Alcohol

I am on graveyard shift today and the staffs and I had a bellyful of laughter because of our incident with "alcohol."

At past midnight, our telephone operator radioed our housekeeping staff if we have "alcohol."  The latter answered they had none so I radioed back and said Front Office has a bottle of "alcohol" that we can provide to guests who were asking for it.  It's already half-consumed though so I added that if the guests want, they can buy a new bottle tomorrow at our souvenir shop.

And so I asked the bellman to deliver the GREEN CROSS ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL a.k.a. "alcohol" to the guest's room.  But the bellman came back laughing.  As it turned out, the Japanese guests want ALCOHOLIC DRINKS and so he just directed them to our restaurant.  But what amused us further was the fact that when the bellman was about to give them the "alcohol" that he brought with him, one of the guests said, "Can we drink?"

LOL.

I am Back

After more than a year of not posting in this blog, I decided to blog back.  Sorry for the very long hiatus.  I got busy with work.  I was promoted to Duty Manager in the hotel that I work for and the demands of my new position took its toll on me and so the past year was spent learning the ins and outs of hotel operations.  My love affair with blogging and writing was thus relegated to the sidelines.

Also, the past year, I got busy sating the wanderlust in me.  My job was kind of stressful and so whenever I had time, I traveled.  I had been to Bohol, Camotes Island and Hong Kong.  I had also gone home to Aklan and visited Manila.  After these travels, my work would take much of my time and so I failed to update this blog on my adventures and misadventures.

As much as I want to continue this blog from where it ended, which is on my Singapore trip, I cannot since last June of this year, my laptop crashed down and everything on my hard disk got wiped out.  Sniff.  Sniff.    About two years worth of travel pictures and blog drafts went down the drain.  Some of my pictures were actually already posted in Facebook but my heart breaks for the total loss of my Sagada, Bohol, Bangkok and Villa Escudero trips photos, including the random shots I had with my loved ones and friends. 

Oh well, I guess it was a reminder for me to always have a backup for all of my files, which I now have, by the way.

That said, from hereon, this blog starts anew.

Sentosa's Siloso Beach

Siloso is Sentosa Singapore's stretch of white beach promoted us the country's "hippest" beach.

I do not agree with it being called the "hippest" beach though as it seemed to offer too few activities and it was too short of a beach for me.

Growing up in a tropical paradise that is the Philippines and having been to fantastic beaches like Boracay and Palawan's, I was not at all ecstatic to seeing Siloso. Normally, any beach would beckon to the sun and the sand lover in me but seeing Siloso did not make me want to swim in its waters.

Oh well. Methinks that in a spatially challenged country that is Singapore, it is still a blessing to see a beach.

Sentosa's Songs of the Sea

The first attraction that we went to when we were in Sentosa Singapore was the Songs of the Sea. Unfortunately, this show is only available during the night. It features a live cast and dramatic pyrotechnic effects, water jets, lasers, computer imaging, music and flame bursts.

Still, I had a great time meeting Oscar. Isn't he cute?

Despite the show being shown only at night, an Oscar and Co. souvenir shop was open.

The merchandise being sold there was so expensive though that even when I fell in love with an Oscar shirt, I decided to just not buy it. Hurrah for the rational me stopping the compulsive me from buying anything I want. Ha ha! :P

Sentosa's Palawan Beach

Just a little trivia here before I start my detailed blog about the activities I tried in Sentosa Singapore.

Do you know that Sentosa has a beach called Palawan?

I just find it interesting because here in the Philippines, we do have an island province called Palawan. It is actually a very famous tourist destination as it boasts of some of the country's best and pristine beaches like the ones found in its capital Puerto Princesa and in other islands like Coron and El Nido. The Philippines' Palawan is actually one of my favorite destinations. To view my blog posts about it, click HERE.

Finally, we're in Sentosa Singapore!

Thirty minutes after leaving Suntec City, we finally arrived in our destination - Sentosa Singapore, which is one of the said country's premier tourist destinations.

Upon arrival, we were met with these flags.

We then toured the entire park on board its color-coded buses that I found interesting because of their chairs that are opposite each other.

Just a simple tip here. If you are going to take any bus in Sentosa, be very careful as each color-coded bus has a specific route. Riding the wrong bus will thus take you to the wrong destination.

These are the various walkways of Sentosa taken while we were roaming in the island either on the bus or on foot.

As we went around Sentosa, we were also able to pass by and see some of its attractions that include Songs of the Sea, Siloso Beach, a replica of the Merlion, Butterfly Park and Insect Kingdom, Imbiah Lookout, Images of Singapore, Merlion Walk, and Sentosa 4D Magix and Cine Blast.

Of course I did not content myself with just seeing these attractions as experiencing them was the reason we went there in the first place. So watch out for my future posts that will detail the fun I had in Sentosa Singapore!

I Want to Ride a Cable Car

These pictures were taken when I was onboard the bus that would take us to Sentosa Singapore. While taking these pictures, I thought to myself that whatever happened, I would ride one when I get to Sentosa.

Watch out for my later post that would detail my cable car ride experience.

Singapore Under Construction

These pictures were taken while I was onboard the bus that would take us to Sentosa.

Did you know that the entire Singapore is actually smaller than the greater Metro Manila area? One of my clients who is a Filipina and has been working in Singapore for years told me that Singapore is too small one can actually travel from both its endpoints (north and south) in just a day. Hmm. No wonder almost all buildings in these countries are the high-rise type just so they can maximize space.

Our ride to Sentosa

Earlier, I blogged about getting fascinated with Hippotours buses. Turned out that the bus that would take us to Sentosa was equally fascinating.

It was not as fancy as the Hippotours buses that we saw as it did not have a roof deck but its being on multi-lingual system was pretty interesting.

Cool.

Singapore's Hippotours Buses

When we got our free tickets to Sentosa Singapore from the event's organizers, we were told that the pick-up point would be at Suntec City. We were a little early though so we spent some time roaming inside the mall.

A quarter before the expected time of departure, which was at 2:00 PM, Jid and I waited outside Suntec City. These Hippotours buses parked a few meters from us caught my attention.

The design was eye-catching, don't you think? And I was thinking it would be fun to go around the streets of Singapore on their view deck provided that it's not too sunny.