Btw, that Selecta looking logo is called Wall's there, dunno if it's the same though

behold, the ice cream sandwich

And yeah, you can’t miss this jumping kids brass sculpture on the bridge near Fullerton.

bombs away!

Fullerton at the back

There was this lake at the back of Fullerton, which was connected by bridges. These bridges were lit at night. The lake looks man-made though.

bridge

And tourists would often flock this part here of a bull brass sculpture, of course we didn’t miss a photo-opt of it ourselves

the gang

It was a never ending photo-opt with brass sculptures that time, including this one from the business center.

statue touring

More pictures on our album

Long story short we decided to go there with Anton, Lyka and Jen. ‘Anton’ – a new word! haha.

Merlion Statue

I think you’ve never visited SG, if you dont go to the place. We actually went here the night before, just me, Jeff and Jen. Taking some night snapshots of the merlion.

This was our first stop of the tour. And of course, we had to get an interactive shot of the statue…

jeff

my pathetic attempt

catnap

lyka

and Anton

Aside from the huge merlion statue, they have also set-up a smaller one, and a text sculpture of the Fullerton Hotel, which is this gorgeous hotel in front of the view deck..

interactive shot by one of the tourist there. Jeff did way better, haha

And here’s our only group shot of the day. Thanks to Pinay’s hanging out near the fullerton text.

Krabi rock formation

One spice of travelling is misadventures. It makes an ordinary travel so wonderful but sometimes so scary. Some time last 2006, a friend and I decided to have a one week tour of Asian countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. At that time, we thought one week is long enough to experience touring some of their key cities. We decided to make Singapore our hub, so we booked a roundtrip flight of MNL-SIN. Later on, Tiger Airways posted a seat sale of SIN-KVB so we booked a one-way flight to Krabi, Thailand.We researched like crazy and somehow made a great itinerary. We were able to get the cost and schedules of vans and buses from Krabi to Hatyai to Kuala Lumpur, then back to Singapore. We were able to book Singapore, Krabi and KL hotels that were fit to our budget and near to the tourist spots. It was a very good itinerary, but there was a downside: our itinerary was so detailed that there was little room for error.

Our flight to SG was on the afternoon, so it was evening when we arrived. We got lost while looking for our hotel. My map-reading skill was poor at that time.haha. Our second day was flawless. Somehow, we were able to follow our itinerary right on schedule. The only problem we faced was looking for a good place to eat. We’re not used to Indian and Malay food so our choices were limited. We found out that some restaurants were closed in the afternoon. We decided that we’ll just have a hearty meal in the evening, so we bought some rice meal in the 7-11 beside our hotel. That was a bad decision because we ended up with a bad stomach right after eating our food.hehe. I’ll never eat another rice meal in that place. But anyway, we had a good dinner at one of the Chinese restaurants I saw when I first toured SG.

kangaroos in Singapore zoo

Next day, we readied ourselves to our flight to Krabi. We left our luggage and some clothes in our hotel. Our plan was to bring a small backpack while we tour Thailand and Malaysia. We had a little misadventure at the airport. We didn’t realize that we have a keychain with a mini-scissor in it. We ended up signing in the logbook of Changi airport while the keychain was confiscated. We actually thought that we will be detained and thrown out at that time.hahaha. When we got to the KRV airport, we were surprised that there were no money changers there (as in!). We have no Thai Baht so we literally have no money. We ended up riding a taxi to find a money changer. Most Krabi locals don’t understand English and they have their own alphabet drawn like squiggly characters so that was a big barrier we haven’t foreseen. We were 2 young girls in the world of the unknown.haha. With no local money and the language barrier, who wouldn’t be afraid? Besides, that was our first time in Thailand. Since it was early and the banks were still close, our driver suggested trying to withdraw from the local ATMs. Western foreigners do that. We even saw some foreigners withdrawing some money from the ATMs. We tried that approach. I left one ATM back in the Philippines, and my friend didn’t bring any so we tried my sole PNB ATM, but it didn’t work! The banks were starting to open at that time, and thank God, we were able to change some of our dollars. It’s good that we brought some for emergency purposes.

Tip: When travelling abroad, it would be better to bring currencies that are accepted by most establishments.

So we proceed with our itinerary. We went to a travel agent to book a van going to Hatyai the next day. There were only 2 departure times. In order to meet our itinerary, we booked the earlier one. We asked our driver to take us back to the terminal at a designated time. We get a tuktuk (a local transpo that looks like a mini-multicab) and go to Ao Nang beach. Since the one-tailed boat drivers were still looking for passengers, we went to a Thai restaurant for Brunch. The food was delicious. I never thought that authentic Padthai really tastes good. ? After that, we tour Ao Nang beach a bit. Last 2005, Thailand was one of the countries that was devastated by a huge tsunami, but we were not aware that Krabi was one of the affected areas. So we’re scared when we saw this sign, “Warning: tsunami hazard zone. In case of earthquake, go to high ground or inland”. And I think we’re thinking too many negative things, because ironic enough, the clear-blue sky seemed to be getting darker. Rain was pouring at some areas of the sea.

Tsunami warning

Tip: Just like in the Philippines, local drivers ask a bigger fare to tourists than locals. Be ready

Weird Gorilla stoplight

Since we were crazy and scared, we hung on for our dear life during the boat ride. Looking back, that was a dumb thing to do. That taught me to enjoy the trip because you’d be missing out a lot of things if you worry too much.

Our room in Sand Sea Resort at Railay beach was great, and we booked it for just $11. And more, the buffet breakfast included in our trip was delicoius. The beach was good as well. The sand is brownish-white, polvoron-like powder. It’s not as white as Bohol’s or other white-sand beaches of the Philippines. Honestly, I’ll recommend our beaches more than this beach. But one thing that I really like here is the degree of saltiness of the beach water. It’s not salty at all. You can open your eyes underwater and it won’t hurt at all. So in short, our Railay beach was almost a perfect vacation… if not for the biggest blunder we made at that affected our tour…

Thailand has a different timezone than ours. They are one hour behind us. We were aware of this, but we somehow lost track of time in the morning. We needed to get a boat back to Ao Nang. By the time we got to the terminal, the van going to Hat Yai already left. We looked around for another van/bus going to Hat Yai but there was none. We had no choice but to get the next trip scheduled that afternoon. The setback: since we would be getting later than our planned time to Hatyai. We won’t get the late-afternoon, 12-hour bus ride of Hatyai to Kuala Lumpur.

So we’re stuck in Thailand. It was scary. We were in a different country, with only a few English-speaking people, and with billboards of squiggly letters. We were in a foreign world, and we haven’t planned this part of our trip. We literally talked using sign-language because the locals couldn’t understand us. Back in the van, my friend and I were talking about contingency plans. We don’t know anyone in Hat yai and our driver couldn’t understand us. We thought of asking to be dropped at a bus terminal and find a way to get to KL. Or perhaps we could be dropped at a bar, restaurant or at a 24-hout convenience store, but it was really hard to communicate. Our driver knew that we don’t know where we’re going, but fortunately he was a good man. He first dropped all the passengers then communicates with us afterwards. We talked using sign language. We gestured “sleep” by using our face sleeping comfortably in our “pillow-like” hands. We finally understand each other and he dropped us to a hotel. Fortunately, he dropped us to Hatyai Rama hotel and he talked Thai to the helpdesk. We never found out what they talked about. Maybe he was laughing at our silliness. haha. Anyway, since we had little money, we used my credit card to book the 500BAHT room. It was spacious and I would recommend it to anyone. Not only was it budget-friendly, the room contains all the basic amenities. It even has a sofa. We thanked our driver. I hope he’s doing well right now.

Our super-bad day did not end there. Since we don’t know anything about Hatvyai, we went to an internet café to search for bus terminals. After that, we somehow lost our wallet. It’s good that it only contains a 100+ BAHT, and we were able to separate some money earlier for budget reasons so we still have a few BAHT remaining in our bag. When we got back to the room, I finally broke down and cry. That was my most stressful travel day. We joked that if we were in Amazing race, we’re probably the last team to arrive at the pit stop.

Tip: We learned through local Thai people that buses (that have long travel time) in Thailand are booked through travel agents. We never got to a real bus terminal there

In our research, and through the hotel receptionist, we learned the departure time of a bus going to KL. The following morning, we asked for directions on how to get to the travel agent where we’re supposed to book our bus. The receptionist was kind enough to write it in Thai and tipped us on how much we should pay the Tuktuk. In the travel agent office, the sales agent thought that I was Thai and talked in Thai language. I said I was not Thai, and in English, he told me that I looked like one. What the hell, Asians looks the same right? :p We finally have a good day and were able to get to KL.

Tip: When travelling abroad, always ask for the local translation of where you’re going. If possible, write it using their language

That blunder caused us a day’s worth of our Malaysia tour. We arrived in the evening so there’s no more money changers anywhere (here we go again). It’s good that we had a few Ringgit taken from my last Malaysian tour. My friend also had a few Ringgit given by her Tita. It’s also good that we have booked a hotel in Malaysia. When we get there, the receptionist replaced our USD with its corresponding Ringgit. And since we were in Chinatown, we were able to tour KL’s Chinatown. (Yahoo..tour at last — after a long travel time and a bad day). We also bought a ticket for a bus going back to SG that night.

Foggy Genting cable car

In the morning, we have no more time so we only toured Genting and visit KL’s Petronas tower then spent most of the afternoon(5-6hours) travelling back to SG. In short, we got to SG at around 7pm. We have no more time to tour the city, so we went to visit Merlion, Esplanade, Clarke Quay and its surrounding area. Too bad, my friend was unable to see Merlion because it was under renovation at that time. She was able to see it when she returned to SG.

Merlion in a bath

The next day, we have the whole afternoon, so we shopped for gadgets and perfumes, and went to Sentosa. Finally our tour was over and we got back to the Philippines.

Since then, I have great luck with travels. Looking back, that’s one of the best travel experience I have. This experience taught me a lot. I learned that it’s okay to be super-particular in your itinerary, but it would most likely be put to waste anyway, so better not overdo it. Also, it’s always good to have a backup plan just in case. Looking back, I would laugh at our misadventures and thank God that we were able to come back here unharmed and a bit wiser.

More pics here: