...singapore!

singapore kwento coming up!!

it's my first time to get out of the country so i was bit nervous about the immigration counters.. was buggin my mom and kept asking her as to what the immigration usually asks.. they said it will be easy breezy and to quit fretting..

we had a morning flight, so i was up at 5a.m. and Pangs kept on saying "ang aga kasi naman ng flight nyo!" hehe.. only had 1 suitcase and 1 small bag (it's ate ging's actually).. flight lasted for 3 hrs so i did what a first-timer would do.. take pictures!!

our airport doesn't look that bad in pictures hehe..


i've been to the new airport before, when i flew to bacolod..uhmm..forgot what year that was..

passport in use... at loongg last!!! hmm.. where to next?



first time to have a full meal eaten in an airplane.. i had boneless bangus and this white sausage.. wasn't too bad, in fact, i liked it v. much.


liz gave me the window seat! too bad we're on the wing part

what a view uh? l o l.


and then we landed! first thought..v.nice airport! our sundo was there already so we waited for him a bit to get the car and off we went to fort canning lodge.. eiiiii wait. this isn't fort canning? it's YMCA not YWCA.. eeeekkk wrong hotel! uncle, uncleeee! good thing he was still there at the bend so we told Ronie to run after him. hihihi.




now i don't want to start bitching 'bout our accomodations 'cause everyone near me has heard of my numerous complaints already. but i can't friggin help it! l o l. it was a teeny room and i wanted to smack our HR for putting us there. i had a "can we change hotels on our second week?" dialogue for the whole day. good thing about it was that i could walk to plaza singapura. (pass by park mall, cross the street to dhoby ghaut station, and voila.. one of the numerous malls in singapore)


my room..liz and ronie were freakin' out because it's a Single bed.. bwaaha, good thing i can fit easily in that bed, lol.

at least i've got a good view..





after putting our bags (and complaining about the hotel), we went to Lucky Plaza to have our money changed. first was the MRT Escalator. i thought i was going to fly out of it and land somewhere with it's speed. i had to hang on to dear life whenever i rode an escalator in the MRT. guess people are pretty impatient there.. i had to remember to keep "left" (when all my life i knew it was keep "right") to keep from bumping to the people climbing up the stairs of the escalator.. how i missed the signs in Manila.. (IF you are in a hurry, Use the STAIRS) probably because the escalators here are slow. and ohmigosh, i forgot to tell you about the smell in the MRT. arrrggghhh. i had a huuuge headache after because i was trying not to breathe and probably my brain lacked oxygen because of that and caused the headache. i was wondering how my former classmates could stand riding the MRT. i had to smell my hair most of the time or spritz some hand sanitizer and smell my hand. (was like my oxygen for 2 weeks) i mean, our MRTs can also smell here but mostly you can smell a collective sweat that can also be awful but B.O. smell is beyond my capacity. imagine a train full of that. arrggh. anyway, we arrived in Lucky Plaza,.. i felt i was transported back to Recto, or to Divisoria Mall with all the Pinoys there. it was like some sort of hangout for the domestic helpers there so i was there, first day in Singapore, and all i can hear were Tagalog words, Bisaya dialect, etc. i felt sort of confused and happy at the same time 'cause i was sooo ready to be culture shocked and there was i, seeing Clover Chips, Oishi, Smart simcards, and hearing "Hoy! Asan na si *name here*?" shouted at every corner. I forgot all the other malls we went to.. we just walked and walked and walked and ate at some Pasta House (v.delish) for i still didn't have enough courage to eat any local food. (i don't eat spicy food) forgot where and what we had for dinner so that was basically the end of my first day in Singapore. no cable in my hotel but had a local Channel 5 where TG there was American Idol, The Apprentice and all my fave reality shows. was able to catch Grey's Anatomy (wala pa sa Manila) too.

first day of training, we were the first there and was introduced to Mr. Joseph (sumting) and our Indian trainor, Deepti Sen. (she's a She..people keep on asking her gender when i say her name..as if they know a guy whose name is Deepti) then everyone started arriving.. there were the 3 malaysians, Karnan, Kwan and Audrey (v.pretty!), a singaporean-japanese-malaysian mori @ mollie (i don't get the 2 names) who already has kids but is also v.pretty.. 1 filipino guy, Paul..and 1 from hongkong, Henry. Joseph started talking about where to eat, etc.. at first i was listening v.v.hard and trying to catch what he was saying but after like 2 minutes i started blocking everything out.. i couldn't understand anything anymore! he WAS speaking in english, right? i had like my head tilted and squinting my eyes to perhaps, maybe i could start lip-reading but really, i just couldn't do it. he was talking like "two co-ne fro hee, de is a sta-buck an awan da blo is da tanjon pagar statio" hihihi. but by the 2nd week i was a pro. i could pull off a few "singlish" myself. could entertain even my parents with my singlish, hihihi. even our hotel, fort canning, i had to pronounce as "for cannin, uncle!" so they could get me. also discovered how my english sucked big time. i was aaaaaaaahh,errrring my way through my questions. at least the singaporeans talked straight. (and fast) nevermind if i couldn't understand. i'm pretty good in body language anyway. first 3 days we had lunch just the 3 of us, and a couple of times with Paul. i was the "sensitive" one in the group, because i had no spicy palate whatsoever. i had chicken kebab, pork and chicken rice (tasted like asado) and burger king in that order for lunch. 2nd day, we went all the way to Raffles Mall for lunch. (was extremely late because of that, hehe) 4th and 5th day we joined the others and discovered the infamous "Hawker Centers" of Singapore.. it's like our fast food courts here but only it's outside and not airconditioned. it's a modern turo-turo. now, THAT, was pretty exciting. i had no idea what to order. i wanted to eat rice, but most of the stuff are noodles. and everything comes with chili. i mostly lived from japanese food (japanese food tastes the same there as it tastes here, hehe)

anyway, here's my training mates..and our trainor,deepti


me with deepti


from l-r top row..karnan, paul, henry, kwan, ronie
bottom row..liz, me, deepti, audrey and mollie


kwan and audrey, the malaysian 'delegates'


mollie, the japanese-malaysian-singapore girl, hehe.. she was also in the 2nd week of training so i got to know her a little better..she's extremely nice, already is a mother, and she's always the one i'm bugging, asking her what food i should pick at the hawker center


henry from hongkong.. guess how old he is... he's 40!


karnan from malaysia

and more pics!!!

the girls


the boys.. from l-r.. paul, sam, ronie, henry, kwan, karnan.. yep, Sam's Pinoy..(kababayan!) he's a Remedy consultant.. v.cool!!


us with joseph in Cmango


us at the hawker center.. you can see my eyes at the back hehe


being in singapore is kinda weird, in a truman show/stepford wives kind of way.. 'cause everything feels sooo perfect..i haven't seen any shantees, or beggars, or just people sleeping on the floor.. no ciggie butts lying on the ground, (a few jaywalkers, yep but generally, well-disciplined people).. so surreal..ronie was able to go to the red-light district (that's what they call it), a street full of prostis, accdg to him.. he said.."as in, super dami" must have been a field day for him, hehe! anyway, it's sooo clean, and it feel soo safe, even if you don't see policemen walking on the streets..i would love to work there, hopefully, sometime next year.. *crosses fingers*.. 'cause there, i'll be able to earn 6 figures (in pesos) in a month, and it's sheer good luck where you could get that kind of money in the philippines in MY age..i can't imagine actually living there you know, for good, (mainly because of the smell, hihihi) but i don't want to say NEver and eat my words later..

being in singapore isn't complete without visiting sentosa (though their beach is CRAP. you can see oil ships, not that far from the beach!)..we rode the cable car (goooshh, i was so scareeeed).. we got the glass cabin and it was such an experience for me!


me inside cable car


waaah..iskeyriii


took a picture of the star cruises ship from the cable car.. pangs, mag-ganyan tayu!!!


i was sooo super duper late, was supposed to meet Jane at 10, but we got there at 12:30..(i couldn't tell liz's friends to hurry up, hehe) so by the time we got there, we had to join the tour..first stop, underwater world! was great, i was able to touch the shark hihihi.


felt like touching sandpaper


in a tunnel! waah, first time ko ulit!! v.v.cool!

and here are some of my fave pictures..

the jellyfish..and cute! kung pwede lang hawakan, pinisil-pisil ko na yan haha


the biggest crab, japanese crab..looks like an alien-life form in full battle gear in battlestar galactica..


just at the exit, i happen to see jane by puuure chance.. "janey janey" at mega sigaw na ako dun at talon hehe.. had lunch (courtesy of janey woohooo! thanks mare!)


i had chicken, so adventurous, hehehe.


next stop was the dolphin show..against my better judgment, i agreed with neal (jane's fiancee) to WALK to the damn place.. "malapit lang yun!" sabi nya.. hahaha *wapaks neal* i was sweating my a** off felt like a could use the oil in my face to deep-fry food..hihihihi. but, at least we got to pose by the Siloso Beach!! (sige na nga, pasalamat na rin ako)


me and janey


beach looks pretty good in pictures, eh?


after that, said by goodbyes to jane and neal and i was still able to catch the dolphin show

that's jumbo, the pink dolphin!

we also went to the hanging bridge.. here is me, hanging on to dear life

my fake smile


highlight of the day? the LUGE!!! waaah and the CHAIR LIFT to the luge!!! was soo damn scary (the chair lift) i couldn't stop screaming the first time.. we got the 15sing for 3 rides and after the first chair lift i was like.."we have to do this twice pa?" bwahahaha. the 2nd and 3rd time was pretty okay na.. i was breathing normally already.



me and liz (didn't know any better, such sincere smiles hehe


me, liz and ronie.. gosh i was sooo scared, at least, smile parin! haha!


chair lifts ahead of us


it's a loooong way down.. by the 3rd lift, i was dangling my legs like a pro. hihihi.


before the end of the day (7:40 pm to be exact) we were able to catch the 30 minute Musical fountain show and it was A-W-E-S-O-M-E. AS IN! that's probably the coolest thing i've ever seen in my life! (no more pictures, sorry) 3-d images were being projected from the water fountain and there were laser lights and real fire coming out of the water! bweheheh. i wanted to jump up and down and shout "ANG GALING NAMAN!" all over the place.

saturday before that, me, liz and her friends were able to go the Jurong Birdpark.. ang gaganda ng birds! too bad my camera went low-batt on me but i was still able to get a few pictures..


ang cute, noh? i'm referring to the pink flamingos. harhar.


an aussie kid.. luckyyy kid! when the bird trainor asked for any 10 year old boy volunteer, i wanted to raise my hand and pretend that i was a boy just to hold the friggin owl!


he kept staring at me.


was also able to go around the city.. we went to the fountain of wealth, at Suntec.. just as we were posing, umandar yung fountain! the wind was kinda strong so my camera got a bit wet.. good thing it still worked (kungdi patay ako keh ate chary nito!)


me, me, me!

there was also a koi garden inside one of the buildings in Suntec.. the koi are so unbelievably fat, hehe.. i wanted to catch and grill one



on the last day of training, the day before birdpark (why is my kwento in reverse order? lol!) some of my training mates and i went to the Star Wars exhibit in the Singapore Science Center..the exhibit was okay, highlight was the Foley Studio, where we were able to do an actual recording of the sounds for a scene in the movie using only ordinary,everyday stuff..


liz and henry at the foley studio

ever wondered how a friendly darth vader would look like?

hihihi. peace!


wheeeewwww. long entry uh? well.. it's not yet over, bwahahah. on my last day, the panggas and i went to clark quay..didn't have any pics but jane have some in her blog. we went to hooters where i saw the most weird thing i've ever seen in my life (a guy, with a hotdog in his mouth, wearing a wig and a skirt and shaking a couple of maracas) and some v.yummy chicken wings! ang lakas kumain ng dalawang yun hehe. after that, to a more subdued, coffee bean where i had strawberry and banana shake which i didn't finish (sorry jane) 'cause i've forgotten that i don't like banana shake, hehe. at around 1 a.m., the adult in me was screaming 'sleep' so they dropped me off at my hotel (we had a mercedez benz taxi, whooohooo!) and it was a mixture of emotions that i felt 'cause i knew the next day, i would be leaving this little country but at the same time, i will be with my pangs again..promise, i'll be back. (hila-hila ko na Pangs ko!)

couple of things i missed out.. the Night Safari huhuh..still haven't seen a live elephant or giraffe. whatda? lol. it's not meant to be, harhar. everywhere else we went were (guess what?) malls. anyway, super thanks again to my lovely friends, jane and neal and ate pretz (who did my laundry, wahahaha thank you tlga ate pretz!).. ei jane, kitakits sa kasal nyo (good luck sa preps) and hope to visit you next time and have my picture finally taken with the Merlion and the Esplanade! (arrrrrrgggh why didn't i have my picture taken with that 2! wahaha)