SINGAPORE TRIP

Escaping stress from work and family craving were the reason of buying a package tour to Singapore. I don’t exactly remember why Singapore was the selected destination, thus I won’t dwell more on that subject and just leave to my dear wife in replying such queries, assuming somebody will be interested. Having two members (RR & myself) of the family working outside the country makes planning more complicated. It has to be sequenced and timed properly. In the end, my wife booked for August 27-30, 2014 package duration.

I arrived in Cebu on the 26^th August @ 7:20PM then the following night (27 August), we fly out from MCIAA at 7:30PM to Singapore. In MCIAA, we were not exempted from surprises since both of us are unaware that paying mandatory travel tax is a pre-requisite for checking-in. Anyhow, I lost 6,600 pesos for the travel tax, intended suppose to be for shopping (lol). I regularly heard delays in Cebu Pacific Flights; however, our own seems an exception since departure is on-time maybe because CebuPac is aware that same flight is Nina’s (my daughter) first, outside the country, who managed to escape watching intramural activities in CDU.

Oh, I almost missed narrating the details about our 4-hour flight. Nevertheless, I intend to blog such experience separately and promise, I will really write it for others awareness.

We arrive in Terminal 3, Changi Airport, 10 minutes past midnight and upon completing necessary immigration requirements, we pick-up our bags, and immediately went to the arrival area with my wife spotting immediately the driver assigned to fetch us. Prior to leaving the airport premises, I changed my $US 500 to Singapore Dollar (SD) denomination. Not much a big difference with the conversion ratio of 1:1.20, thus my $US 500 is worth only 600 Singaporean Dollars. So I honestly asked the teller if I could buy a lot on my 600 SD and he said “yes”, hence I just believe him though with reservation. As expected, Singapore is a city state with clean surroundings and nice trees. Cars past midnight are not much roaming around. Roads are marked appropriately and well lighted. Basically, it’s opposite to Lapu-lapu City where I reside and any other cities in Cebu where Electrical Engineers don’t design lighting system in accordance to its utilization. Though taught in colleges or universities, seems they are unaware of illumination levels but I don’t blame them in general terms. They’re just pawn in the chess board, if you guys know what I mean. The result, roads are very dark at night that causes accident and high probability to commit a crime as well.

Upon arrival in the hotel, we were assigned in 2 double bed rooms. The hotel is not really a hotel per se. It’s just a pension house with smaller rooms and regular wall/floor finishing. Don’t expect a suite room like Imperial Hotel & Resort or a Marriot. A McDonald breakfast was delivered to our room at 6:00AM with pick-up time at 8:45AM for one-day tour at Universal Studio and SENTOSA. We arrived earlier than the opening time, so as usual “picture-picture” is the word of the day. Then we bought shirts with Universal Studio markings at prices ranging from 24 to 26 SD. Luckily, there’s a bargain as well; 3 shirts for 30 SD. I guess we bought 9 shirts using my AMEX, not my 600 SD cash. I always tried to recall my mathematics for immediate calculation to peso equivalent. The good thing is, the package tour include tickets to enter Universal Studio for all kinds of rides, though what I like most is the Transformer Ride. For other rides, both I and my wife just leave the thrill to RR & Nina. I don’t fancy going to the hospital during the tour so I just make myself contented in looking for something to eat. Before I could find a restaurant, rain comes, so we went inside a store and inquired for a plastic raincoat which in my observation was commonly utilized by other tourists and know how much it cost?, 4 SD per piece. We also ride Madagascar boat. It’s basically formed as the speed boat though controlled mechanically by a rail under water. As the boat moves on, man-made animals placed nearby talked, shouted, whizzed us. I was actually expecting a bumpy ride same as Transformer, however, I was wrong. The funny thing is, as we approached the exit, falling water is visually ahead of us and you could see the facial expression of other passengers knowing that they would become wet as we passed-by. As we approach 5 meters from the falling water, suddenly the water stops falling, just part of the thrill, I guess.

The last location we moved into is the Hollywood Area where buildings & streets looks the same in the US. First photo on same area was taken with Nina hugging the “minion”. I’m too old know that such cartoons are popular and anyway, we took also pictures with my family and of course bought 2 “minions” that has one eye for Nina & RR (for his special girl, I guess). The rest of the day until 4PM, we spend our time drinking coffee and various “selfie” at Starbucks.

At 4:30 PM, our tour guide appears and immediately brought us to SENTOSA through a Fast Rail. First stop is the Museum where a short presentation about Singapore beginning is shown and how it was inhabited by 3 major races (Malay, Indian, & Chinese). We took pizza bite after the museum tour before proceeding to Cable Car ride which cost 26 SD per person. Up there, you can see Singapore as an island for about 30 minutes, though little bit scary due to its height. Oh, by the way our tour guide is much older than me but walks very fast as my wife would always say coz he lacks my belly. There are actually rides that were part of the package, however, not to my fancy. Since we intend to watch a beach presentation entitled “Wings of Time” and time still early for 7:40 PM show, we just wasted our time climbing up (of course through the elevator) the Mother Lion and riding the train along the beach at SENTOSA. At 7:00 PM, we proceed to the beach area where the show was to be done.  As time approaches, the concrete benches suddenly full of tourists of different nationalities but mostly Asians. The show is hard to describe due to unique application of physical attributes. Other than several sheets formed in different forms, the screen is mostly water, pumped from the sea. The water timing up and down is technically sequenced for the show’s story involving lights of several colors. I had not seen or heard like that in our country and for me, it’s the best that I could think compared to the rides.

Finally, we went back to the hotel with hungry stomachs, and decided to take-out some food from restaurants near the hotel. We ended the first day looking at our pictures and having them uploaded in FB (as usual) both by Nina & my wife. For me, since all are busy with the net, I did the usual thing when I’m in Saudi Arabia, reading local & national Philippines news at the net aside from checking e-mails and my own FB account.

I wish I could squeeze my time writing the second day tour, however, my credit card will surely be crying as I wrote this piece since it’s the City Tour, which means shopping!!!