Singapore – The Hidden Panorama

Featuring Our World : Bedok Reservoir

Featuring Our World (Post#1): Bedok Reservoir

One of the things that I admired in Singapore while living there for almost a year was about their Reservoir. This kind of place made me felt that I was really near with nature. Singapore in overall impression it is a country city. Yes, right now it thrives to be more nature friendly country but if you never goes to green places such as parks, most likely what you will see are vertical buildings of residences, offices and even factories because of the country’s limited land space. Bedok Reservoir was one of the places that I like immediately after I saw the place. A nearby walking and jogging trails can be found in the place and that was the reason I got to know the place. My friends and I were scheduled to exercise near the reservoir and I was not aware that its really a scenic and serene place. One of the good things to know while reading something about the said reservoir was how it was developed. It was a sand quarry before which used to reclaim some areas in Singapore and this became the place to collect water storm during storm weather season. And now, the reservoir is a great place for outdoor activities. Photo collections captured last April 2010.

This post has been updated to participate for Our World Tuesday – February 9, 2016 and Outdoor Wednesday – February 10, 2016.

Life Of Others : Jurong Bird Park – Scarlet Ibis

Life Of Others (Post#3) : Jurong Park – Scarlet Ibis

When I visited Jurong Bird Park in Singapore together with nephew, Scarlet Ibis was one of the bird that we saw inside the park. This type of bird has brilliant coloured and gregarious birds make impressive mass return to tree roosts. These birds usually silent, they make a ‘gurgling’ alarm call and bill clatter when they bicker. They usually found in northern and eastern South America. These bird eats fish, frogs, crustacean and insects. Photo captured last February 2010.

Colors : Jurong Bird Park Entrance Garden

Colors (Post#1) : Jurong Bird Park Entrance Garden

Photo above was captured near the Entrance of Jurong Bird Park which displayed colourful flowers and some used to creatively display a bird shape which the park is all about bird. I visited this place when I was still working in Singapore and went there together with my nephew which just 3 years old as a way to introduce to him different kinds of birds. Snapshot captured last February 2010.

Chromatic Outlook : Far Far Away Castle

Chromatic Outlook (Post#18) : Far Far Away Castle

In our world today, I think Castle correlates to the word of fantasy and dreams as present time depicts opposite of happy and good dreams. For personal reference I like castle because most of the time, it is the common structure where a lot of story happened whether its monarchical and political stories, the significance of the building weigh based on the events occurred in the building. On the other side, castle also enjoyed witnessing the happiest things happened to the people lived in the castle. The above castle like structure though its not real castle, and it was created by creative minds with the influence of history still worth to find out. Far Far Away Castle is one of the theater castle to be found inside Universal Studios in Singapore, snapshot captured when we visited the place last August 2013.

Panoramic View : MacRitchie Reservoir

Panoramic View (Post#18): MacRitchie Reservoir

When we arrived in this place for walking and trekking adventure, I fell in love with the place. MacRitchie Reservoir is one of my favorite place in Singapore as the area has nature surroundings that helped me forget that I live in the city. The reservoir shot has relaxing view that kept me standing there for a while to appreciate the beauty in front of me. Photo captured last June 2010.

This post has been updated to add the link of and to participate in the following:
Through My Lens – May 30, 2016
Our World Tuesday – May 31, 2016
Travel Tuesday – May 31, 2016
Outdoor Wednesday – Jun 1, 2016
Wednesday Around The World – Jun 1, 2016
Water World Wednesday – Jun 1, 2016
Watery Wednesday – Jun 1, 2016
Skywatch Friday – Jun 3, 2016
Scenic Weekends – Jun 3, 2016
In Heaven – Jun 4, 2016

Chromatic Outlook : Tampines West Community Club

Chromatic Outlook (Post#9) : Tampines West Community Club

I remembered that during my almost a year work in Singapore, one of the activities that I replaced for traveling in a city-island country was Badminton. I saw that Community Club is one way of the government to make people active since no mountains to trek in Singapore. And climbing a mountain was just one of the things that I really missed in my own country. Photo above was Tampines West Community Club which captured last March 2010.

This post has been updated to add the link of and to participate in the following:
Black and White View – May 16, 2016
Black and White Wednesday – May 18, 2016
The Weekend in Black and White – May 20, 2016

View At My Window : Harbourfront Centre

View At My Window (Post#5) : Harbourfront Centre

My previous office when I worked in Singapore is just around the corner in Harbourfront. I captured this one as farewell to the office because that time we were moving to Suntec City and occupying one of the Suntec Towers. I was walking in overpass when I shot my phone to capture this last June 2010.

Chromatic Outlook : Malay Street At Bugis Junction Mall

Chromatic Outlook (Post#2) : Malay Street At Bugis Junction Mall

I captured this photo last November 2010 when I came back in Singapore for my certification and clearance at work as I went back to my country home for great work opportunity. I was walking along this street as it is nearby from my previous company/agency office.

I learned that streets in Bugis junction were actual streets before and the area has been integrated with other streets to become shopping center as what we see these days.

This post has been updated to add the link of and to participate in the following:
Black and White View – April 4, 2016
Black and White Wednesday – April 6, 2016
The Weekend in Black and White – April 9, 2016

Name Of The Place: Orchard Rd

Name Of The Place (Post #1): Orchard Rd

Yes, Orchard Rd is famous, specially for shopaholic. This is one of the busiest street in Singapore even though most of the stores located here comes with big names in fashion world.

Aside from what I mentioned above, most Filipinos who lives, work and visits in Singapore knows this road because of one familiar place that close in our heart and made every Filipino to be at home for a moment is located here which is the “Lucky Plaza”.

What else can I say about Orchard Road? Now I remembered, the first hotel that I stayed-in outside the country is located here as well which is the Orchard Hotel Singapore.

A Not So Well Planned Adventure In Malaysia

I selected the title above for this post because this was the tour that I engaged without so much preparation. I booked the flight just two days before the schedule which was made last December 22, 2012 Saturday and the flight schedule in Cebu Pacific was December 24, 2012 Monday (yes, it’s Christmas Eve for Catholics) and the great thing about it was, the flight fare was lesser because of the festive day. And that’s the main reason as well why I decided to travel at that time.

Why I selected Malaysia? My reason was, this is one of the South-East Asian countries that I never been really visited as a tourist. Yes, I first visited Malaysia last 2008, when I joined a mountaineering group and decided to climb Mount Kinabalu. I traveled Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia. But after that, I never been to Malaysian Peninsula where the capital city which is Kuala Lumpur located.

I traveled with my younger sister. We left Manila without so much plan what to see and where to go in Malaysia, but I read some tips from locals and foreigners that already traveled in this country. At least I made a hotel booking, taxi booking and some information of public transportation.

This post will be somewhat summary of all the places that we visited in Malaysia. The tour in general took ten(10) days including the flight time which just need less than half a day to complete, we traveled 8 days to be exact and went around Malaysia.

Below were the itinerary that we had when we traveled Malaysia.
Day 1: Flight to KL
Day 2: KL – Day 1
Day 3: KL – Day 2
Day 4: KL – Day 3
Day 5: Selangor
Day 6: Putrajaya
Day 7: Pahang – Genting Highlands
Day 8: Johor Bahru – Legoland / Singapore
Day 9: Malacca
Day 10: Flight to Manila

My next post will be detailing more where we had been in Malaysia for at least eight (8) days. Until then.

Less Than A Day In Singapore (Shortest Trip in abroad so far…)

It seems that Singapore is just one ordinary place to me right now, maybe because I visited this country countless times that I can’t remember the exact number how many times that I went to this country. I thought the shortest trip that I ever made to Singapore was the time when I picked-up my clearance from the previous company I worked in since I’m going back to my homeland. This happened last November 29, 2010, stayed for almost a day and left November 30. By assessing it, I spent at least 24 hours in Singapore including arrival and departure time

But my recent visit in Singapore just lasted at least 13 hours. Wondering what had been happened? Did I tour around within those hours? The answer was no. My sister and I just visited Singapore to spend New Year eve together with my brother and his family. We arrived at Johor Bahru immigration around 7:45. PM December 31,2012 after we visited Legoland in Malaysia, then left Singapore around 9:15 AM January 1, 2013 going to Malacca Malaysia. What we did in this Merlion country? We had new year dinner at my brother’s home, slept for at least 6 hours, had breakfast and then left. Is it not cool, to have new year dinner abroad?

What were the things we experienced during the time were traveling to Singapore? The significant thing was at the time we were on our way to my brother’s place, since its New Year eve, there are lots of people outside, taking trains going to the places where there will be fireworks. In Singapore, there are few designated places for this event like Marina Bay and Harbourfront. And most people were on their way to Marina Bay. If you’re not in either of these places, New Year will most likely a quiet time for the family. Kind of unique experience right?

Reminiscing The First Glimpse of Singapore

As I recall when the first time I traveled abroad, everything I felt were all excitement. It was the first time I took a plane, first time that I will be in another land, being with people in different races. First time to be in a places where most of the things were unfamiliar. The feelings were mixed, somewhat nervous and a bit of scary feelings but most of all, the ecstatic feeling that I will be able to discover another world which different from the world I used to be. It was year 2005, almost 8 years ago, I was able to travel abroad because I was sent by my company for some quality assurance (QA) and testing related work. I was part of the computer integration manufacturing team (Information Technology team) in a semiconductor company.

My colleague and I stayed in Orchard Hotel Singapore which located in famous shopping road called Orchard Road.

The trip was less than a week. This means that I went around Singapore every night, only after work and a weekend before I went back in my country home.

The first place that I enjoyed was Orchard Road itself. For me, during those time, Orchard Road was perfect for me. My reasons were, it was the road where you can find a lot of shopping malls with signature products. It’s one of the busiest road in Singapore specially for the tourist like me. Since I only tour during night-time, I saw this road shines better at night. It has a lot of different building structure that fascinates me at that time.

It’s the first time I tasted different Asian food such as Indian, Vietnam, Malay and Chinese where the taste are different because of the spices and herbs that it contains.

My colleague and I also visited shopping areas at night which includes Chinatown, Little India and Bugis (Junction and Street Market). We visited Clarke Quay, Merlion Statue and the Esplanade Theatre as well.

When I am on my way to church in the morning that Sunday, I had a chance to see the Geylang area, which is the Red Light District of Singapore in a very different perspective since I saw the place in a very quiet time.

During the weekend that we stayed in Singapore, one of the tourist place that we visited was Jurong Bird Park. And here we discovered a man-made falls which made me amazed because it looks like natural falls.

All in all these were the things that I remembered happened last 2005, I will try to update this blog again if I still have some photos from this first visit in Singapore

Walking and Trekking at MacRitchie Nature Trail and Reservoir

Year 2008 was the year that reminded me or let say reawakened in my self that I love nature. I love greens and forest and that led me to love mountains. When I moved to Singapore for work I knew that I am sacrificing one thing that I love that is climbing a mountain.

Singapore is a city, though it tried to maintain itself as being green city still it does not have mountains to climb. I remembered that there is one mountain that I know and that is Mount Faber where one end of Sentosa cable car is located. Aside from that mountain, I know nothing else.

When I started working in Singapore I thought that things will get excited because living in another country different from what I used to be might be an adventure. I started working in Singapore last December 2009 and to my surprised less than a month or exactly after a month, I felt bored. My colleagues at work started to feel the same way, in another two months all of us felt home sick.

I belong to a batch of IT Filipinos who was hired to work through third-party company for an investment bank in Singapore. It was the first time that I worked abroad and it’s different compared if I was sent or assigned by my company to another country.

One thing that I never thought to experienced in Singapore was trekking. My colleague at work decided to visit MacRitchie Reservoir and I joined them.

Some of us met at MacRitchie, some met at the train station. Since I was coming from Sengkang area, I took purple line from Buangkok to Serangoon station and transferred to yellow line from Serangoon to Marymount (at that time, yellow line was still half-completed). From Marymount, we took bus to MacRitchie.

–Amenities Centre

When we arrived at MacRitchie Reservoir, I already like its nature ambiance. We walked to the park’s lobby where some cafe are located. At the lobby there are shower rooms and wash rooms as well. We also found information of the park such as board map and walking trails.