Sentosa sandsation '17

Sentosa sandsation was held in September 2017. As time permits, I had the chance to visit the sand festival and view the many sand sculptures on display.

From the mainland, I took bus 123 into Sentosa again, thereby saving myself the $2 sentosa admission fee. Just like the previous time, everyone else alights at RWS and I'm the only passenger alighting at the beach station terminal.

From there, the siloso beach is nearby. But the sandsation festival is a long walk in. Admission is free and there are many ushers around, a bit too many, I think, directing traffic.

Alongside each display is a board explaining the meaning of the sculpture. Some are quite profound, while some are adapted to the local context, quite quirky.

Maybe next time they should sell some souvenirs at the site. haha!

Singapore in the past... 

hokkien for the visitors

Local everyday scene

Very intricately sculpted castle. Not sure where is it?

I'm very, very impressed !!

Scoot to Taiwan !

I just returned from a one day, whirlwind tour of Taiwan. Touching down at Changi this morning at 0430. This was an impromptu trip, having booked the return tickets last week. Scoot consistently has low fares from Sg to Taipei and Kaohsiung. 

I chanced upon a return trip from Taipei ~$200 return fly fares, so quickly booked them. It involves an overnight red-eye flight in both directions, reaching Taipei at ~0600 and departing at ~0010. This gives me a full day in Taipei, which works well for me. 

Scoot's timings to Kaohsiung was not favourable to me. A 0600 morning departure meant either I overnight in the airport, or take an expensive ride in the early morning since there is no bus or train at that hours. In addition, it will return to Changi close to midnight, so I may miss the last bus home, again adding on to my budget.

So Taipei it is...

I took the trip there in Scoot's B789, which then moves on to Tokyo. The return trip is in a B788, coming from Sapporo.

Taiwan requires visitors to fill up the immigration card, which requires a hotel address. It took a bit of effort to convince them that I was there for only a day and did not book any hotel. They then ask for my return itinerary, before letting me proceed. Something to take note of.

At the airport, I purchased the easy card, the equivalent of ezlink in SG to travel on the trains. From the airport, the MRT line took ~30 minutes to reach Taipei main station. 

After a hearty breakfast at Yoshiniya there, my first stop is 九份。From Taipei station, I took a subway to zhongxiaofuxing station and transfer to bus 1062. There are some online reviews teaching how to make the transfer. 

My latest experience: take exit 2 of the subway station and walk to the bus stop H beside it. The bus number is labeled there. Fortunately, after a ~8 minute wait, the bus came. It took ~1 hour to reach 九份 bus stop directly.  The bus ride is comfortable and it wasn't crowded at all, all the way.

I sat on the left side of the bus, according to online reviews that it is more scenic.

九份 boasts an old world charm. Many shops selling Taiwanese delicacies along the cobblestone steps.

At the end of the walk, there is a great view of the sea. The way the houses are arranged reminds me of Santorini in Greece. 

My second stop of the day is 十分。Another quaint village on the 平溪 train line. To get there, I took bus 788 from 九份 to ruifang train station, then purchased a one-day pass on the 平溪 train line, giving me unlimited stops on the line. This train frequency is once an hour.

This line is basically a tourist train and gets crowded quickly. The free seating meant we had to be fast to secure our seats for the next 30 minutes.

十分 is famous for the sky lanterns and the magnificent waterfall. The waterfall is a good 35 minutes walk from the train station one way. At the waterfall, there are shops set up selling food and souvenirs.

We are allowed to cross and walk on the railtracks.

Suspension bridge on the way to the waterfalls

After 十分, I did not have time to visit 平溪, so just visited 菁桐, at the end of the train line.

菁桐 has the rail story house, basically a shop selling rail related souvenirs.

After 菁桐, I'm back on the pingxi line back to ruifang station to transfer to another local train (free seating) back to Taipei main station and then transfer to longshan temple:



Something to remember, there is a shop on the ruifang station platform selling rail related souvenirs and 便当， the ubiquitous bento set.  I bought it to try, but not really to my liking.

After dinner, it's time to ride the subway to 淡水，about 45 minutes away.  淡水 is a seaside town with its fisherman's wharf and night market which unfortunately I didn't have time to explore. 

Seaview from 淡水 at night

Soon, I'm back at the airport with two hours to spare to check in at Scoot counter. There are only a few people. The custom and security is fast too. However, almost all the shops are closing at that time, so there is no point coming early.

This is my second time riding Scoot's dreamliners fleet. I felt that the turbulence stabilizer touted on the B787 is great, making a smooth ride in both directions.

Upcoming business class flights '17

It's not everyday I come across heavily discounted business class tickets. But when I do, I try to book it asap. Otherwise, the cheap fares will be gone in flash and I will regret it. Past experiences have taught me so.

Anyway, a couple of months back, I chanced upon discounted Latam return business class tickets from mexico city to easter island at end of the year at US$1022.

Now, it's not exactly cheap. And at that time, I have no intention to visit either cities this year. But after doing some 'homework' online, I booked myself a ticket a few days later. By then, my preferred flight timings were gone, and I had to settle for whatever's left.

As I later found out online, tickets to easter island isn't cheap no matter what time of the year. Latam has a monopoly from Santiago, Chile to Easter island. And right now, economy class tickets on the same route actually costs more than what I have paid for business class tickets. 

So I felt good at having secured my tickets and a great opportunity to try out Latam B787 business class on 4 sectors. I have yet to book my positioning flights to mexico city as I'm keeping my fingers crossed for more discounted tickets to come. Haha!

So looking forward to visit mexico city and easter island for the 1st time 😃. The sectors involve a stopover at Santiago, Chile in each direction, but not long enough for a city tour. Have to save Chile and the rest of Latin America for another day.

More recently, I received an email on discounted cathay a350 business class return flights from Singapore to Bangkok. At a cost of S$519. Now, this isn't exactly cheap for such a short sector. Economy class tickets usually begin from $200 onwards. But this price is definitely cheaper than the usual business class on any airline.

Again, after pondering for some days, I booked it before the price disappears. So looking forward to cathay a350 business class !

For this trip, I have paired it with another return from Bangkok to Hong Kong. Concurrently, Emirates is running a promotion on their 50% economy class award redemption. So after discount, each sector only requires 5,000 skyward miles. I consider it a steal. So quickly booked a same day return. Otherwise, my skyward miles will just expire in no time. I will never ride enough emirates flights to redeem flights. 

Personally, I find that Emirates' ticket prices, though cheaper than the likes of SQ, are still more expensive than qatar and finnair, which regularly offer promotional prices. To date, I have only ride on emirates a380 on 4 sectors from Singapore to London and return from Amsterdam, and also B777 on 4 sectors from Singapore to Barcelona and return from Madrid.

 To conclude, I'm now eagerly waiting for my business class flights !!