Singapore Travel - Day 2 & 3

On the second day, we set off to Sentosa Island after a late breakfast. We caught the MRT and went to Harbour Front Station, from where we went to sentosa by the cable car. The view from the car was absolutely awesome. Got a lovely view of the Singapore harbour, the sky scrapers of Raffles place and Sentosa Island. During the first half of the ride, I was too busy taking the pictures. It was only during the second half that I decided to be selfish and shut off the camera and enjoyed and soaked in the great view :D

Sentosa Island is a nice place. Lots of tourist attractions around, but felt that it is kinda over hyped.. For lunch, we had taken Rava Idli and some pudina chutney made by Shub. I must say, I have never relished eating idlis some much as I did that day. Not that I was very hungry or something, but the idlis and chutney was really good. After the meal, we went to the Dolphin Lagoon at Palawan beach to watch the dolphins. Must say kudos to the trainers and the animals for the amazing show !!! This was followed by an hour of kayaking at Siloso beach which was lots of fun.... After the kayaking experience, we spent time by playing in the beach. I learned how to float :D. Must try improving on that at one of the pools in Bangalore. I was told that the beach was man made. I believe that the sand was imported from New Zealand!!!


Once the night set in, we went to Underwater World. In the entrance there is a touch pool, where you can actually touch some of the fishes. Ended up toughing a catfish. It was not at all slimy as it looks. Quite rough actually. There was also a Sting ray which apparently is safe to touch. When I went to touch it, I got quite scared.. Kept remembering the documentary I saw about sting rays on Animal Planet. Never thought I would feel like this. Anywayz, we continued our tour and saw many amazing underwater creatures like sharks, huge fishes, etc... Infact I dont remember their names...

We stayed over that night on the beach. Late night walks along the beach and much more catching up with friends followed. It was totally great !!!! Slept quite late, but woke up quite early the next morning. The beach was really good in the morning. There was a peacock just roaming around on the beach!!! We then boarded a bus back to the mainland and went to "Little India" for breakfast :D

Later in the evening, we paid a visit to the SunTec City Mall.. Huge place with four huge skyscrapes surrounding it. Managed to sneak upto the top floor of one of those towers and got a sneek peek of the view from the top. And what a view view it was !!!! Totally breath taking... I really envy the offices which are present on the top floor and the people who work there... It would be a great view from your office window... A view to take out all the stress away.. Trust me !! Its a pity could not click a picture. :(


Visited the "Bar None" at the Marriot hotel later.. Nice place and met one nice person ;) Lots of Good music and leg pulling by friends, returned back at around 1 am.. What a nite !!

Food Cravings

Of late, I have developed a craving for a food which is currently not in my reach :(( and that happens to be the food that was served on Singapore Airlines... Contrary to what many people tell about airline food, I totally enjoyed the food that was served on Singapore airlines during my recent travel with them. On the return journey, I fell asleep, due to which I was not able to have the food. And now I have developed a craving for that food..... Not only was the food great on the flight, but even the way it was served was also very appealing.. It was so neatly arranged... and ofcourse, no coments on the person who served it ;)

What do I do ????? How do I satisfy my craving ???

Ofcourse, I cant go ahead with the simplest solution of them all, i.e., travel on singapore airlines to have the food :D, cos u have to pay for the tickets and its not like its 100 bucks!!

Singapore Travel - Day 1

The day started by landing at Changi Airport in Singapore. I was totally awestruck by the structure. It is huge and so well maintained. There are so many flights in and out of Changi everyday. Had to wait for my friends to come and pick us up. So after the formalities we wandered around the airport and were just looking around for sometime. Once my friends arrived, we went to have breakfast. Breakfast and some catching up later, we boarded the MRT to proceed towards Boon Lay station, from where we had to catch a Bus to NTU. My friends are students there and accommodation had been arranged for us over there.

On the MRT, we got a nice view of Singapore. There are mostly apartments. Independent houses as in Bangalore are hardly present. The roads are so well maintained and clean. Infact you could lick them ;) Although I had hardly slept the previous night on the flight, I was in full josh and was in awe of what I was seeing !!! Sleep seemed to be the last thing on my mind.. More catching up on the MRT :)

The rest of the afternoon was spent in cooking lunch, yakkity-yak, eating, catching-up and relaxing, etc..

In the evening, we went to the Central Business District. Its called as Raffles Place and is full of skyscrapers !!! Lots of photos were taken and the eye-candy around was admired ;). We then went to this place called as Boat Quay. There is a river, on the banks of which are lots of restaurants and pubs.. We were feeling quite hungry, so we went to this coffee shop called "The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf". I ordered a cheese cake and it was total drool material !!! I have never tasted such an amazing cheese cake in Bangalore. Yummy !!!

This was followed by generally walking around the area. We then went to "The Esplanade". Near this there is a small statue of "The Merlion". More photos. Was learning how to use my new Digicam in a complete manual mode, like setting the exposure, shutter speed, etc, etc... We then went hunting for a restaurant to eat dinner. ended up going to "Lau Pa Sat".. Its basically a huge food court. There are not many places serving vegetarian fare... Chanced upon an Indian stall (the only one serving veggie). This was followed by a bite of a Yummy "Banana Split" and a not so yummy "Mango Ice Kachang".



Once dinner was over, we got on the MRT and headed back to NTU for catching up on some much needed sleep.

First Flight Experience

I totally enjoy travelling to new places and exploring it. Last time ended up going to North India and Dalhousie as a part of a trekking camp. This time, myself and Mahesh ended up embarking on a trip to Singapore. Two of my friends, Shub and Danny stay there. It was a total fun experience . Full masti !!!!!

It was first trip outside India and the also first trip on a flight. So was extremely excited about it. We decided on the trip in such a short span of time and almost booked the tickets instantly. I should say that we were quite lucky to find a good offer on the flight tickets. So did not end up spending a huge money on the tickets, which meant that we had more money to spare for sight-seeing !!!

We landed up at the airport quite early in the hope of getting good seats on the plane. We managed to get window seats, but unluckily they were above the wing. So the view was quite restricted. Also, the flight was at night. :( But it was a good experience. I was quite excited about the flight journey and at the same time started feeling quite nervous. Right from the time I was a kid, When I used to hear news about flight crashes, I would internally resolve that I would never travel by flight. But over the course of years that disappeared and was replaced by the excitement of flight travel. But I guess some fear of the plane crashing still remained. To make matters worse, I regularly watch the program "Air-Crash Investigation" on NGC, which I find extremenly interesting. So, after the plane taxied onto the runway and got into position to accelerate down the runway, I started feeling quite nervous and excited at the same time. The plane started accelerating and it was not at all smooth as it looks on TV. The plane was shaking and I could feel the vibrations from the engines... I was like shit !!!! and was internally screaming in my mind. The feeling at that time was quite exhilarating. And then the plane took off and I relaxed after that.. whew !!! Now I feel like laughing at myself recounting that experience.

The rest of the flight was quite uneventful. I had never expected the jerk on landing. Felt little nervous at that moment, but then felt OK once the plane slowed down....

The food was quite good on the plane. Before the food was served, we were handed a menu detailing the food that would be served. What surprised me immensely was that it was in both English and Kannada !!! Now that was something I had never ever expected !!! It was a total surprise. I dont think such a thing is even there on any of the airlines in India. FYI, I travelled by Singapore Airlines :D Plus there ware individual entertainment units (LCD TV + remote) for each passenger. Ended up watching the movie "Rumour Has It" on the flight. I mean, I had to watch the movie, cos it starred Jennifer Aniston, who happens to be one among my favourites :D

Totally enjoyed on the trip. More details in posts to follow.