I wasn’t looking forward to this trip, because I have to do a check-up during my stay there. Woke up this morning at 5.15 am, finished packing my stuff and went to airport at 6.30 am. There wasn’t traffic jam and I arrived around 7 am at airport. I didn’t have my luggage with me, because my husband will carry it with him after he’s finished with work. My flight was with tiger air. The queue was not bad, I picked the shortest queue with not many checked-in baggage. But ended up waiting longer because of the trainee at the counter.
After I finished my check-in, I need to go through the first labyrinth. Security check. At least they make line so it was not that bad. It just looked terrible because of too many people at a time in 1 long queue, but the wait was not that long.
Next one is the immigration. Second labyrinth. This one always frustrates me because of the way they are queuing. I saw the line at most right side had a chance to be served by 2 counters. There is a counter for priority passenger, and if no one is there the officer will call the person on the line at most right side. Good chance! I picked that line of course. Just as about 3 persons standing on priority line. . . In the end, it was the same with other line.
I was waiting at gate 16 but they changed it to gate 19. Luckily it is not far, so I didn’t have to walk far 😀 I saw a water (drinking) station before gate 16 and a water dispenser before gate 18. So next time I will bring empty water bottle and get water from there instead of buying. Yes, i’m cheapskate! This time I bought it from a store for USD $2! Or 45k vnd.
The flight was on-time. I arrived at Changi International Airport terminal 2 at 11.55 pm as scheduled. I went directly to arrival, passed the immigration and custom check, and straight to money changer to buy simcard. There are several kiosk that sell simcard, but my favorite is Travellex Money Changer. They have Singtel Hi! Tourist 5 day for SGD15. Great deal. Starhub also have something similar for SGD18. Since I’m only staying in Singapore for 5 days, I bought that Singtel 5-day tourist simcard. There is other packages as well. You can check it at the counter.
I went to the city by train (MRT). Terminal 2 is very convenient as the MRT station is at the same building, so I don’t have to take sky train to other station to get on the train. It was raining when I arrived in Singapore. My friend told me it has been since 6 am. So I decided to look for lunch nearby Orchard area. I chose Food Republic in Wisma Atria.
When you don’t know what to eat, it is better to go for food court to get some ideas. Food Republic in Wisma Atria is one of my favorite. The location and the food variant are good. It is close by from Orchard MRT Station. They have Japan food city too now! As I strolled around Food Republic, I found one food I wanted. It was chicken cutlet noodle!
The place called RedRing Treasures Cutlet Noodles. I was interested in 2 dishes. Chicken cutlet and squid cutlet. I actually like squid better but I need to remember my health.. And squid is trickier to cook. I hate chewy squid. So I picked chicken instead. Paid SGD 5.5. While waiting for my food, I read that their cutlet was marinated for 24 hours before fried. Interesting.
Since I came there alone, I couldn’t asked someone to look for a place to sit for me. So I walked around with a tray, trying to find a place to sit and eat. It was hard on lunch hour, even tho it was already 1 pm still many people eating there. When I finally found a place, I tried the cutlet. It was delicious! The meat is tender and they tasted very good. So they weren’t lying about marinated the cutlet! I like this! The noodle also good. Chinese thin noodles. Recommended to try.
After lunch, I walked to my hotel and stopped by at Shaw Center to see the pet shop there. There is 1 pet shop inside Shaw Center on 4th floor, called Pet Lovers Centre. I didn’t look for something in particular. Just browsing and see if they have a good collar for my friend. She asked me to let her know if I found one for her dog. But there was nothing special about the collar. They are just normal collar without any design. I looked around the shop and didn’t find anything interesting to buy. Found some stuffs that are available in Ho Chi Minh City as well, and their prices are higher here.
I checked in at my hotel and rest for a bit. At 6.20 pm I went to Novena Station and met my friend. We planned to have dinner together. At first, I wanted to try Founder Bakkut Teh. But they are located in Balestier Road, about 20 mins walking from the station. Too far.. Gonna starve before reach the place. We decided to look around in Square 2. My friend has a favorite ramen place there and it had queue when we arrived at the shop. So we were walking around looking for another option, and we found Seoul Yummy.
We sat at the corner table. The table next to us ordered Buddae Jigae, a mixed of meat, vegetable, and noodle in kimchi soup. Very interesting, but also looks spicy… Me and spicy food, never get along 😦 In the end, we ordered something else. My friend ordered a spicy kimchi ramen with chicken and cheese.
I ordered grilled eel bibimbap. I forgot to take a picture of it 😦 For the drink, we ordered roasted barley tea. Overall the food is okay. It is spicy and more to the sweet taste than salty. I don’t mind a little spicy food as long as it’s salty as well. But this restaurant mostly has sweet taste. Even on their side dishes.
Among the appetizer / side, I like the tofu the most since it’s salty xD In total, I spent SGD 22 for foood and drink. Quite expensive and the food was not impressive. Definitely not recommend this place.
After dinner, we walked around inside Square 2. There are not many shops there, but at least have a few interesting shops. The first one we saw was Korean supermarket. They are selling korean product (doh!).
This noodle, according my friend, can be made as seen on korean drama. Cooked it and add chesse then eat with kimchi. She said it is very yummy. I should try it!! But I don’t want to buy the noodle here and carry it over to vietnam… Let’s see if I can find it in Ho Chi Minh City. They have a new korean supermarket in the city.
Next is Japan Store. Many household products and they are cheap as well. Also many Japanese product. So I like this place.
We entered several fashion shops as well, but didn’t buy anything. The products are not good and their price is high. I saw 1 dress, very simple and no brand. Price tag is SGD 83. Good bye!
On ground floor I saw Vincci. This one is a shoe brand from Malaysia if I’m not mistaken. My other friend used to like this so much because it’s comfortable to wear and affordable price. We looked around the small corner of Vincci and didn’t find anything to buy at the moment. But at least this friend of mine found a new place to buy her next shoes 😀
The last shop we stopped by was Miss Empire. This shop has MANY cute accesories. Earrings, bracelets, necklace, bag charm, etc. Their products are from korean. There are some product from Paris, France as well. I found and owl earrings! It’s so cute, couldn’t resist to buy it. The earrings price range are from SGD 15 to SGD 49. They have gold plated ones and silver ones.
They have other branches as well. And each branch has special collection. For example, the branch at Clarke Quay has more collection for party people, and at Orchard Central has style for Japanese people. Interesting… I need to check it out 😀 The shopkeeper asked me to check their website as well. http://www.missempire.com.sg.
That was all for day 1. There was not much to do other than eat and shop 😀 but at least it was a productive one because I tried new things and found new things as well!
Thanks for reading my adventure in Singapore during my 1st day here. See you on next post!
Ciao.
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