19 hours!
By far the NICEST hotel we’ve ever stayed in. We fortunately got upgraded to a renovated suite (3079). We stayed in a garden view suite, which I highly recommend, since the rooms that face the gardens have balconies. The finishes were insane, we had like 4 separate rooms, a heated toilet, a shower that could have fit 6 people.
The hotel itself is huge with super easy access to both the Gardens, the Marina and the massive mall with the most expensive stores under one roof.
Grabbed a drink before dinner and took in the Singapore skyline at night
First dinner of the trip at this great spot. We walked there to get a feel for the city at night. Delicious, despite me falling asleep the entire time
Morning run through the gardens. It was nice and tranquil without a slew of people there. Of note—it is SO freaking humid in Singapore.
First stop of our tour with Gerry. We had three other people on the tour—two retired lawyers from California and a woman from Melbourne. This is apparently considered a modern Buddhist temple. The chanting was eerie from all the praying. The roof top was a serene garden with a prayer wheel and the basement was a bunch of Buddha’s from all over Asia through out time
Exploring Chinatown was pretty interesting. The foods markets were filled with questionable sanitary practices with lots of fish, eels, etc all out in the open.
Gerry also showed us a couple of cool areas including the red light district where the women used to bound their feet to make them smaller—SO gross. He also showed us the street of the dead, where families used to send their elderly to die, since it’s bad luck to have someone die in the home.
So much food from this Hawker Center! Gerry picked some pretty delicious food. This is apparently a local Hawker Center that a lot of tourists don’t visit.
There’s really not much to see here, except some markets. The Tekka Place has SO many shops with all the same clothes, it’s wild. The markets that we went through was pretty cool with lots of amazing colors but apparently that’s an annual thing for a festival and isn’t year round
Grabbed some more food, despite being SO full at this restaurant in little India
The Arab quarter is a cool place to see and a lot more commercialized than the other two neighborhoods we visited. It’s Main Street is Arab street and Haji Lane. Both have a ton of restaurants and coffee places on them. The Haji lane was the main road for the Muslim people to go down, to head toward the beach/boats on the way to Mecca. Beach road used to be right along the actually water until the ocean was RECLAIMED and filled with sand to make more land! Unreal!
We stopped at a gelato place with Gerry and the crew. They had some really interesting flavors.
This hotel is stunning and we attempted to grab a drink at the long bar— (the OG Singapore sling) but the line was SO long and the staff so pompous, we had to leave before grabbing a drink
Couldn’t miss getting in this amazing pool overlooking the bay. It was crazy seeing how far the city stretched on in the distance and we only explored such a small part of it. The haziness in the air is apparently from all of the farms that burn in Indonesia but otherwise, amazing view with my amazing boo!
Huge dome filled with flowers/fauna from all over the world. The Instagram influencers were having a fucking field day—it was abhorrently embarrassing for the human race but the flowers were beautiful. You can probably explore this within 30 minutes at most
This is very cool to see at night, with all the neon lights themed with avatar. The avatar theme kinda bordered on Disney world and was a bit cheesy but the lighting was super cool
The super tree grove has a light snow every night at 7:45 or 8:45. The lights are synchronized to music. It was packed with people, everyone sitting on the ground.
Dinner in bed to end a long as day. Grabbed some dim sum at the food hall in the mall and got Roberta’s Pizza to end the night
We stayed in Room 20. We had our own little koy pond with some coy koy fish. The hotel is beautiful with an amazing pool and lush breakfast area. They are super accommodating as well
We bounced in here pretty quick after briefly going through the Ubud market. Since they are in town, it’s worth a stop but honestly, if we had to drive far to get to these—I would have been very disappointed. It’s really not that impressive
Grabbed a quick lunch at this adorable Mediterranean place in town. The service was phenomenal and the atmosphere was great. PS—it is SO hot and humid in Bali. Stopping here even to get a drink and cool down was worth it
This place is A MUST! We spent about an hour there but you can spend a lot more. I have so many videos and pictures of monkeys, I honestly don’t know what to do with them all. Prescott was very brazen and took a ton of selfies with these guys. We felt bad for this one eyed little guy until it literally ATTACKED Prescott. The key is to not have any shiny or open bags with you that they would consider food, any thing mobile (sunglasses) or make eye contact with them or smile at them
Grabbed dinner at one of the hotel restaurants on their jazz band night. It was delicious—we got the burrata, prosciutto, gnudi and carbonara
Grabbed a quick breakfast before heading on on of half day tour in the vintage car. Our tour guys name was Barry and he had some GREAT tunes. He was a great photographer too.
This area is absolutely stunning. The key is to get out here early (730ish) to beat the crowds and the heat! You can walk throughout the entire rice terrace and take in the sights.
Awesome place to spend half or all day here. They have kopi luwak coffee (the special coffee made from beans that these little animals poop out), rice terraces to walk through, swings, zip lines, bird nest to take pictures in—literally they have it all. We just resorted to walking through the rice Terrace along with getting coffee and a delicious lemongrass tea that Prescott loved. It’s a MUST!
Luckily got a table (get here early—it fills up), that wasn’t an already reserved day bed. The food and drinks here are actually pretty good. We got an avocado toast, sweet pancake stack and the wagyu burger. If you have the time and want to spend a day here, look into renting a day bed, etc early. They can be reserved online in advance
The PEOPLE watching here is above par. I mean, the want to be Instagram influencers were plentiful and SO obnoxious. The key here, it’s reserving a day bed in advance! But this pool overlooking the rice terraces is stunning and well worth a stop and to spend time here
Beautiful temple we visited, since we had the time and we were already over in the area. Both guys and girls must cover theirs knees so we both had to wear sarongs, which the price was included in the cost of visiting the temple
This hotel is stunning, just a little far away from everything in ubud. We did dinner here, which was served omakaski style. The best things were the tuna, lobster and granita.
Putu showed us around her home and let us in on how the typical Balianese family functions. Each family has their own temple and they have a tons of different ceremonies and offerings through the day
This experience was awesome. We cooked a ton of food and it was all delicious! It was a private cooking class and tailored just for us, at Putu’s home. Each family has their own cow, chickens (which the chicken satay was made from), ducks and dogs. She had a whole garden of produce growing in the front and backyard. She said she cooks 2 kilos of rice a day and they typically don’t eat together, as a family. She made the food first thing in the morning and puts all the left overs in the kitchen for them to eye. It was really eye opening to seeing how the typical family lives!
Stopped on our way in town to grab some juices. Prescott got the flight and I got a floral lemonade
This restaurant was packed and the interior/vibes were so cool. Great music was playing the whole time. The food was great as well!
Of course had to stopped and get gelato after dinner. This place didn’t have a ton of flavors so we both got cookies and cream, which was pretty decent.