Mint Museum of Toys

It wasn't very easy to locate the Mint Museum of Toys because it doesn't seem to have any signage on the building, which is in the midst of a row of shophouses. Fortunately, with the invention of Google Maps app on our phones, KB and I eventually found it. This is a place where many vintage toys are collected and displayed. It's like a walk down memory lane, seeing all the toys that we used to play with when we were still kids.



In each floor of the museum, the toys of the same theme are housed in enclosed shelves like these. The backlight made it difficult to take photo of the toys. The objects tend to turn out too dark in the photo.

These vintage toy cars are valued at a few thousand dollars each.

European plastic dolls

Snake and Ladder board game that I grew up with.

Figurines depicting ancient China

KB's favourite cartoon character Mickey Mouse.

Donald Duck

Mickey Mouse clocks and watches

Betty Boop

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Snoopy

Popeye the Sailor Man

Different variations of robot toys

Star Wars characters

Astro Boy

Singapore Flyer

The tickets to the Singapore Flyer is expensive in my personal opinion. However, Groupon recently had an offer for discounted bundle tickets to the Gardens by the Bay and the Singapore Flyer. The tickets are open date, so we just have to exchange the Groupon printout at Sea Wheel Travel for the actual tickets.

Many, many, many high-rise housing estates.

The view of Gardens by the Bay.

Marina Bay Sands and the other city buildings.

View of the Marina Bay Floating Platform.

National Day Parade 2012

Somehow, my mum managed to get hold of two NDP tickets. My parents had gone to the parade before and she gave me the tickets instead. I totally regarded not bring my proper camera and all the photos below are taken with my phone.


KB and I are on our way to Marina Bay Floating Platform.


After an early dinner, we followed the crowd to the venue.



Playing with fish-eye lens, while waiting for the parade to start.


Keeping myself busy with the photo editing apps in my phone.


On our opposition side, under the ArtScience Museum, many people without tickets gathered there to catch a glimpse of the parade.




There's heart-shaped fireworks!


Happy birthday Singapore!

Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa

Over the weekend, we escaped to Sentosa Island and had a staycation at Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa. The hotel is just behind Resort World Sentosa (RWS). Although it's walking distance to RWS, the footpath (on the side of the road) is quite narrow and it's a walk uphill and downhill. It might be a better alternative to use the shuttle service. There are two shuttle buses, one goes around the island, while the other shuttles between the hotel and VivoCity. Their departure times are displayed at the reception area.


Opps... we started bouncing on the bed before I remember to take a photo.




It's nice that there are quite a few Twinings tea flavours to choose from.


Not only the red wine glasses are provided, the champagne wine glasses are included too.


The hotel placed a push-cart of kacang putih (Indian snacks), mint water and ice tea at the reception lobby.


Peacocks are often sighted at this hotel. I was told that they may "attack" their reflections on shiny cars parked in the hotel's open-air carpark.

Universal Studio Singapore

On my first visit to USS, we only had several hours in the afternoon to enjoy the park. Recently, a friend wanted very much to come here, so we planned a full day trip. By now, all the rides are open and I'm glad we sat on most of them... some even more than once. Our day of fun concluded with the Lake Hollywood Spectacular fireworks at 9pm.

Fountain at the lake

View of the Far Far Away castle from across the lake

TRANSFORMERS The Ride: The Ultimate 3D Battle was newly open, so we went there first.  This is definitely my favourite ride in USS.

Battlestar Galactica: HUMAN vs. CYLON in the Sci-Fi City

Watching people screaming their heads off

We put on our raincoat and we're ready for the Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure!

If you don't wish to buy a raincoat, you can choose to dry yourself at the drying pods.

Bumped into the Penguins from Madagascar movie

Here at the WaterWorld show, we sat at the back to avoid getting wet. If you're seated in the first few rows, they will make sure some of you get soaked even before the show starts.

The show venue has a really large seating capacity.

Part of the water show

Standing around, waiting for the Hollywood Dreams Parade to start.

The parade is starting.

Madagascar characters

Shrek characters

Famous Hollywood stars