Amazing Race Johor Singapore (Weekend 2)

Sofia and I flew to Singapore (AGAIN!) last weekend because I got invited to go to Hello Kitty Town and Little Big Club so that I could blog about it. Hahaha, if you only know how kilig it made me feel to write that! 

I was willing to fly to Singapore on my own pocket, as long as several things worked out and they did, ie we were able to find cheap tickets for both of us on short notice, Tim was free to host us and come with us to Malaysia, and the coordination went well with the travel agent that invited us.

I was also only willing to fly in if the schedule worked for a late Friday night flight from Manila (arriving in Singapore past midnight) and if we could take the past-midnight flight back from Singapore to Manila (arriving at 4am or 5am) just in time for a power nap before I dragged myself to work.

Friday night traffic was so bad, it took us close to 2 hours to get from the office
to the airport. Good thing we had enough time for dinner at the lounge.
I love the Arroz Caldo topped with Adobo and garlic.

I love travelling with Sofia. She's big enough to (mostly) take care of herself.
Carrying her bag/luggage + shopping included.
It's just the "Mom, I need to poop" part we need to work on. Hahaha.

The flight was a little bit delayed with traffic on the runway, it also took some time before we could take off. We arrived in Singapore at 2:00am. It was a good thing, I had the brilliant idea of asking Tim to buy some dinner (Chicken Rice for Fi, Taiwanese Chicken Chops for me) so we didn't have to step out anymore, so we were in bed by 3am. I don't think we were able to catch much ZZZZzzzzzs as our pick-up for the next day was arranged for 7:45am. I just had enough time to go down for take-away kopi and to get both of the sleepyheads ready.

The travel agent arranged our pick-up for SG$30 per person,
return with pick-up and drop-off at your doorstep.
It was a spacious mini-van, so it was very convenient.

However, I just realized that if you arrange to go to Johor Bahru (JB) with private transport, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll get there faster. There are also long queues to get through immigration (by car), but you're much more comfortable because you don't need to get down from the car. You just need to show your face at both borders. It roughly takes around the same time (a little over 2 hours), so we got to Hello Kitty Town around 1130am.

Hello Kitty Town and The Little Big Club are both in the Puteri Harbor Complex. Without a ticket, you can only access Red Bow (Hello Kitty) Cafe and the Sanrio and Little Big Club store.

Since it was taking some time to get our Blogger Visitor passes and Sofia's ticket organized, we decided to have some lunch first.

I was so happy to see that right across Hello Kitty Town,
they had Shilin my favorite Taiwanese Snack place.

The theme parks are all open until 6:00pm. We were able to quickly visit both of the theme parks but I will write about that in a separate post.

Hello Kitty Town Adventure

You get to meet a lot of the Sanrio mascots.

We also visited Little Big Club and we got to meet Pingu.

The Little Big Club has activity areas for all these characters,
but Thomas gets a whole floor to himself and his friends.

We were able to get a chance to also go back to Legoland. It's less than 10 minutes away by taxi (less than MYR20 fare), or you can take the Causeway Link Bus which passes every hour. I think we paid MYR5 for 2 adults and 1 child.

This was our 4th visit to Legoland this year so we were so happy
at the ROI on our annual passes. Will write about this separately. 

After Legoland,  we headed back to Puteri Harbor so we could do some shopping in the Sanrio shop before heading back home with the group.

We were so tired and hungry when they dropped us off that I was really thankful for the Coffee Shop (Hawker Style) just under Tim's flat. I just placed our order (over-ordering as usual) on our way up, then I just sent Tim back down to pay for it.

The Salted Egg Pork Rib was surprisingly so good.
We also ordered Cereal Prawn and Shrimp Paste Wings for Sofia,
and Sambal Kang Kong for our veggies.

We were so tired, we actually fell asleep around 10pm while Tim when out to meet some of his friends, so the next day, Fi and I were back at the Coffee Shop downstairs, so Tim could sleep longer.

 Traditional Kopi and Kaya Toast date in our PJs.
Unfortunately, traditional means the butter is NOT thicker than the bread. Boo.

When Tim finally surfaced, we we went to ion for Brunch (though technically, it would be more of a late lunch). We planned to eat at Jones the Grocer, an Australian deli - open restaurant type. However, when we were seated, our server asked if we wanted to try Becasse, Jones' newly opened French sister just in front, so I took a look at the menu and I convinced Tim to try that instead.

Jones the Grocer is beside Paradise Dynasty on the 4th Floor of Ion Orchard

Becasse is right in front of it, in the center of the mall.

I wanted to try it because I was originally planning to order the Wagyu Burger from Jones the Grocer, but when I looked at the menu of the other place, I saw that they were serving the Wagyu Burger with foie gras. It was an easy call.

The Wagyu Foie Gras burger was good, but some dishes were exceptionally bad.
More in a separate post.

Sof and I shopped a bit and did some errands, but she loved the static entertainment in the malls.

Picture with Ninong Tim and Van Gogh's ghost.

Super heroes unite!!!
Someone looks like he's running low on patience. Hahaha.

I originally wanted to eat at Din Tai Fung for dinner because I was craving for their Pork Chop Rice and Xiao Long Baos, but since I was too tired to walk to another mall for that we decided to try Ginza Bairin instead.

Sof and I really enjoyed the food, especially the Speacial Black Pig Tonkatsu.
 More in another post.

It's right across the yummy Takoyaki place, so Tim also bought some to share
before our food was delivered.

We just had enough time to pack when we got home, then it was almost time to go back to the airport again.

Grocery one side, Sanrio on the other. We didn't even need to use the
check-in baggage allocation we bought.

The good thing about Singapore now is there no longer is a budget terminal, all the budget carriers now fly out of Terminal 2.

Sofia posing and pretending to swim in the glass bottom thing.

Sponge Bob and Friends with Mr. MM Pilot.

That was such a fun weekend, though we really came home dead tired, I was very impressed by how Sofia (at 6 years old) could keep up and carry her own weight. Till my next Bloggin' Trip!  just saying.