More food, Fountain of Wealth, Sentosa Island, Marina Bay Sands - May 12-13, 2011

Karen and I got up and went swimming in the hotel pool. (though Karen was diligent in doing laps and I pretended to do laps)  After that, we headed to the "Food Republic" food court in the Suntec Convention Center nearby for a proper fried oyster omelette, made with a mixture of eggs and potato/yam flour and little tiny whole oysters.  It was so good, we bought another one!  We also shared some laksa, a bowl of noodles with a coconut milk-based broth.  It looked spicy but it wasn't, and was very tasty, all of the food washed down with a glass of fresh kiwi juice.

I want one of these right now!

Connected to the convention center was Suntec City Mall, which was also home to the Fountain of Wealth, listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest fountain in the world.  There is a mini fountain in the center of it where you could "make a wish", but it was closed when we tried to visit after breakfast.  We decided to try another visit after coming back from Sentosa.

There was bus service from Suntec Mall to Sentosa Island for S$8 roundtrip, so we decided to do that instead of buying another MRT pass.  Sentosa is located off the southern coast of Singapore, connected by a bridge.  It took us about 30 minutes for the bus to leisurely get there.  You could also take a sky flyer over from Singapore.  There were beaches, a couple of hotels as well as theme parks such as Universal Studios.  There were free buses and trams that transported visitors all around the small island.

sky flyers

if we had appropriate attire, we'd have jumped in to play

ziplines above

container ships in the distance

yes, we did travel together, really we did

There was an impressive Merlion on the island (much better than the Merlion Hotel on our first day!).  You could buy tickets to go to the top, which we did not partake in.  We walked around the resort area where there was a casino (need passport to get in plus dress code), along with a few shops and restaurants.  We found a Joel Robuchon!  The food prices were the same as Vegas, ouch.

huge Merlion

just like home

There wasn't much else to do on Sentosa as we were not interested in going to the theme parks, so we returned to Suntec Mall to try the Fountain of Wealth again.  It was open!  We were able to make wishes...sorry can't tell!

Then it was off to get some early dinner!  We remembered seeing pictures of succulent fatty BBQ pork at a restaurant in Raffles City called The Asian Kitchen, so that's where we went.

spinach soup with goji

cold barley drink

Malay duck

that fatty pork, yum

yummy veggies

After dinner, we were hankering for some dessert.  I hadn't ever tried "ABC" before (kacang), so we went back to Grandma's Kitchen and ordered it, as well as a bowl of cendol.  The ABC wasn't "authentic" but was still refreshing, though I thought it was strange to have creamed corn as a topping.

ABC

cendol

The next day was our last full day in Singapore, boohoo!  We returned to Food Republic for breakfast.  I had a craving for some century egg and pork congee, and Karen got another fix of kaya toast and laksa.  I got a glass of fresh papaya juice, yum.

After our meal, we took a 20 minute walk across the Helix bridge to get to the new Marina Bay Sands mall and hotel.  There are lots of pictures circulated on the internet about this place, which is known for their sky-high infinity pool.  It cost S$20 to take the elevator up to the top to see it if you are not a hotel guest.  You could also dine at any of the pricey restaurants up there to get in.

Helix pedestrian bridge to the resort

art and science museum next door

ice skating rink at the mall

casino connected to the mall

very Venetian-esque, offering gondola rides

contemporary art in the hotel

playing with sepia mode, looking up the building from inside

a model of the hotel grounds

view from the top of the hotel

the Singapore Flyer

trees!  you wouldn't think you're way up in the sky

jacuzzi

infinity pool

more proof that we traveled together

We went back to the mall to hit the food court there.  It was a really good one, with a wide variety of choices and reasonably priced for being in a resort area.  There were sit-down restaurant choices as well, including "celebrity" ones...we found Cut!  It was almost like we were back in Vegas again for Karen's birthday bash. :)

are we in Vegas?

a proper volcano-shaped ABC!  it was so hot, we ate dessert first

Peranakan stew

okra (lady's fingers)

cabbage, chicken rice, chicken soup, Chinese vegetables

Thai sticky rice and mango dessert, so good I ate some before I took a photo!

After lunch, we walked back to the hotel to rest before taking the MRT to Newton Food Center for our last dinner in Singapore. (yup, it's all about eating!)  Chili crab was what we were looking for, and there were many hawkers offering it.  We couldn't decide where to eat, but a man from one of the hawker stalls near where we had BBQ stingray a couple days earlier stopped us and asked us to try his food.  He remembered seeing us the previous night; he said he didn't try too hard to get us to eat at his stand because we were looking for stingray which wasn't on his menu.  Karen and I shrugged our shoulders and decided this stall would be as good as any other and sat down.  We ordered chili crab as well as their largest plate of sambal leaves.  It was the most humid evening of our trip, so that tall glass of watermelon juice was much needed. (beer too!)  The chili crab wasn't as spicy as the name suggested...it tasted exactly like the clams we had the previous night.  We ended up ordering another plate of sambal leaves.  The people running the stall were joking with us about eating two big plates of veggies, and said that we'd have to come back next time and order six plates!

chili crab

so refreshing

ahhhhh

Even though we were pretty full from our meal, we had to try some chicken wings as it was recommended by Karen's friend.  I was able to find a nearby hawker who had a low minimum wing purchase (3) and some "otak" wrapped in banana leaf.  We wanted to try satay as well, but the minimum was 10 sticks! 

wings and otak

We returned to the hotel and browsed their gift shop.  They sold some sweets there; Karen managed to make room for a tiny little cupcake. ;)  The desserts did look good though.

almost looks like a peach

for you meringue lovers

We went to the pool floor to take a picture of the Singapore Flyer at night.

the Flyer at night

Karen and I returned to the room to pack our bags, lamenting the fact that we had to go back home.  At first, I thought that four full days in Singapore would be too long a stay, based on comments on internet boards and forums (even Karen's friend had commented on the length), but since we love to try different kinds of food, it was the right amount of time.  I think I could have done five or six days, as we didn't have a chance to visit some of the other museums.  Then we could have tried black pepper crab, the "No Signboard" restaurant with white pepper crab, satay and roti prata.  If there is another cheap fare to Singapore, we may be returning in the near future. :)