toured some sites of singapore and kuala lumpur together with my mom, aunty and chi. we visited sentosa saturday feb 24 via an RMG tour. we were dropped of at Mt. faber for a cable ride to the island. first on the itinerary was the underwater world, then the Dolphin Lagoon where we watched the antics of pink dolphins, and the Merlion show and tour. but we did not return to the hotel with the rest of our tour-mates (",). instead, we stayed at sentosa for the afternoon and went back to the city on our own. it was quite timely for us coz there was a flower show there in celebration of chinese new year's fire pig. the theme was about rhymes in bloom. it was such a feast for the eyes! wonderful, colorful, bountiful hues everywhere! mom and aunty had an exhilarating Skyride. we got back via train to VivoCity. again, had a blast malling and picture-taking.
when we got back to the hotel, we were told that there was going to be a big revelry / party that night. it was a shindig/ float parade held annually after chinese new year. they even had Orchard roadblocked for the night. so we rested our feet for a few minutes back in our rooms and off we went again for the night dining out on rojak and clubfooting it on singapore's nightlights. singapore is quite a sight at night. the lights are just wonderful.
we went back to the hotel exhausted. the next day, we had the city tour. we started with a feel of Little India's colorful shops, stopped at Esplanade, drove past the financial district, shopped at Chinatown, drooled over Palmer House's export-quality jewels, and strolled along Singapore's 'green lung'- the Botanic Garden specifically, the National Orchid Garden.
we had lunch back at the hotel and took a light nap before embarking again on a foot trail to Sim Lim Square where the electronic gadgets were pulling strongly on us. the four of us had a difficult time deciding on which items needed the most buying. i personally had to constantly remind myself, hey girl, watch out for your budget..budget.. budget. but we managed all right. then we took a taxi to the Night Safari. there, we took the 45-minute tram ride around the area and sighted tigers, lions, hippos, anteaters, giraffes, rhinos, elephants, among others. we also watched the Creatures of the Night show and had good fun with the interactive live show of the owls, raccoons, otters, hyenas, etc.
the next morning, we got ready for our KL trip. off we went to Golden Mile Complex. i was able to make reservations for a bus ride to KL via Transtar coach in advance. my mom and aunt enjoyed the ride so much. meals and snacks were served on board, see. amenities also included video on board and massaging seats. they even wished we had one in Mindanao for the long distance travels from one end to the other. chi was meantime laughing at the Malaysian show she was watching, I don't know. said she didn't even understand what they were saying. well, i slept most of the way.
we stayed at the busy part of KL, Bukit Bintang. we were able to see Petronas towers at night. what a magnificent structure it was. even when we were already several blocks away, getting lost in the middle of KL, the Petronas towers kept looming from above. Grabe!
angling to sample malaysian food we then dined on spicy nasi lemak, chicken satay and vegetable fare.
we had the city tour on the 4th day, feb27. we visited the National Museum, had a photo stop at the Royal Palace, sunned ourselves at the Independence Square and Sultan Abdul Sammad building, observed batik-making, then marveled at the Royal Selangor Visitor Centre's pewtermaking skills. i even tried my hand at knocking pewter mugs. realized i had to improve on my strength and smash.
afterwhich, we got on the Transtar coach back to Merlion city. arrived at the hotel late night already. the last day, my birthday, was spent on last minute shopping. got out of bed late because i was having the hives or something. suffered some form of allergy, not sure which. we shopped, attended mass at St. Joseph's Church, went by National Lib and met up with a former colleague, Cathy. had dinner together, went back to the hotel and headed to the airport for our home-bound trip.
had a grand time!
