Skip to main content

Singapore Series: Gardens + Jumbo + Tonkotsu King + Din Tai Fung

Here's the last post for my SG trip last month. :) Sorry, it took awhile, but better late than never!

Singapore is such a beautiful city and it ended up bigger than I thought, so there were many places to go especially great places to eat, to shop, to stroll around and take loads of photos with.

Here are some places that really stuck to me that you may want to pay a visit to when you find yourself in SG...

Gardens by the Bay
The best time to go to here is around 5pm so you can see it with the natural light streaming down on everything, then have a quick bite at the restaurants in Marina Bay Hotel or go for a quick shopping then go back to see it at night because the lights are really beautiful!



 
Yep, Avatar and Epic come to mind! But what I remember with the garden are those flower-designed night lights that you buy at Divisoria that have a switch and when you turn it on, its nylon edges will light up in different colors! Have you seen those? Talagang nilevel ko ang Divisoria goods sa Singapore :P

It's like that, but just bigger and 50x more gorgeous! You can even go up to the Conservatory if you want to get real close :)


To go to the gardens, you have to go up one of the elevators at Marina Bay Hotel, which is one of the dreamiest hotels I have ever seen, complete with a gondola inside. Yep that's right, there's a gondola that goes around the hotel. So if you want to get that  French feel, with the water underneath your feet, then go for this ride. :) And of course, there are lines and lines of shops and restaurants at this hotel so it's huge! Spot the photo below: We're standing on the walkway that connects the hotel to the gardens, so we're in between 2 architectural brilliance in Singapore :)


...and from tourist-y spots, we now go to foodie spots!

Jumbo
Even when we were just planning for the trip, my friends told me that Singapore's specialties are their crabs and prawns so I shouldn't dare come home without trying these much-acclaimed seafood there. So Mhe, Val, Kim and I decided to treat ourselves to at least one fine dining restaurant that boasts to serving the best of these dishes in the country. The final decision? Jumbo. :)


I really don't have words for these dishes but delicious and worth every penny!
CW from top left: (1) Chili Crab (2) Cereal Prawns (3) Salted Pepper Crab (4) Sharksfin soup


Tonkotsu King
Ramen may be Japan's pride, but Singapore has Tonkotsu King who can give Japanese a run for its money, because not only do they offer its customers eat-all-you-can beansprouts (yummy with their sesame seeds and chili powder) but also eat-all-you-can eggs!!! :P WHATTT?? yep, I know, that's crazy! And because they're crazy generous, people have been flocking to their restaurant.... which means that we spent half an hour at its waiting line just to score a table, but it was well worth it, friends! :)

CW from top left: (1) Tonkotsu King's interior (2) Black Spicy Tonkotsu Ramen w/ Japanese Seaweed (3) Signage outside: Tonkotsu King, Orchid Hotel (4) Tonkotsu Ramen

Tonkotsu King also anticipated these long queues, that's why they already hand out order forms (which you just tick the choices on how you like your noodles, sauce, condiments, etc) while in line for advanced orders and they serve complementary tea so to increase customers' patience level, just like in Diner Dash :)


Din Tai Fung
This famed restaurant is located inside Marina Bay Hotel, where we met with a few of Mhe's brother's friends who are all Pinoys who work there. The idea of working there is kind of exciting, so at least we received some tips when it comes to Singapore job-hunting straight from those who really took a chance and are now happily working in the city.



I guess if you're a sheltered Filipino who wants to try your luck at independence in a foreign land, then Singapore will be the safest bet for starters. Being the youngest in the family, with parents who really took caring for their kids to heart, it's a challenge trying to be on my own. I know that they will fear if I will survive without them lol! True story. Gasps will be immediately followed by a mild case of anxiety, wondering if their youngest child can make it alive in the wild. Hahaha! So if it were Singapore, I think they would be a little relieved because my dad has worked there for some time, and he can attest that it's a safe place for the least domesticated kid in Manila (i.e. yours truly) :P

CW from top left: (1) Xiao Long Bao (2) Pork chop Rice (3) Steamed Dumplings (4) Taro Steamed Buns
If I could eat their Pork chop rice for a week, my tummy will be very happy :)


Shopaholics, unite!
When we went there, it was coincidentally (or maybe it was fate??!) the Great Singapore Sale! :) Woot woot! Needless to say, I actually spent more than what I budgeted for... I don't know but when I am in a different country, I have this mindset that it's not everyday that I am going to be here so I want to buy stuff for people to bring home as much as possible. Yep, my love language is gift, so I made sure that I got all my fambam something when I arrived back in Manila :)

Although, just to note that even when Singapore is on sale, it's still not the "sale" that we are accustomed here wherein discounts and sales are really on bargain prices. After a few days, I just stopped converting everything to peso because doing so will just put wrinkles on my face... everything is just really more expensive there (sorry for being a redundant kiddo), that's a given, accept the fact :P

So anyway, click here for an extensive list of all the malls in SG. Brace yourself, shopaholics! Don't have photos to go with these, my hands were full with shopping bags at that time, so my cam was tucked in my bag the whole time. You know what they say, single-tasking is the new multi-tasking!

We love SG!
So that's it for Singapore, dear readers! Would I want to go back to this city? Definitely! The efficiency and convenience of everything will spoil me to death...  I applaud Singapore for being the city that it is now :) Much love!

Here's my fave photo of the trip:



Til the next travel post, on Malaysia's Legoland :) <3


18 Marina Gardens Drive
Singapore 018953

Click away to see their menu and their locations: 

Photo Credits:
Val Ngo

You might also like:


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Throwback Thursday: Be the Man You Want to Marry

Throwback Thursday! Words edition :) I wrote this post almost two years ago, I've had 3 blogs for the past four years so my ramblings and thoughts have been tucked away in three different places in the digital space. Reminds me of Voldemort and how he hid his soul to 7 different objects. Nerd alert! Hehe! So here it is, my realizations as far as marrying is concerned, when I was 23 years old:

He says, She says (Part 3)

Ligawan Stage So this is the part where Dennis already laid down his intentions, and I said yes to courtship.  I’ll share here the things we learned and what God taught us during this season. Hope this encourages you! Dennis told me to share his insecurities in this blog because he thought that it would encourage the men out there. Some of his insecurities were:

Passionately Curious

Here is the post I wrote years ago! I echoed here what I learned from the 2 speakers, Tricia Gosingtian and Ana Santos. Tricia is a fashion blogger, so there's a part of the event in which we all had to pick out and model the outfits from Bayo then Tricia picked out winners from the attendees. So the event started with that then went into the specifics of fashion blogging then writing in general. :) Hope you'll pick up a few writing nuggets! Happy reading and writing!