PoshPlush Travel - Singapore 2016

Hello gorgeous!

Continuing from my last blogpost about sharing my travelling stories, today I would like to write about my family short holiday to Singapore. I already posted about my beauty haul in Singapore last month here and now it’s time to know more about where we went last March. 

It has been 5 years since the last time I visited Singapore. The last time we went there as a family is when Ryu was 7 months old. We spent our 2010 Christmas Eve there. Even though the Christmas decoration was splendid, we decided that we will not coming back to Singapore during high season such as Christmas and New Year again. We just cannot handle the packed and crowded Singapore at those times. Everywhere we go we have to queue, riding MRT, restaurants, and shopping malls. I even have to stand a long queue at the bookstore’s cashier. A bookstore for God’s sake!

This time we travelled there on March and spent 4 days in Merlion City. My hubby had a business meeting there, so I thought that we could tag along. We invited my mother in law too to join us because we wanted to check a specialist for her there. The flight was smooth and now Ryu is older, he is able to entertain himself well with his Ipad and Ultraman action figures. 

Where we stayed

We stayed at Hotel Jen Tanglin at Cuscaden Rd. Its previous name was Traders Hotel but got rebranded on the late 2014 into Hotel Jen. It is the first Traders Hotel that gets rebranded globally by Shangri-La Group, who managed the hotel. They changed it due to changing demands of today's more independently minded travellers; who seek simple pleasures, easy efficiencies and the opportunity to indulge their sense of adventure. That’s why the design of the hotel also transformed into more modern minimalist, apartment style furnishing. You can see the below picture of its interior. I love what they did with it, even though the design is modern but it is still keep the warmth and comfortable vibes that suitable not only for single or young travellers but also for family traveller like us. 

The bedroom is complemented with a bay-window sofa that overlooked the swimming pool area across it. The bathroom doesn’t has a bathtub but the shower runs well and the water temperature is fine. The bed and pillows are comfortable and I personally love the goldfishes drawing above the headboard. Overall we were satisfied and pleased during our stay there. 
 

The hotel is located at the end of Orchard Rd, so it is definitely a walking distance to Orchard. They even provide an hourly shuttle service from the hotel to Orchard Rd that you can enjoy for free. The hotel also has a direct connection to Tanglin Mall next door.  

One interesting thing that I found at the hotel was a ta bao (takeaway) bag at the breakfast buffet table. So you can actually pack some muffins, pastries, or even bacons to go if you don’t have time to sit and eat or maybe for a snack between breakfast and lunch. That is so cute! I wish more hotels could provide ta bao bags too! Sorry for no pictures of the breakfast buffet, I somehow always forgot to take pictures while having breakfast because usually I’m very hungry in the morning hehehe

Where we went

I wouldn’t explain about the shopping malls or Sephora here because you definitely know that the malls are pretty much the same and I did not have the time to explore a lot at Orchard Rd too. Love love loveeee to spend some time at Sephora ION though. My wonderful wonderland I call it. 

Universal Studios Singapore

By the request of Mr Boss aka Mr Ryu, we spared one day to go to Universal Studios Singapore. The last time we went there, Ryu was still a baby, so we did not get a chance to try most of the rides. The crowded USS also made us leave the place early so Ryu will not be too tired and got smushed by the crowd. You might want to buy the ticket in advanced because usually buying the ticket from your local travel agent can save you some money. Usually you will need to show your e-ticket to the ticket counter and they will exchange it with the physical ticket.

We were very excited to try the rides and ready to be amused like children again there. Don’t forget to get the studio’s map nearby the entrance gate to see the list of the rides and their location along with the explanation about the rides (age and height limits). There are 7 zones inside, Hollywood, New York, Sci-Fi City, Ancient Egypt, Lost World, Far Far Away, and Madagascar. Each zone has their rides and attractions that you can enjoy. If you visited USS on high season or long weekends, I would recommend you to purchase the Express Pass that will allows you to go to a special queue line and save 30-80 minutes time of queing. But the Express Pass can only be used one time per rides. If you finished early at USS, you can spend some time exploring Sentosa World next to USS. 

We spent around 6 hours there, and rode 8 rides in total. Our favourite has to be Transformers Ride. It was so cool!  Unfortunately for young children like Ryu, the 3D effect and the motion during the ride might give them motion sickness. Luckily he did not throw up! He only complained that his tummy feels hurt but immediately fine when we reached the Transformers souvenir shop at the exit hahaha.. My hubby and I did not have the courage to ride the big rollercoaster, I supposed when you’re getting older, there are things that your gut not up to anymore. 

The food sold in the Studio is just okay in my opinion, even though I enjoyed Goldilocks Fried Chicken a lot. If you want more dining options, you can go out from the studio (don’t forget to ask for the stamp that will allow you to come back inside) and select from the various restaurants at Resort World Sentosa.

To know more about what you can experience at Universal Studios Singapore, you can check their website here

Sentosa – Wings Of Time Show

We decided to check on the award winning outdoor night show aka the magical fountain called Wings Of Time at Siloso Beach, Sentosa. There are two shows daily, at 7.40 pm and 8.40 pm (Singapore time), so make sure that you buy the ticket for the right time slot. Arrive early at least 15 minutes before the show starts because the seating isn’t numbered, so, first come first serve. When you buy the ticket, you will get a complimentary of plastic fan and a bag of popcorn that you can exchanged nearby the show entrance. 

We bought the the ticket at the Sentosa Express Station and then ride the Sentosa Express and stop at Beach Station. The show claimed to be an epic experiential fusion of the latest multimedia effects, including 3D projection mapping, state-of-the-art lasers, robotic water fountains and giant water jets, pyrotechnics. The show lasted for around 30-40 minutes and they are not kidding with their claim. The effects are amazing! Especially when the pyrotechnics (fire burst) went up, you could feel the heat on your cheeks! (We sat at the 3^rd row from the show area). 

Wings of Time is a story about Shahbaz, a pre-historic bird-like creature, and along with his friends, Rachel and Felix, they travel across beautiful landscapes and the mysteries of time. Their journey brings them through artistic interpretations of the British Industrialisation Revolution, the Silk Road era, Mayan Pyramids, Underwater World and African Savanna. The lasers and the water jets managed to awe us with its colours and movements and my favourite part is the Silk Road Era, the music and the movement of the fountain is really beautiful.

For 18SGD per person, the show is worth to see. But I would only see it once in my lifetime unless one day they have a new story to perform. This show is also suitable for children, from age 3 and older, and adults.

Gardens By The Bay (Marina Bay Sands)

After enjoying fun time at the amusement park, it’s time to unwind ourselves in the middle of plush greenery. Gardens By The Bay is a 101 hectares garden comprises of several area such as the Flower Dome conservatory, Cloud Forest Dome conservatory, Children’s garden, etc. Located at Marina Bay, this beautiful and soothing garden is a must see when you visit Singapore. 

We were amazed by the beautiful and lovely flowers and plants there. Took a lot of pretty pictures too! When you enter the Gardens By The Bay area, you will be greeted with several small outdoor gardens, such as Indian Garden, Chinese Garden, and Malay Garden. Then you will need to choose where you want to go next, the Flower Dome or Cloud Forest. The Flower Dome is filled with beautiful flowers and the best part is that they have cherry blossom trees! Visiting Japan on cherry blossom season is in my bucket list, so at least I got to taste a little bit on how it looks like. They are so lovely! I actually wondered how they take care and groom all of those flowers. In Flower Dome, they keep the temperature to replicate the cool-dry climate of Mediterranean regions like South Africa, California and parts of Spain and Italy. Now that explains how those flowers can bloom beautifully.

The next stop is Cloud Forest. If Flower Dome climate is cool-dry, Cloud Forest has a cool-moist climate where you can find plants from  tropical highlands up to 2,000 metres above sea level. When you enter it, a 35-metre-tall mountain covered in lush vegetation, shrouding the world’s tallest indoor waterfall is the one that you will see. When the sunray comes in and touches the mist of the water, you can see little rainbow.

You can take an elevator to the top of the mountain and stroll around it to experience the cloud forest and its tropical inhabitants. If you are afraid of heights then you might want to consider to go up there because again, its 35-metre tall. I’m quite confident of the safety though, looking at how wonderful they have been in maintaining the garden. The experience is quite ethereal and dreamy because the mist around you. It felt like you really are in a tropical jungle (thank God minus the heat) on early morning or after sundown.  

My son’s favourite part is the Children’s Garden. It has a waterplay area for kids. If you bring your kids here, you better bring your kids’ bathing suit and towel because they will not be able to resist the waterplay temptation. So, I would suggest to visit the garden on the afternoon around 3 or 4 pm. Spend around 2 hours to stroll around the domes, 1 hour at the children’s garden (if you have kids) or enjoy your afternoon tea/coffee or early dinner at the café or restaurants in the garden, and then wait for the light show at the Supertree Grove that starts at 7.45 and 8.45 pm (daily).

The light show is soooo pretty! The light played gracefully along with the music. There are no seats so usually people would just sit on the floor while enjoying the light show. 

What we eat

Ok, I have to admit that I always forget to take a picture of my food because usually we are so hungry and just dig in (that’s why I’m a beauty blogger instead of food blogger). But, I would like to share some of the must have food that you need to try when you go to Singapore. So here are the list:

Balestier Bak Kut Teh – ION Orchard Food Opera

Devour the delicious pork ribs and its tasty soup accompanied by yu tiao, salted veggies, and of course rice. This is my husband’s favourite food whenever we go to Singapore. It might not be the most tastiest Bak Kut Teh in Singapore (I personally like Song fa better), but the location is very convenient compared to the other Bak Kut Teh.

picture from thesmartlocal

Hai Di Lao HotPot – Somerset 313

This hotpot restaurant is always packed on lunch and dinner time. We went to the Clarke Quay branch and were told that the waiting time is 90 minutes to get a table. We opted it out that night but went to the Somerset 313 branch for lunch the next day. Thank God that we did not need to wait to get a table because we went there early, around 11.30 am. When we finished eating, we saw a queue already there in front of the restaurant. The restaurant even has some snacks as a complimentary for the customers that are waiting for a table.

The soup is wonderful and the ingredients are all fresh. They have an array of condiments where you can mix your own sauce to complement your hotpot.

picture from hazeldiary

Jumbo Seafood – Clarke Quay

Jumbo Seafood is one of the famous restaurants in Singapore that serves Singapore Chili Crab (and other scrumptious seafood). The price might be a bit hefty but it totally worth it. You will leave the restaurant with an extremely happy tummy.

picture from singaporeair

I love how the country is immaculately clean and tidy. I don’t think you could ever get lost in this country because signs are everywhere and everything is very accessible and easy to find. I would suggest it as a holiday destination for family with young children because of its easy access and convenience (I understand the struggle of bringing young children on holiday). We had fun in Singapore even though we haven’t got a chance to explore the island more. So hopefully we can come back soon and enjoy another family vacation there. See you on the next post!

Cheers,

Stef

Wanderlust

Today I would like to start sharing something different in my blog. I know that this is a beauty blog and I’m supposed to only post things about beauty. But I’ve been thinking lately to expand my blogpost to include my love for travelling. I had another blog before this (but I already deleted it when I started this blog) and I mainly wrote about my family’s daily life and our holidays. Then why I deleted it? Well, at that time, I thought that I might expose my family a lot in virtual world by writing mainly about our daily tidbits. I’m worried that people will use the things they find in my blog up for something that is not good and harm my family. I also wanted to focus on writing about beauty so I finally decided to delete it and made a new blog. 

But now, I have that itch to share my travelling experience again and decided to complement this beauty blog with travel stories. So, I talked to my hubby about it and he said that I should go for it with one condition. He asked me to not lose focus on what holiday is supposed to be and do not let ‘work’ interferes with the quality time we have during holiday. In short, don’t be too busy taking too many pictures, it annoys him hahaha. I also promised him that I will post less family tidbits on my blog to keep our privacy. 

I saw that a lot of bloggers actually doing it too, having more than one theme in their blog, for example food and lifestyle blogger, beauty and lifestyle blogger, or beauty and family blogger. I supposed when you still can find the red line between the two topics and able to connect them well, having more than one theme in your blog is an okay thing to do. I will still talking mainly about beauty and its marvellous wonder in my blog (beauty world is a mad world, people!), but occasionally you will find my travelling stories too here. 

My husband and I love to travel. It is always exciting to go to new places (or recurring places to try new spots) and explore new things. My travelling type is definitely not a backpacking type since I usually travel with my family (children involved) so, comfort and safety are my priority. We don’t want the lil’ one (or the big one) to be cranky and ruin the holiday mood hahaha.. Besides, my definition of a holiday and travelling is not only about the quantity of places you go, but whether you can have a full and pleasant experience while you are at your destination. Please note that the things that I will share here don’t have any intention to offend or to tell other people, who might have the different perception of travelling, has been doing it the wrong way. My goal is simply to share the things that I enjoyed and hoping that it can inform and inspire people who read it.

Why now?

Well the last two years, we haven’t had a lot of opportunity to travel more. On 2014 we were busy moving our life back from Bangkok to Jakarta, settling ourselves back to the hustle and bustle of this city. And on 2015, we decided that it is time for us to have our own house, so there went all the money from our savings to buy and decorate our nest. But, hopefully we can start planning to travel more now.

What is your travelling plan this year?

Since 2016 is 6 months left, for this year we haven’t plan anything too far away from home, but definitely around South East Asia and maybe one or two spots in Indonesia. My mom has been recommending Bangka Belitung island a lot lately. Well, with those pristine beaches they have, I don’t think I could say no to it. I’m a beach person and the combination of sun, water, and good seafood is hard to resist hahaha..

I hope this decision is going to enrich my experience as a blogger as well as being able to give the best for all of my readers. I just thought that I wanted to share to you the reason behind the changes that my blog will have in the future so you will not be confused with the sudden posts of travel stories in it.

Do any of you here love to travel too? Or do you have a blog that talks about more than one theme? Are you a travel blogger? Please leave a comment below so I could check out your blog.

Cheers,

Stef

Event - Clozetters Meet Up Travel In Style

Hello gorgeous! Who’s here is a travel junkie? Or maybe you already start planning for your holiday in December? 

Last month I got an invitation from Clozette Indonesia to attend a Clozetters Meet Up. Clozetters Meet Up is a meet up between Clozette Indonesia members. This time the theme is Travel In Style, which mainly talks about travelling and how to stay stylish when you are travelling. The event held at Koi Kemang on October 10^th, 2015. 

I love travelling! Going to new places, seeing new things and experiencing something different from your daily life is always such an inspiration booster. I’m not the backpacker type traveler though, good hygiene and good sleep is very important for me. So I usually will spend more on accommodation to make sure that I’m well rested and can stay healthy during the trip. That is why I couldn’t travel as much as the backpackers because I need to save more money to cover my trip expense hahaha

So what's in the Meet Up?

Travel In Style featuring two speakers from the traveling world, Kadek Arini (Travel Blogger) and Amalla Vesta (Travel Consultant).

The event started with a presentation from Kadek Arini, the travel blogger about some of local destinations that can be our option to go to. Jogjakarta and Sumba are her choices and then she described her itinerary and expense calculation for those places. Sumba is so gorgeous!! So scenic and such a natural beauty.

She also shared some of her experience traveling to Osaka and Kyoto. But I was too focused on listening to her and forgot to take pictures of her presentation about it.

Next is Amalla Vesta took the stage. Amalla Vesta, who prefers to be called Vesta is currently Head of Digital Marketing in PT. Garuda Indonesia. But before that she already an avid traveler who is also an independent travel consultant and freelance writer. She presented two destinations, Tokyo and Flores (Komodo Island). Just as Kadek, she explained her itinerary and also expense calculation for those places. One place that intrigued me is Shirakawa-Go Village, a traditional Japanese village in Gifu prefecture that looks like it pops out from some storybook due to its lovely set of houses and the village layout. The village looks even more magical and beautiful when winter comes and covers it with snow.

Along with her presentation, she also shared her travelling tips, especially on how to pack right. I think everybody has love and hate relationship in packing your stuff for travelling, right? We are excited to travel but then really annoyed when we have to choose the things that we need to bring for the trip. How we wish we have Doraemon pocket so we can just bring them all hahaha 

Well, Vesta said the tip is to classify your things. Put your clothes, accessories, shoes, toiletries, and beauty products in different pouches or containers. For clothes, you can separate it again into several pouches based on the days of your travelling time (eg: Day 1 and 2 or daily) or type of the clothes (eg: underwear, sweater, etc). That way, your suitcase will stay tidy because you will only need to open one pouch at a time. Voila! How great is that? Honestly, I never think about that before and will definitely put the tips to practice the next time I travel. Her other tips is never forget to apply sunscreen before you go out of the door, because sun protection is very important. Don’t like the sticky sunscreen feels on your skin? Browse around a little bit because nowadays there are already many sunscreens that is not sticky yet still able to give maximum protection for your skin.

After that, the MC invited both Kadek and Vesta on the stage again to discuss more about tips and tricks to travel with style, like how to take good pictures when you travel or how to always look stylish in every picture you took day by day as if you’re bringing your whole closet with you. Mix and match is the key! Bring essential fashion accessories that are easily to mix and match such as scarfs, belts, cardigans, or even hats. Those accessories will give you different looks and it will give the effect that you’re wearing different outfits in your pictures. 

Another important tip for taking great picture when you travel is to wear a contrast color outfit with the background of your picture. For example, if you are going on a beach holiday, bring a lot of bright colors such as red, yellow, or orange to contrast the blue sky and sea. 

A short Q&A session followed by a short presentation from Hadalabo representative, Ms Arlien about the importance of taking care of your skin while you are travelling. Dry and parched skin, acne, and uneven skin tone are the usual problems happen to us after travelling. Because, when you travel, your skin usually is quite neglected because the busy schedule visiting many different places every day. Ms. Arlien shared some tips such as drinking enough water and applying sunscreen to avoid those problems. She also added that Hadalabo, which contains Hyaluronic Acid; an important substance in skin hydration is a great choice to bring along in your beauty pouch. Hadalabo skincare set will help your skin retain its moisture and keep it supple during your trip. Now, Hadalabo even has CC Cream with SPF 35+++ that is such a staple items to bring on your trip. Its light texture helps you to even your skin tone, makes it look great for a selfie. The greatest part is Hadalabo products comes in travel friendly size, so you don’t need to worry that your skincare will take the most of your suitcase or bag weight. You can even bring it to the plane because it’s only 20-30ml per product (airplane liquid limitation is 100ml). You will definitely able to get off the plane looking fresh and stylish to rock that airport fashion like those Kpop idols hahaha

Hada Labo Booth where you can get a skin check

After lunch, apparently Clozette team already prepared a mini game for us. It’s Fashion Scrapbook Look game! We got divided into four teams, each team assigned to make one mood board with a specific theme. The themes are Winter, City, Summer, and Road Trip. Clozette team provided us with sheets of fashion item pictures, scissors, double tape, and a mood board. My team got Road Trip looks. We got 10 minutes to work together and create as many looks as we could. My team managed to create five different looks on the mood board. The result was great and I’m really satisfied with it, totally going to go with those fashion choices if I were going to a road trip (bias much? Hahaha). 

Kadek, Vesta, and Ms Arlien acted as judges and they chose the Winter team as the challenge winner. Congratulations ladies!! Each of them brought home shopping vouchers as their gift. Clozette also choose two participants that post best picture of the event and get shopping voucher as gift too. We closed the event with a groufie together. Aren’t we look great? ;)

It was such a great event. I learned a lot of tips in travelling and as usual get to know new friends. I did a little shopping on Hadalabo booth too and also brought home some goodies from Clozette too. I am amazed how Clozette Indonesia always managed to make their members excited with different kind of events and meet ups. It really feels like one big community where you literally can share anything and connects with people that share the same interest with you. Thank you Clozette Indonesia, Kadek, and Vesta for everything. See you on next meet up!

Cheers,

Stef