Our Chance Encounter of the Port of Lost Wonder

Port of Lost Wonder (POLW) - Singapore's First Kids' Club by the Beach. It's one of the newest attractions in Sentosa, specifically intended for kids! :) It's a pirate-themed swimming resort that offers a lot of attractions and facilities for the whole family.

Last week, we had no intention of going here. We originally planned to take the cable car and get off at Beach station, then walk towards the Southernmost Point of Continental Asia to have our picnic there. Along the way past the carpark building, we got a glimpse of this huge pirate ship and right then and there we decided to go in and have our picnic there.

Obviously, that was a good call. :)

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TIP: POLW is the first stop of the Palawan-Tanjong Beach tram from Beach Station. Can't miss it.

My "going-home" boo-boos and yeah-yeahs list

Having spent about a week in Manila was not a cakewalk, but the following boo-boos made it just a little bit worse, although the yeah-yeahs seem to make it all worthwhile. I hope the list helps you out there planning to go home :)

BOO-BOOs:

Left Driver's License. You only actually need a license when (1) you get caught by those traffic enforcers, and (2) when you get caught in an accident. With these in mind, I always had that nagging feeling whenever I'm driving around the Metro... Yep, not the best feeling at all... which only makes you even more prone to accidents... :(

Left ATM card. What's worse than your wallet with missing driver's license? Your wallet with no money whatsoever! I already transferred cash into my ATM account in Manila (since remitting from SG to Manila has better rates than converting through money changers in Manila). Of course, that is useless if your ATM card is not with you. Darn! Good thing, we had a simple workaround: transfer funds into another ATM that you have access to (such as the ATM of your parents!) This was a bit of a hassle, but it's better than not having any cash at all!


No traffic "intelligence report". Traffic was so heavy, we spent the entire morning crawling through the South Luzon Expressway. I guess if I had tuned in to one of those traffic watch programs, I would have taken the Skyway or any other alternate routes. Oh well... That's a half day wasted. This is perhaps the worst case of "waste"... You waste time, energy, gas (and consequently money) in the middle of a damned highway. The only good thing here is that we were stuck in traffic in our entire stay only once.

Unset alarms. You'd expect some days in which you would have to stay up real late and, as such, you are expected to wake up late as well... However, time is not on our side. Alarms should have been set so as not to waste two or three hours to sleep. It's only a small thing to overlook, but one that cost us several hours... Multiply that by several days and you'd almost have a full day lost to sleep... Not the healthiest choice, sure, but we could have grabbed some sleep after finishing whatever tasks we had for the week... Oh well....

Planned a not-so flexible agenda. Many items in our list were not done mainly due to "surprises". At one time, we had unexpected (but welcome) visitors which practically cleared out the rest of our day. Our timetable was so tight, there was very minimal room for adjustment. Surprises like this forced us to leave out some items undone.

Not-enough days! One week -- actually, 5 workdays plus the 4 weekends, inclusive of the in and out flights -- is simply not enough! It was just enough time to finish off some loose ends, but not enough to actually enjoy the stay. One week would have worked for a non-flexible and completely predictable time. Otherwise, it's just not enough... :(

Note to self: next time, plan a two-week vacation at the minimum.


YEAH-YEAHs:

Meet family, friends and colleagues. What's better than meeting the ones we've left behind after a long time? Although sadly, we didn't get to meet everyone due to time constraint. But I guess we were able to meet with the people that we really needed to meet with anyway, so that's fine. :)

Home. No matter what you say, home is home, and there's nothing like being home after a long time... Well, in our case, it's actually just a few months, but still... In our case at least, we had three homes: our actual house where we live (or used to live), Che's parents' house (with all her pamangkin's including the newest one, Keisha), and my Dad's house (where I grew up and is the "gathering point" of my clan). Spending time in all three is very refreshing.

Eat foods missed. Needless to say, food abroad is nothing like food in Manila. So which foods did we have? Well, there's Jollibee's chicken and breakfast meals, Tapa King's Tapa Queen (the sweet and spicy one, I think), Goldilock's puto and mamon, and, of course, the home-made dishes (too many to mention). Aside from these, we brought back to SG some of the things that you'll never find there: Purefood's Tender Juicy Hotdogs, Purefood's Salami, Purefoods Corned Beef (simply the best corned beef for me), Century Tuna (Hot and Spicy), laurel leaves (bay leaves) and banana blossoms (puso ng saging) for the paksiw, different types of tuyo and daing, Filipino curry powder (i.e., our local yellow curry powder, not to be confused with SG's fiery red curry powder), bunch of chichiryas like Kirei, Oishi and Tortillos, and, of course, my favorite sandwhich spreads -- Cheez Whiz and Lady's Choice Guava Jelly. Actually, my favorite since way, way back was the Peanut Butter with Guava Jelly Stripe. If I'm not mistaken, it's either Lady's Choice or Kraft. Well, it no longer exists today, sadly, so I'd settle with the Guava Jelly with any brand of peanut butter such Lily's.

Note: Wow! What a long entry for food! Hehehe...

Had our first-time massage. We never really had a massage together before. So we thought that it was a good time as any to do it. We went to the Relaksasi in Park Square I in Makati. We went for the Combination massage. Hu-wow! What a massage! Maybe next time, we'll try their so-called signature massage, the Balinese massage. Almost twice the cost of the combination massage... That better be worth it! :)

Note to self: Include massage in the itinerary of any homecoming vacation.

Dealt with our wedding photo package. Yep, at long last...after more than a year and a half, we finally met again with our official wedding photographer to finalize our photo album. Allan Boras, excited as ever to take pictures, was more than happy to accomodate us. :) He still definitely exhibits that passion of his for photography. Here's a guy that just loves taking pictures. :)

Triggered retro-gaming. Checking out our PC at home, I came across one of the best games I've every played: Baldur's Gate 2 - Shadows of Amn. It's one of those early 2000 RPGs (role-playing games) based on the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game. To make the long story short, I installed the game in our laptop (thank God, the game is compatible with Windows Vista!) and started playing on my free time. :)

Helped one of my cousins. We learned that one of my cousins is already graduating from college. Her life would be made easier if she had her own PC to use. Those reports can be a real drag if you don't have your own PC. Well, we wouldn't be using our PC anyway, so we gave a PC to her. Hope she makes the best of her final year in college!

Well, that's all for now. :)

And we're back again!

It's June and we just got back from Manila!

The nine-day vacation was longer than our last visit last February, although it is still not long enough. Our stay isn't exactly what I would call a "vacation"; we had to work on some issues that we've left behind, such as the clearance form from my last job, and cutting our unused phone line. :)

Nevertheless, on a more serious and personal note, I got more than what I bargained for... After learning a few things, our past experiences have been placed in a new light... Seeing my past in a new perspective was a bit of a rollercoaster for me. All of my current concerns seem trivial.

On a lighter note, it's good to see old friends and relatives again. I never felt more homesick than I was a week ago and seeing everyone sure helped me a lot.

Although not fully rested, I'm now psyched to get back here with a fresh new outlook to face my challenges... at least for the next couple of weeks... :)

Countdown to homecoming!

Just a few hours left.... Tonight, we will be flying back to Manila for about a week!

I miss a lot of things from the hometown, but there are also many things I'm not really looking forward to.

One good thing is the more favorable exchange rate; last February, SGD1 = PHP27++; as of this writing, SGD1 = PHP31++, the highest so far this year. So supposedly, one SGD can buy more now than last February. The bad thing: all prices went up; rice, gas, jeep/bus fares. Well, there goes the better exchange rate... Still, at least it's higher than last time.

Traffic, I heard, was getting worse everywhere. Good thing the places we need to go are not that very far. Well, except for a few items (Cavite, etc.), but aside from that, I guess we're okay.

We've been keeping tabs on our immediate families, and I'm happy they're all good. Although seeing them all with my own eyes should be so much better than hearing them over the cellphone. We missed all their birthdays this year, but work and obligations just prevents us from doing so.

Haven't seen a lot of our friends the last time we were here. Many of them did not even know we came back! ;) Oh, well, you can only do so much in a week.

I wonder how Santana Grove looks like now? When we left, the place was already becoming a people "magnet", promising to be one of the new "gimikans" or "go-to places" in Paranaque.

Water is still a problem, though. Could be a few more months, if not years, before NAWASA/MWSS (or whatever company is making all the digs along Sucat Road) can reach our subdivision. Plus, we need a new water tank. Hehehe :)

Oh well, still... Despite the imperfections, home is home. :) Nothing better to prepare myself before the June "showdown" I'll be working on than getting the "home-feeling" again. :)

Hope we can make the most of our stay; if everything stays the same, the next time we'll be able to go back is next year.

Hmmm... Just realized my post is almost like a jumble of ramblings, one thought only loosely connected to the others. Oh well, I guess that's how I am when I'm left with these musings about home. Hehehe. :)

I guess, happy homecoming to us then! Yipee!

To Sentosa we will go...

My sister reminded us that there's one place we haven't been to yet... Well, actually, we haven't been to the many go-to places in Singapore yet, but that's not the point. :) Anyway, read my previous post about this here.

After six months, we finally needed to take a very good breather and so we went to Sentosa! I guess carefully laid-out plans don't always push through. We've always been planning to go there only to end up too lazy to push through. Drawing, drawing, drawing... This trip was simply made out of the blue; someone suggested it, everyone agreed to it, so awaaaaaaaaay we go!


While going down the beach, we spotted what appears to be an out-of-place Siberian Husky in the middle of the tropics...




Us with the rest of the gang!




This one was taken on one end of the beach....

Shot on another part of the beach are the bridge and the viewing platforms on the inlet, which is dubbed the Southernmost Point of Continental Asia.




The two of us on the bridge to the Southernmost Point of Continental Asia.




On the platform that links the "two towers" i.e. the viewing platforms.




The rock says:

"The inlet that you are standing on now is 135 KM north of the Equator and is described as the Southernmost Point of Continental Asia.

This inlet is linked to Asia via a suspension bridge which is linked to mainland Singapore by a 710 meter long causeway bridge. Singapore is further linked to Peninsular Malaysia and Asia by the Singapore-Johore Causeway."



Note: It's a bit tedious writing the "Southernmost Point of Continental Asia." This is like the fourth time it was written within this one post...


The two of us on the iconic rocks that spell "Sentosa".



See also Che's post on this one here.

My Bangkok Getaway!

As per my last post, April was bad for me.

I was sooooooo sick of my work, that all it took was one SMS from Che and I booked a flight to Bangkok!

Che was also having a hard time at the customer's site in Bangkok that she kept texting me to book a flight and go there -- as always, since she the first time she was sent there. She never expected me to actually book a flight and go there. She just wanted a little bit of comfort since her work there is also *ahem* a "winner"! Imagine her surprise when I said that okay, I would go there. The next couple of messages were my flight booking notifications I forwarded to her.

I know, I know... This is no different from impulsive buying... But at least now, I understand possibly one of the factors why people become impulsive buyers in the first place. At that time I didn't care. I just wanted to get out.

BTW, it's not just any airline. I booked a Singapore Airlines seat. I figured this is the only opportunity I had to fly on a more decent flight. [I've always flown cheaper ones like Cebu Pacific and Jetstar.] Well, the flight did not disappoint. Seats are larger and much more comfortable. I opted for the movie National Treasure 2 as my entertainment me during the flight. The served lunch was also great. The aircrew were nice and very accomodating.

It turns out that Thailand would be celebrating the Thai New Year, a three-day holiday starting the following Monday. Too bad I had to leave on the preceding Sunday, but that's okay. I enjoyed every minute of my stay there! :)

Since there was no actual plan here, we didn't see any of the tourist destinations there, except for one - the Chatuchak (or Jatujak) Market.



Bunch of clothes, trinkets, and pets for sale. We spent several hours there but managed to go around only the south-eastern section of the market. The place was just too damn large! I'm glad Che had a blast buying stuff for home. Me, well aside from my aching feet, I had fun as well. :)

Aside from that, we decided to go to Siam Paragon, one of the got-to-see malls in Bangkok. To get there, we had to take the MRT from the hotel. Not much to do there, just our typical day in the mall. Just different places, different brands, different food, and people talk to us in their local dialect -- to which we reply mai ko jai -- not sure exactly how it's written but that's what it sounded like. It means "I don't understand". Hehehe :)

BTW, while Bangkok is similar to Manila in so many ways, what separates Bangkok from Manila is the train system. Bangkok's MRT, while may not be as efficient as that of Singapore, is simply much better than the MRT systems in Manila. The Bangkok MRT system is clean, well-maintained, and although there is certainly room for improvement, it is nevertheless effecient.
So anyway, moving on...

By Sunday afernoon, we were back in Singapore. We rode on two separate flights -- hers was a Singapore Airline flight at 1PM, while mine was a JetStar flight at 9AM. Reason for different flights? Her company reserved her for that flight. I, on the otherhand, just booked on impulse (as I explained earlier). That was the only available flight available to me for that day.

By the time I returned to Singapore, I learned that my sister was also here with her family. They were planning their own "Amazing Race", arriving in Singapore that Sunday, then leaving for KL (Kuala Lumpur), Malaysia the next day via train. After doing some business in KL, they'd go to Thailand after which they would fly back to Manila. Go figure. :)

Anyway, we met them on Sunday evening and treated them to dinner in Marche (again) in VivoCity. But I guess, that's another post for another time.... :)

Thanks for reading...