Singapore Day 2 - Fruits Paradise Cafe

Date of Visited: 27th September 2011

After done with all the fun-packed and excitement at Universal Studio Singapore, we didn't went back our hotel immediately. My sister suggested to have movie and because boyfie and I are movie freaks (both of us love watching movie at cinema so much), hence both of us agreed with my sis's plan. We had our late lunch at Food Republic which located once we came out from the Sentosa Express. In case you haven't heard of Food Republic, it is a food court chain and it's quite famous in Singapore. And if you happen to visit KL Pavilion, you might stumble upon one at the basement level. No photo was taken cause 4 of us were so hungry to the max - imagine having our breakfast around 10 am and having fun until 5 pm plus, then only we had our late lunch.

Since our movie time was at 9.30pm, therefore we ventured around VivoCity Shopping Mall in order to kill our time.

#1: Spotted Uniqlo but came out with nothing cause they are preparing for winter wear. No suit for Malaysia weather.

Round and round VivoCity for few times, I told my sis that this cafe with interesting interior caught my attention. Hence, we decided to settle down here. Besides bored, we actually also look for some place to sit down.

#2: A dessert shop and for a sweet tooth person like me, how could I resist myself from enter here.

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#4: Look how gorgeous their fruit tart display. By just looking at the display, it already makes our saliva drooled.

#5: So many fruit tarts to choose from and we're hardly to decide which to have. 

#6: After a lil discussion with my sis, finally we picked Chocolate Banana tart. Well, actually I am the one who pick this cause I think banana always goes well with chocolate. And we only picked one cause we're still full from our late lunch plus, both of our boyfriend were not really into dessert. So basically, this one is sharing among my sis and I only.

#7: But then, they cut into such a very thin slice. Luckily my sis and I can consider are small eater and it was enough for us. Relating to the taste of this tart, it was pretty delicious with the freshness of banana and tart itself. The tart is firm and sweet filled with generous amount of banana.

Not a bad experience actually. Might plan for another visit if I am going Singapore again. Besides VivoCity Shopping Mall, Fruits Paradise cafe also available at other area of Singapore city such as in Raffles City, Ochard Central and Plaza Singapura.

My second day in Singapore ended by watching Johnny English. Until now, I still laugh out loud especially the part where Johnny was being controlled by the villain and waved his hands up part. Damn funny! Oh ya! Regarding Singapore's cinema, I'm not sure whether it is same or different, but the one I went was the cinema hall is so freaking huge and they even have plenty of seats for the disabled person. Malaysia's cinema has too but only two seats in each of the hall for them. Malaysia oh Malaysia!

Fruits Paradise Cafe
1 Harbourfront Walk
#01-59 Vivo City

By the way, it's Halloween Day today. Has any of you dress up yourself in spooky and scary costume? Frankly speaking, I'm not interested with that cause I'm more interested with Baskin Robbins 31. Too bad KK doesn't has any Baskin Robbins outlet. =(

Singapore Day 2 - Universal Studio

Date of Visited:  27th September 2011

Day 1 - Jetstar, Clarke Quay & Fullerton Hotel

What I anticipated the most on the second day during my trip to Singapore last year has finally arrived. This was the main highlight that I visited Singapore again. Non-other than the newly opened theme park, Universal Studio Singapore which has been widely spoken. Universal Studio Singapore is first movie theme park in South East Asia and the second in Asia after the one in Japan (which I didn't had the chance to visit due to time constraint during my trip to Japan in 2010.)

Early morning, my sister and her boyfriend came to our hotel and brought us breakfast like McD and also dim sum before depart to Universal Studio cause there is no breakfast included in our hotel. Singapore's McD burger is just the same like in Malaysia but they have this "Garlic Chilli Sauce". Makes my burger so tasty and flavourful.

Once we done with our breakfast, we went to the MRT Lavender station which just few minutes away from our V Hotel Lavender and exchanged line to the HarbourFront station. Once we arrived the HarbourFront Station, we then proceeded to 3rd floor of VivoCity Shopping Mall to take Sentosa Express before entering the theme park. The journey from our hotel to the theme park is very convenient with the accessible of this MRT. If you have Ez Link card with you, you can use it to access into the Sentosa Express for a flat fee of $3 only.

#1: Resort World Sentosa Singapore map

If you are interested to stay inside this Resort World Sentosa where the Universal Studio Singapore is located, there are 6 unique hotels you can choose from such as Hard Rock Hotel, Hotel Michael, Festive Hotel and more. Initially I plan to stay at one of the hotel for a night but frankly speaking, just for a night only, it totally hurt my purse so well. So, I just forgone this plan of mine and wait till I hit jackpot someday. =P

#2: Boyfie and I in front of the Universal Globe

#3: Got the tickets and we can't wait to enter Universal Studio Singapore

If not mistaken, when I check through online, the admission fee to enter Universal Studio is $68, but because my sister's boyfriend is Singaporean and they have this special discount rate to Singaporean, so ended up, we just paid $52.80 per pax. We saved a lot from there, if you convert back to Malaysia Ringgit.

Just like any other theme park, Universal Studio Singapore is divided into seven distinctive zone area.

Hollywood

Hollywood is the first theme area that you came across once you enter the main entrance of the park. At here, we experienced the dynamic Hollywood iconic architecture, the swaying palm trees and replica of the world most famous Hollywood Walk of Fame - makes we felt like A-list celebrities.

#4: Big sign of Hollywood once you enter the main entrance

#5: Welcome to Hollywood zone area

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#7: Universal Studios Store where I always can't help myself from entering them.

In this zone area, you won't find any exciting ride but it featured the best of the broadway-style entertainment, tucked by several restaurants and a variety of merchandise stores.

TIPS: If you like to buy their signature souvenirs especially that come in a big size, I advise that you only purchase them when you about to exit. You don't want to drag all those big souvenirs with you around the theme area which could make you so inconvenient and not comfortable, right?

New York

Right after Hollywood zone area and turn to right-side, this is where the New York zone area located. In my opinion, this is the smallest zone area among the others with one attraction and 2 restaurants only. All the classic landmarks are here - the city skylines, neon lights, and facades that reveal the true of this Big Apple city.

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#9: Yellow cab is the main highlight in New York zone area

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Sci-Fi City

Next, we enter through the impressive portals of Sci-Fi City theme area where it features a vibrant metropolis with all the ultimate modern conveniences. Here, we saw a huge, high and exciting but yet scary ride. It is known to be home of the world's tallest pair of dueling roller coaster.

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#12: Battlestar Galastica ride - Looks quite scary and I didn't try it.

#13: Too bad for us that this Transformers Ride only start to operate in December. Has anyone try this ride before? How's it feels like?

Ancient Egypt

Standing tall and huge Egyptian statues right in front of us, no doubt that we had reached the Ancient Egypt theme area. Ancient pyramids and obelisk is also features in this theme area which is based on the popular film franchise, The Mummy, staring by Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. One of the highly recommended ride is "Revenge of The Mummy" - a high-speed psychological thrill ride that not just only plunge into darkness, plagued with all sides of huge fireballs, swarms of scarab bettles and an army of warrior mummies but it has sudden fast reverse ride. 

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The Lost World

The Lost World theme area is based on the world popular blockbuster by Steven Spielberg, Jurassic Park - so expecting to see different kind of dinosaurs featured in here. The two highlights in this area are the "Canopy Flyer" which is a suspended 4-seater roller coaster that can enjoy a prehistoric bird's-eye view that glides over the tree tops and "Jurassic Park Rapid Adventure" - a river rapids ride version.

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Far Far Away

A theme area that consists a tall and graceful caste, a fantasy fairy-tale characters such as talking donkey,  flaming dragon, fairy godmother and also green ugly ogre by the name of Shrek. This theme area is inspired by non other than the Shrek franchise movie. The attraction that shouldn't miss out when in Far Far Away theme area is "Shrek 4-D Adventure" - where you not only see, hear but also feel the action right from the seat.

#22: Welcome to the fairy-tale land - a zone area which makes us felt like we're the prince and princess.

#23: Shrek 4-D Adventure is highly recommended. We did felt bored when enter the first main hall but once we sat on the seat, the 4-D was pretty interesting.

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#25: The annoying talking donkey and can you spot the Ginger Bread?

Madagascar

Last but not least, let's us sing "I'm Like To Movin', Movin" to this final theme area of Universal Studio Singapore. Inspired by the franchise movie using the same name which features four animals which escaped from the zoo into the dense tropical jungles in the island by the name of Madagascar. 

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#29: I always love to take photo with monkeys.

#30: The four animals that escape from the zoo and crashed into Madagascar; Marty, Alex, Gloria and Melman.

TIPS:

1. Most of the high speed rides such as Battlestar Galastica in the Sci-Fi City zone area and Revenge of the Mummy in the Ancient Egypt zone area are not allowed bags and personal belongings to be on board. Therefore, you might need to place in the lockers for a nominal fee or just you can do like what my sister and I did, we took turn to take the ride. We can do so because there is no many people queue for the ride.
2. Halal restaurants are available in the theme park. You can find halal restaurant in these following zone area; Hollywood, Ancient Egypt, Far Far Away and Madagascar. 
3. If you are vegetarian, no worries! There are many vegetarian choices provided in most of the zone area.  

After spending almost 5 hours, we decided to bid goodbye cause we started to feel a lil bit exhausted. Thank goodness the day we visited the theme park was not so crowded and we managed to cover as many area as we want. Mainly because it was on weekday. But the cons side was we couldn't took photo with any of their characters. Guess they are only appear on weekend.

#31: Before we left, we visited the chocolate store which just situated beside the Universal Studio. We didn't bought any chocolates mainly because we are not chocolate lovers.

#32: Goodbye Universal Studio Singapore. Goodbye Sentosa Island. Hopefully we will see again someday.

How To Get To Universal Studio Singapore:

Head to HarbourFront station on the North-East Line MRT Rail System. Upon reaching, walk into VivoCity Shopping Mall and proceed to 3rd floor and take Sentosa Express. Get down from Waterfront station.

[Credit To: Wikipedia]

V Hotel Lavender, Singapore

Singapore, a little charming island is a one of the most favourite city picked by the Asian traveller. However, it could be relatively expensive to visit for the average traveller like me especially in terms of accommodation. So when I wanna pick which hotel to stay with my boyfie, it really gave me a huge headache. Of course, we would love to stay at budget hotel but some are not so convenient and compromise the quality. And because this Singapore trip was a birthday treat by me to the Boyfie, therefore after day and night of scouting, finally V Hotel Lavender was my final pick for our accommodation throughout the 4 days and 3 nights visit in Singapore.

The overview of V Hotel Lavender

V Hotel Lavender is located exactly above the MRT Lavender Station. I presumed this how the hotel get it name from. It took roughly 20 minutes train ride away from Changi International Airport and the access to and from airport and also the bustling city center is so convenient for us since the MRT is just few minutes away from the doorstep.

Once we came out from the MRT station, the pathway before reaching to the hotel is flourishing with a myriad of restaurants, cafe, food court, mini market and bakery. You can even anytime find food if hungry cause there is 24 hours food court available nearby.

Upon reaching, we're ready to check-in to our non-smoking room. The room is fairly small, like what we were expecting before. But for us, the ultimate concern was the room is decent, squishy clean and comfortable bed. Cheery ambiance and modernly decorated, our superior room is equipped with air-conditioning, LCD television, in-room safe, coffee/tea maker and refrigerator.

Relating to the the toilet, it is fairly small too. But almost all the basic toiletries is provided such as bath towel, hand towel, bath gel, shampoo, hair dryer and etc in this clean toilet.    

We were given two complimentary bottled water and everyday, they will replace new one for us.

I did check out the outdoor pool in the sky garden terrace before checking-out. It seems so relaxing but too bad, insufficient time for me to utilise it. There even a fitness center which tucked just beside the pool.

Except for the clean and pleasant stay in the room and also great location, I guess there is nothing to shout regarding this hotel. It's relatively expensive with no breakfast included. There is no free WiFi provided and will be charge upon you use it. I guess stay here once would be enough for us. Probably, will search for other hotel for my next visit to Singapore.

V Hotel Lavender
Address: 70 Jellicoe Road, Singapore 208767.

For further information of V Hotel Lavender, do visit their official website (click HERE)

Come and Share with Me
If you have any recommendation of where to stay in Singapore that comes with cheap, clean, comfortable, convenient and have free Wifi connection, feel free to share with me. Love to hear from you guys.