Did you know that you could get discounts with your Singapore Airlines Boarding Pass?
Back in August 2012, Kim, Lucas and I took a trip to Southeast Asia visiting places like Singapore, Bali and Malaysia. We had an awesome time during the trip, visiting many interesting sites and having many memorable experiences.
While these destinations aren’t what most would consider expensive, it’s always better to save whenever you can. Continue reading Discounts With Your Boarding Pass
Many of you have heard of the movie Snakes on a Plane and there have been a couple of incidents this year of scorpions on a plane. You can read about them here and here.
Now there are koalas on a plane…
To celebrate Singapore’s 50th anniversary of independence, four cuddly and cute koalas were gifted to the country by Lone Pine Sanctuary in Brisbane, Australia. Continue reading Koalas Check Out Qantas First Class
Over the years I’ve always been fascinated by street signs. When I say this I’m not talking about your typical stop signs or other common ones.
Signs that appeared to be strange, odd and maybe even a bit ridiculous alway seemed to stand out. However, maybe these signs aren’t really what they seem to be.
Most of us know that Singapore is a very clean country. There are laws to help keep it that way like no littering and gum chewing.
In a country so clean you should expect people to know how to wash their hands. I was definitely surprised to see these signs in multiple places. One thing I did learn (from the sign above) was that you can reduce your germ count by up to 99%. To accomplish this you need to wash your hands for 30 seconds with soap and water.
For our first night’s stay in Singapore Kim and I wanted to stay somewhere nice but didn’t really want to pay the price. I started looking into our options with various hotel programs.
Singapore is a pricey city for hotel stays and our best choice ended up being the Intercontinental Singapore.
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To get a free night at the Intercontinental Singapore I used my annual free night certificate from the Chase Priority Club Visa card. The certificate is earned yearly and all you have to do is pay the $49 annual fee. Keeping this card is no-brainer to me. For $49 we got a room in a great hotel that would’ve cost us a minimum of $250 for the night.
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The Intercontinental Singapore is in a great location. It’s under 20 minutes from the airport (in a taxi) and there is lots of shopping and restaurant options nearby. The Bugis Junction shopping complex is right down the street and Arab Street is under a 10 minute walk from the hotel.
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When we arrived at the hotel our room was not available but the friendly staff at the check-in desk offered us another room to use while we waited. This was a really nice offer as we arrived around 9:00am, a bit earlier than the usual check-in time. We accepted and got to rest for a couple of hours which was really needed! (With stops, we had been traveling for over 25 hours.)
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The first room was nice but pretty standard. I was too tired and did not take any pictures.
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We went out for a couple of hours to get some lunch and walk around Arab Street. By the time we got back, our room was ready. The staff moved our luggage upstairs to our new room (they asked us in advance) which was very helpful.
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| View from the doorway |
This room was a big upgrade over our first room. I think we got an upgrade due to our Platinum Elite Status which comes along with the Chase Priority Club card.
Our room was very large and had lots of areas to it. When you immediately walk in the bathroom is on the left with closets to the right. When you get into the main area of the room, it has two parts to it.
A table that seats four- used as a dining area (It is barely visible- at the bottom left of the picture above) and a living room/ sitting area with a love seat, recliner and chair around a table. You can sit here and watch TV or just relax over here.
The large flat-screen TV swivels so it can be watched from the couches or in bed.
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| Living Room/ Sitting Area |
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| Bedroom and Work Area |
The bed was comfortable and had a bunch of different pillows on it. I honestly don’t think it would’ve mattered if it wasn’t comfortable. I was really tired from the flights and could’ve probably slept on the floor and been satisfied! On the side of the bed there was a suit stand. I rarely wear a suit and never travel with one but the stand came in handy to hang my clothes on.
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| The Bathroom |
The bathroom was huge and had a bathtub and stall shower. I rarely see bathrooms set up this way but it was nice having the stall shower. It was clean, had good water pressure and lots of nice, big towels.
Asides from the room, the hotel has a beautiful common area on the first floor. The only problem is that most of it is used by the restaurant and cafe so if you don’t want to have a drink or eat you can’t really sit there. The prices are also a bit ridiculous for what you get. (ex. I think a coffee to go was around $2 but $9-$10 if you sat down.)
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The staff at the hotel were extremely friendly and helpful. They tried to help with anything we needed. The concierge was really great with directions and information about Singapore. The bellhops were more than happy to help us bring our bags up and down from our room and there was always a couple of staff members outside waiting to hail a cab for the guests.
If you’re looking to spend around $250 for a hotel in Singapore I would definitely recommend the Intercontinental. For my travel style (and budget) this is way too pricey but I’ll gladly take a room here using points or as my annual free night offer if I am ever back in Singapore again.
Hotels in Singapore can be quite pricey. From what we could tell most moderately priced hotels ($80-$100 range) had horrible reviews and seemed downright dirty.
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| Ugly Curry Chicken Puff |
Continue reading Strange Food: Ugly Curry Chicken Puff- Starbucks, Singapore
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post regarding the headache we had to go through to book our next flight. (Check out the post here) I definitely think it was worth the effort and can’t wait to get on the flight already!
