Sentosa Buskers Festival 2013

ABBEY: Sentosa Buskers Festival 2013 exhibited many of the local artists' talents. Our first stop is with Dharni and K-Leah. We have seen the performance of Dharni in Singapore Night Festival and his beatboxing is great. Matched it with the husky voice of K-Leah and it was superb.  

After the acapella we went to see the string duo, Off Beaters. This kids really plays their instruments well. I liked it when they play Bruno Mars' Hey Soul Sister. They can improve their show if they would interact with their audience. 

We also got a photo shoot session with Sentosa Buskers Festival mascot. Last stop is Tribal Ninjas. Hands up to these artists especially with their fire acts. The show must go on even its windy causing the fire to touch their skins. I got also a chance to pose with The Leaning Man. We're hoping to see more of the world-class talents on the next festival.

WILL: Its Sentosa's 4th year in busking! Time flew so fast, isn't? This is a new for all of the attendees as they invite their local artists to perform at the stages of Sentosa, they were located at Merlion Pitch, Bell Pitch, iFly Ground, and to cut it short, they were all over the island. 

      On my observation, more audience actually went there to checkout the performances despite grey clouds engulfed the city-state.

      First we checkout the program so we can plan our visit. We listened first to Dharni and K-Leah, amazing voice accompanied by beatbox. Then we stopped to amaze ourselves with Off Beaters. Hey, I also attended the meet and greet the Buskers Mascot. 4th stop was the nice duo that played fire, well done tribal ninjas. To stop our grumbling stomach, we ended our visit with The Leaning Man. 

      That was a great break on a very hectic and pressured working environment. 

      I wish that the local performers will practice more on how to communicate with their audiences. 

      As usual, I am looking forward on 2014 Buskers line up. :) thanks Sentosa for this free event and helping a charity through our island entrance fee.

Sentosa Costa Sands Resort

ABBEY: We've been to Costa Sands Resort at Sentosa a couple of times. You can get there by taking the Sentosa mono rail and alight at Beach Station. Then you can either ride a tram to Siloso beach or walk until you reach the Wave house. Across there's stair up to Costa Sands. We've stayed at Kampung Hut. It has a twin double-deck beds with cabinets. 

The resort also offers arcade games, billiards, and swimming pool. Barbecue pits can be used with 8sgd charge. Laundry machines with dryer and mini mart and cafe are there as well. Wifi, hot and cold water are free.

WILL: Do you know that there is an affordable accommodation that Sentosa Island can serve your tight budget? Check out the Costa Sands Resort. 
      Chat always do the booking for a chalet that can house a four people. It caters pool, a bbq pit, and the outstanding view of Siloso Beach's breeze and waves. 
      Every chalet has 2 double-decked bed and 4 mini cabinets, air-conditioned but the bathrooms were un-attached. 
      Go visit their site, book a room and see it for yourself ;)  

Marine Life Park | Adventure Cove Water Park | Resorts World Sentosa

ABBEY:  This the second water park that we visited in Singapore. Adventure cove is in Sentosa Island. Alight at Waterfront station and then walk your way to the Maritime musuem; a little bit more and then you'll reach Adventure Cove. The fee is $29 per adult and $20 for a child. Lockers are priced at 10 and 20sgd for a day. The largest is big enough to store items of a 3-4pax-group just like we had. 

Before getting wet we strolled the park and posed for snaps. There are 6 water attractions aside from the dolphin and sting rays shows. First is the wave pool, Bluewater Bay. As usual the people will flock once the wave comes in then will disperse once the waves are gone as well. In this water attraction are the cavannas (rent is 128sgd). It has curtains on all sides for privacy and has its own shower. But you can have a free cavanna at Seahorse Hideaway just across the Bluewater Bay. 

Then we tried Dueling Racer. In this you will ride a foam board and slide headfirst. You will be pitted against an "opponent" on the other track. First one to plunge and finish wins. We also tried Riptide Rocket. You will be taken up thru a conveyor then you'll plunge onto the slide. This process repeats for 3 times. Looks like you are in a roller coaster ride. After that, we went to Pipeline Plunge and Tidal Twister. These rides will send you twisting and turning on great speed which is thrilling.

I was excited when I knew that we'll be snorkling. Rainbow Reef offers a chance to any swimmer to interact on 20,000 colorful fish. Sadly sea water got inside my goggles making me panic. But it was a good try. The water is cold and deep. For other people who doesn't want to snorkle, you can buy fish food for a dollar and feed them at the edges of the water tank. We bought corndog and hotdog sandwich for lunch on a food cart. But Adventure Cove also has the Bay Restaurant for more choices. You can also easily find a table within the park. After lunch we relaxed on Adventure river. It tours you along the theme park and gives relaxation while lying down on your lifebuoy. The last 2 attractions we tried are Whirlpool Washout (giant water drain) and Spiral Washout (giant funnel). 

We didn't try the Splashworks as we don't know how to swim :) It is the part of the park where you can dive as the pools are 4 meters deep. You can have your balancing act on a balance beam or cross a tightrope. Last stop is the big bucket tree house. We waited until the bucket fills up and enjoyed the water splash above our heads. 

Swimming apparels and souvenirs are available at Reef N Wave wear at the park's entrance. This is a good way to quench the heat of summer.

WILL: My birthday is on summer and school holiday, and yearly my mom celebrated it with a big splash... Literally splash. It is somewhat an event to look forward to, not only by my siblings but also by mom's employees' family. So here in Singapore, I brought that, now not only for my birthday but also for our wedding anniversary.
      Some people think that Singapore is a boring place, do you feel it too? Well for me and my husband, we always see to it that every month we will be going somewhere we never been in Singapore. So on month of April, we say hello to Sentosa's new family attraction... The Adventure Cove.
      I am so excited for that 8th of April, not for me to swim but to fulfill my adrenaline side needs. I am ecstatic to the slides featured in their website.
      We bought the ticket for $29 each. We rented a one big locker for $20 and as soon we locked our things, we started to roam around to take photos and make a plan where to go first, but when Chat saw the Rainbow Reef she immediately asked if she can swim with 20000 fish. I agreed and Abbey joined her, not more than 2 minutes Abbey asked the lifeguard for help and he was taken out from the water.
     We went to our lockers and put in our camera. I am here for the slides so I am so excited to take some adrenaline rush slides. Firstly we went to Dueling Racer, Abbey and Chat wants to back-out but they are already in the queue and I keep on telling them that they can make it...that they will enjoy each and every ride. Actually this slide is shorter than the one in Splash Island. Its our turn and I told both of them to go first, to make sure that they will slide down. Hehe.
     Then we tried the first hydro-magnetic coaster...the Riptide Rocket. It really made me screamed and my heart pumped up a lot. This is really fun. Whirpool Washout, Pipeline Plunge, Spiral Washout was covered. We then take the opportunity to play with the waves at Bluewater Bay.
     As our tummies protesting, we decided to eat some hotdogs and take our food and soda at Seahorse Hideaway. There we watched the kids having fun with fountains.
     I want to accomplish something so I want to conquer one of my fear. Fear to swim with the fish. Well, I failed. Not more than 2 minutes in the water, I yelled for help. Help to take me out from the large sea water aquarium.
     As we waited for Chat to finish her date with school of fish, we look on around at Splashworks. After that, we decided to checkout the Adventure River. This is really a nice thing, the best part is when the sting rays seems hitting on me. The same sting ray keep on following me.
     Like a child we waited for the water to rush down on us at the Big Bucket Tree House. Before packing up, we decided to ate some snacks and walked our way to the second floor to for us to relax and see the dolphins from above. Half an hour we already packed and ready to go to 8 Noodles located at Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa Resort & Spa.

8 Noodles (Dine on 3) at Sentosa Island

ABBEY: After soaking on the pools of Adventure Cove and when the rain started to fall, we headed to 8noodles at Siloso Beach. Right timing to sip a hot bowl of soup on a cold weather. 

Although I ordered Hakka-Style Braised Minced Pork Noodles, a dry noodle, they still give me a delicious soup to complete my meal. The noodle is firm and the sauce is tasteful. Each serving is big but costs around SGD16. It took a while for our food to be served maybe because we're too early to dine, but its worth the wait.

I enjoy putting shrimp paste on my noodle so much that allergy started to kick in ;) It was manageable though. We took snaps on their veranda and went home.

WILL: It was the celebration of my 30th birthday so I want it in some sophisticated and yet affordable place to pig out. Since we will spend whole morning at Sentosa, it is better to look for a diner inside that island. Before that day I searched and searched until I finally found the 8 Noodles located at Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa Resort & Spa. 

      After our water splashing at Adventure Cove, around 5pm we alighted at the Beach Front station of the tram and boarded the bus to Siloso Beach. It rained that time so the noodles and hit soup will he great. 

      We sat, we ordered and we burped! I ordered the Pork Rib Noodle Soup. I was astounded as the waiter put our food one by one. They have a big serving, one order can accommodate two hungry tummies. 

      Time to linger in, their soup is so delicious that all I want to do sipped it directly out from the bowl. Haha! The noodles is nicely done, al dente, the way I like. And the most unforgettable pork ribs... it seems that the cut was from a dinosaur, haha, the ribs is huge and the meat is so tender, I really don't need to exert an extra effort to take it from the bone, the pork taste awesome just compliment with its soup. 

      Chat ordered for Homemade Wanton Noodles Soup and she gave me some of her dumplings, it is delicious also. :) 

      This place is a great find. Thanks to Noodles 8, you can contact them 63711019 / 65 6371 1010  yeeching.koay@shangri-la.com. 

Universal Studios Singapore: Transformed

ABBEY: Second time? Yes, with my wife. With us is my brother-in-law and eldest sister. They went back to Philippines and we invited them to have a side trip here in Singapore. We bought 4 tickets at Sea Wheel travel (People's Park Centre) at a discounted price of 65sgd each. We were at Universal Studios Singapore's gate by 10am and went to Lights, Camera, Actions attraction. Then we went to Sci-fi area of USS; Transformers. This is the first time for Wilma. She really enjoyed the ride and she even joined the queue for the second time.
None of us have the guts to experience Battlestar Galactica except for Wilma. I feel I'll excrete all my body fluids once I get into that.

I was their bag carrier when they went to The Mummy Returns; an indoor roller coaster. My sister was very afraid to Anubis (half-human half-jackal); Egypt's god of embalming and the dead.
Then we went to the Lost World. We rode the Canopy Flyer. After that we bought sandwiches and nachos while waiting for The Waterworld show. This show made almost all people wet. Another water-ride is the Water Rapids at Jurassic park. Beware of the 2-storey drop. We had corndog as we went to Kingdom Far Far Away to watch the 4D show. After rescuing Princess Fiona, we went to Madagascar. We saw the penguins do their dance number and then rode their crate. Other shows that we watched were the Monster's  Rock concert, Sesame Street and the cute waitresses of the Diner. 

It was tiring but fun.

WILL: My first visit was when my in-laws, sister and nephew visited us here in Punggol, and I thought that would be my last to go in Universal Studios of Singapore. Well, definitely I am so wrong. 
     Ate Abigail and Kuya Roy from Chicago gave us some of their golden time just to spend it here. Thanks Bro and Sis. 
     We bought a ticket beforehand so we don't need to be that early just to queue to buy tix. We arrived 10am via taxi, and it is more cheaper than to take the Sentosa Express.
     Overall, all I can say, it is better to go here in USS in weekdays and start to queue the attractions from your right. We almost ride all the attraction except for Battlestar Gallactica. Booo!! They don't want to experience the thrill I felt when Ate Sol went here. It's like our soul left our body. Haha. The mummy is really cool too, the drop really caught me off guard. 
    We have seen all the shows and Monsters Rock is really awesome, never got the chance to see this before. 
    Universal Studios Singapore will make you coming back for more. ;) oh, there are some travel agents that selling a discounted tickets for as low as $65.