Sunday’s afternoon well spent with bike ride along Marina Bay…and brief drama review for ‘Sinister Beings 2’.

Weather forecast had stated that it would rain the entire afternoon which would dash my plan for going to cycle with my friend today. Fortunately, the weather turned out to be just fine. It’s also windy and not too sunny today; perfect for outdoor activities. I brought my friend on my usual cycling route from National Stadium to Marina Bay Sands.

As it was a lovely Sunday’s afternoon, the path today was quite crowded with a lot of people cycling (like us), jogging, rollerblading, bringing their dog for a walk, etc. We also saw a lot of people flying kites from Marina Barrage. Is it easy to fly kites? (wondering if any skill needed?). Perhaps I could try this activity some day in the future. The location at Marina Barrage is also very picturesque for many such outdoor activities.

After our bike ride, we walked over to the Satay by the Bay to have our dinner. Couldn’t miss on ordering my favourite satay, grilled stingray and barbequed chicken wings at this hawker centre. These are my usual food here. Haha…At first we thought of heading to the Gardens by the Bay to catch the new light and sound installation beginning from this month onward at the Supertree Grove called the ‘Borealis’. It is an outdoor art installation that combines layers of light and cloud particles where the magical splendour of the Northern Lights, also known as aurora borealis, is recreated to illuminate the night skies of Supertree Grove. However, we were tired and so we decided that we will catch that next time instead.

Would like to end my post with a brief review to a TVB series I have recently completed watching; ‘Sinister Beings 2’. The 30-episode drama starred Ruco Chan, Rosina Lin, Alex Fong, Ben Wong, Joman Chiang, Jonathan Cheung, Moon Lau, Crystal Fung, Matthew Ko, Joseph Lee, etc. In this sequel, Tong Koon Fung (Alex) commenced his evil plans for a large-scale destruction of Hong Kong as a revenge for his imprisoned and mentally-disabled best friend, Ngai Chi Long (Jonathan). He does so by getting close to the police team to be able to gain information on their operations.

(Image source: sooka.my)

The drama is generally good with some solid suspense and actions. I’m quite surprised by Alex’s performance (he seldom acts) as the main villain who suddenly turned over a new leaf at the end of the series (however I don’t really buy into such quick personality turnover which seems to be not making sense). Rosina…hmmm….her acting has improved slightly but still not to the standard of how a best actress should be (still annoyed that she won best actress several years ago!). She just couldn’t let go on her acting (felt too controlled) and her emotional scenes are similarly rigid. TVB is seriously lacking solid actresses nowadays. Anyway, out of 10 points, I would rate ‘Sinister Beings 2’ a total of 7.5.

Went to NUS Museum earlier today. It’s my 10th museum/gallery visit for the year so far.

That’s cool right. It’s just May and I have already visited a total of 10 museums/galleries in Singapore this year. I have just done the 10th earlier today with a visit to the NUS Museum (NUS stands for National University of Singapore). Soon, I will be running out of cool museums/galleries to visit in this city state (as I have already visited many other museums/galleries in Singapore in the past before 2024 too). Haha…

NUS Museum is the oldest university museum in Singapore and is actually located right besides the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum (that I have just visited two months ago) in the NUS main campus at Kent Ridge. It took me nearly one and a half hour to reach there from my home in Paya Lebar. The museum is established in 1955 and the entrance to the museum is free for everyone.

The museum is surprisingly quite huge, has 3 levels and contains over 8000 artefacts and artworks divided across four collections. The collections include Chinese, Indian and Southeast Asian materials, consisting of traditional sculptures and paintings, bronzes, jades, ceramics, textiles, and modern and contemporary art. Some of the collections date back to several thousand years ago. Here are some of the pictures I took during my visit to the museum earlier today;

Some of the exhibits are quite fascinating and thought provoking (but there are some that look way inferior though and not worth putting up for display…just my personal thought). It would be cool if NUS is actively obtaining more collections so that this museum could be further expanded not only for the tourists but also for students especially those who are pursuing higher studies in art or history. I spent close to 2 hours in the museum; very pleasant visit and it was not crowded.

Just came back to Singapore from 5-days break at KL.

Hey…how’s your weekend so far? I have just returned from KL early this afternoon. I went back to KL on last Tuesday’s night for a long break back at home. Labor’s Day falls on last Wednesday and I took two days leave on the following Thursday and Friday. Hence, I have a continuous 5 days of break (hooray!). That would be good for a quick solo trip perhaps (since I have done one around similar time last year). However, for this year, I felt the need to just spend the off-days for a rest at home. So it is.

For a quick recap; I have done my first ever solo vacation in my life last year on May 2023. I went to Dubai and Abu Dhabi for 5 days. It was a very amazing experience, having visited all the places I wanted to see for a long time and had the whole trip all by myself. I wonder when would be my next solo vacation? Haha…The problem is that I wouldn’t have much annual leave left for me to go on so many trips for the year. Took many days of leave earlier during Chinese New Year for my trip to Sri Lanka with my parents. Then, I would join the company trip to Taiwan on this coming July, followed by a trip to Hong Kong with my sisters to watch a concert right after that.

Then, in October, I may be going to Xian, China with my parents for a guided trip. My annual leave would all be used up for these trips. I guess I could only do a brief 3-days solo trip to nearby place if I wanted one for this year. Yea…I went to a travel fair at Putra World Trade Centre yesterday as my dad was very eager to visit Xian, China near the end of the year before winter arrives. I too would like to visit Xian (I am particularly interested to visit the famous Terracotta Army Site Museum). I am keen on history of the China’s first emperor, Qin Shih Huang and Xian would be the perfect place to get to know more about that. I still have not confirm to join the trip but most likely will. Who would say no to a trip no matter the obstacles? Haha…

Besides than visiting the travel fair, I basically did nothing much back at home for the past few days. Just taking good amount of rest at home to recharge myself, watched some dramas and movies (watched Godzilla Minus One and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire), visited a mall, played rummy with family on Saturday’s evening and watched the Thomas Cup badminton matches. Unfortunately, Malaysia lost to China (which I already expected even before the matches) in the semi-final by 1-3. Malaysia have to settle for 3rd place finish. China is just too strong in this sport and Malaysia’s badminton players could not match their skills. It’s ok…we can aim for better outcome in the upcoming Summer Olympic Games at Paris later this year. China will be up against Indonesia later today for the Thomas Cup final. I’m betting on China too.

Took a trip to Singapore Navy Museum this afternoon…and finally a downpour today to cool down the recent heat!

Right after I complained about the recent hot weather just yesterday, the sky immediately gave us a much needed rain to cool off the heat today. Good one but on a not-so-good timing for me. I was on my way back home from MRT station when the heavy downpour (along with strong gusts of wind) occurred. Soaking wet from the sweltering heat yesterday and soaking wet again today but this time it’s from the rain.

Anyway, as planned yesterday, I went to visit the Singapore Navy Museum early today to get a sense of completeness after having visited Singapore Air Force Museum yesterday. It’s like a combo (have to visit the other half for a full package kind of feel). Singapore Navy Museum is located at the Tanah Merah coastline close to the Changi Naval Base. It is situated on a huge reclaimed land of which a large chunk of it will be dedicated to Changi Airport Terminal 5 in near future.

As it is located in a very isolated location and it’s quite inconvenient to reach there by public transport, the navy museum is one of the less popular museums in the country. That is why during my visit today (it’s Sunday), I saw less than 10 visitors (I was there for 2 hours). However, they do offer free shuttle bus to and from Expo MRT station (only on weekends and public holidays). Its website mentioned free entry for Singaporeans and PR but charges SGD8 for foreigners. However, when I was there, admission is complimentary for everyone.

The navy museum has 3 levels of indoor galleries with multiple sections diving deep into Singapore’s maritime history, historical beginning of RSN (Republic of Singapore Navy), evolution of RSN ships over the years, information of Naval Diving Unit (NDU), missiles, partnerships with navies worldwide, maritime security, etc. There are also two theatres (providing 2 brief video presentations) and a small gift shop (at the exit).

There is an outdoor gallery which displays a collection of historic guns and weapon systems sourced from decommissioned ships. However, I find that the outdoor gallery is lackluster. It would again be better if they parked at least a decommissioned warship right besides the museum and allow visitors for a walkthrough for an immersive experience (since the museum is already located besides Changi Navy Base). I saw a huge Singapore’s warship from the museum ground at a distance.

I actually find that the navy museum gave a slightly better experience than the air force museum I visited yesterday. The former is larger, has a more spacious layout and contains more informative displays (a lot of readings required though…haha). I arrived at the museum at 11.15am and I tried my best to tour the whole museum before the next shuttle bus time at 12.30pm. I was late for 3 minutes and the shuttle bus was gone (so on time).

I had to wait for the next one at 1.30pm (took that waiting time to walk around the museum ground, played mobile game and editing & uploading the pictures I took at the museum to my social medias immediately; making good use of the time!). I was the only one on the shuttle bus en-route back to Expo MRT station which shows clearly how unpopular this museum is due to its isolated location. However, I must say that this museum is really worth-visiting (and it’s free!).

Visited Singapore Air Force Museum today.

First thing first; the weather has been unbearably hot in recent weeks. It’s so uncomfortable especially when traveling to work or having lunch outside now having to bear the extreme heat and sweat.

Okay,,,back to the main topic of this post. Earlier today, I went over to the Paya Lebar Air Base (military airbase) region to visit the Singapore Air Force Museum. After a brief search on what are the remaining museums in the country that I have not visited, I picked this one for my today’s adventure. The museum is free to visit for anyone and has two levels of galleries.

Level 1 contains the outdoor gallery where some decommissioned fighter jets, missiles, anti-aircraft systems, etc are on display. Also included in this level is a small theatre for a clip presentation (about 10 minutes) that happens once every hour, a gift shop and a small gallery room with a flight simulator available only for school booking.

Level 2 contains the indoor gallery that traces the history and values of the RSAF (Republic of Singapore Air Force) with presence of multiple artefacts, uniforms, badges, jets’ models, and interactive displays. There is also a role-playing air combat game within the indoor gallery (I scored first place among all three players at the game…couldn’t be proud as the other two are just children…haha).

I spent about one and a half hour there. The museum is pretty small and I wish they could have displayed more decommissioned fighter jets and at least allow visitors to get inside one or two of those jets. Since I have visited Air Force Museum after today, it would feel complete to visit the Navy Museum too. Haha…That is likely to be my plan for tomorrow then.

Kept going to the far east side of SG this weekend. Visited the Changi Chapel and Museum earlier today.

Hey…it’s weekend again! I ordered a larger tank for my Betta fish online last week and it still hasn’t arrived yet. I hope I can receive it by end of today so that I can get a larger and more comfortable home for my Chippy. Ohh ya…I renamed my Betta fish from ‘Chips’ to ‘Chippy’ so that it sounds more intimate. Haha…I always like to look over at it when I am on my desk in my room. It is just too adorable, colourful and fascinating. I wonder will I still give it that much of attention after some time. Haha…

By the way, I have been travelling mostly to the far east side of the country for this weekend. Just yesterday, I went to Changi Airport. I went to Terminal 4 not to board a flight but to purposely speak to an AirAsia ground staff in regards to some important queries I had in regards to a future flight I have booked. The ‘Ask Bo’ chat function in AirAsia website or mobile app is not helpful at all as the available options in the chat are way limited and I could not find any way to speak to live agent or contact them via this automated chat function. It was so frustrating.

Hence, I rather go all the way to the airport to speak to the staff there directly (anyway, it is quite convenient to go to airport…so it’s not a big deal). Since I was already in this area, I then made my way to IKEA Tampines store to look around (only bought one small item in the end). IKEA stores here are always packed with people on the weekend. I’m very curious; do Singaporeans need to look for new furniture every week or they run out of places to hang around during the weekend?

Earlier today, I went to the far east side of Singapore again to visit Changi Chapel and Museum. The museum is located close to the airport too. It is a war museum dedicated to telling the stories of the prisoners of war during Japanese occupation of Singapore in World War II. After the British Army was defeated by the Imperial Japanese Army in the Battle of Singapore, thousands of prisoners of war were imprisoned in Changi prison camp for several years. While interned there, these prisoners built numerous chapels, one of which was modelled after St George’s Church. This recreated chapel has since becomes the highlight of this small museum.

I was particularly fascinated by the sketches drawn by one of the prisoners (named Harold Young) on display in this museum. In the end, I spent exactly an hour in the place. Quite a quick visit as the museum is small. I read most of the descriptions inside and I’m more or less quite familiar with the general history of the Japanese occupation in Singapore during the World War II by now too. That’s because I have already visited several other museums/galleries highlighting on that part of history too such as the Battlebox, Fort Siloso, National Museum, etc. Anyway, entry to this museum is free for Singaporeans and PR (only SGD8 admission fee for an adult tourist/foreigner) for your information.

Brief return to KL this weekend for Qing Ming Festival.

I am back to KL for the weekend. There’s a couple of things I’ve got to do in this brief return trip. I didn’t take any annual leave (don’t have much left and got to save them especially for my company trip and trip to Hong Kong on this coming July) and hence it will be a very rushed travel back to KL this time. It has been quite a while too since I last went back home; which was during Chinese New Year holiday early this year.

Reached home on Friday’s late night after a faster-than-usual AirAsia flight from Singapore. The flight will usually takes 45 minutes but it took only half an hour that day (I guess the pilot is rushing to be back home in KL). Went out to my sister’s salon to get a haircut on Saturday’s morning. Then, I brought my young nephew for lunch and subsequently bought the necessary prayer items for ritual offerings to my grandparents and mom tomorrow.

Had some free time and played rummy with family in the afternoon (and then again for a short while after dinner). It is my favourite pastime with my family. And since it was my dad’s birthday end of last month (and I was not in KL back then), me and sister brought my dad to a buffet dinner at Jogoya Buffet Restaurant at Starhill KL that evening as a belated birthday treat for him. Hasn’t been there for quite a long time by the way. The food were great and I took a lot of plates. The price is a little expensive though; at RM198++ per adult during this Raya festive season. I was so full after the meal.

Woke up super early today at 6am (the Sun isn’t even up yet) to accompany my dad to the neighbourhood market to buy some stuff for the ritual offerings and also breakfast for ourselves. Once my eldest sister’s family and my uncle joined us at our home, we then proceed to the Nirvana Memorial Park (at Semenyih) for the Qing Ming Festival. Today is the last day of the festival and hence we observed much fewer people visiting the memorial park today (which is very good; no crowd and most importantly, no traffic congestion at all leading to the memorial park which is a common and a frustrating sight every year). Reached there at around 8am.

Visited my grandparents’ gravesite first and then to my mom’s gravesite. We finished all the necessary ritual offerings, tomb sweeping and chit-chatting (haha…) a little after 10am. We then went to a seafood restaurant at Hulu Langat for an early lunch at around 11am. Came back home a moment ago, rest for a while and had this time to publish a new post right here right now before catching my flight later in the late afternoon back to Singapore. That sums up my brief return trip to KL this weekend. Most probably will be coming back to KL again next month (hopefully can stay longer too…but without sacrificing annual leave…how…any idea?).

Update on later of the day…

Was greeted with a fascinating view of a pair of rainbow while the plane I was in was making a landing at the Changi Airport early this afternoon. Felt the urge to share some pictures during the flight including the one with the lovely rainbows mentioned earlier.

Have a good week ahead!

Hari Raya Aidilfitri on midweek this year and…I bought myself a fish as pet!

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all my Muslim friends! May the joy of this festive season light your life with love, peace, and hope. Have a warm and joyous celebration with your loved ones! I always admire the utmost dedication of the Muslims to fast for not only a day or two, but for an entire Ramadan month before Raya.

(Image source: Aiman from http://www.notaria.my)

We only have one day of public holiday for this festival in Singapore (while Malaysia is enjoying two). Hence, we will be back to work tomorrow. That’s ok; at least we have a day off in the middle of the week (making this a less stressful week…haha) and only got to work for two more days and it’s weekend! And this weekend, I’ve got to make a quick trip to KL to pay an annual visit to my grandparents’ and my mom’s graves for the Qing Ming Festival.

And yup…as the post’s title had already revealed; I bought myself a fish as a pet. I suddenly have this urge or passion recently to own a small desktop aquarium tank in my bedroom in Singapore. I immediately explored on products available in Shopee, purchased one and it came 2 days right after my order (that’s very quick!). The small tank also comes with rock white sands, white LED light, seashells and an artificial plant for tank decorations. It only costs me SGD12+ (inclusive of a small bag of fish food and a mini water changer too).

I went to a small aquarium shop near my house early today and look for a Betta fish. The one I chosen is a male, very colourful, has beautiful fins and is particularly active (kept swimming around in its jar). I’m getting you a new home! It only costs SGD15 for the fish and I bought additional fish pellets there for SGD2. I’m calling my new pet fish ‘Chips’ after a quick browse online searching for interesting and simple names for pet fish. Revealing Chips below…;

Currently, the desktop tank is quite small but I assume it’s sufficient to house one small Betta fish (it is at least larger than the jar it is housed in at the aquarium shop). May opt for a slightly larger tank for it in near future. Chips, I hope you enjoy staying in your new home with me. Haha…As this will be my first time taking care of a fish, so I’m a little worried. Anyway, Betta fish are one of the most low maintenance fish you can have as a pet, as they do not require a lot of space, equipment, or attention. So…I think it should be ok.

Spent my Saturday in the two cooled conservatories at Gardens by the Bay; Cloud Forest and Flower Dome.

I think this is my fourth or fifth time of my visit to the the pair of huge glass-covered conservatories at Gardens by the Bay (named Cloud Forest and Flower Dome respectively). This time I’m heading there to check out the sakura blossom theme (2024 edition) happening only in this month (from 22 March to 21 April 2024 to be exact) in Flower Dome.

Don’t have the opportunity or budget to go to Japan to see sakura trees (cherry blossom) and so this is a good alternative (much more economical because it’s only SGD20 to enter both conservatories). Haha…Weather has been intensely warm recently too. Hence, it’s good to spend the hot afternoon inside these air-conditioned glasshouses. And of course there’s so much to see in there.

Me and my friend first went in to the Cloud Forest and spent a little over an hour in there. Scenes of cooling mist, playful elevated walkways, beautiful waterfall and sprouting landscapes in there continue to overwhelm me despite having visited the place multiple times. Even the giant column-less glass structure itself is an impressive sight to see along with spectacular views of the outside (Marina Bay Sands, CBD skyline, etc).

After that, we moved to the adjacent Flower Dome. Crowds are visibly larger in here due to the sakura blossom theme only happening in this conservatory. The air-conditioning here is also noticeably colder compared to Cloud Forest. Mesmerized by all the colourful and fascinating flowers (and sculptures/artistic installations) on display in here. There’s quite a huge variety of flowers in here. There are also various mini-gardens dedicated to different regions of the world.

The highlight of our visit today is of course the cherry blossom trees (and peach blossom too) set at the centre of the conservatory along with some gorgeous Japanese themed decorations such as suspended colourful paper cranes, Torri (traditional Japanese gate), replica of Golden Pavilion of Rokuonji Temple in Japan, paper lanterns, wishing well, etc. We spent about two hours in there and ended our visit after a quick glance through the gift shop at the exit.

Beautiful, isn’t it? As mentioned earlier, I have visited both conservatories a couple of times already and yet I still find the place very captivating and deserve repeated visits. The only thing is that it is weekend today and so there’s just too many people in there. We then made our way to the nearby Satay by the Bay hawker centre to have our dinner (got to eat my favourite satay there) and then walked back to the Marina Bay Sands waterfront promenade to see the daily water and light show called Spectra (I watched it for countless time already) before calling it a day.

Explored Fort Canning Park today. There’s so much to see here.

Ohh…it’s already the last day of the month. The Easter long weekend is ending in a few hours too. I spent my afternoon today at the Fort Canning Park. I have been to this park before few years ago but that particular visit was quite a brief one and didn’t cover many parts of the park.

Today I decided to explore every corner of this huge 18-hectare hill park. It was also not too sunny (cloudy with occasional rain in between) during my visit to the park early today. Once arrived at the park, I climbed a lot of steps to reach to the top of the 48-metres high hill where Raffles Garden, Raffles House and Fort Canning Lighthouse are located. Raffles House was once a place of residence for Sir Stamford Raffles, the British colonial official who was largely credited for the founding of contemporary Singapore.

I then walked the entire loop of the park that surrounds the Fort Canning Reservoir. I first passed through the Sang Nila Utama Garden (a historical garden with a series of Javanese split gates and ornamental pool) and then the Shrine of Sultan Iskandar Shah (or famously known as Parameswara, the last Sultan of this island kingdom). There are actually a lot of historical sites within this park.

I then went to visit the Fort Canning Heritage Gallery located inside the Fort Canning Centre building at the park right in front of the Fort Canning Green. The gallery spans two levels and traces the rich history of the hill and showcases the rare artefacts found there. After that, I checked out the adjacent 9-Pound Cannon, Artisan’s Garden (archeological excavation site with discovered artefacts that show possibility of a palace of a Malay kingdom on Fort Canning Hill), Spice Garden (replica of first experimental botanical garden by Stamford Raffles) and Farquhar Garden (previously owned by William Farquhar, the first ruler of British colony of Singapore).

After passing through the ASEAN Sculpture Garden, I made my way to the famous Tree Tunnel at the park. This is the most popular spot of the entire park due to a spot along the spiral staircase with a circular void above for fantastic pictures. There were so many people queueing for the photo spot eventhough it is already drizzling.

I then went to see the Fort Gate and visited the Battlebox, a historic World War II bunker constructed under the hill as an emergency, bomb-proof command centre during the Malayan Campaign and the Battle of Singapore. It is now a museum depicting the final days of the Battle of Singapore (when British lost the island to Japan invasion). Walking inside the underground labyrinth structure here makes me felt like I was in a movie set for a horror movie. Pretty cool experience visiting this museum though.

After that, I walked past the Jubilee Park and saw the Forbidden Spring (or known as ‘Pancur Larangan’, where the wife and consorts of the Malay kings used to bathe). I then reached the end of the loop after passing through the Five Kings’ Walk (a short walking trail with storyboards about Singapore’s five kings in the 14th century). There’s some good views over the city from this pathway leading back to the Raffles Garden.

I then made my way back home after spending 3 hours at the park. If you are going in a slow and a more relaxed pace (and if you are a history buff), you could easily spend more than half a day over there at this huge park located right in the middle of the city and has a lot to offer to visitors. There’s just so much things to see over there.