Travel: Miscellaneous Bits and Bobs in Singapore and Changi Airport

Kind of a mish mash post on Singapore for you:


Durian

Would you believe me if I said I had never had fresh durian before this trip? I've had it in dessert form and candy form, but never fresh. We saw packages of it for sale at the supermarket near Mellben Seafood, and afterwards came by to pick up a package for $5 SGD. The man selling packaging it responded, "It's worth trying" when I said I'd never had it before (RINGING ENDORSEMENT!) and I bought a middle SKU (they were priced by ripeness/softness).


Durian

Restaurant Review: The Curry Culture (Singapore)

For our second dinner in Singapore, we had a strong hankering for Indian. About 1 hour of googling later (I told you, it takes me a long time to choose these things), we settled on The Curry Culture at Cuppage Terrace (*stifled giggle*). Reviews at Tripadvisor and GoHungryWhere.

It was about a 30 minute walk from our hotel, and we only got slightly lost down a random alleyway. We ended up cutting through the back entrance of a restaurant, and walked straight out the front door (a bit awkward).


The Curry Culture

Restaurant Review: Alexandra Village Hawker Centre (Singapore)

After our Jurong Bird Park adventure, we cabbed to Alexandra Village Hawker Centre. There was some confusion with the cabbie about the location, but we found it without too much trouble. We actually got off about a 5 minutes walk away from the address, as the traffic was backed up and the driver said it can be gridlock inside.

120 Bukit Merah Lane, 150120, Singapore

What brought us to this particular hawker centre, as opposed to one of the more famous ones?

LAKSA. Depot Road Claypot Laksa, in particular. Apparently this stall is closed on Mondays! Stall number is 01-75. I had quite a few Laksa places on my short list (including the uber famous 328 Katong Laksa), but this was sort of on the way back from Jurong Bird Park, and everyone loves clay-potted food, right?

Anyway, while we were there, we tried a few other things from the other stalls. There are two long strips of stalls with a walkway halfway down (so 4 sections of stalls). We first searched for the laksa (whose sign no longer says "Depot Road", but it was the right stall number and the only one saying "claypot laksa" on it). Afterwards, we made note of the more popular stalls and tried our luck! It appeared that we were the only tourists there (hurray!)


Alexandra Village Hawker Center

Travel: Jurong Bird Park (Singapore)

I love going to zoos and aquariums, so I had a hard time deciding whether I wanted to go to the Singapore Zoo, Jurong Bird Park, the Night Safari, or the River Safari.

I've been to San Diego's Zoo twice now, and from the Singapore Zoo TripAdvisor reviews, it sounded like it was of similar caliber and extra crowded. (I also didn't pack any zoom lenses for my camera!) I decided to save this for a future trip to Singapore.

I was intrigued by the Night Safari concept, but the TripAdvisor reviews seemed to indicate that it was extremely crowded and not much different than a regular zoo (but open at night time). I figured I wouldn't get many worthwhile photos at night, either!

Finally, the TripAdvisor reviews for the River Safari were not as favourable as the Night Safari, so it was a pass for me as well.

That left Jurong Bird Park, which has excellent TripAdvisor reviews. I've never been to a bird-dedicated park, so I was really excited to go!


Tickets and Travel

Ticket Price: $25 SGD per adult (they have a discount if you purchase online ahead of time, but for non-Singaporeans, it's only a 5% discount, so not really worth the trouble, IMO)

You can get to Jurong Bird Park via public transportation (MRT and bus), but takes about 90 minutes! Taxi, on the other hand, only takes about 20 minutes but costs more. We went for the taxi option since we were having a late start that morning. It cost us about $25-30 SGD (can't remember exactly), and there's a surcharge if you go during peak hours. There are also (not free) shuttle buses from various hotels (information here) that take up to 1 hour, but have a limited schedule.

We arrived about an hour after opening on a weekday and it was not that crowded at all. Although there were quite a lot of cute little school children on field trips.

We left via taxi as well. There's a taxi stand outside the park, and there was one there when we decided to leave (around 1PM, when it started getting a bit too hot and humid).


Picspam


We started at Penguin Coast:


Indoor penguin exhibit. Many school children came up on our heels shortly after this picture was taken.

Restaurant Review: Kaya Toast at 67 Killiney Kopitiam (Singapore)

I knew that I wanted to have a traditional Singaporean breakfast - which meant kaya toast and soft boiled eggs! From my research, there seemed to be two popular chains: Ya Kun Kaya Toast and Killiney Kopitiam. Based on the recommendation of an online friend (thanks, Boffan!), we decided to go to the original location of Killiney Kopitiam at 67 Killiney Rd (near Somerset MRT station). We just walked from our hotel, which took about 20 minutes.

Lots of locals hanging out, getting their breakfast on. Actually, it was pretty late already (9am) and some people were digging into some more substantial dishes.

67 Killiney Kopitiam

Accommodation Review: Grand Hyatt Singapore

We used reward points to book our two night stay at the Grand Hyatt in Singapore. Here's a quick review and pictures of our room.

Pros

• Swanky hotel
• Large room size (we had the basic room)
• Every taxi driver knows where it is!
• Free welcome chocolate chip cookies, fruit, and bottled water
• Free wifi
• Great water pressure
• Comfortable bed and pillows

Cons

• Slight funky smell from the bathroom
• Very confusing how to get here via the underground passages from the Orchard MRT station

Location Comments

The Grand Hyatt is fairly close to the Orchard MRT station, but you cannot just go up to the street level and walk there because there are no cross walks at the main intersection. You must go underground at some point, and it is confusing as hell! We probably spent 20 minutes getting from Ion Orchard shopping mall MRT exit to the right exit that would let us walk the rest of the way to the hotel. This is a huge pain with luggage, as some exits do not have escalators or elevators.


Taxi Comments

It seems like Singapore has different base and meter rates for different taxis. We found that the taxis pulling up to our hotel were more expensive (both base and meter) than ones we hailed from the street nearby, but they were also nicer (leather seats, air con already on, etc). Just a word of warning!


Grand Hyatt Singapore - entrance

Restaurant Review: Mellben Seafood (Singapore)

The next dish on my "to eat" list, was chilli crab! Again, there are a lot of well known establishments to have crab in Singapore. I decided on Mellben Seafood because it seemed less like a tourist destination than the others, and the claypot crab (which they are well known for) sounded super delicious.

Links: Hungrygowhere, Yelp, TripAdvisor


Mellben Seafood

Restaurant Review: Yeo Keng Nam Chicken Rice (Singapore)

We had 36 hours in Singapore, and squeezing as many meals as possible into those hours was the main goal.

I very strongly wanted to avoid Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice because of the hype, lines, too predictable, etc.

Googling for the "best" Chicken Rice joints in Singapore is like getting sucked into a black hole. Actually, scratch that. Googling for any of the "best" local dishes is like getting sucked into a black hole. For my personality type (needing to read EVERY review ever written on every place), this meant I spent way too much time researching what to eat. It seems like Singaporeans are very opinionated when it comes to determining the "best" of what to eat. That's ok with me!

I eventually shortlisted the following three Chicken Rice joints (for various reasons, I'm sure, but I can no longer recall them):

Thien Kee Steamboat Restaurant (Golden Mile Tower #B1-20)
6001 Beach Rd, Singapore 199589

Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice (Golden Mile Food Centre #B1-35)
505 Beach Rd, Singapore 199583

Yeo Keng Nam Chicken Rice
8 Braddell Rd, Singapore 359898


I decided to try the last place: Yeo Keng Nam Chicken Rice.

We hopped in a cab in front of our hotel, and gave the address to the cabbie. About 10 minutes in, he said "Is this a chicken rice place?" Cory and I looked at each other, and I said "Yes" to the cabbie. Another 10 minutes went by, and we basically pulled into a strip mall on the side of a very busy road.

TA DA!


This has got to be authentic, right?