December 9, 2013

When my family first moved into the south over ten years ago, my parents joined this religious group (no, not a cult; think Couples For Christ) because they figured that it’d be a nice, clean way to meet other couples in the neighborhood. And meet people they did; our family formed close bonds with three others through the same interests – religious values, traveling and love for food. Our families grew closer through multiple trips throughout the years – Vigan-Pagudpod, Baguio, Boracay and the latest was Coron, Palawan.

Fast forwarding to early this year, the “kids” (I use the term loosely; anybody who’s not a parent is considered a kid – even me, who’s already twenty-six), were sat together during one of the random eat outs and wondered if we can go on a trip, you know, with just us and no parents. Destinations were thrown around but we eventually decided on Singapore, because one, they wanted to travel internationally and two, it seemed to be the safest destination for first timers (I can attest to this). I said that I wanted to go because well, I wanted to go back that that awesome Transformers ride in Universal Studios.

As usual, we had a lot of people who enthusiastically said “Yes!” only to back out at the last minute. In the end, there were the three of us – me, Christian and Abby. Round trip flight tickets were booked for a steal through Cebu Pacific but because of miscalculations on the times of departure, we had to get our flight back through Philippine Airlines (at the time they offered the cheapest fares).

We were supposed to stay in a backpacker’s hostel because it’s cheaper BUT Christian’s cousin, Eman was gracious enough to let us crash in his place for the whole 4 days of our stay. There are seriously no words to describe the level of gratitude that I have for Eman and his roomies (Rence and Ate Bon) for everything they’ve done for us when we were there; it was priceless.

First of all they picked us up from the airport when we arrived Sunday morning (after a mad dash through check in and immigration in the Philippines), treating us to the cab ride to their condo unit and bringing with them EZ link cards for us to use during our stay. In retrospect I realize now that the Kaladkarins should’ve invested in these cards; it would’ve saved us a whole lot of time counting change to buy tickets for the train.

They toured us around Orchard Road where we got to see the different Christmas displays outside the shops. We entered this magical place called Lucky Plaza center (otherwise known as Little Philippines), which was a gem; the foreign exchange rate was unmatched and good God, the chocolates and the pasalubongs were dirt cheap – possibly even cheaper than Chinatown. They also took us to this Cebu Pacific ticketing office somewhere inside LP where we got discounted Universal Studio tickets (among tickets to other things – Singapore Flyer, Gardens By the Bay and to the XD Experience ride, courtesy of Eman). From there we moved onto Chinatown (where we ate a late lunch at the authentic and aptly named Olde Cuban) and then to Vivo City where we had coffee.

Because our hosts had day jobs to maintain, the next couple of days we were free to explore the city on our own. We hit USS (Transformers ride, yay!) and Sentosa (I finally got to see the beach) on Monday afternoon before I parted ways with Abby and Christian. They went off in search for mythical Air Jordans while I booked myself a seat in the Singapore River Cruise, by the Fullerton Hotel. It was recommended to my by my friend Raydon who swore that the city lights will blow my mind come nightfall (it did). I got off in the Merlion Park and waited for a few minutes for the Marina Bay Sands light show but eventually called it quits at around 7:30 in the evening. Later, I slapped myself silly because I found that the show starts at 8PM. Yeah, fail.

Tuesday we went out and explored Little India’s Mustafa Center; Anthony Bordain was right – one can get lost in that place. And after eating the spiciest food I’ve ever encountered, we spent the rest of the afternoon using the freebie tickets we got from Eman. I am so grateful that he gave us those tickets – I wouldn’t have had the chance otherwise to experience those attractions, mostly because I’m too cheap to fork over the cash. After the tiring walk through the Gardens, we made our way to Queenstown station to meet up with Renz, who was kind enough to help Abby and Christian with their quest to find those mythical AJs. So after an exhaustive effort looking through bins of shoes (I even got myself a pair for work) and sports equipment, Christian treated us to a dinner at McDonald’s (I had the salad! Salad in McDonalds, who knew??). They didn’t get to find their AJs but they did manage to buy quite a few things.

Wednesday came too soon and because we had a noon flight to catch, we just slept in and spent the rest of the morning cramming all of our stuff back into our suitcases. Renz, from his office, called a cab to pick us up and off we went to the airport, where I was to have my first PAL experience.

Personally I find it a bit ridiculous I’ve never flown with our national airlines before. It’s just that other airlines have always offered cheaper fares; it didn’t seem logical to pay more to get to the same place, you know? Although after this particular flight I’m very much tempted to never scrimp on airfares ever again – the service and amenities were just worth it; they had seven people manning a plane of only 152 passengers (I’ve seen bigger planes manned by much less). Sure, the crew didn’t always smile but they did give you what you needed.

All in all it was a nice little trip, more relaxed compared to the frenzied pace we had the first time I went to Singapore. Although whether that was because it was already my second time there or the company I had this time round, I couldn’t say. It was definitely a cheaper trip though, with the lodgings and the tours and the dinners provided for by Eman and his roomies (CAN NOT STRESS ENOUGH HOW THANKFUL I AM). I got to revisit a few spots, had the chance to go explore them more thoroughly and I got to visit more places I’ve never been to before, mostly because they were too expensive.

I think I’d call it a success. Not bad for a kid’s day out.