Weekend in Singapore

Recently, I was down in Singapore again on the weekend but it's my private trip and I wasn't there for work. I had to attend the wedding dinner of one of my associates as well as my team member. It was also one of the most expensive wedding dinner for me as I have to pay for the flight, hotel and also "ang pow" in Sing Dollars$!

The blissfully wedded couple....

The dinner was held at Hilton Hotel and it was also one of the very enjoyable dinners as I get to meet my boss, my big boss from Europe and also my distributors. We had fun chatting and the food was very special too. Instead of the usual predictable chinese courses, we had a pretty few fusion dishes like Braised Birds Nest with winter melon to replace the sharks fins soup, deepfried wasabi and mayonnaise prawns with mango, deep fried spare ribs with yellow sauce, wok fried squid ink noodles with ham and the strawberry longan dessert with white fungus.

To make things more convenient, I chose to stay at Meritus Mandarin which is just on Orchard road itself. It's also 10 minutes away from Hilton by foot. But of course what I like best about Mandarin Hotel is the location and the close proximity to Takashimaya which I've blogged here. This time however, I was staying at the Club Room and has the access to the Club Lounge. It's good to indulge once in a while.

Meritus Club Room

Actually I've stayed at a Meritus Club Room before a year ago but that was during their upgrading works and now this is my second visit. The rooms are still the same and everything remained as it was before. What I liked about the room is that the bed is comfortable and there is also a massage chair instead of the usual sofa/couch. I of course did manage to maximise the use of the massage chair!

With the club room, one gets access to the Club Lounge where you can have your breakfast, tea time, cocktails and also your meetings there. Then there's the usual facilities like free internet usage and also the additional free laundry and pressing service. The service and attention given by the staff was top notch. It feels so good to be treated like a queen. They were like "Ms Lim would you like this, Ms Lim would you like that, Ms Lim what can I do for you?!!" And they bring me my coffee, remembers my favourite orange juice for breakfast even though it was the next day...

Egg Benedict for Breakfast

Breakfast selection was quite good. I had the egg benedict which was done nicely with the yolk that is runny and layered with spinach and english muffin at the bottom of the ramekins. There were also dim sum and the very nice and smooth fish porridge. Too bad I didn't have the space for everything!

I didn't go out for tea on the day of the wedding dinner and instead invited a friend to have tea with me at the club lounge. There were an array of small bites for tea such as macarons, cakes, chocolates and pastries.

Dainty macarons and big plump strawberries

A cappuccino and a latte

The food presentation was immaculate and it was just so comfortable to spend time at the lounge instead of bracing through traffic and sweating out there. Once in a while it feels nice to be lazy. As I wanted to dress up for the dinner, it was time for their cocktails which runs from 6pm to 8pm. And we thought why not have a drink before we go.

All the hors d’oeuvres are just so lovely!

And as for liquor selection, they do have the usual Gin, Rum, Bacardi, Whisky, Cognac, wines and champagne. I'm sure they can even make a cocktail on request.

A glass of M&C to cool down before the dinner!

I truly enjoyed the recent trip to Singapore. That's why I always feel that my leisure trips to Singapore more enjoyable than my business trips. But the chicken rice I had that afternoon at Purvis Street is quite a disappointment and so therefore no reason to blog about it.

Had been really busy lately and therefore the lack of updates. I'm traveling again tomorrow and it's going to be a tiring week!