Singapore Trip with Ko Sam - Part 1

[Soetta Airport]

Last week, I had another short getaway to Singapore. It was a 3 days and 2 nights trip. As you guys know, I have a 'brother' called Ko Sam ( @sammy_e1 ), Last month, 31st of August precisely, was his birthday. Because I'm so close with him, I decided to give him a birthday present. I asked him to go to Singapore with me.

After a long talk and discussions, and so after day by day, we finally had an agreement and we picked the date, It was Tuesday, 22nd - Thursday, 24th of September 2015. And I was barely waiting for the day to come because I was too excited.

Tuesday,
22nd of September 2015

Finally, the day had come. I had a compulsory class such as problem based learning that I needed to attend today. It was 9 - 11 AM, on the other hand, As you know, Ko Sam lives in Bali, so he would need to have a flight from Bali to Jakarta first but, unexpectedly Ko sam missed his flight, so he bought another ticket for the next flight to Jakarta. He was so pissed at that time and almost canceled his plan to go to Singapore.

But things got better after we talked it all, after class, I rushed and took a taxi to the airport and picked him up. I took him back to my dorm so he could rest or shower before our flight. I needed to take a remedial exam first because I failed my last exam before, I think I'm not taking classes seriously that's why I lacked on my exam. But After I did my remedial, then I came home to my dorm and together with Ko Sam, we packed our stuff to our luggage. We were ready to go! 

[Passport and Flight ticket]

One thing that made me pissed off after we arrived at Soekarno Hatta Int'l Airport, Our flight got delayed for 30 mins, thanks Airasia! but honestly, it wasn't so bad since I already had 4 hours delay experience before lol. Anyway, our flight was quite nice and no trouble at all, we just slept in the plane and finally we arrived at Changi int'l Airport Singapore wohooo!!

Changi International Airport
Singapore 

[Changi Airport]

We arrived at Terminal 3 and after we took our luggage, we used the sky train to move from T3 to Terminal 2. Because we wanted to use the MRT to went to our hotel in Chinatown. 

[Sky Train] 

[Sky Train #2]

Both of us didn't have the EZ link card for the MRT that day, because every time we went to Singapore we always bought a new card and after we go back, we lost them lol. So we bought a new EZ link card for the MRT, it costed $12 ( Singapore dollar ), $5 for the card, and we had $7 value in the card. But I really love the design of the card, they said it was limited because it was the SG50 design. 

[MRT card]

Hotel 81 Chinatown
181 New Bridge Rd, 
Singapore 059418

Our hotel was located in Chinatown, and it's so close from the MRT station also, so we didn't need to worry about the accommodation and transportation. Although the room was small and didn't have enough space for us but even it's a budget hotel, the room was so clean and nice also.

Because we arrived from Jakarta so late and even our flight got delayed, we couldn't go anywhere because it was already 9.30 PM here, and Singapore is one hour faster than Jakarta so we lost so much hours before. We just walked around Chinatown and ate at Mc'donalds that was still open, then we went to sleep.

Wednesday,
23rd of September 2015 

[Food court]

We started our day with breakfast, we strolled down to people's park and we found a food court there. Ko Sam told me that they had a really nice noodles that he usually orders when he visits Singapore. It was Wonton noodle. 

[Roasted Char Stew Wonton Noodle]

[Breakfast]

As he said, it was really nice, I ate the roasted char stew wonton noodles but I'd eaten the better one in Lucky Plaza before. Everyone that I've been going with to Singapore really like wonton noodle but I'm not a really big fan of it. I don't know why either, it just didn't appeal to me.

After we ate, we went to Tiong Bahru by MRT. Someone on my instagram, she's a singaporean and she told me to go to the Yong Siak street in Tiong Bahru. She said it was filled with so many nice bookstores and also good cafes too.

Believe me, Yong Siak street isn't near the MRT station. We should walk for about 20 mins to go there and it was so hot that day. The sun was literally above us. But after we got there, the street clearly looked like Haji Lane but not as crowded as Haji Lane.

Books Actually
9 Yong Siak St 
Singapore 168645 

First thing I saw back then was this lovely and famous bookstore named Books Actually. This bookstore was filled with so many cute and interesting books. There was one notebook that really caught my attention back there. The cover was made out of wood and screw, and there was a quote engraved on there. I found so many photography books about urban life and the dark side of Singapore. I really wanted to buy it but it was quite pricey. Oh yeahh, I didn't take any photo there because I was scared the owner would be mad at me. But the front side of store was stunning. I really love the mural they painted. 

[Books Actually]

[Ko Sam posed like the penguin behind him]

Plain Vanilla Bakery
1D Yong Siak St 

Singapore 168641

After half an hour strolled around the bookstore, we moved to this lovely Plain Vanilla Bakery. I saw the front of the store before because it was quite famous place for Singaporean's instagrammer ( I think ). Many people I followed had posted about this place before so I took a chance to try this bakery and also take some nice photos :p 

[Front] 

[Front #2]

This place was so lovely, and it looked like a cafe in Korean dramas. As you can see, there was so many bicycles in front of the store, and I love how they managed to hang the dried plants on the ceiling to make it more beautiful. 

[Table's situation]

[Lemon cake]

We ordered two cakes, one was raspberry tart and the other one I forgot the name but let's called it lemon cake. The lemon cake itself was nice. It had the blueberry jam inside and the cake itself was so soft and a lil bit spongy. On top of it was the lemon glaze that perfectly melted inside my mouth. The sourness of the lemon was quite strong but the green tea powder on the glaze helped to balance the taste.

The other one was the raspberry tart. So, basically it was a tart with some filling inside and on the top there was a caramelized layer that tasted somehow like raspberry. This one was my favorite. I prefer this than the lemon cake, because I really love the sweetness of the filling inside but I think their filling was too watery. 

[decoration]

[Love this space]

Although the bakery is quite spacious and clean, they didn't have so much tables and chairs. This bakery, I think, could only had max 15 people with sharing table to eat there. But thankfully, we were there when there weren't many customers. So we can enjoy our food for a long time here. We waited for about 1 hour because my best friend from my senior high whose studying here wanted to meet me. Her name is Sonia ( @soniahocksanda ). She's really close to me and every time I go to Singapore, we always had a mini meet up. 

[Ko Sam, me. Sonia]