Waffles, a Casino, and Supertree Lights

I don’t know why but I suddenly wanted to taste waffles so much this day! For breakfast, I went to Crescent at Fortune Center and ordered the weekday breakfast set, consisting of a black sesame pandan waffle and a cup of iced crescent coffee. The Café is small and only has a few tables and seats so I was very lucky to be there before the crowd came. The waffle was not like the packaged waffle I constantly by in China, flowy sesame sauce filled in 2 pieces of crunchy waffle, a bit like sandwich. The iced crescent coffee was its signature coffee, made of milk, black coffee (mix of milk and black coffee is called white here) and whipped cream. Very delicious! I was planning to work in the Café to prepare for my graduation dissertation presentation the next day, but I saw from the menu that guests can only be allowed to stay for up to 45 minutes after they are served, so I returned back to my hotel.

After getting my work done, I went to Twenty Grammes in Bugis to taste the second waffle of the day! Paired with a slice of burnt cheesecake. The waffle was different from the one in the morning because it had no sauce in the middle but slices of turkey ham flavored by truffles inside the softer and brown buttery waffle topped with a scoop of sea salt caramel gelato. The combination of these different flavours was so incredible, and a bite of hot waffle and cold gelato at the same time was amazing.

In the afternoon, I visited Marina Bay Sands Casino, very large with multiple stories. The reason why I wanted to visit is very simple: I hadn’t been to any casino before, so I wanted to know what is like to be in a casino, and the casino is free for non-singaporeans. Before entry, I was told to store my bag in a baggage kiosk nearby and had to go through several security checks for my passport and Singapore Arrival Card and had my photo taken. When I finally entered into the ground floor, I was greeted with smells of cigarette smoke so strong that it made me very uncomfortable. Plus, I didn’t intend to spend a penny here and just wanted to wander around to experience my first-time stay in a casino, so I was constantly anxious about being scolded or exiled by the staff patrolling in the area from time to time. When I was taking photos of the machines, a staff member approached me and told me photo shooting is prohibited though he didn’t require me to delete the photos taken, but it even aggregated my anxiety when strolling around. After covering the ground floor and breathing in tons of nicotine, I took an escalator to the first floor, took a quick look at what people were doing, and went one level up, before I was told by a staff that only VIP members are allowed to admit on this floor, and left the casino.

In general, the experience in the casino was so traumatic to me that even hours after the visit I still couldn’t recover from the anxiety stemmed from fear and discomfort.

Nevertheless, the casino is quite grandiose and beautiful insides with bright lights on the ceiling and soft blankets on the floor, rows of gambling machines, comfortable tablesand chairs, free beverages and seemly kind and helpful staff, and might be the heaven for pro gamblers.

After leaving the casino, I followed the signs that led me to SkyPark, the observation deck at the top of Marina Bay Sands. Due to a typo when writing my email address on the official website, I asked a receptionist at the ticket office to help me reclaim my ticket. The rooftop observation deck is located at the top of the third tower of Marina Bay Sands, which is the front part of the “boat”. After an elevator took me there, there’s pretty much nothing I could do except walking within the small area crammed with crowds and taking a panoramic view of Singapore. There were restaurants, bars and a renowned infinity pool (highest infinity pool in the world) up on the “boat” but those were exclusive to guests of Marina Bay Sands Hotel. I arrived shortly before sunset, so I could see the lights of the city come on as the sky turned dark. Part of the reason why I came here is to see what the infinity pool looks like, but it’s hardly seen and only a small portion could be seen. The Singapore Strait was magnificent though, many merchant ships perching on the sea waiting to pass, a testament of Singapore as a significant trading hub. From the top, I also saw a lot of iconic landmarks of Singapore, like Gardens by the Bay, Singapore Flyer, Helix Bridge, Artscience Museum, Esplanade, Merlion statue, and so on. I also found the Louis Vuitton mansion island, which I would visit later at night. I met a white girl and we together complained about the clear distinction between hotel guests and normal visitors at the rooftop. When she was about to leave, she told me there’s a light show at the Supertree Grove at 19.45. After taking photos of the cityscape when the lights were on at night, I quickly ran to the Supertree Grove and arrived just when the show started. I was first surprised by many people lying down on the ground watching and photographing the lights on the tree above them, but soon joined them and lied with my head on the bag to enjoy the beautiful lights dancing to melodious music on the majestic Supretree. When I was wandering around the area after the show, I saw there wouldbe a festival in the theme of Inside Out 2 tomorrow so I decided to come back tomorrow.

Then I decided to go to the luxurious LV island literally shining in the dark to buy LV chocolatesrequired by my friends. Unfortunately, the entrance on the bride that linked the island and main land was closed, so I went inside Shoppeeand went downstairs to B1 where LV chocolate store was located. The shop keeper was very approachable and helpful, and patiently explained to me the varieties and prices of the chocolates since the captions were in French. It’s so fun to experience the purchase process in luxury brand store like LV and watched in person how the chocolates were carefully packaged in a luxury way. After that, I went one more level down to B2 where I took an escalator to inside the LV island mansion. Of course I didn’t intend to buy anything here but it’s a very special feeling to be enjoying the intricately and carefully placed designer items on an island that’s completely exclusive to LV.

At the end of this action-packed day, I had dinner at a large and grandiose foot hall, RasaburaMasters (Rasabura means City of Taste), inside the Shoppee shopping mall, which was basically a hawker center right at a large plain area within the mall. I ordered chicken wings + Otah meal whose rice was mixed with butter pea flowers giving it the adorable blue color.