{"id":6041,"date":"2024-04-02T21:25:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T04:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/?p=6041"},"modified":"2024-04-28T21:07:34","modified_gmt":"2024-04-29T04:07:34","slug":"singapore-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/2024\/04\/02\/singapore-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"Singapore Spring Break"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>Singapore has been a dream destination for my family ever since my recent work trips. What began as a winter break idea became reality when we scored deals for business class<\/a> seats and a student’s list of must-try restaurants to create a week-long itinerary of the garden city over spring break. We drove to SFO early Monday to enjoy the Polaris lounge<\/a> ahead of our 17-hour flight complete with fish congee, PJs, and movies<\/a> galore. The automated immigration counter got us through quickly to our Chinatown Airbnb<\/a> to reset our clocks. We swiped our credit cards at the MRT<\/a> on Wednesday to begin our walking tour through Kamplong Glam<\/a> to Sultan Mosque<\/a>, where the heat and humidity called for multiple stops for char siu bao<\/a> and kaya toast<\/a> on the way to Little India for Muthu’s<\/a> fish head curry and biryani. We passed the former house of Tan Teng Niah<\/a> and Sri Veeramakalamman Temple<\/a> en route to the National Museum of Singapore<\/a>, where touring the city’s colonial past concluded with exhibits on dementia awareness and recycling plastics. We skipped the Instagram line at Fort Canning’s<\/a> tree tunnel<\/a> for the air-conditioned Children’s Museum<\/a>, then toured the gilded Buddha Tooth Relic Temple<\/a> before they closed. For dinner, we got Westley a pork floss roll<\/a> then went to Hong Lim Market<\/a> for Ah Heng’s<\/a> curry chicken bee hoon mee and Liao Fan Hawker Chan’s<\/a> soy sauce chicken, and brought mangosteens back for dessert. We kicked off Thursday with congee<\/a>, yam balls<\/a>, and fresh soy milk<\/a> from Maxwell Food Centre<\/a> to tackle Singapore Zoo<\/a>. Chatting with the docent here rewarded us with a private tour of gharials, anoas, pygmy hippos, hyraxes, langurs, and elephants. Lunch at Ah Meng Restaurant<\/a> was surprisingly good, but the showstoppers were the zoo’s expansive primate collection of baboons, lemurs, and proboscis monkeys, and display of giant fruit bats that flip right-side up to urinate. Our next stop at River Wonders<\/a> and Bird Paradise<\/a> included interesting shows that featured capybaras<\/a> and singing birds<\/a>, but our exhaustion set in after dinner<\/a> and put us to sleep aboard the Night Safari<\/a> tram ride. We awoke Friday to Nanyang Old Coffee<\/a> and Tong Heng’s<\/a> diamond egg tarts for our walk to Gardens by the Bay<\/a>, where we switched from fauna to flora at the Cloud Forest<\/a>, Flower Dome<\/a>, and Floral Fantasy<\/a>. We ran into my one Singapore friend at the bustling Raspura Masters<\/a> food court, then retreated home to rest up for our evening food tour in Katong<\/a> including no-chopstick 328 Katong Laksa<\/a>, the OG Eng’s Wantan Noodle<\/a>, and long-queue Ponggol Nasi Lemak<\/a>. On Saturday, we filled on Koo Kee Yong Tow Foo Mee<\/a> for our visit to Sentosa Island<\/a>. The S.E.A. Aquarium<\/a> provided reprieve from the heat as we watched hungry blue lobsters and elusive manta rays. Lunch at Putien<\/a> included their signature bian rou soup, ‘100-second’ yellow croaker, Fujian red mushroom seafood lor mee, and my first try of Buddha Jumps over the Wall<\/a>. We burned it off bouncing on the inflatable Hydrodash<\/a> course, but was disappointed by sold-out tickets at Skyline Luge<\/a>. Instead, we returned to HarbourFront<\/a> for Don Don Donki<\/a> shopping, Dian Xiao Er<\/a> roast duck, and Song Fa<\/a> bak kut teh. We slept in next morning for a relaxed start at Haw Par Villa<\/a>, where Chinese folklore and traditional principles are brought to life in colorful dioramas commissioned by the founder of Tiger Balm<\/a>. The chili crab at Legacy Seafood<\/a> kept us warm as we explored Science Center Singapore’s<\/a> mirror and laser mazes, which ended with an uplifting IMAX<\/a> show on Jane Goodall<\/a>. We spent the evening window shopping on Orchard Road, enjoyed Singapore-style afternoon tea at Violet Oon<\/a>, paused at a rooftop garden<\/a> and library@orchard<\/a>, then dined on pricey chicken rice at Chatterbox<\/a>. We returned to Sentosa on Monday for Universal Studios<\/a>, where highlights included the action-packed Waterworld show<\/a>, Transformers ride<\/a>, and roller<\/a> coasters<\/a> that warranted a second go thanks to our Unlimited Express<\/a> pass. We were glad to return to Skyline Luge<\/a> for the Dragon trail<\/a>, but sad that we got rained out from additional runs. We dried off over rich, quad-broth hot pot at Haidilao<\/a>, then checked into the Marina Bay Sands<\/a> where our upgraded Premier Suite<\/a> featured a marble bathroom, leather-bound appliances, a mini bar with instant noodles, and two balconies that rivaled the impressive views from the observation deck<\/a> and infinity pool<\/a>. We awoke our last day to duck noodle<\/a>, fried carrot cakes<\/a>, and egg tarts<\/a> from Lau Pa Sat<\/a>, then took selfies at iconic Merlion Park<\/a> before heading to Jewel Changi Airport<\/a> to spend the afternoon at Canopy Park’s<\/a>\u00a0hedge maze<\/a>, mirror maze<\/a>, and walking net<\/a> while enjoying Mr. Coconut<\/a>, Jollibean<\/a>, and Frozen Heart<\/a> treats. The SilverKris<\/a> lounge buffet helped us sleep through our return flight, making it hard to shake off jetlag back home, but thankful to have tasted a glimpse of life as Crazy Rich Asians<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Singapore has been a dream destination for my family ever since my recent work trips. What began as a winter break idea became reality when we scored deals for business class seats and a student’s list of must-try restaurants to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6041"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6098,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6041\/revisions\/6098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}