Tourist Series - Sentosa, Singapore's Island Resort

Next to VivoCity is the causeway that links mainland Singapore to Sentosa Island.

Here's some flags flying the Sentosa Flag.



Sentosa Island is a super super major tourist attraction. If you like Sun, Sand and Sea. This is the place to go!

Tourist Series - Vivo Fountain

I saw this and I had to take a photo of it. The little boy was enjoying the strong water gushing up his backside! He must love washing his back. LOL...



This is still in Vivo City. (http://www.vivocity.com.sg) There's a water fountain in front of it that attracts lots of children to be just children. They would go under the water and just get themselves wet!



The architecture of Vivo City is quite unique, very wavy. It's all wavy. Read also Zannnie's (The other Singapore DP blogger) post on Vivo City.

Tourist Series - Vivo Tree

Singapore has a new attraction. It's called Vivo City. A brand new huge shopping complex. It's now partially open, it will formally open 1 December 2006.

I found this amazing tree with so many flowers, and they must be on steriods, they are so huge and colourful!



Since it is in Vivo City, I shall call it Vivo Tree! haha... There should be name for it, but I did not bother to go find out :-p

Tourist Series - You could get lucky!

Luckly Plaza is where you can get everything. But mostly people buy cameras or look for money changers here. It is almost the place to be, if you want to remit money back to your country. It is usually to Indonesia, Philippines, China, India, Bangladesh.



It is one of the oldest looking mall along Orchard Road. It is also a mini Philippines here. During the weekends, the whole place will be pack with domestic helpers. You could see Filipino groceries shop. So, if you are visiting from Philippines and miss home, visit this place!

The top floors are medical centres. From plastic surgery, women's clinic to skin specialist, you can get them here.

Tourist Series - Sidewalk Cafes outside Heeren

Along Orchard Road too, you can find side walk cafes like this. During the night time it is cooling. During the daytime, there will be giantic fans with tiny nozzle that sprays out water mist that cools the place down.




I kinda like the structure :-) It has a modern classic look.

Tourist Series - Marriott / Tangs

One of the most iconic building around Orchard Road is the Tangs Plaza. It shares the building with Marriott Hotel. The hotel used to be called Dynasty. You should be able to guess why it was called Dynasty. The building has a pagoda like tower.

As most people take pictures from the same angle, I thought I will try something different. I took the top of the building from some few hundred metres away! :-) This is a night shot.


Tangs itself is a Singapore Icon. If London has Selfridges, Australia has David Jones and Myer, then Singapore has Tangs! You can visit www.tangs.com for more information. The website has a photo of the building too, the normal view :-)

Shopping in Singapore is especially worth it for visitors from London. My sis stays in London and when she visits, wow.. her money really stretches!! If you are coming from overseas, you can claim the 5% GST back at the airport. The people at Tangs are super helpful and will settle everything for you. If you want more discount, ask a Singapore friend to help pay for it first with a Tangs Store Card. You get an additional 8% rebate. Now you know!! My sis bought a brand new Delsey luggage to put in her shopping goods for around SGD200 after the various rebate and tax return. It comes up to £66 only, which she says can't buy any decent branded luggage in UK.

Tourist Series - Orchard Road

There are street names that are famous for a particular city. They are so called streets that tourist "must visit" to qualify themselves as visited that city. Hmmm wonder if that statement is true...

Like in London, you got to visit Oxford Street. In Melbourne, Swanston Street. In Kuala Lumpur, Bintang Walk. In Paris, Champs Elysees.

What about Singapore? Everyone knows that if you wanna shop, you must go to Orchard Road. Hey, there is even a website for it! www.orchardroad.sg



What streets or roads in your city is a "must see" for tourist?

Tourist Series - Singapore Visitor Centre

Today is where our Muslim friends celebrate their New Year. Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri to all my Muslim readers. Maaf Zahir dan Batin.

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Everyone should have done their homework before visiting a country. If you have not, drop by the Singapore Visitors Centre at the airport! They offer some free tours too!

Well, if you miss the ones at the airport, hop down to the Singapore Visitors Centre right in the middle of Orchard Road!



Here, you can book tickets for tours, for musicals, etc. There are also tonnes of brochures and maps. There's also a money changer.

Tourist Series - Are you a privilege tourist yet?

After the airport series, let me try the Tourist Series. Since most viewers will hopefully one day visit Singapore, this would be useful. By the way, I don't work for the Tourist Board. :-p

Orchard Road is famous as the tourist belt of shopping in Singapore. One of the shopping malls right in the middle is Centrepoint. This is a poster inside Centrepoint.

Are you a privilege tourist yet?


What privileges do you like to have as a tourist?

The Airport Series - Changi - Train to City

This shall be my last post on this series. The journey has ended.

After getting out of the Arrival hall, you can either take the Train or the Taxi to the city, or where you live/visit.



The signs in Changi airport are multilingual. As you can see, the main language will be English. Then there would be Chinese, Malay and Japanese.

Taking the train might be the cheapest way to the city. Actually I think it might also be the cheapest train ride anywhere in the world to the city. It only cost SGD1.50 from Changi Airport to City Hall. For most countries, trains that reach airport usually have extra surcharge, but not in Singapore :-)

The Airport Series - Changi Airport is A380 Ready!

We have been hearing about the news that the Airbus 380 is being delayed.
What a pity. The airlines are ready to deploy them, the airports are also ready. But Airbus is not ready. haha...

I saw this on the aerobridge while coming the plane I was on was taxing to the terminal.
Changi Singapore Airport A380 Ready!


Singapore Airlines will be the first airline to deploy it. Hmmm I got a colleague who is so obsessed with flying. He was going to book his flight from Singapore to Sydney just to take the A380. He told us his hopes are dashed!

The Airport Series - T2 Changi - Free Feet Massage too...

Guess what, after standing up at the Free Internet Terminals, your feet will feel somewhat tired. After all there are so many DP to visit. So what do you do with tired feet?

Head over to the free feet massage areas. Just sit down, plant your feet into the machines, and relax...

This is how it looks, the free massage with machines called iSqueeze from Osim.


Of course there needs to be instructions as well.


This is just Terminal 2. Few months ago, I took Qantas, and Qantas uses Terminal 1. McDonalds is in Terminal 1. I walked over to Mcdonalds wanting to purchase Coke, and was given a free Coke instead by showing my boarding pass. I was so pleasantly surprised! (Not sure if its still valid now though..)

The Airport Series - T2 Changi - Free Internet

With so many shops, restaurant, etc in Changi Airport, you would not bored. Just in case you get bored, you can also use the FREE!! Internet terminals available around the airport!

Examples of the Internet Terminals.


If you are like tanty - Stavenger DP, visitng Changi this Sunday, you can find them in Terminal 2 at the following areas:
- Chair Spa
- iConnect
- Near Gate E5
- Near GST Refund
- Near Transfer E & F
- All Boarding Gates
- Skyplex
- The Oasis

For details of Terminal 1, maybe you should visit the airport website, wonder if it's listed there. In any case, all boarding gates have internet access anyway :-p

Now there is no more excuse not to visit "The Keropok - Singapore Daily Picture" haha... If you have more time, visit all the DPs listed on the right! LOL...

If you are bringing your own laptop, you can plug into the Ethernet LAN points or dial-up to Singapore ISPs for free.

If you want wireless, it will cost $6 for 30 mins.

(No, I don't work for the airport if you are wondering.... )

The Airport Series - T2 Changi - Win a Maserati

This is another picture taken inside the airport, right after immigration clearance.

Win a Maserati by just shopping in Changi Airport! And yes, you gotta shop using your Visa Card!



Hmmm a big bear is driving the Maserati, I wonder if it comes with the car if you win it.



Who will win the car? I wonder....

The Airport Series - T2 Changi - Orchid Garden

I was pleasantly surprise to see an Orchid Garden with full bloom right in the middle of the airport. Yes, it's full bloom with multi coloured orchids with a Koi Pond to go along with it.

Oh yes, you have almost everyone who was inside taking photographs, people posing etc.


Here's a snippet of information about Orchids.


p/s Changi Airport, Singapore has 4 terminals. Terminal 1 and 2 are the usual terminal with full service facility like all the pictures you seen so far. There's a Budget Terminal as well, which is for the low cost carriers. Terminal 3 is currenly being built and I think it's almost ready.

The Airport Series - T2 Changi

Sleeping while waiting for the plane. We were sitting down getting a drink at T2 waiting for departure and we saw the whole row of passengers taking a snooze.



Now I feel tired too. Good nite everyone...

Colourful payphones

It was a great wedding I attended in Penang yesterday. Flew back to Singapore today and took this picture at the airport.

Payphone from the 2 major telcos that provide payphone services.


I thought that the colourful background was unique, plus the colourful payphones too.

Back to the $1 ice cream post..

If you remember the posting I had about the $1 ice cream, here's the close up of it.

Yummy yummy. Ice cream, whether its a cheapo brand or an expensive brand, it brings delight to my heart (and tummy.. haha)




Here's the link to the post previously.

For Aussie folks reading, Walls Ice Cream = Streets Ice Cream in Aust.

Are you afraid of bugs?

Are you afraid of bugs? I found this crawling in my room just the other day.


Harmless and so cute.

I will be flying out of Singapore in a few hours time. So I shall "play cheat", and post tomorrow's post up as well. Hmm. 3 days post in the span of 2 hours. Will be back Sunday afternoon. I will be back! with more pictures.

Clothes hanging for all to view...

I see many interesting response from yesterday's post. Thanks to those who dropped comments. If you are wondering how it feels to be right under the poles of yesterday's photo. Here it is...



Scary huh... so many floors and so many poles.

Look at that super long pole. I think that household must have lots of clothes that they installed a super long pole with some pulley system!!! (Maybe like Denton, hanging out all the diapers. haha.)

Sally and Olivier said that their cities have by laws that prohibits hanging of clothing outside their houses. Any other cities that have such prohibitions?

Well, there's thousand and one things good to air clothes under the sun, eg do not waste electricity (eco friendly), sun kills the germs on clothing, prolongs the life of clothing, free, etc. But... Keropokman still using the dryer. In fact, as I am typing this now, my clothing are turning in the dryer. (There's no midnite sun in Singapore. haha...) Yesterday's posting was also done when my clothing are in the dryer.

Just remembered, when I was growing up, we used to hang all the curtains all along the fences of the house. When it rains, all the children will run out and quickly collect them back into the house. :-) Yeah, I think my mum read this blogs as well, she might be smiling now.

How do you dry your clothes?

Do you hang out your clothes to dry in the sun? Dry them indoors? Use a dryer?

Well, in Singapore, the majority of people will hang their clothes on bamboo poles and then plug them into slots outside their flats just like this picture.



You get floor and floors of clothing hanging on poles. (This picture was taken some time ago, right now you wont see clear skies, it's still hazy all over Singapore today)

How do you dry your clothes? For me, my sister can't imagine carrying a pole that weights a few kilo with wet clothes outside your window 25 stories high. So, we have a Fisher & Paykel dryer at home :-) A auto sensing model as well, one that wont shrink your clothes. haha...

KFC and Pizza Hut Delivery Bikes...

Do you order home delivery? Nowdays it is much simpler that both Pizza Hut and KFC shared the same number.

Inspired by Jing (Shanghai Daily Photo)'s pizza delivery bicycles. I saw this today during lunch time, a whole row of delivery motorcycles of Pizza Hut and KFC, and decided I should snap it for today's DP.



I prefer KFC to Pizza Hut. Which do you prefer?

For our international friends, we are able to order both KFC and Pizza Hut food in 1 phone call (62 35 35 35), and they deliver it together in 1 delivery as well in Singapore. Is it the same in your country?

Giantic Water Meter

How much water do you use? Well, today's picture is of a giantic water meter.



No, I don't think this is for the apartment that you stay in. This meter is at the mains. If I am not wrong, it's one way to track if there are leakages. If meters are fixed along the pipes and measure the flow that goes through, you will be able to tell that underground pipes are leaking if the difference is great.

Do you conserve water? Or recycle water at home?

The wind blew the haze away... so its time for Claypot rice

Overnight, the wind must have blown all the haze away. Right now the PSI is 34.

From the picture just taken a while ago, at least the telecommunications tower on Bukit Timah Hill can be seen.

Bukit Timah Hill is the tallest point in Singapore, but it's not very high. Most high rise buildings in Singapore are much taller than the tallest hill. haha...


Lunch I just had. Claypot rice. Had to wait like half an hour for it. When the claypot arrive and the top taken off, the steam just comes out! Then you pour black sauce over it and stir...


More pictures of the claypot rice at my Singapura Food Blog. :-)

What a hazy day.

It's very hazy. The air quality according to the National Environment Agency says it is "Unhealthy". People are advised to stay indoors, and that's what I did.

This picture is taken this morning. When the PSI was around 130.


It did turn better during the day, but now it is worse. The PSI is now 150.
Anyone interested can monitor it via the NEA website at: http://app.nea.gov.sg/psi/

Looks like my electricity bill will be super high. The air conditioning and fileter has been running non stop since yesterday.

Mid Autumn Festival / Mooncake & Lantern Festival

Today's the Mid Autumn Festival. Everyone's suppose to be eating looking at the moon, eating mooncakes and sipping tea under the clear skies. BUT... Singapore's covered with HAZE! Arrghh... Thankfully I have air conditioning and a Sharp Plasmacluster Air Purifier as well.

Today's pix will be obviously photos of mooncakes.

They come in various types of packaging. This one's from Meritus Mandarin, Singapore.


This very chinese packaging comes from Chef Chan's Restaurant.


The mooncake close up.


This one is what they call the "ping1 pi2" skin mooncake. Translated as Snow Skin Mooncakes.
These are usually serve cold so the skin does not melt. My mum made this one!


Enjoy... Sorry did not go to the Chinese Garden where there's a lantern festival. It's just to hazy to go out. So no pictures of lanterns.

100 years old...

How many things do you know that is 100 years old?

Well, this was created to commemorate a 100 year old institution. The Centennial logo for the National University of Singapore. (fondly known as NUS)




The 100 character is formed in an infinity sign. How clever!

100 years and many things have changed. NUS is ranked the 22nd in the Times Higher Educational Supplement of the World's Top University. It is also the top 3 university in Asia and Australasia by Newsweek.

Update (6 October). The Times Ranking for this year is out. NUS has moved up to positioni 19th in the world's best universities!

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Extra Extra!!!

After posting the above, I found a picture in my archive. Yesterday's mouse, it tried to eat my food! This picture dedicated to tanty from Stavanger DP & Jing from Shanghai DP who loves the white little mouse.



The little white mouse tried to eat my curry puff. No wonder the mouse seems to be getting fatter and fatter.

More pictures of Curry Puffs here.

Mouse & Mouse

Too tired today to do anything. Just a picture I took at my office desk some time ago.

Picture of a mouse and a mouse. :-)



The grey coloured mouse is what I use Mondays to Fridays at work. The white mouse is a souvenir my colleague got me when he visited Hong Kong.

Chinatown Lights Up!

Visitors to Singapore can always enjoy beautiful lights during major festival. One of the famous light ups will be the Christmas Orchard Road lights. It's too early for Christmas. This Friday would be the Moon Cake Festival. Chinatown is all light up.

This is only part of the light up.



A close look if you are wondering what is written.


Deepavali (Indian Community's Festival of Lights) and Hari Raya Puasa / Aidilfitri (The Muslim Fasting Month) is coming soon. Little India and Gelang Serai is also litted up.

Karang Guni Man - That's what the rag man is called.

Do you recycle your newspapers, plastic, clothes? Yes, most people will send old clothes to the Salvation Army bins. For paper, plastic, etc, you might have the local council collecting them by putting them in special bins or bags.

In Singapore and Malaysia, there's always this Karang Guni man. (Rag and Bone Man) For our home, every other weekend, there would be this man who would be shouting Karang Guni or Siu Gu Boh Zhua (Colleting old newspaper in Hokkien, a Chinese dialect) If you have clothes, newpaper etc to sell, just shout back whatever they shout. They will stop and you can pass what "junk" you have to them. Newspaper cost 7 cents a kilo.

This picture is the collection van that has collected all the "junk" for the day.



Just last week, my sis sold 90kg (according to the weighing machine of the karang guni man) of old newspaper from our home. Haha. WHAT? you said, yeah, that's how much newspaper we have in our home. It's around 2 months worth of newspaper. The money went to a local charity :-)

Theme Day - Taxis

Today's Theme Day, the Theme for October is Taxis. Here's a picture of a taxi that is most common in Singapore. The taxi belongs to the Comfort Delgro group.

This picture shown has advertisement posted all over. The taxi model is Toyota Crown. This model is the most common model and it is really comfortable and roomy.




Below are links to other Daily Photo Site participating in Theme Day today. See Taxis from all around the world!
1 (Porto ) -2 (Albuquerque ) -3 (London ) -4 (Seattle, WA (USA) [Kim] ) -5 (Edinburgh ) -6 (Stayton, OR ) -7 (Greenville, SC ) -8 (Budapest ) -9 (Antigua Guatemala ) -10 (Alexandria, VA ) -11 (Manila ) -12 (Twin Cities ) -13 (Szentes ) -14 (Paris ) -15 (Portsmouth ) -16 (Ryde ) -17 (Sydney ) -18 (Oulu ) -19 (Singapore [keropok] ) -20 (Santiago ) -21 (Melbourne, Aust ) -22 (Dubai UAE ) -23 (Bandung (Indonesia) ) -24 (Copenhagen ) -25 (Sequim ) -26 (Singapore ) -27 (Tenerife ) -28 (Sharon, CT ) -29 (Tuzla, B&H ) -30 (Jakarta (Indonesia) ) -31 (Rotterdam ) -32 (Brussels ) -33 (Stavanger (Norway) ) -34 (Aliso Viejo, CA ) -35 (Oshawa, ON, Canada ) -36 (Vantaa, Finland ) -37 (Trier (Germany)) -38 (Newcastle upon Tyne ) -39 (Hong Kong ) -40 (Shang Hai ) -41 (Brussels ) -42 (San Diego, CA (USA) ) -43 (Sydney (Nathalie)) -44 (St Paul (USA)) -