Luxurious Singapore holiday

On 22 March 2015, we woke up early feeling very excited about our free Singapore holiday. Well, it was not exactly free but it was a redemption from the many thousands of points earned from the usage of our credit card.

I have only redeemed points for airport lounges and service charges. Tim and I decided to redeem 90k points for a luxurious holiday in Singapore with promise of a luxurious hotel stay at Equarius and a French dinner at a Michelin star French Restaurant called L' Atelier Joel Robuchon.

The bus to Singapore was easily available at BTS. However I was upset when the boss texted me about a meeting on Monday which I had to attend. I informed her that there was no way I could attend as non-attendance at the Hotel will result in me paying over SGD 1k as penalty cost of cancellation!

Thank God she was reasonable enough to my proposal to get our solicitors to be in attendance instead of me. In fact it turned out well as many queries posed by the solicitors were clarified.

That's why I had to pray really hard whenever I am on leave, I pray hard that no urgent things will turn up last minute!

The bus ride was really pleasant. We slept most of the way. We reached at 3 pm at Lavender station in Singapore and had lunch at the foodcourt. I had bread and eggs and Tim had soup only (he is on a diet to reduce his protruding tummy)!

Thereafter we took the train to Outram and changed to the NE Line to Harbor Front. From Harbor Front, we took the train to Sentosa station. We had reached our destination!

We walked till Hotel Michael and took a shuttle bus to Hotel Equarius. This lovely hotel had a huge bed with soft sheets, pillows and comforter and a huge bathroom overlooking fresh trees and greenery. It was very quiet and very private. Everything in the room looked 'expensive' down to the bedroom silk slippers! One night at the Hotel is SGD280 non-peak!

We then visited the Sentosa eating places and stopped at a food court called the Malaysian peddlar. Imagine our surprise to see cendol from the road that Tim lived in Penang. Asam laksa, chicken rice balls from Melaka, rojak, koay kak, sar hor fun, prawn noodles, bak kut teh....all Malaysian favorites.

Since we were going to Joel Robuchon for our Michelin dinner, we had ice-kacang between us. 


We then walked to the harbor front and took pictures of yachts and sailing boats.  Plans to visit the Trick Eye Museum had to be postponed to Monday due to the weekend crowd. 45 minutes waiting time were told!

Then it started to rain. We sought shelter at the entrance of Din Tai Fung, a famous Hong Kong Dim Sum outlet. So many people going in and out when their numbers were called piqued our curiosity. This restaurant is famous for their siew long pau and dim sum. 


As soon as the rain stopped, we were happy to enter Joel Rabuchon. We were given seats on bar-stools facing the open-air kitchen so that we could watch the cooks as they prepared our meals.

The five-course meals were all exclusive and unique creations of the world famous French chef named Joel Rabuchon. I could not pronounce the French names but all I know is that each dish was uniquely crafted and delicious down to its display and taste!

First time for me eating caviar too! The starter was a small glass of caviar or duck liver. I felt bad thinking of how the duck had suffered to produce the small portion of caviar for me. Caviar tastes grainy and creamy. Not something I really fancy though.

The manager told us that L'Atelier means workshop in French, no wonder the kitchen is an open kitchen with chefs running to and fro and supervised by a master chef.

I was offered sparkling water so I took it thinking that it was part of the deal. Little did I know that we had to pay SGD 14 for it being separate from the deal! However the manager was good enough to cancel the bill when I told them that I suffered stomach cramps after drinking it!

It was a lovely dinner. We went back to the Hotel and watched the outpouring of condolences for LKY at various community centers on TV. He had not yet passed away that night.

On Monday we awoke and had tea and coffee at our Hotel. We then made our way to the Trick Eye Museum. There was no queue since it was Monday morning. We had a good time taking pictures at the Museum, posing with the exhibits and trying to capture ourselves in the best positions! I really liked the picture of me posing like a ballerina and coming out of the cannonball.

We had a late lunch at Malaysian Peddler eating koay kak and prawn mee with pork ribs. The teh tarik was also delicious! 

We took a taxi to Golden Mile and had a good talk with our taxi driver (60 years old and still working) who had informed us that LKY had passed away. I left him with a peace with God letter.