Another Victoria's Secrets

Ara just woke up by 9 a.m. so we went to the China Town heritage area by 10 a.m. and stopped by Tak Po at 42 Smith Street and had breakfast there. I had fragrant rice with chicken (as known as nasi tim in Indonesia) while Ara had rice with pork and vegetables which are nice.

As in other dim sum restaurants, they charge us for appetizer (peanuts with salt) and wet tissue we didn't even touch. This was really upsetting but well we ate the nuts so we had to pay. Be careful with this, friends. Next time they serve those things you better give them back and say you don't need them so you wouldn't be charged for it all.

After stuffed we walked along the streets and stopped at the kiosks and bought a set of cushion covers and a table runner for Mum and pashminas for myself. Satisfied with the purchase (I got them for cheaper price cuz I bargained there) we went back to the flat, checked out from there and continued our journey by MRT to Kallang.



There we walked for about 10 minutes to Lorong 8 Geylang and checked in to Hotel 81 for it had better price and quality we want. Tho the room was small, it was provided with hot water, all basic hotel equipment and also TV with HBO channel, but no cupboard/refrigerator. But it was okay since we didn't really need them. The most important is, the room was clean.

Geylang is a pretty famous area in Singapore, but because it's a red light district area. Actually it's not really dangerous staying there if you're around the street before 12 a.m. and the chinese food are really nice there. The hotels are cheap, too, probably the cheapest hotels in all Singapore, but be careful when you pick hotels. Hotel 81 and Fragrance are clean and assured budget hotels with quality, but I don't know with others.

We had lunch at a chinese restaurant at Lorong 9 Geylang which Rian pointed at when he walked us through the area the night before. It was the best beef kway teow I've ever had all my life. They serve it in options of $5, $8, $10 or $12 of sizes. We had the $8 one to share and 2 glasses of lime juice. They're so good!!


After freshen up a bit we started walking again, this time to Queenstown. We took a 195 bus and stopped right in front of IKEA Alexandra and had such mad shopping for stuff there--mostly for my Mum but I went crazy when seeing nice furniture/home accessories like that, in such affordable price. We spent about 2 hours there and still had to pack the stuff by ourselves for I bought many things made of glasses.


Tired of shopping, we bought hotdogs and a glass of cola. They're really nice because we spent and needed a lot of energy that day. So after recharged the energy, we walked to Queensway Shopping Center to find shoes for Ara.




Too bad the shoes aren't the quality he was looking for, so we went back to hotel by bus 197 (afraid that MRT would take longer so we took bus. But the bus stopped more often and longer so we spent almost 1 hour on street. But thankfully they have bus stop near the hotel so we didn't have to walk too far this time.)


We dropped our shopping bag in the room and walked to the MRT station to go to Orchard right away. W was waiting for us at Swensen's and we went to Far East together in search of shoes and shirts Ara wanted. We also had dinner there and after that we went back to the MRT station and get separated.






W was going home but we still continued browsing the mall. We went around the underground of Wisma Atria and got mad of branded stuff on sale but finished at around 10 p.m. for they were closing. We bought bread for breakfast at Bread Talk and walked all the way back to the hotel with our almost broken legs. Once we met the bed, we couldn't help but giving foot massage for each other before sleep. Tired, but we felt great!

Ara and I were going to Singapore by 11.15 a.m. so we met up at the Bandung's airport (Husein Sastranegara) by 9 a.m. and checked us in for flight by AirAsia. Thanks to the NPWP we got free fiscal on going abroad now so we had to pay only the airport tax. We were quite early so after checked in we had some brunch before we went in.



It was my first flight straight to Singapore and it was pretty nice being up there for me, but not for Ara. He has aviophobia (fear of flying) so it was uncomfortable for him. Too bad I couldn't do anything to help, but finally we arrived at Changi by 1.45 p.m. at local time (around 1 hour and 25 minutes of flight.)


I was so excited arriving in Changi, cuz the airport is both so huge and modern and nice like no other airports I've ever been (Jakarta's, Bandung's, Surabaya's and Bali's.) So we went to China Town by first the skytrain to Terminal 2 then continued with MRT along the East West Line.

When you visit Singapore for only few days and travel a lot, it is highly recommended for you to avoid taxis but purchase the MRT Tourist Pass. It's contained with $8 /day of unlimited travel both by train and bus all around the island and when you return it to the Office you'll get $10 refund. It's a great deal for travelers like us!

We arrived at People's Park Center by Delia's direction and found the flat she pointed at and we got the $60 room for two. It was not so pleasant, but what else can a $60 give you in such strategic place as China Town? At least it has hot water for shower and free internet and local calls and drinking water and stuff to feel as home.




After freshen up a bit, we walked to Pagoda St. and all around the China Town to find food and stuff. We had this unique food named kwee chap for $4 each plus $0.5 for rice/noodle. But the noodle wasn't really noodle it's so wide and slick and the soup was rich with oil. But it was good enough for breaking our half-day fast.






So we walked around the area after meal and found some nice bangles at one of the shops and I bought them just like the ones I bought exactly at the same store three years ago. Then, we went back to the flat and I exchanged my footwear onto a pair of sandals. They're much more comfortable.




Delia came to the flat to say hi and we had a little catching up and she brought us to Bugis where we supposed to meet my best friend Rian by 7.45 p.m. W, my other best friend, had a toothache so he couldn't meet us that night but it was okay. We went around the Bugis Street and bought nothing then back to the MRT we went to Kallang to find someplace else to stay.



We found the Hotel 81 Orchid at Geylang area (a restricted one, but cheapest area to stay) about 10-15 minutes walking from the MRT station. So after sightseeing the area we went back by train and Rian took the different route at City Hall intersection and I and Ara went back to our room.


By around 10.30 we were hungry so we went again to the China Town area and found McD around the corner and we had burger with orange juice for supper. So after that we went back and had some review of the day and went to sleep. It was a tiring day to me for walking and Ara for flying.
We're expecting more excitement today and I'll update the photos later. See you guys!