Summer MAY 2011 : Singapore and Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Enjoyed a cross-country trip with Dianne, Apple, Kath, Fred, Hazel, Stan, and Pam.

Met Hazel and Fred at Kota Kinabalu on May 6. We stayed at King Park hotel.

Itinerary included white water rafting at Kiulu River, located in the Tampuruli district and Kinabalu Park and Poring Hot Spring tour at Mt. Kinabalu. The tour was with EXOTIC ADVENTURE . Frankly, it was fun because of the company and not the actual tours. The rafting was tamer compared to our CDO rafting and the hot spring was a disappointment. Poring Hot Spring had small tiled pools with faucets. Not the nature-like pools we were expecting.

It was the island hopping tour that redeemed the Kota Kinabalu trip. Manukan island had lots of activities to offer, including a costly underwater "scuba diving" activity.

And the beach was very nice, with it's white sand and calm waters. Boracay sand is still whiter and finer, though.

A short flight afterwards and we were in Singapore! Stayed at Traveller's Inn which had a common restroom but was clean and nice enough for our short stay. Being near Lavender's MRT station was a plus as well.

Universal Studio's The Mummy Returns ride was so fun that we had to take the ride twice.

Singapore 2008: Day 5 and 6 - Ikot ikot

On day 5, we visited the Esplanade, Fountain of Wealth, Chinatown again, and the Merlion park.







We wen't home on the 6th day.

Singapore 2008: Day 4 - Wet and Wild at Singapore Zoo

To save some money, we opted to buy the Park Hopper tickets that the 3 parks in Singapore were offering. For SGD 40, one can visit the Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, and Jurong Bird Park. The Park Hopper tickets savings amounted to SGD 18 per person.

We decided to try the Singapore Zoo first. The trip to the Zoo was quite long, about 1 to 1.5 hours. We had to take an MRT and a bus to go there. We followed the instructions on the travel brochures we collected on our trip to Orchard Road.

Unfortunately, it was raining hard when we got there. We had to buy raincoats at SGD 5 or SGD 10 each (I forgot exactly how much) because it was really pouring that day. In retrospect, we shouldn't have bothered with the raincoats because we rode the tram on our whole stay there! As if we stayed long! We were there for just about 2 hours I think. I was a bit annoyed with my mother then because there we were with our raincoats and she didn't want to explore the Zoo because it was raining. I argued that we were wearing raincoats anyway and it was a waste of our time and money if we didn't even try to visit some parts of the Zoo outside of the Tram. But she was adamant that we should try to stay as dry as we can. Oh well ... at least I have an excuse to go back to the Zoo if I get the opportunity to go back to Singapore.

The Night Safari was just adjacent to the Singapore Zoo. Well, at least the entrance was. I am not sure if the Night Safari was the same zoo just covering different parts of the place since we also just rode the Tram during our visit there. But that is another story for another day.

Here are some pics.

Singapore 2008: Day 3 - Fun with Rock Band

Day 3 was a rainy, wet Sunday so we opted to stay home (I mean Jet, Hazel, and Fred's home) for some Rock Band fun!

Singapore 2008: Day 2 - Orchard Road

Jet, Dianne, and I met Fred and Hazel at Lucky Plaza for lunch. We ate at a popular food stop called Jologs. Here, pinoys can eat their fave Filipino food.

Ater eating a hearty lunch, Dianne and I went aroun Orchard Road to look at the expensive shops. We also dropped by Konikuniya to buy a manga for my officemate Pao. While browsing, I saw a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows worth SGD 9.90!!! I immediatle bought a copy! Yay!!!

We also visited Chinatown. While eating at Smith Street ...




we saw this sign from one of the shops ....




Panalo! Hahaha.


Some nice pics of our running around Chinatown.






We also saw a perfume shop inside the mall in Chinatown where they sell cheap perfumes. Dianne was able to buy the perfume she had been looking for for quite some time now there and it was very cheap! About 50% off!



The Singapore pips then treated us to dinner in one of the street hawker joints. We met the Cookies (Jenny and Lord) and, of course!, took more pics.

Singapore 2008: Day 1 - Arrival

I went to the NAIA 3 airport by myself while Dianne was accompanied by Nanay and Tito Benny.

NAIA 3 was bigger than Centennial but not much different. It was cold inside the airport so we had coffee while waiting for boarding.

Bo's Coffee


Camwhores



We were met at the Budget Terminal by Jet and Hazel. The Singapore Budget Terminal was a bit a surprise to us since we did not expect it to be that plain. I was a little disappointed that Dianne will not see the Changi Airport since I boasted to her that Changi Airport is the best Airport I've been to so far.

We took a taxi to Jet, Hazel, and Fred's condo and was me there by Fred. Had some chicka with the 3 then we went to sleep to prepare ourselves for a busy day!

Singapore Trip: Preps

Cebu Pacific had a promo last May. They offered zero fare seats for international flights! Yay! So my tour plans for this year was whacked! I planned to have just one out of the country trip for my family this year. We went to Hong Kong last March already so my plan before was to take my family to a local destination later this year and continue with our out of the country trips next year. But the zero fare promo was too good to resist! I have friends in Singapore and I figured we could save a bit more if we crashed in their condo for our stay. My friends were very nice and agreed.

Originally, it was only me and Dianne who were supposed to go to Singapore this month. Our trip will be on Aug. 21-27. I asked Nanay if she wanted to go with us but she told me she can't get off from work for that long. My sis and my round trip tickets cost us only Php 11,586.00. This excludes the airport tax and terminal fee. But then Nanay decided to go with us! She felt that there might not be a next time when we can go as a family to Singapore. Her flight will be later than ours, she will be leaving on the 23rd, but she'll go home with us. Unfortunately, there were no more zero fares!!! And so her round trip ticket costs us Php 12,632.00!!! Hayyy!!!! Oh well, at least we will be able to enjoy SG with her.

I'm now planning our itinerary for our trip. There's a lot of things to do in Singapore but I'm not sure if the costs are really worth the experience. We don't plan to do a lot of shopping in SG since we don't have the money for it but we would like to visit as many tourist traps as we can! Hehehe.