Staycation @ RWS (Part 3)

Sorry for the lack of posts and effort in blogging. As in the previous posts, I’m busy planning for the exchange (sometimes I feel so fed up over it that I don’t want to go already). Don’t get me wrong, I love travelling, I just don’t like to be constrained when travelling/overseas. It’s hard to elaborate further on this constraint thing, well put in a 2 words: TIME AND MONEY.

Anyway today’s post is gonna be about our staycation before National Day! Read the previous posts here and here.

So after the Bailey’s and movie session that night, we went to sleep at 2plus! So much for wanting to stay up right. Fail sia. Honestly I didn’t sleep much, I prefer my own bed! But we woke up at around 8 to 8.30am (thanks to my alarm hehe) and surprisingly everyone woke up too. We went to The Forum for breakfast. Initially we wanted MCD (I think) or toast box but we saw that Ruyi (Basement 1) had breakfast sets so we went there! You can choose either Fish/Chicken Porridge or fried rice and they come with a cup of coffee/tea for $5.50!

Shared the chicken porridge with Rachel, together with peanut toast from toast box. And of course you got to mix all the ingredients in the porridge! Personally I didn’t like the porridge. It’s quite grainy and not the smoother and silkier kind of porridge that I anticipated. Furthermore the chicken taste like it’s leftover from the night before. The tea came in quite a small paper cup. It would be better if it’s refillable. I think for $5.50, it’s not worth it. They do have the non-breakfast menu available as well.

So after not-so-nice breakfast at Ruyi, we went to Starbucks to have some coffee fix! This Starbucks at RWS is different from all other Starbucks in Singapore as it sells coffee that are made from more exotic beans. I thought that it would be quite expensive to have a cup of coffee made from these exotic beans, however, the price range is about the same as a cup of normal Starbucks coffee. I love the vintage feel of the storefront, makes me want to go in and explore! It’s located on the first level at the Forum.

A close up of the menu for the reserve coffee, in case you think I’m kidding you that it’s the same price as normal coffee. I was a little disappointed that they don’t have Kopi Luwak. Kopi Luwak is otherwise known as cat shit coffee, a very direct term for it. But despite the name, the coffee is actually very nice but it’s so expensive! One cup can costs up to $20+ in some countries or even more. But I can never forget the taste of it because it’s so good on its own, even without sugar.

A description of what we ordered. We ordered the Guatemala Finca Los Caballitos, Pour Over type @ $6.50. Difference between pour over and French press? I’m not sure too, pour over as the name suggests, it’s just pouring hot water (of a certain temperature) over a piece of filter paper with the coffee powder on it. French press is like pressing coffee taste out from the powder. So one is press, one is pour.

The barista showing and telling us how she actually made the coffee. It was really nice seeing how she actually make our cup of coffee and she also advised us how we should go about drinking it. She got us to try the first sip before deciding whether we want to add milk accordingly. It was quite bitter so we asked for milk and sugar to taste. The original taste of the coffee tastes like a milder version of black coffee and with a very light tinge of sourness. The barista told us that we’re supposed to taste some lemon but we aren’t coffee connoisseurs so we didn’t really taste that. Anyway after drinking many mouthfuls of it, I think the taste wasn’t too bad! Just add some milk and sugar!

doing the pour over, fascinating that the “cup” has a little hole below for the coffee to drip into the cup

Staycation @ RWS (Part 2)

HELLO!! Ready for Part 2?? We initially planned for a dinner at Jamie’s Italian, so we got Rachel and Amanda to set off after they’ve bathed to get a queue number first. But alas, Alicia and I didn’t pick up the phone, we didn’t realised that they hadn’t left sentosa at all until we were about to leave. Turns out that the monorail queue was snaking long and it will take even longer to reach sentosa. So they waited for us at the Forum and sigh we sort of had a debate/argument over where to eat because I really wanted to try Jamie’s Italian. Stubbornness sucks. Anyway we went to vivo by RWS8, my fault for not mentioning over the phone that there’s a bus to get out of Vivocity. When we reached Jamie’s Italian at 8.20pm, we were told the earliest we can get a seat is in 2.5hrs time. And they closed at 10pm -.- WHUTTTT. So anyhow, we settled dinner at The Soup Restaurant, where the famous plate of chicken reigns. I’ve seen it far too many times on instagram but I haven’t tried it.

Soup Restaurat
Vivocity, 1 HarbourFront Walk #02-141
Tel: 6376 9969
Opening Hours: Lunch: 11.30 am – 2.30 pm, Dinner: 5.30 pm – 10 pm, Sat,Sun,PH : 11.30 am – 10pm http://www.souprestaurant.com.sg

Anyway we got a table quite fast cz I think it’s quite late. I love the Chinese, vintage feel of the place! I didn’t order anything off the menu, Amanda and Alicia were the one ordering because they always eat there!

OMG the Samsui Ginger Chicken (Small, $15.90). The big one costs $30+. But there’s only 4 of us, so the small one is enough! HEHE so happy to be eating this, it’s my first time eating it. At first when it came, I thought, “like quite ordinary hor, but why so many people always order it.” It comes with a plate of vegetables. WHY? It’s for you to wrap it with the chicken, ginger and cucumber. You can of course choose to omit any of the last 2 but the chicken is mandatory! I’m not a fan of ginger, but Alicia said that it’s nicer to put ginger with it. For my first wrap, I ate it with only a little bit of ginger and then I know what Alicia meant by putting more ginger. SHE’S RIGHT. So for my second wrap, I put half a teaspoon of ginger, and it’s damn good. The crunchiness, cold and refreshing taste of the vegetable is such a good combination with the ginger. If you must know, the ginger doesn’t taste like the ginger we usually eat, it has a milder ginger and less raw taste though. THANKS ALI FOR THE RECOMMENDATION! (I’m salivating at the thought of it. I want to go back there again!)

Samsui Ginger Chicken

see that plate of veg??

They ordered Claypot Tofu (Small, $8). Despite it being small portion and just $8, we all ate 2-3 pieces of the tofu. But it’s abit sweet for me though.

Claypot tofu

I cannot pass up sambal dishes. So for the veg, we got Ah Kon Fan Shu Leaves (Small, $8.90). I think this one is not kangkong right?? I’m so bad at vege names, so I just call them vege altogether. The sambal was of the right spiciness for us and it tasted really nice and appetising!

sambal ah kon fan shu leaves

They also ordered this Steamed San Yu Fish Slice ($10.90). I cannot comprehend why the fish dish only costs $2 more than the vege -.- But anyway it’s sliced fish steamed with ginger and nice soy sauce! I think it’s quite nice, very generous amount of sliced fish leh!!

The order form, which shows you what dishes there are!

Verdict: In total we paid $57.60 for all! Not seen in photos are the FOC soup that we got because we paid via OCBC card, our 4 plates of rice ($0.80 each). Plain water -> FOC!! I think for around $14 each, the meal is quite reasonable. The dishes were all nice and we didn’t have to wait very long for it. What left a deep impression on me was the chicken (oh gosh I’m hungry). It’s a must try!! Soup restaurant: affordable Chinese cuisine with good atmosphere. Service was quite good too, all the staff were efficient!

Went to walk around after dinner, we went into Pull&Bear so I can check out the jeans. End up it was Amanda and Rachel who both bought something there! Then we went to Giant to get some food for the night! We got Greenfields Milk (1L), Nestle Yoghurt drink (1L), Calbee potato chips (small), Calbee Prawn Crackers, 3 Nissin Instant noodles. Initially we wanted to get Sara Lee cake or cookies but decided not to because we want the MCD McNuggets!! And I doubt we can even finish so much. HAHA. Took the monorail back, it was 10plus by then and the last train departs close to 12mn I think. The hotel gave us complimentary passes for the monorail (which lasts for 3 days, one tap each day). Decided to take a group shot there since we didn’t take any at all from the start of the day till night -.-

was testing the phone camera to see if the lighting is ok

NOOBS STAYCATION

We started our night with some movies, but we kept changing until we stopped at “Letters to Juliet” HAHA. Horror movies are kinda boring at the start so we scraped that. We ate nuggets, ate chips and drank baileys. Rachel and I didn’t know that baileys can be drunk with milk added to it (so as to reduce the alcohol taste). But it tasted quite nice though!! Amanda added too much milk for us so we added more baileys! We went to sleep after the movie ended.

Staycation @ RWS (Part 1) X Adventure Cove Waterpark

Happy birthday Singapore! 🙂

Long weekend! In fact mine started when my intensive German lessons ended on Tuesday! I shouldn’t have gone for the Tuesday lesson because I didn’t learn anything new at all -.- Anyway joined the noobs at Adventure Cove @ RWS in the afternoon! We stayed for the night at RWS too! We could have gone overseas but because I was watching Phantom of the Opera on Wednesday, we couldn’t getaway -.- the staycation was decided only about 1 month in advance. Thanks to dad who got the room for us at a discounted rate, we all got our own bed to sleep in, unlike the previous time at Carlton where we got a 2 person room at the same price.

I’ll start with a personal review of our room first before moving on to the waterpark.

We stayed at Festive Hotel, the theme was orientated towards “family”. As such, the rooms were designed for a family to stay in. Some rooms have the loft bed (for kids), but some don’t. I’ve stayed at Festive Hotel previously and I stayed in a room with 2 single beds and a sofa bed. The sofa bed is actually for 1 person to sleep in but if you’re tiny/skinny enough, 2 persons can squeeze on it but not comfortable. The view from the balcony was splendid, it was overlooking to vivocity!

Anyway the room we had this time was different. We did not have such a big balcony but we have a loft bed! Ya, even though the design is for kids to sleep there, but it can fit one adult too! The room seems older than I last saw in March 2011 but at least each of us have a individual sleeping space, king sized bed, sofa bed and a loft bed. Oh, the bathroom was smaller also, instead of a shower, it had a bathtub, probably that’s what made the toilet smaller than the previous room I had. The loft bed as we tried, was very comfortable! But it’s such a bother to climb down though, because it’s so comfy you want to stay up there forever. Amanda didn’t even go toilet despite being very urgent because she was too lazy to climb down.

Some grips about the room that I had:
– the heater wasn’t working perfectly when we showered after coming back from adventure cove. I thought I was the only one but apparently Amanda, Alicia and Rachel had the same problem too. So we went down to feedback, and when the technician was checking it, the water was hot -.-
– I asked for extra spoons and forks and they said need to charge $5 because they have to transport the things here and there. sigh, end up we went to MCD to get the forks.
– The tv cannot be connected to the MacBook even with the HDMI plugged in. There seems to be no remote for the tv but only for the mio tv.
– we didn’t have a very good view from the balcony as it overlooks the carpark/car porch and the ‘forest’ but it you look sideways, you can see vivocity.
– NO FREE WIFI IN THE WHOLE RESORT. I can understand if there’s no wifi in the room, but no wifi in the lobby too??

The perhaps redeeming factors:
– Ice bucket for ice (to be taken at the ice machine near the lift)
– Tea was from TWG (haha why the tea so atas)
– Rack at the balcony to hang your clothes
– enough beds for all of us
– quite a number of power plugs

I didn’t take much pictures though.

the loft bed. had quite a hard time climbing up.

OKAY gonna write about Adventure Cove now!! It opens from 10am-6pm, costs $25 (using mastercard, original price was $29) for non peak periods. Here’s the link for the website on all the information you need to know!

Because it’s hard to find information about what you can wear there, I’m going to write it here for everyone’s benefit. Basically if you’re too shy to wear just your swimsuit only, you can wear a tank top, a tee over it. FBT shorts, beach shorts are allowed too. I actually saw some people wearing denim shorts. Lol. As for googles, I don’t really think there’s a need for them unless you’re wearing lenses. But we all wore lenses and when I went in, the 3 of them said that googles are quite useless. Googles is only useful if you’re going into the water right? The chances of you being completely in the pool (meaning the face too) is quite low, unless your float overturns when you’re coming down from the slide. And no slippers allowed on the rides, we placed our slippers in the lockers and literally burnt our feet when walking to and fro during the hotter part of the day.

RIDES VERDICT: (LONG POST AHEAD)

I didn’t try a lot of them because I went in only at 1pm and I went out from 2.20pm to 3.20pm (to check into the hotel) so I tried 6 rides in all. All the queues were really long. 😦 I am not exactly a swimmer, I haven’t been in the water for 5 years, haven’t swam for 8 years, and had the experience of drowning, so I wasn’t really keen to go to the waterpark. But not to spoil everyone’s mood I gamely agreed (like what was I thinking right -.-)

For starters, the 3 of them brought me to Adventure River first. It’s just like a river that meanders around the park, and you can stop halfway to go to other rides instead of walking (because it hurts to walk without shoes). We meandered for about one round and abit more to the next stop: Whirlpool/Spiral Washout. It’s actually 2 different rides and we only realised that after we queued for the longer ride. Subsequently people realised that there’s two queues. There’s only one float going down at one time despite being 2 slides. Not enough manpower bah, and also to ensure no collision of 2 floats. Each float can hold up to 2 persons, you can also ride it as a single rider! We did Whirlpool Washout first. No lifejackets allowed. Anyway me being a semi-non swimmer, found the ride super fun!!! HAHA. It is just like a rollercoaster! After that Amanda and I went to check into the hotel and I went back 1hr later without Amanda because she wants to sleep! ><

Rachel and Alicia tried the Dueling Racer while I wasn’t around. When I went back, we went to queue for Spiral Washout and it was freaking long -.- And two groups of ATs cut our queue, gosh. Anyway IMO, I think Whirlpool Washout seems to be the more thrilling one. Then we went for Pipeline Plunge and Tidal Twister. The queue seems super short but you have to wait for a float (from the people coming down the slide) and then take the float and walk to the queue that’s further up. To make it short, we didn’t do both consecutively, we did Riptide Rocket in the middle. My verdict for the former two rides: Pipeline Plunge seems to have a steeper plunge than the other (a lot of people were screaming) but Tidal Twister was indeed a twister ride, twisting around and around. We waited 1h for Riptide Rocket. Sit on the float and the travellator takes you up before going up and down like a roller coaster. IT IS INDEED THE MOST THRILLING RIDE IN THE WHOLE WATERPARK. It goes up and down 4 times, whooshing through the dark tunnels with endless spraying of water. It’s so dark you can’t see much, so fast everything’s a blur, so much spraying that you won’t even want to open your eyes. HAHA GUESS WHAT HAPPENED TO ALICIA AND ME? The ride was so fast we didn’t catch much and the next thing we knew, we were in the water. And I was struggling to find ground. YA OUR FLOAT OVERTURNED. Everything happened so fast! So you might want to consider wearing googles for this although you’ll look rather ridiculous because no one wore it. Our lenses shifted we went into the water and opened our eyes, yeah that moment, luckily it didn’t come out!

the photo they took during the day

when we were leaving

Anyway that’s all, we went back to the hotel to bathe before going to vivocity to eat. Was so surprised to find MCD in RWS!! Haha and a lot of nicer food places opened up at the Forum. Till Part 2! 🙂

PS: 1417 words. LOL one of the longest post I’ve written ><

Sundown Marathon 2013 X Staycation @ Carlton (Part III)

(Note: very long post with words and photos)

From previously, we started running about 15mins after the gun time. WE REALLY DID RAN. But I supposed our pace was abit too slow for Rachel and I also wanted to speed up because I know that they can eventually catch up but I didn’t, cz we said to run together. I think we were all quite surprised manda’s able to keep up with us despite only training for like 1-2km and she said her longest distance she ran for sundown without stopping was 1km.

1km mark – still going strong, starting to see some crowd infront of us. thankful that we started late so we don’t have to squeeze and run after seeing the throngs of people at the U-turn.
2km mark – slowly overtaking a few people, yes we were all still running consistently with me having sudden bursts of energy wanting to go more forward. we bypassed the first water station at 1.7km to 2km. It seems like a long journey to 3km as my stitch starts to act up and eventually Alicia and Rachel left me and Amanda accompanied me. Started to walk abit at around 2.5km.
3km mark – starting to see the water station ahead so we sort of ran forward and caught up with Rachel and Alicia. Told Rachel to just run and not wait for us anymore (I think all these pacing destroyed her PB)
4km to 5+km mark – After second water station, I started to walk abit more, with Alicia and Amanda was behind, but she caught up eventually as we headed towards kallang area. We had to run on the expressway and I hadn’t realised that the water station will be about 2km away from the previous one because it seems so soon at the start that we had 2 water stations. During some part of the expressway (near the stadium) we tried to run towards the third water station and even after running for around 500m to 1km, there’s no sign of it -.-
6km onwards – I can’t rmb but eventually we saw the water stn, so thankful for it!! Super thirsty. But Alicia and I started to walk with Amanda nowhere to be found but somehow she caught up. Lol. The route became narrower and darker as we went towards the canal route. Again, can’t wait for the last water station which is to be at the 7+km mark and there’s H20 and plain water! Lol Greedy me took 2 cups so I had to walk with one. Amanda caught up after that as well this girl quite fast. Those people who keep shouting left 2km, 2km, cheat our feelings because we haven’t even reach the 8km mark. Anyway, Rachel whatsapp me and ask us where we were, and that’s when we knew she has already reached the finishing point. As we saw the 9km mark, Amanda suddenly caught up and it sort of gave us some stress that we should probably just run. There was a point where I stopped running and Alicia became way ahead of me because I was so so tired and my legs hurt. But when I saw the gantry at the end point, (they say it’s bad) but anyhow, I sprinted and managed to snap a shot because I saw Alicia taking photo. HAHA. Else I could have the same timing as her lor! Amanda should have reached the point by then (yeah she was like 30-40s ahead of us!)

TOTAL RELIEF TO SEE THIS.

YA GOT TIME TO TAKE PHOTO

Super happy to have crossed the finishing line!! Went to collect h20, water, banana, medal, suddenly my hands were full of things. Managed to find Alicia and then Rachel. Amanda went missing!! She gong gong, she went out to the baggage deposit there!!>< I was so tired all I wanted to do was to change out of my shoes and sit down and rest, drink and eat my banana. Totally no mood to take photo yet, there’s still an excitement and adrenaline rush inside me, totally cannot believe that I finished the race within my 100mins mark. Speechless for at least 10 mins. Well done girls!

medal that was hard earned with sweat.

pardon all the unglamness. haha actually I don’t really care, we got our medals and completed the race!!!

where was I looking????

manda

We walked back to the hotel!!! I really thought we will take cab sia but then actually it’s quite near if we didn’t walk the underpass. Initially we thought we couldn’t go through marina square, but end up there was a small door unlocked and we went out from Marina Square! I think the walk back helped our muscles to relax though, else I think we would be aching much more! We were like super tired, just want to lie on bed and sleep but still have to shower! What made me surprised was that there’s still alot of cars at 4am that timing.

Anyway our initial plan was to drink after the run (actually it’s such a bad idea) BUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT amanda fell asleep. WHAT’S NEW. lol. So we went to sleep also lor, with rumbling stomach. We squeezed onto the bed, haha really cannot twist and turn, must sort of lie flat, though I crouched a little, else really cannot sleep. After 30mins or so…….

I felt rachel’s hand moving, I think I was still awake but resting mode so I opened my eyes and she did too! Yeah something happened and it’s funny cz we just happened to be in the middle of the bed and okay, what happened that night, stays in that room and within us. The thing is that we couldnt sleep after that and me being me, vibrated the whole bed with my silent laughther and after talking about it in the morning, amanda and alicia felt it too even though they were sleeping!

So, 6.30am came and rachel and I went down to Cafe Mosaic for the complimentary breakfast!!! The food looked really good but it’s a pity that they weren’t warm enough for our stomach. We drank 2 cups of coffee from the coffee machine and there was a pancakes counter, but really, the food’s being out for too long and thus, cold. It would have been great if they actually have a station for noodles. Piping hot noodles, yum, but unfortunately, they dont.

the food looks good but I think only the donut was nice

I like the siew mai though, because it’s hot. I think rachel likes the lotus bun! The porridge isn’t too bad too. Was too full to try the cereals/colder food. Then we walked to the mcd that’s just 100m away and bought hotcakes set for alicia! It sure looked better than ours. Boo.

the first plate we took

very nice morning view that we saw, from our room

The both of us tried getting back to sleep but almost impossible la, cz it’s already morning plus I think we ate too much. And the amanda woke up and started talking alot -.- she went back to sleep and woke up again. And we decided it’s time to soak our feet on the hot tub. But really, we should have done it the night after the race. Must drink the taiwan beer after that because I didn’t want to take it home.

Verdict and word: The mango one is nice and the peach one cannot make it.

okay look out for my last post, where we went to Tiong Bahru bakery for brunch!

Sundown Marathon 2013 X Staycation @ Carlton (Part I)

HELLO!!! So excited to be blogging about this because there were a lot of firsts that happened during the 31may-1jun weekend! Well spent with the girls! Lol.

Many months back in January, we signed up for sundown 10km race at Amanda’s hostel, so we all could do it together. But at that time it was still about 4 months away, so we didn’t really have the feeling of impending doom. Among the 4 of us, only Rachel was the more consistent runner of running up to 7-10km each time and us? We haven’t ran in ages. So for sundown, I covered a total of 30+km in preparation for sundown, with the longest run/walk up to 6km only, so to complete this 10km was indeed a challenge but I’m glad we did it, in fact better than we went to run by ourselves during the normal days.

Anyway we booked a room at Carlton Hotel for the night after Sundown! Rachel and I went to check in and we got a free room upgrade from deluxe to premier, and the room was so much nicer because the former was in the old wing and the upgraded one is in the new wing!! We were given late check out till 2pm as well! Woohoo! We had an awesome view, very nice toilet and even an umbrella in the room! I doubt the deluxe one has all the nice things though. (PS, I booked through Agoda.com)

Rachel checking out the fridge

toilet with a glass wall…hmm

from the door, right side is the toilet

bathroom

Rachel washing her slippers lol

I guess that the only downside of the upgrade was that there’s only a king size bed and we had to really sleep straight for everyone to squeeze on it, and that the bathroom had a glasswall. Lol. But otherwise, great room! It’s almost twice the value of the one we booked! We then went downstairs to check out the pool and gym. Just nice, it rained. We were quite worried that the rain might not be able to subside in time for the race because it was raining really badly + thunderstorm and lightning. Thank goodness it stopped when Alicia and Amanda reached. For the record, the gym was not extremely big but still impressive. There’s a yoga class from 8am till 9am on Saturdays and we were thinking whether to go for it anot! But the idea was scraped when we saw that it’s a guy teaching. LOL. When manda and ali reached, we headed for dinner at Rock and Ash!!

I did a post on Rock and Ash previously and I brought them there because of the rather affordable set meal (less than $10 each after 20% discount), although it might have been a wrong choice because they ran out of olive rice and we were heavily spammed with fries instead which was maybe not such a good idea to have to much of them before the race. hmmm. Rock and Ash is located at marina link!

We actually ordered the 2 dips medium fries and they gave us another complimentary small one because they ran out of a lot of things. BUT we didn’t finish -.- Because our mains had fries as well grrrr. Our dips were Spicy BBQ, Garlic Mayo, and a Nancho cheese which was complimentary. All mains come with a set of free flow drink and free flow of soup. Yes you heard it! FREE FLOW! But the soup of the day on Friday wasn’t as good as the one I had previously. Come to think of it, the pumpkin one seems more appetizing.

LE FRIES, LE SIGH

Ordered a fried dory fish for myself and I didn’t really like it because it seems to be heavily deep fried. For once, I had to scrap off the fried outer layer else I would have ulcers. But I like my coleslaw though! 🙂 Rachel and Alicia both got the same grilled fish wasabi. There isn’t wasabi on the fish itself I think, because it came as a sauce on a saucer. It’s not bad, it’s like a healthier version compared to mine. The highlight was manda’s beef burger! It’s so good I totally regret not ordering that!! Rather succulent I must say.

fried dory

beef burger set

grilled wasabi dory

The fries proved too much for us to handle and actually they really didn’t have to give us another small fries, kinda wasted. Lol, give discount more practical right! Anyway for all our food we spent a total of $38! Which is less than $10 per person, haven’t ate a under $10 meal with them in ages. We walked back to the hotel to nua and changed before walking to F1 pit building! Alright, till part II!