Jewelle Tan Personally

We brought the kids to see the famed statue of the Merlion on our first family trip to Singapore last year and for a few weeks, Eu was informing everyone at home that the Merlion is “part lion and part mermaid”.

For our trip this year, they insist that we visit the Merlion again and we only indulged them because the alternative is shopping and as you know, that is quite pointless.

So on our last day in Singapore, we took a taxi ride to the Merlion Park and joined the never ending throngs of visitors.

Across the river from where we were at the park, was the Singapore Flyer and because I wasn’t keen on trying it out, I kept mum when my husband casually remarked that he heard it cost an outrageous $200 a ride and was glad when he didn’t pursue the subject.

Now that I’m safely home, I could find out more on the Singapore Flyer and of course, it’s nowhere that expensive. But I’m still not going for a ride in it.

It was a short trip at the Merlion for us that day. The weather was hazy and after a few shots, we decided to go look for the nearest air-conditioned area and that was the Esplanade.

At the start of a bridge which led to the Esplanade, we saw this vendor selling these strange ice cream on wafer biscuits.

At the end of the bridge, we found another vendor selling the same thing and you can imagine how happy Eu and Qi were when their father got one for us to snack on before we went inside the Esplanade for a while.

That was our visit to the Merlion for this trip.

Eu and Qi were still fascinated by part-lion-part-mermaid statue and until today, Qi will perform her Merlion trick whenever I brush her teeth.

Going to Singapore with kids mean one thing : Singapore Zoo.

We made our trip the following day - much to the kids excitement and we were pleased that there was no queue at the tickets and strollers counters.

Upon entering, we were invited to take a few family photos and we later bought one of the shot. My husband told me that they also tried to sell him a frame for the picture and he declined it saying that he had “other plan for it”. Undeterred, they asked him about his “plan” and was stumped for answer when he told that he is going to “stick it on the wall”.

Since our last trip, some of the animals were in different locations.

But the white rhinos area still smelled as strong as ever. We also caught this funny incident of a “staring contest” between one adult rhino with a bird which lasted for about a minute.

The rhino finally turned away and the bird straightaway hopped and flew to his back. Now we know who’s the boss!

We missed the Papa Lion (male lion) last trip but this time we saw him and a few of the lionesses on the open ground.

Qi was most looking forward to the White Tigers and although she napped for a while, we waited until she was awake so she could see these animals.

It’s too bad that we did not hear any single roar from both the lions and the tigers.

We skipped the reptiles areas on our last trip so we made it a point to come here. We finally saw the Komodo Dragon but it was not as big as I thought it would be.

There were also some huge crocodiles and Qi refused to go near the glass tank for a closer look.

This time, we made it for more animals shows ; the polar bear show and the lion feeding show. And it was the Splash show with the penguins, sea cows and Carlos the Sea Lion which we enjoyed the most.

We had fun at the Zoo but I think the kids will enjoy the place more when they are older. Eu refused to go for a pony ride and at the end of our visit here, only two animals were mentioned by the kids : White Tiger and Sea Lion.

2 weeks before our trip to Singapore last week, I decided on a hotel which recently underwent major renovation work and was offering a special rate of $200 for their Executive Room - as per the promotional info from my booking agent.

And the Royal @ Queens Hotel on Queen Street was where we stayed for 5 nights last week.

The funny thing about the name of this hotel is that, with taxi drivers you must call it as “Royal Queens” and omit the “@”.

We took a lot of taxi and one or two were not familiar with this hotel so the best landmark guide is Singapore Art Museum, St. Joseph’s Church or Sts. Peter & Paul’s Church as this hotel is along a quiet street.

On the morning of our flight, I called the hotel to re-confirmed our late check-in and tried my luck at asking for a baby cot for Qi. When I told the staff that Qi is 2 years old (usually too old for a cot), she said that if the bed gets broken, we’d have to pay - I wonder if this means that if she’s below 2 and she broke the bed, she doesn’t have to pay?

We were happy that we checked-in at 10 pm with no problem - although they made photocopies of our passports which never happened to me before - and the baby cot was waiting in the room.

Our room was surprisingly small - for an Executive - so I can only imagine how the standard room size would be. But as claimed, our room was definitely recently refurbished because I could smell a little glue on the drawers.

The room featured touch-screen system for all its lights switches and although the idea is very novel, I prefer the ordinary flip switches. Besides having only one location from where most the switches is controlled is not convenient.

In the bathroom, I didn’t quite like the glass countertop as the sink bowl was too high even for me (what more for the kids) and the water pressure was too strong that I got water splashes a few times.

The bathtub was great for the kids and they enjoyed it more than the swimming pool which was tiny.

Allson Hotel was connected to our building via the 2nd Floor and isa  short cut to the Victoria Street, a 24hrs food court on one side and a 7-11 store on the other side.

From our window, we could see part of the Allson Hotel, Singapore Management University, the Carlton Hotel and in the far distance, the Suntec Convention Centre and the Singapore Flyer!

The nearest MRT (City Hall) is about 10 mins walk away but a new Bras Basah MRT station is under construction and is practically outside the hotel.

Besides the open air food court outside Allson Hotel, there is an air-conditioned food court a block away after the Singapore Art Museum called Kopi Tiam and this was where we had our breakfast for 2 days. Our rate actually included breakfast for two but for some reasons - they decided to charge Eu (3 years and above) after our first breakfast at the hotel at a whooping $17 (totally not worth it).

When I booked this hotel, free broadband connection was supposed to be included in the rate but the Front Office staffs told me that it’s chargeable at $6 for an hour, $10 for 6 hrs and $21 for 24 hrs (quite reasonable). Since my booking email did not include that particular remark, I could not argue on my case. However, when we checked out, we were not charged at all!

For the first 3 days, we had a musician as our next door neighbour and we’d sometimes hear him practising on his instrument which sounded like violin. However once, he had some friends over and they had a practice sessions and after 20 mins of an orchestra (lovely music if we were not trying to nap), I complained to the Front Office and had them dealt with immediately.

Basically, the wall was a little too thin and having an adjoining door made the matter worse.

One of the bellman took a liking to Qi and looked forward to meeting us whenever we return to the hotel. The Front Office staffs were helpful and friendly - and I’m pleased with how efficiently they handled my complaint about our neighbour. Our housekeeper was good.

In short, we enjoyed our stay here.

For some funny reasons, this year will be the third year that I spent my Easter on a holiday.

Six years ago, my husband and I were in Charlottetown (Prince Edward Island of Canada) during the Easter weekend and had to bear having many of the shops closed for the holiday.

Then in 2006, we spent a week in Peninsular Malaysia and was in Melaka during the Easter weekend. Since we were with my Sabah family, we made it for the Easter Vigil mass at the oldest Catholic church in Malaysia, St. Peter’s Church.

Last weekend was another Easter spent away from home and this time, we were in Singapore.

I was at first disappointed that my hotel of choice was fully booked but the hotel I finally settled on turned out to be the perfect one - when it comes to being a Catholic and especially on Easter.

This was because barely 300m outside our hotel doorsteps, were 3 Catholic churches which were more than 150 years old each! I could not help but stop every time we passed by any of them, amazed that such buildings exist amidst skyscrapers.

There was the Church of Sts. Peter & Paul which was opposite our hotel and the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd which was across the Bras Basah road.

But it was St. Joseph’s Church, founded in 1851 and 2 buildings down from our hotel that we got more familiar with as we attended it’s Sunday Easter mass yesterday morning.

As on the outside, the interior was very beautiful and it must be a nice motivation to have such a lovely church to attend to every weekend.

I now know which area to stay at when one is in Singapore and is a devout Catholic. With a minimum of 10 hotels and at least 3 beautiful churches in the surrounding vicinity, you cannot go wrong with the Bras Basah/Bugis area.

My sister asked me yesterday if being away for Easter was intentional - it was not as we usually make holiday plans months ahead but I now wonder where we will be spending Easter in 2009.

It’s Good Friday today and most Catholic churches all over the world would be having their mass at 3.00 pm today.

I said most churches because today, I passed by a church which was having their Good Friday mass at 6.45 pm. Along Queen Street was a old church called St. Joseph’s and there, as expected, were a lot of people standing outside the church.

What was unexpected to me was, across the two lane street and above the balconies of the shoplots directly opposite the church were devotees following the mass through a huge screen placed outside the church building.

How convenient for those who lives in those flats - as they need only open their door, walk to the right balcony and attend the mass. None of those need-to-be-in-church-two-hours-before-or-else-no-seat kind of thing.

By the way, in case you’re wondering where on earth is Queen Street in Brunei - we are in Singapore, of course!