Singapore 2012 PART 1

February has always been MY month.  Love the fact that my birthday and Valentine's Day are a few days away, love that I get double goodies from the Hub :)

For this year, we decided (last minute!) to go to Singapore for the weekend.  The trip was originally intended for just us, and we tried to get an online promotion with PAL.  Booking the trip did not go as smoothly as it usually does (another story), so Lolo and Lola decided to sponsor our babies', ages 4 and 1, tickets as their birthday gift.  So off our little family went to the Little Red Dot.  Be reminded though, that PAL tickets purchased online does not include the travel tax yet.  Make sure you arrive at the airport with plenty of time to spare for settling this account at a separate counter.

We recently discovered 'overnight' parking at designated areas at the airport; this saves you the hassle of having someone drop you off and pick you up on arrival.

Our luggage composed of one big piece for all our clothes, milk, nappies, and nebulizer (can't risk travelling without this).  We had their baby backpack as carry on, plus two strollers.  Airline personnel will collect the strollers from you before boarding, and you'll be able to claim this along with your luggage (imagine how filthy it becomes hehehe).

Make sure you bring your stuff to keep your kids busy during the flight.  Honestly, we thought that the three hour early morning flight would be a breeze, boy were we mistaken!  Our Shobe woke up an hour into the flight.  We just tried to keep her busy with our gadgets, plane magazines, and food.  Good thing our Achi was asleep for the entire flight.

Changi Airport, was at its usual clean and organized glory.  Going through immigration was no problem at all.  Then we were off looking for the hotel's airport shuttle, which had trips to and from the airport every 30 minutes.  Just couldn't wait to get to the hotel!

(Photo from Tripadvisor.com)

My dear Hub booked us at the Marina Bay Sands, and this, for me, was a super TREAT.  He knows how much I love nice hotels, and that I would rather stay at the hotel than going on tours or shop. 

MBS has three towers and we were booked at Tower 3.  Check in time was 3PM, and it being only 1130AM, we expected that no room would be ready for us yet.  Our front desk guy said he'd be able to get us in by 2PM (yay!) and we could just go directly to Tower 1 where he found us a room.

By this time, the kids were both getting uneasy and already asking for milk, but we wanted them to have lunch first.  Great thing that the hotel mall, The Shoppes, had Din Tai Fung!

(Photo from Tripadvisor.com)

DTF is a Michelin-starred Taiwanese restaurant with supposedly really good Xiao Long Bao (steamed pork dumplings with soup inside the dumpling).  Have been on sort of a quest for the best xiao long baos, and these take the number 1 spot thus far!  You eat them with Chinese black vinegar hmmm yum.

(Photo from aladyinlondon.com)

We also had some yangchow and porkchops, which were both just ok.  The kids loved their dumpling soup as well.  Too hungry to take photos first, we'll take more photos soon!!

Next up, finally checking in to our room...