Imperial Palace of the Forbidden City in Singapore

Shopping in Singapore make up a big part in tourist sector. Orchard Road is Singapore's popular shopping area, among the young and old. This is spilled over to Scotts Road and further down to Bras Basah, Raffles Boulevard where the Marina Square and Suntec City is.

At the junction of Scotts Road and Orchard Road, lies a plot of land bought by Tang Choon Keng with the prospect of expanding a departmental store in 1922 in River Valley Road.

In 1982, it was rebuilt to a magnificent 33 year old complex and departmental store that housed Dynasty Hotel and the Tang Shopping Complex. The unique structure has chinese roofs that still stands today and never run out of style. It was modelled after the Imperial Palace in the Forbidden City in Beijing. Dynasty hotel had been revamped in early 90s and is now The Singapore Marriott Hotel.

Flea Prevention

There are many pet owners in Singapore. Although three quarter of Singaporean lives in flats and apartments, nothing has stopped them from owning pets like dogs, cats and other furry pets at all. Perhaps it is because there are many parks and garden built around estates that one can bring their pets to go for a run or walks.

Going to public bound areas mean their pets will somehow be meeting other pets and risks of picking up fleas, ticks and other pet diseases from outdoor that is not constraint like in a home garden. Fleas not only bite dogs and cats but it can also be irritating for human as well. Although there are many on the shelf products, it is important to learn how to get rid of fleas by visiting sites that have tips and methods that are non toxic and also natural in remedy.

Plenty of Fruits

Fruit vendors in Singapore are abundant. There is no shortage of fruits. Singapore, although has no natural resources, it imports lots of food items from neighbouring and far countries. Fruits are available whole year long. Now is the time for lots of Lychees, Durians, Mangosteens, Longans and even Fuji Apples from China and Japan. And i saw this large basket of Watermelons recently. They were really cheap. I could get a big Watermelon at only $5.00. When it is really cheap, some places sell them for about $2.50 each! Believe me, you can eat till your heart's content.

Even strawberries per punnet cost anything like $2.95 to about $4.90 per punnet. It is not very expensive especially when these fruits are all imported. And the cheap King of Fruits, The DURIAN is so cheap at $5.00 per box (equivalent to about half a durian). Sometimes when they are clearing, they will 'auction' if off at 3 boxes for $10.00! Longans are sold at $1.50 per 100gm. Fuji Apples are about $2.50 for 5.

Prescription Glasses So Cheap

Some eyewear shops charge the world for a simple pair of glasses done. I was shocked when I asked for the price of my selection from a shop and was quoted $125.00! I declined politely because I find it a little too expensive for my budget. Well, that was until I discovered zennioptical.com, an online eyewear store that sells prescription glasses, shades, goggles and more. The selling price in this store is an all time low which you would never find anywhere else. You can find eyeglasses from as low as $8.00 in many different frames available. Zenni Optical is able to pass on tremendous savings to their customers because they have no overhead costs like having a middlemmen and retail rental. They also manufacture their own ZENNI frames and sell them direct to their customers.

Page Rank Tool

I had a wonderful surprise this morning. I found out that Google had rewarded my site with a Page Rank of 3! That was really good news because since I started my blog early of this year, I had no Page Ranking at all. I wasn't consistent in my blog then. But getting a page rank means I will try to keep up my posts to maintain my rank. But who knows, Google might just take it away when it reviews it's page ranking in the next 3 or 4 months time.

How do you check your page rank? Here, try this one out. You can check your page rank instantly and then get the code to embed it in your blog.

http://www.mypagerank.net

Sentosa Island, Singapore

Sentosa is a little island belonging to Singapore. It is a place Singaporeans go there to relax, to the beach, picnics, and lots of sun, sand and more. The attractions are Fort Siloso Tours, Butterfly and Park Kingdom, Underwater World, Dolphin Lagoon and more. One can have fun on the cable rides or go for exciting Luge - a fun filled gravity cart ride for kids and adult alike.

Food is plenty and one can stay in the luxury Hotels, indulge in Spas or even go for Chalets and do your own family barbeque.

Getting to Sentosa is easy. Take the train from the station in Vivocity (the mall located in Singapore Island just across), by Cable Car, by bus or even drive into Sentosa and park at the many car parks available. Travelling within Sentosa is by the Free bus trams available.

Buying train tickets to Sentosa

The Bridge to Sentosa Island by Bus or Car

One of the beach stations in Sentosa

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Vending Machine is so Convenient

In Singapore, many things are available for convenience. Of course the transportation is the most convenient and efficient as well. You can find malls in every estate you live and shops are usually not very far away. How about food? Food can be found in many towns, in the forms of hawker centres, food shops, restaurants and fast food outlets too.

Here is what the food centre looks like in Singapore. There is no short of food shops of course.

Besides the convenience of food, I found this cute little vending machine in a mall. There are vending machines that sell snacks, drinks, or even popcorn and ice cream. But this one is different. It sells umbrella.


So no worries if you didn't bring an umbrella and the weather isn't looking too good, grab one from the vending machine!

Longest Breakfast Menu List

A new tag has been sent to me by Mamakshop.com

Let’s learn what blogger’s favourite meal (Breakfast) is. Simple straightforward meme and great for link love. Have a good Breaky!

*Start copy here*

The Longest Breakfast Menu List
Everyone likes to start their day with a comfort food for breakfast. What kind of food do you take? This would be a good way to find out your blogger friend’s favourite food for breakfast.
All you need to do is to put your name down, the country you are in and your favourite breakfast meal. Let’s see how we can have this breakfast ‘menu’ travelled all around cyberspace and learn what each blogger living in different country and what do they eat for breakfast. This meme was created by a little lady with a penchant to spy around little baskets while marketing. Her favourite breakfast of the day is none other than Roti Prata, an indian flat bread. What about you? What is your favourite breakfast meal of the day?

1. Spymama, Singapore - Roti Prata 2. Yyun, Singapore - Wantan Mee 3. Name, Country, Favourite Breakfast

*End copy here*

Would like to send this tag to Tammy, Farah, Denze Recreational, Liza, Pinaymama, Blogscope.

Exterior Lighting

Lightings in Singapore are very common in malls, festive occasions and celebrations. I was driving to a large mall in the west for some evening shopping when I saw how beautiful the building looked with the lighting on the walls. This one is in Singapore's IMM and it had been revamped in the past years to make the place more attractive to shoppers after a flop in business in the 90s. It used to be a place to shop for furniture, wedding photo studios and accessories and at the ground level there was the IMM supermarket for traders and members. In the mid 90s, the place was like a ghost town because most Singaporean did not fancy the idea of having to own an IMM member card before patronizing it's stores.

In late 90s and early 2000, Giant was among the main tenant and this hypermart was able to pull crowds in for it's cheaper products compared with other supermarkets. Then in 2000, Capital Land revamped it by adding more outlets, stores and made it so successful that on any weekend now, you have to drive around just to look for parking space. Parking here is among the cheapest in Singapore, with the first 3 hours FREE.

Look at this beautiful exterior lighting that is occupied by Esprit Singapore.

Long time ago, handphones were only used by only the filthy rich. Those handphones are bulky, weighed a ton! It's also like a squarish little box about the same thickness of your regular Yellow Pages. Some of those who uses the handphone included those who works in the secret underworld or what the local Singaporeans will call them Loan sharks or the Master mind of Triad gangs. People used to joke about it because these people owned the old fashion handphones basically for two reasons - to make contact with their secret member and to use it as a protection or fighting tool. Well.. how much truth, only those who were involved will probably know.. lol

Now, owning a handphone (some call it mobile, some call it cellphone) is like a fashion accessory. Like watches, one may have one, two or even collections of handphones! And some will buy them each time a new model is released... they even give it more character by dressing them in crystals, hooks on cute bears, figurines, clothe them in leather bags, cute pouches or even 'skin' them in patterns. There is no end to this fad and handphone owners are getting younger and younger. I've seen as young as kindy child having his or her own handphone.. geez!

Because of this booming fad, old telephones around public area are almost non existence. The new ones are the card public phones and some coin ones, but there aren't many. Check out a picture of this old phone that I found in a market somewhere in Singapore. This was what I meant.. the orange coloured telephone that I used to call ever so often.. I really miss it a lot!

Singapore Zoo is Unforgetable

Baboons


Tram Rides at the Tram Stops


Penguins exhibit

If you are in Singapore, you mustn't miss the Singapore Zoological Gardens. Opened since 1973, it is one of the best zoos in the world. The trend of displaying animals here is very natural spacious concepts, all behind hidden barriers, moats and lots of shrubs. Various modes of travelling is by trams, carriages and for many of course walking enables one to really discover the true beauty of walking and looking at the animals in man made natural habitat. Strollers, wheelchairs and 'Tiny Explorer' a little wagon for kids can be rented from the zoo.

Animal appearance and animal shows make up an interesting part of Zoo visits. If your kids are bored, you may take them to the Kids' playground where you have the Choo Choo Merah (Train for kids), the playground and a splash pool. There are also many food outlets and kiosks selling food and drinks so you don't have to worry about lugging a heavy bag.

Singapore Zoo is a lovely place to visit. If you enjoy, be part of the Friends of the Zoo and get unlimited visits.

High School Musical - The Ice Tour

The biggest teen musical concert is coming to Singapore. Can you guess? It's the Disney's High School Musical, The Ice Tour concert, of course! These are performed by World Class Ice Skaters and they will be skating to the smash hit songs featured in the original High School Musical. Performed in ultra high energy with fast paced dance moves, it will be an event not to be missed!


Tickets are being sold like hot cakes! It will be in Singapore from the 5th to 10th of August 2008, at the Singapore Expo. Photography for this event is allowed but no video or audio recording. Sistic is the official place to book your tickets now. Click for Sistic Site

Healthy Singaporeans

Health is an issue that Singaporeans don't take lightly. There are many drives and roadshows in Singapore to promote healthy living in Singapore, which is encouraged greatly by the Singapore government. There are free health assessments, bone mass test by many sponsors as part of the growing health awareness in Singapore. Anlene has done many roadshows to create the awareness of shortage of calcium in our body. It was one of these shows that I went and discovered that I had not enough calcium in my bones that may be a risk in old age. Singaporeans are not shy for free checkups and is very forthcoming in these. You will be able to see the crowds in such road shows or free health checks.

Medicinal Tea

As the weather gets so unpredictable, many people are falling sick lately. In Singapore, traditional teas are a good way to replenish the heat. When one is feeling that he is coming down with the flu or feeling sickly, they usually would boil Herbal teas at home or buy them from shops that specializes in Herbal Teas.

There are many kiosks that also sell herbal teas. Some have medicinal values in them. There are Chrysanthemum, Longan, Lo Han Guo, Water Chestnut, Honey drink and more. Different teas have different properties in them. Some are cooling teas and some are heaty ones. Longan is usually known as heaty ones.

I usually buy some medicinal ones like the Ling Yang or known as the Antelope Horn drink. It is very good for those who are having fever as it brings the fever down. I usually try to boil it at home once a week. And I buy the ready made ones when I am down with fever. It is more convenient when one is already sickly.

Fish Otah

Singapore Fish Otah

Served as a snack item, or part of a main dish. Fish Otah is a slightly spicy fish cake and is wrapped and grilled in banana leaf. The fish used for this is usually the mackerel family. The fish is minced and added with prawn or cuttlefish paste for different texture. It is mixed with some rempah (spices all grounded together) to form a paste before wrapped in banana leaves and secured with toothpicks on each end.

The wrapped Otahs are then transferred onto a grill or open fire charcoal for barbecuing. Some other versions of the Otah are the Popular Muar Otah (this one is spicier and usually sold in a block in supermarkets) and the Penang Otah Otah. Penang ones are slightly different in their taste which is richer in coconut with fish fillets and also has a layer of daun kaduk (wild pepper leaves) at the base. The Penang Otah Otah is steamed and not barbecued.

Bazaars

I like to walk to neighbourhood area that sells bazaar stuff or those similar to flea markets. It can get a bit noisy at times but it is all good fun. After breakfast one morning, I walked to find the 'noise' where someone had used a loud speaker to sell some cheap towels. It was very loud and kept on shouting like Buy Buy Buy, only $2.00!!! Oh it was so loud. Some kids covered their ears as they walk past. But it certainly brought lots of people over. Towels were selling at $2 only. Cheap. But these aren't the luxury towels, these are slightly thinner. But they were body sized. I like these towels better because it dries faster. The thick ones are good but dries slower. In Singapore, where majority lives in flats, it doesn't make sense to use thick ones. Heavy to hang up and takes longer to dry.

I buy my towels about 2 - 3 times a year. I just love new towels. The old ones I usually recycle them into rags or floor rags. I'd bleach it till it become super white too...hahahah