Erica moved to Singapore for work in February. She was given a hotel room in the Mandarin Hotel, along Orchard Road for a month while she looked for a suitable place to live. She was nice enough to allow us to stay with her for a 5-day visit. It was Karen’s and my first time in Singapore.
The first order of business was to buy a new water-proof camera. The latch closing the battery and memory card compartment of our old Sony TX5 broke, so we were looking for a replacement. I initially intended to buy a newer model of the Sony camera, but was convinced by the Filipino salesman at Cathay Photo to try out the new Nikon AW100. We were not disappointed!
On top of the great camera, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that Nikon had a promo at that time—the camera comes with free accommodations for a 4-day, 3-night stay in Bali or Pukhet; AND a 3-day, 2-night stay in Langkawi, Penang, Port Dickson, or Genting Highlands.
(UPDATE: We just got back from our Penang trip, thanks to Nikon! Here's my entry on the trip!)
Nicco’s cousin, Andre treated us out for dinner at Melben Seafood, which was very similar in feel to Dampa here in the Philippines. I have to say, steamed mud crabs in the Philippines are my favorite, but Melben’s crab soup blew me away!
On the second day of the trip, we had breakfast at this place called Wild Honey, which served a variety of international breakfasts. The poached eggs with prosciutto and wild mushrooms (European breakfast) was real good! We were intentionally stopping to take pictures of each dish as they came along, but Karen's European breakfast tempted her too much, she forgot all about taking pictures and started eating!
We watched Wicked with Nicco and Erica after lunch (we didn’t take any pictures!!), then Karen and I went to the Night Safari after, which we found a little disappointing because it was so hard to see the animals in the dark! The Creatures of Night Show was pretty funny though.
Day 3 was rainy, and we almost cancelled our plans to go to Universal Studios. Good thing we went anyway, because the rain stopped just as we arrived at the theme park, and it stayed dry for most of the day. We had dinner with Karen and Erica’s high school friends after (and we didn’t take pictures again!!).
Most of the fourth day was for shopping and doing errands. While Karen went around the malls which were walking distance from the hotel, I went to the Nikon head office to claim the travel vouchers we got from the promo. We visited Andre at the coffee shop he works in, Papa Palheta, where he set up a coffee tasting session for us.
The coffee shop was interesting, tucked away in small alley behind a gas station. They didn’t charge for their coffee, and instead put a tip box where people could give tips based on how they like the coffee they got. There’s no one watching, so technically they can just drink coffee and leave, but it seemed to me like everyone was leaving tips anyway.
It was valentines day, so we had a double date with Nicco and Erica at a fine dining restaurant called Luke’s Oyster Bar and Chop House. The oysters were very good, though a bit pricey! But it was interesting how they actually had short descriptions of each oyster type, depending on where it was harvested. (We had the Osterville oysters, from Massachusetts USA: mildly salty with a sweet finish)
We only had half a day on day 5, since we had to be at the airport by mid-afternoon. Most of the time was spent packing and on last minute shopping, though we were able to squeeze in a good lunch at Itacho Sushi, which served what must be among the best sushi I’ve tried. (especially the fatty tuna and salmon, which simply melts in your mouth!)
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