Singapore Arts, Beauty and Inspirations Male Blogger

I had a staycation with mum over the weekends at Sofitel Singapore City Centre, nestled in the heart of the central business district. I was rather surprised at first since I wasn't expecting to find a luxury hotel around Tanjong Pagar, especially directly above the MRT station.

The hotel was rather elegant to begin with, as my mum and I stepped in, making our way towards Racines, a French and local Chinese restaurant for lunch before checking in. Chilled soup and bread was served as we waited for our mains to arrive.

My mum ordered the braised Ee-fu noodles with scallops, XO sauce, mushroom and chives ($24.00). It was really savoury and tasty. Sad to say the Squid dish ($28.00) that I had ordered was really disappointing. Tough squid stuffed with glutinous rice and the portion was really small and unfulfilling.  

After the meal, we headed to the twin-bed room to take a look around. Pretty cosy with a view overlooking rows of shophouses. My eye lit up as soon as I caught sight of a bath tub. Yes I did soak in it for an hour or so around 2am in the morning as well as the next day before checking out. 

The hotel provide a welcome drink which could be claimed anytime during the stay from 1864 bar. My mum and I both picked the mocktail of blended mint leaves and lychee. Refreshing drink to go with some complimentary snacks.

I did use the hotel facilities such as the gym that night as well as sitting by the swimming pool the following morning. I did not enter the pool since it was too small for laps anyway. Too bad there wasn't any sauna or steam room available in the toilets.

It was definitely as nice staycation as I got to spend time with mum and to relax.

It was meant to be a short getaway and I rushed over to the airport after taking half day leave that Friday. The air ticket to Kuala Lumpur International Airport was almost twice the usual price since it was a few days before Malaysia's election day.

I met up with my friends in Royale Chulan The Curve, the place where I would be staying for 2 nights. Due to the horrible traffic jam, it took about one and the half hours to reach my destination. 

I should have taken to KL Central via train and alighted at SBK08 - MRT Mutiara Damansara. It would probably be much faster and cheaper too.

This was more of a eat, sleep, chill on bed weekends trip. Did not snap much pictures at all since I was in my ''nua'' mode. I even forgotten to taken pictures of the room itself. Breakfast was provided and we settled our meals in a German and Vietnamese restaurant, as well as occasional snacks we could grab.

Besides The Curve Shopping Centre of few storeys high, an underpass of food outlets that links to IKEA, I did not explore much. I probably only grabbed a few bars of Valrhona chocolate, hair dye and other random stuff which I thought was priced better as compared to Singapore.

Definitely a good place to eat, sleep and chill, provided that you are familiar with the place. I should perhaps learn Malay since I kept having people speaking to me in the language I could not understand. More short weekends getaways and staycations in future!

It wasn't my first time taking a cruise to no-where but definitely the rare few travel related post on this blog. Recently I have the habit to blog about things straight to the point and not type a whole load of grandma story, knowing that nowadays people tend to view images more than reading a chunk of text. Am I right?

It was a weekend cruise which sets off at Marina Cruise Centre at about 7.30pm instead of 7pm due to delay. Throughout the cruise trip, I did not manage to take much pictures except a couple of selfies, knowing that my mum can't take good photos.

Typical of cruise trips, the population of senior citizens on board was approximately about 65%? 25% were families with mainly young children while 10% belongs to the others category. Most rooms had a balcony which could be seen from one of the videos I have uploaded below, at the same time featuring my room for the 2 nights. The beds were higher than normal, extremely cosy and my mum and I had 2 fluffy pillows each!

I did not really explore the cruise ship much as most of the time we were feasting, me in the room watching countless movies which I had previously missed and well, waiting for the food to digest. The food were mostly buffet style, not say that fantastic but decent. Had watched one free performance since the other performances need to pay. I think most people from the older generation were pretty much occupied with the jackpot machines and I did witnessed an auction on board a cruise of the first time in my life.

I probably would not want to go for another cruise trip anytime soon. I find the experience getting more boring as compared to last time when I was much younger and the mere thought of going for a cruise trip and indulging on food the entire day excites me. Don't get me wrong as who knows I might have a sudden urge to go on another cruise staycay in time to come?

I alighted from Imbiah Cable Car Station at Sentosa, just 2 stations away from Vivocity and navigated my way over to Le Meridien Singapore, Sentosa. It was so random that my mum had to book a staycation when I would rather rot at home during that weekend.

Le Meridien Singapore, Sentosa looked more like a heritage landmark than a hotel and I took an awkward shot of the merlion looking as if it was decapitated above. The scotching heat was already swallowing me up as I made my way into the room which my mum had already checked into. The room look rather cosy and we had an amazing view of neighbouring constructions going on, with 2 tall cranes in sight. I guess it felt more conducive when the curtains remained closed up through the stay.

I wasn't really in the mood to walk around exploring Sentosa that day, except travelling to Vivocity for dinner and having Starbucks while lazing in the room that night. The pool looked rather shallow and was quite empty most of the time. I actually brought my trunks but it just felt awkward to swim with parents around. My mum did felt the same way as well.

Anyway, my only consolation was the bathtub in the toilet where I soaked for probably an hour or more? Half of the time I was climbing in and out of it, setting my camera's timer for portraits which I used for my artistic edits posted on my instagram @dessertingbeauty. 

As I checked up on the hotel that night, I was stunned by the beautiful photography shown on the webpage. Images can indeed be decieving to a certain extent I would say.