to the hotel…not very guest friendly if you have a a couple of luggages to lug around!

Our room consisted of a king sized bed, a plasma tv, a small dresser/desk, and surprise surprise…a walk-in wardrobe. Well, a only-one-person-can-walk-in wardrobe, to be honest! It was tastefully done up with dark brown furniture and white linen…simple and nice.

The room

Did I mention that there’s free broadband service?

Bathroom

Yayy…freebies!

After unpacking, we headed out to Sun with Moon Japanese Dining & Cafe @ Wheelock Place for a late lunch. Despite the time, the restaurant was still quite packed…luckily there were some empty tables left!

I ordered a Gindara Teriyaki set while hubby went for beef…something (you see, this is the problem about procrastinating…now I can’t remember half of the things we ate!). For dessert, hubby had Green Tea Tiramisu, while I ordered Japanese red bean pancake with strawberries. I really like the food at Sun with Moon even though it’s a bit on the expensive side, and considering that there are alot of Japanese patrons there, I would assume the food is authentic Japanese!

Sashimi salad that came with my lunch set

Gindara Teriyaki

Hubby’s beef *something* set

I love tomatoes!

Hubby’s smoothie…he said it was too sour…

Green Tea tiramisu

My yummy dessert

One of the light features at the restaurant…nice, eh?

After our late lunch, we took a walk around the Orchard area through our usual haunts…the Apple centre @ Wheelock, Borders, Wisma Atria and Taka before taking a cab to Marina Shopping Centre. As soon as we reached, I made a beeline for a small t-shirt shop that sells Slurplife t-shirts. I’d bought a cute pink-coloured baby tee from that shop back in December, and was hoping that they had new designs in. Well, they did, but the cutting was different…looser! Luckily, they still had the same t-shirts that I’d bought earlier in different colours, and on sale too! I ended up buying three more…one in blue, another in rose red, and one more in the exact same shade of pink as my first one to save for a rainy day… I also bought another two tees, one long-sleeved and the other, sleeveless, also by Slurplife.

Happy with my first purchase(s) of the day, I wandered into Crocs. I wanted to buy a pair of Crocs Capri that is currently sold out in KL (only my size, and only the color that I wanted…sheesh!), and to my delight, not only were there plenty there…there was a new design in as well! I ended up purchasing the newer design which is called Cleo, as it didn’t look as casual as the Capri flip-flops, plus it’s not yet available in M’sia yet (I think!).

My new Crocs Cleo

After dropping by at the games shop where hubby purchased a new Xbox (or was it PSP?) game, we decided to head over to Suntec City. Along the way, we detoured into a small camera shop where we ended up spending a good 20 minutes browsing through camera accessories. I don’t understand why it’s so hard to find some of the most basic camera accessories in M’sia, yet with just a hop and a skip over the border, it’s easily available and cheaper too! Well, more power to the Singapore economy then! We left after purchasing a memory card holder each, plus a 2GB memory card for M which was much cheaper than if she bought it in M’sia (well, in the first place, we couldn’t find it in M’sia!). Oh…and we spotted an 8GB Compact Flash card for SGD260! And a 4GB Extreme IV CF card! Me wants!

We had only three places to go to at Suntec…the IT centre (for hubby), Tony Romas (also for hubby…*grin*) and the tau foo fa stall, Pinle, next to Tony Romas. Unfortunately for me, the soya beancurd was all sold out by the time we reached there… Oh well, there’s always Jollibean at Paragon! *grin*

As for the pork ribs at Tony Romas, well, it’s still as good as ever…

Baby pork ribs…mine, all mine!

Hubby’s ribs platter…4 different types of ribs…meat overload!

…and coupled with the butter rice and fries, it was a satisfying dinner and a good ending to the day indeed!

I want to go anywhere.

Sydney, Phuket, Perth, New Zealand, London, Singapore, Langkawi, Anywhere.

I want to get away for abit.

Or alot.

I want to go somewhere and take beautiful photos, eat great food, and wander around from dawn till dusk. I want to come back with presents for family and friends, unpack, and then pack my bags and go off again.

It’s no wonder they call it wanderlust.

Going on as I am right now, I’m literally wishing my life away by hoping the weekdays past faster and the weekends come sooner.

Itchy feet.