we missed out on a couple of tourist spots…

…but we didn’t miss out on meeting dear friends. 🙂

last week, along with regular weekend r&r-mates francis and kathleen (and the kids), we flew to singapore – our first out-of-the-country gimik together… and my birthday gift to my lovely wife. 😉 since this was our first time in the lion city (except for francis who’d been there a number of times already), we took time in planning our vacay. we both had excel spreadsheets for our itinerary detailing when to go… to where… with whom… and what to expect. but we all know what happens with detailed plans… hindi sya nasusunod. 😀

like what the blog title of this post reads, we didn’t get to go the zoo nor the science center… but in exchange, we got to spend a lot more time with friends. we’ll take that exchange in ANY vacation. 😉

so this post (our first in what seems like a gazillion years) is for our friends. friends who welcomed us… took time off their busy singapore-life just to tour us around (at nilibre pa kami… ka-bait naman talaga. :-D). this experience of warmth and kindness (and plenty of stories and laughter) is what makes us want to go back to singapore. for us, you guys are our tourist spots… 😉

tourist guide #1: anna
anna’s a close college and pisay friend (although naging close lang kami during our up eng’g days na) who’s been working in singapore for years already. muntik na kami d magkita ni anna kasi she had to fly to malaysia the night of our first day in sg. to complicate things further, she had a presentation to finish pa. but friends will always find a way and she did as she escaped from her office and met us at ikea during her lunch break. the food was great… the time together was even greater. too bad there wasn’t enough time (kahit na extended lunch break pa. hehe).


a cultural lesson from anna – the lo hei ritual. 🙂

tourist guide #2: ems
ems, a former samsung colleague (and a regular co-host of mine during our emcee-ing days :-D), was our designated sentosa tour guide. take note: they were about to move house the day after we went to sentosa… and yet she still toured us around and stayed with us until late, late into the night. o dba? how can one not appreciate that? 🙂


just about to board the sentosa express from vivo city


goofing under a trellis in sentosa. 😀

tourist guide #3: the severa’s (arthur and tita)
ahhh… our dear church brother and sister. the guys who whole-heartedly volunteered na ampunin kami during our whole stay in singapore. stayed up way, way past midnight just to wait for our arrival… and stayed up even more para mag-kwentuhan (kahit na may pasok pa sila in a few hours time). took us for an authentic singaporean breakfast experience, joined us on our hunt for that netbook (my other gift for my wife ;-)) and prepared a home-cooked dinner before we flew back to pinas. while they were at work, nanay (and fonsy :-D) entertained us. 😀 we love, love these guys… and next time we go back, we’ll be spending even more time with them. 🙂


awaiting the train going to city hall (on our way to funan). had to sneak in a photo with me in it just to prove na kasama ako sa trip. 😀


inside the not-crowded mrt.

tourist guide #4: chel
our wedding-on-the-day coordinator. one of my most loyal cell group member. my reccom secretary. definitely, one of our dearest friends. 🙂 if she was the only one we knew in singapore, we’d still go. 🙂 she was at the airport… awaiting our arrival. then she (and her roommate) was the one who helped us locate the severa’s residence. 😀 then on our second day, chel gave us a taste of the various ethnicities of singapore… from little india to bugis street to mustafa… and lest we forget, the warehouse sale experience – where all pinoys seem to converge. 😀 always a wonderful time w/ her… be it in singapore or here sa pinas.


it’s past midnight and there was chel waiting for us at the airport.


authentic arabian food. lamb never tasted better. yum!


sabi nga ni chel, “pang-facebook.” 😉

tourist guide #5: johnjay, dred, jeng and kenneth
johnjay and dred are selle’s former long-time samsung colleagues. they were excited to know that my wife (sabit na din ako. hehe) was coming to singapore so we made sure we meet them. jeng and kenneth, another singapore-based couple, is a former reccom colleague of mine (jeng) and department-mate of selle (kenneth). they were the ones who managed to scoop up casper, another samsung alumnus and fellow-tourist, to join us for dinner. it was a big group so we met up in clark quay – the ultimate dining/gimik place. plenty of catching up – what’s-new-in-samsung and how’s-singapore-life questions – throughout the night… and if only starbucks singapore does not close so early… we could’ve continued on ’til who knows. maybe on our next visit… and maybe that time eh magpa-reserve na in advance sa jumbo seafood. 😉

with the galanteng-galanteng johnjay and dred… plus on-his-way-to-the-airport fellow tourist, casper.


casper with two singapore-based couples. so kelan ang mga kasal? 😉


sa labas ng napaka-agang magsara na starbucks. bummer.

tourist guide #6: tere and michelle
last day was shopping day… so syempre reserved for the uber-rich, tere. 😉 michelle was supposed to be with us the night before (clark quay) but something came up so she joined forces with tere for the singapore shopping experience. went mall-hopping… from high-end ones to the farmer’s/divisoria-like ones… wala kami pinatawad. hehe. then we went to the famed-merlion and esplanade to wrap up the afternoon (turistang-turista lang. :-D). for dinner (w/c michelle had to skip na kasi she had to go to church)… tere brought us to newton hawker for a taste of chili crab and sting ray. YUMMY! it was shopping-day but we weren’t able to buy much. sabi nga ni tere, next time… more time for shopping. surely. 😉


on the way to orchard


just about to start mall-hopping


group shot at the merlion

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