This weekend all of us were looking forward to play paintball or “Gotcha” as we say in Germany. We all became very flustered that Saturday morning. We booked the openfield paintball court for 2 hours. It is located near the OCC or Orchid Country Club.

The address of the playing field is: Orchid Country Club, 1 Orchid Club Road Singapore 769162. Contact number 6324-0038 / 9662-0038

We took the MRT from Bugis station to city hall and switched to the North-South-line to NS 14 which is Khabib. Once arrived there we took a cab to the OCC. It was only about 4 SGD. The paintball area is not that easy to find. You need to enter the OCC club and it will appear on the right hand side. You need to look very carefully because it’s all covered with a green net to keep the paintballs inside.

Initially we ordered 2000 paintballs for 11 people. The game started with a security instruction and a whole set of strict rules. This was a bit annoying but if you got hit by a paintball the first time you will know why those rules are so important.

We built 2 teams (5 against 6 but with one Dutch guy … ) and started the game. It was really exciting; everybody was wearing a breastplate and a mask to cover the face. There were many barrels and other items to hide behind. 2 tactical objects that were very important were the bridge and the tower. From those points you had a very good overview of the whole combat field and a perfect position to sniper “the enemy:

Why did I mention the Dutch guy earlier?? Ok, as I saw him the first time this morning coming out of the plaza he already looked a little pale. I asked him if he was alright an he said: “Just a normal hangover, I came home at 6 am“. After the first round of the combat this “normal hangover” literally knocked him out. He was totally pale and the referees decided to take him out of the game. This was a very wise decision as you can see on some of the pictures.

Apart from that “incident” the game was just perfect. We even decided to get another 2000 paintballs to extend the game to 2 hours.

TAG paintball is really fun to play and I would recommend it to everybody that is not afraid of bruises. Those small spherical balls made of a thin gelatin can really hurt and sometimes give you red and blue bruises. Did I mention that not a single paintball hit my breastplate … instead I got hit at the arm, at the legs etc etc …

Oh another thing … don’t play against the Canadians as the media always wants you to believe that they are harmless. This Canadian guy playing with/against us, turned out to be the number one assassin.

For more information just visit their website at www.paintball.com.sg

This weekend we stayed in Singapore so it was very relaxing …no hurry, no stress. On Saturday we went to Tanjong Beach on Sentosa Island to catch a little bit of the nowadays very rare sun. It seems like the rainy season is back again…or at least the sunny season took a break…really hard to get a sunny day recently. So, since it was cloudy again, just a few of us used sunscreen … guess what? Right! All the others got heavily sun burnt… The equator sun, even if it is not there…it is still there, believe us, STRONG and DANGEROUS, even behind thick clouds
On Saturday night we checked out the “club momo” . The music was really fine R’n'B and HipHop style. Not to forget the very good live music in the small momo – live club.

Sunday: After two months, finally the time came to say goodbye to Christian, also known as JUAN. We decided to go to the Seafood Center at the East Coast Park to have the farewell dinner. After heavy discussion, we picked the No Signboard Seafood restaurant and it turned out to be an excellent choice! Although a little bit costlier than others, we highly recommend it! The food was DELICIOUS. We had an over 2 kg black pepper crab, 2 different kinds of prawns, vegetables and some spicy fried squid. The whole experience of eating seafood there is a MUST if you are in Singapore!

No Signboard Seafood, outlets at East Coast Park and Kallang Oasis. Known for its butter crabs.

East Coast Seafood Centre
The East Coast Park is a beach park located on the southeastern coast of Singapore. It was opened in the 1970s, when the government completed reclaiming land off the coast at Katong which extends from Changi to Tanjong Rhu.

The 185-hectare East Coast Park is the largest park in Singapore, and is built entirely on reclaimed land with a man-made beach. The beach is protected by breakwaters, with no other natural features. The park is easily accessible by East Coast Park Service Road with numerous exits along the East Coast Parkway. The place has ample parking space with many carparks near the park. The park is also accessible via public transport in the form of bus services, available on East Coast Park Service Road. Underpasses link the park to the nearby Marine Parade housing estate.

The park is a popular place for families and friends to relax and enjoy themselves. The park has barbecue pits, entertainment facilities, chalets, food and beverage, and amenities for sports activities. A cycling and rollerblading track runs along the perimeter of the park, which measures at least 20 km long.

East Coast Seafood Centre
The East Coast Seafood Centre was opened at the same time as the East Coast Park, with eight restaurants serving seafood. Its initial name was known as UDMC Seafood Centre, which was later changed in 2000 to its current name. Local favourites such as chilli crab, black pepper crab and mee goreng can be found there. In 2005, the Seafood Centre was upgraded to give it a modernised look, and better facilities. Many of the features were revamped, and a number of old tenants vacated for new tenants to take their place.[wikipedia.org]

Here are some photos from Christian’s farewell [see all photos]

Last week we were lucky to go and see the Jean Paul Gaultier fashion show which was a part of the Singapore Fashion Festival 2006 (this year: 24 March – 2 April). About 30 regional & international brands present their Spring Summer dedigns at the festival. JPG specificaly showed this time his odyssey-inspired Spring Summer 2006 collection: his designs were really cool and most of them looked wearable actually!
The festival is one of the Asia Pacific’s key fashion events. Most of the shows are held in the Tent at Ngee Ann City in Orchard Road. Many Singaporean (not only) celebrities show up (unfortunately most of them not recognizable for us, coming from the other part of the world…). One of them was the local super model: Dennis Keller. On the JPG show, she was running around with a microphone smiling in the most adorable way you can imagine, making interviews…and even hosted another event we have been to this week:

Mercedes-Benz Asia Fashion Award (MBAFA) (this one took place in Zouk (one of the hip Singaporean clubs) on March 28th . A few words description about that one from the net:

During MBAFA emerging Asian fashion talents are given the opportunity to showcase their collections and springboard into the international fashion arena. Amongst the panel of distinguished expert judges will be international London-based Singapore designer Ashley Isham

(a propos, he presented his collection on Sunday 26th March at the tent).
The whole event, as the name itself indicates, was SPONSORED BY MERCEDES-BENZ : ) This will definitely bring a measurable increase of the brand awareness and the brand image all over the region, since the show turned out to be very impressive and well organized. The designs of the 10 young regional designers were fantastic (!), with a Malaysian fashion talent winning the contest. We mustn’t forget excellent food and fine selection of drinks we were enjoying the whole evening. And the party of course, which we joined after the show, together with other guests, models and sponsors. The atmosphere was great! Especially that some “a little bit” bizarre or,…let’s say, extravagant individuals showed up on the dance floor – how typical for the world of fashion & art however, very interesting for me – a graduate financier!

Talking about celebrities, one of the faces of this year Singapore Fashion Festival was one of the hottest and most in-demand British supermodels, Lily Cole. She was also one of the models presenting proudly Jean Paul Gaultier collection. We truly enjoyed both events that we were to! You do not get to see the finest fashion designs every day, especially enriched by the unique Far East vibe!

Here are some photos from the Jean Paul Gaultier show:[all photos here]

Pictures of the Mercedes-Benz Asia Fashion Award 2006: [all photos here]

Update: Here is an article that I recently found about Lily Cole “Lily Cole stops traffic on Orchard Road“ read the full article here!

Thursday: Journey starts with the bus trip!

We started our trip right after work on Thursday. We left work a little bit earlier to have enough time to catch the bus in time. We picked up our luggage at home at the Plaza, changed some SingDollar into malaysian ringgit (the exchange rate was 1 S$ – 2.23 RM which was not to bad … at the Perhentian Island they changed it 1S$ – 1.95 RM) then we got a taxi and drove to the Lavender street bus station (next to lavender MRT-station) for the Transnational bus to Kota Bahru, Malaysia.

The bus was Mercedes-Benz busniess class and looked really comfortable … wide seats with footrests and a lot of space around you, just 3 seats per row, 2 on the left and 1 on the right. At that point I thought this would be a chilled 12 hour busride, but the freezing aircon in the bus prooved this to be wrong! Have you ever tried to sleep in a moving fridge ???? Seriously, you need a thick winterjacket to be able to get some sleep in such conditions…especially that this moving fridge offered another attraction: COCKROACHES. Not many but one was enough to cool down the excitement and optimism Shall I mention the Malaysian toilets that we were forced to use on our way to Perhentian? No…let us skip this. Just please take a note that they do not belong to the most pleasant aspects of the Malaysian landscape

Friday: Minivan and Speedboat – ride

Early Friday morning the drivers woke us up (at least those who were sleeping) and dropped us in the middle of nowhere as it seemed … it defenitely wasn’t a bus stop! All the more amazing it was that the minivan that should pick us up was already waiting there to take us to the fairy terminal. btw: Thanks to Nicole for the very good organisation!!! At the ferry terminal we took the speedboat to Perhentian Island. We already had tickets which were also already booked by Nicole! Both-ways was about 60 RM. The speedboat cruise was really fun! Since the monsun season was over, the sea was peaceful enough to enjoy the trip without getting seasick. Before reaching our destination, we drove first to some other beaches at the other of the 2 Perhentian Islands – Besar Island, to drop some other people that were on the boat with us. The last stop was “our beach”: THE LONG BEACH on Kecil Island.

Friday: Perhentian Island and accommodation

The Island was a dream. There is really no other term for it! Anyways, the photos should speak for themselves.
We arrived at about 9am. The beach was pretty big, and seemed really peacefull. But it wasn’t that everybody was still asleep. Since the weekend did not start yet, we could enjoy this paradise on Perhentian Island without crowds and noise typical for most of the beatiful holiday destinations. Pehentian Island seemed from the beginning more like a place that you know about from some friend’s travel hints rather than from tourist guides. There are only a couple small “chalet” type hotels on the Long beach, not too sophisticated and really cheap. The one we stayed at (Panorma Chalet) was ONLY 30 RM per night for a double beedroom with fan. It is only 3.5 EUR per person per night!!! Considering the price, we obviously did not expect any luxury. But we weren’t dissappointed either.

The room was very simple but clean and cosy. Over the bed, there was this white mosquito net which was very practical but also gave the room a more friendly look . Most chalets on the island are low budget, simple standard hotels, so people you meet there are mostly young, back-packer tourists, like us

We would not recommend a family with small children to choose exactly Perhentian: it would be far from Singapore and too much inconveniece for them despite the gorgeous surrounding, unless you stay in the only stone made luxury hotel called “Bubu hotel on long beach”. You can find a price list here.

We spend there 3 wonderful, relaxed days: enjoying the sun (the weather was fantastic !), clear, blue and warm see water and delicious food . Numerous restaurants there offer a vast choice of sea food that you simply have to try in order to make the whole experience of the place complete.

One hint for divers and snorklers: the place is absolutely perfect for diving! coral reefs and amazing diversity of sea life all around the island. There are plenty of diving schools there, offering open water courses, and different dive trip options. The prices are again really low, with about 70 RM (17 EUR) for single dive from a boat!

Sunday: Leaving paradise at 3.30 pm

We left the Island at about 3.30 pm on sunday. The speedboat took us back to the ferry terminal, a minibus picked us up and drove us to Kuala Terengganu (2 hours drive). From there we took the bus to Singapore back … again freezing cold … lots of stops during the night … traffic at the border …. We arrived at 8 am monday morning, took a shower and went back to the “normal working live”.

To sum up everything:
The experience was unforgettable and defenitely worth the long bus trip effort! We could strongly recommend you to go to Perhentian Island

See all the photos here

First I must say I am really moved that more and more members of my family are opening the ’singtime’ link ! even if they are not able to understand anything, they can look at all the beautiful photos that we upload almost everyday and thanks to this, they at least get the impression how perfect and happy and amazing our stay in Singapore is

We just said goodbye to our next relaxing weekend here. This time we explored China Town which generally means eating chestnuts (Maronen) and visiting some pretty impressing temples (including the biggest and oldest chinese (Confucius) temple in Singapore. Fans of chinese cuisine can also try the very authentic chinese food offered in numerous foodcourts here. Not the first joice for us however…Actually, after a couple of weeks eating local dishes in huge quantities, I started to go for italian and generally european food more and more often. French Fries, Pizza, or simple bread with butter and eggs are something you can never compensate in a long run! Even not with best quality sea food. Well, at least that is my STRONG personal opinion

According to shopping: as one of the most beloved hobbys of the Singaporeans, one must not neglect this exciting activity and spend at least one day in a month on Orchard road! It is exhausting, definitely it is. But also interesting and much much fun , especially for the ladies! So this Saturday, ready for everything, aware of the heavy crowds waiting for us in the malls, we set off to explore the singapore’s biggest shopping street, offering an immense variety of products, and mainly clothes and SHOES !!! Very surpisingly , we got stuck in Zara, which sells really cool stuff here. But also checked more than a dozen of shoe shops. After 2 hours everybody was tired and satisified enough to finish shopping and proceed to Laras condor pool next to Orchard. And that was fun! Really relaxing as you can see on the photos . Only Patric did not buy anything… busy enough advising Lara, Juliane and me on what to buy and what not to buy (there were by the way many more advises rather discourage from purchase..men…they can be so reasonable when their credit card is at stake )

After intensive Saturday, we obviously landed at the beach on Sunday. No sun but much fun , I would sum up in one sentence. Some volleyball, some swimming, some reading and the Tagesschau as podcasts… what more could I want from a Sunday? Nothing pops into my mind hope you enjoyed your weekend too… also those freezing in Germany, and freezing even more in good old Poland ! © by Agnieszka:

Photos from Chinatown

Shopping on Orchard Road – Zara

Condo Cairnhill road – Pool

Dinner in little India

Our escapade to MacRitchie Reservoir was our first experience of the rainforest we have done so far, since living so close to the equator. The 100 ha natural park is “a beautiful green island” located in the heart of the Singapore Island . It belongs to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve which retains one of the largest tracts of primary rainforest left in Singapore. Perfect to escape from crowded streets, city’s irritating noise, smelly cars and shopping malls full of shopping fans!

We got excited like small kids seeing monkeys jumping from one tree to another over our heads! Not that we have never seen these funny creatures – but never in their “natural” environment. And this is something really special ! After entering the park, the air humidity became hard to stand… at the same time, the intense, exotic smell of a rainforest, (so much different from the way our European trees smell ) was overwhelming, surprising and strange at the same time.. so this is how the jungle smells, we thought .

The Mac Ritchie Reservoir is probably the only place in the 100% tidy & super organised Singapore city where you can feel like getting lost is possible…. not that there are many tracks in the park to choose from, but there are not that many exits… only every couple kms. So what happened to us was: we missed one exit (thinking, we just take the next one whenever feeling tired) and it turned out that in order to arrive at the next one, we needed at least 2 hours of fast walk which was pretty…ok, really exhausting. ok…I admit, it was my idea not to take the first exit .

After all, our “walk in the jungle” took us over 4 hours, we made about 10kms by foot and were left with aching feet and feeling of satisfaction that we truelly explored this oasis of peace and nature hidden in the middle of bustling Asian metropolis. The MacRitchie Reservoir is definately a must see in Singapore.

Over 100 ha of primary forest still flourish in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve today, particularly around MacRitchie. Rubber trees, remnants of the plantations there in the 19th century, can still be seen along the fringes around MacRitchie. You’ll find boardwalks skirting the edge of the scenic MacRitchie Reservoir and walking trails through the forest. They range in distances from 3 km to 11 km, allowing nature lovers to experience as much or even as little of the nature reserves as they like. Interpretative signboards along the boardwalks reveal the mysteries of nature and allow for a self-guided tour along the fringes of the MacRitchie forest.[wildsingapore.com]

This sunday (19. Feb ‘06) we decided to visit the new Mercedes-Benz Brand Center that recently opened on Alexandra Road,the auto-mile, here in Singapore. The whole weekend was open house, with lots of people serving food, coffee and cold drinks. You can see on the photos that we enjoyed this “all you can eat/drink” opportunity.

Despite the fact that we were dressed very casual (shorts and flip&flops) they have been very friendly, asking us to have more drinks and food. This was compared to the experiences with german retailers and dealerships, where they are not interested at all in you, a very surprising und unique experience.

The new CI/CD interieur that they used at the Brand Center was really beautiful. The furnishing is decent but stylish at the same time.
They had almost the whole Mercedes-Benz product range at the showroom. Especially the new S-Class that has been launched in Singapore recently was presented very well. They had 3 brand new S-class cars in different colours to show them to the customers. Just the brand new R-class, the new M-class and the B-class haven’t been launched in Singapore yet.

Update: The B-Class is finally launched in Singapore now.
The price for the new B-class here in Singapore will start at 120.888S$ for the basis B200 model and 130.888S$ for the B200 Turbo.
Check the Mercede-Benz Singapore Website to find out about the new B-class.

If you want to visit the new Mercedes-Benz Brand Center you can find the map here.
The Cycle&Carriage Website is here.

Some of the many highlights at the MB Brand Center are:

the “SLK 55 AMG Asia Ultimate Experience Edition” in silver

and the “CLK 55 AMG DTM Edition“, the very first (serial number 001) of just a 100 built cars.

Check out the photos in our photo-section.

After living in Germany for 2 years, I adore BRETZEL (German typical breakfast bread – pretzel) as much as Germans themselves. So I was pleased to join Patric for the German Breakfast which was held at the Paulaner Brauhaus Singapore -a German pub and restaurant.
The Paulaner Brauhaus Singapore offers the unique chance to enjoy “origin bavarian” cuisine. The atmosphere is really nice and cosy, getting more and more lively as more people enter the place.
Around noon it gets pretty loud. With some of the guests starting singing some german traditional songs…the place resambles a mini Octoberfest the food was OK, with a delicious desert !
Disappoining: until the moment we arrived, the beloved Bretzel, that we were looking forward to, were already all gone….well, next time we won’t be late for sure !

Thaipusam is the most dramatic of all Hindu festivals. Celebrated during the full moon in the Hindu month of Thai, it is a day of fasting, thanksgiving and consecration.
The festival is an intense show of faith. The devotees go on a three-kilometre trek with ritualistic act of worship and thanksgiving. The main participants in trance, haul or carry beautifully decorated kavadis (containing milk pots). These are literally hooked to their bare bodies. It is a display of belief that transcends pain.[Visitsingapore.com]

I have never seen such a festival before. It hurt just by looking at them, so we decided not to stay very long. Take a close look at the photos…

Last Saturday we decided to follow some German girls to a club called Gotham Penthouse. The club is located at Clark Quay in one of the houses on the 3rd floor.
They picked the club because it offers free flow vodka for ladies till late on Saturdays only for 15$ entrance fee. The guys, as usually in Singapore,are discriminated,:) so what they get for 15$ is one drink with a drop of bad quality vodka. If they want more, they have to pay 10$ for each next alcohol drop drowned in a small glass filled with juice.

We arrived there very early (somewhen around 10 I guess) and except from 2 or 3 local girls we were alone in the club. We decided not to give up (after paying 15$ we were determined to enjoy ourselves there, no matter what). We ordered our free drinks and looked around. Actually it is a pretty nice club with sofa areas for lounging behind the DJ’s console. One interesting thing are the 3 tanks with jellyfish on the walls! These jellyfish glow in the dark because neon light is flashed on them, creating a surreal and mystifying atmosphere.

The cool R&B and HipHop music was defenitely the best aspect of clubbing in Gotham. Only the DJ talked way too much, and drove us crazy advertising all promotions and upcoming events at the club.

So..summing the last Saturday Night Fever experience, Gotham is a good club for girls to warm up for a good price (:)) before moving to more trendy places. As far as the male part is concerned… they can wait outside if 10$ for a drink is too much … and then explore the trendy clubs with warmed up, happy ladies.