IN line with its expansion program, Philippine Airlines (PAL), the nation’s flag carrier, recently added Singapore as an international destination from Cebu. Yes, there are now direct flights from our beautiful island to the ultra progressive Lion City and back. The launch at the Mactan airport was in mid-December with PAL officers headed by president Jaime Bautista in attendance.
The inaugural flight included travel agents led by Nelson and Angelita Dy of Grand Hope Travel who coordinated with GMTC Travel bigwigs Samson and Grace Tan for the hotel accommodations and tours in Singapore. Home for the group was the Parc Sovereign Hotel in Tywhitt Road, a modern hotel under the wing of the Global Premium Hotels Ltd. group, one of Singapore’s largest chain of hotels with over 1,900 rooms under three brands - Fragrance, Parc Sovereign, and Klapstar.
The Lion City is definitely a place to visit with all kinds of tourist come-ons...a super-clean environment, an impressive skyline, fun places, art galleries, history and culture museums, excellent food, extensive shopping choices....the list goes on.
A day at the Universal Studios is always stimulating with heart stopping rides and other visual delights. We went on Transformers The Ride 3 where we dashed through subway tunnels, city streets, across rooftops and all! Since I’m really not into this kind of excitement, I kept my eyes closed most of the time during the ride and survived. Hahaha!
What I loved most was going on the Universal Journey which meant stepping into a world of lights. Everything was fabulous! Can you imagine a display of lights with eight thematic zones featuring 824,961 light bulbs? It is recorded as the largest in an indoor venue and is listed in the Guinness World Records.
A walk around the various sections of the Universal complex gave us glimpses of Hollywood, New York, Sci-fi City, Ancient Egypt, the Lost World, Madagascar and Far, Far Away. And then there was that sortie into the nearby S.E.A. Aquarium (Southeast Asia Aquarium), featuring an astounding variety of fish and marine life.
Among the food treats we enjoyed were the yummy lunch at KT’s Grill with Resorts World’s dynamic sales team composed of assistant director Anna Ico, senior exec Val Cai Jinling and communications pointman Narciso Valeriano; and that Peranakan lunch at the Michelin-rated resto Candlenut hosted by Lael Loh, area director-Philippines and Brunei of the Singapore Tourism Board.
u25cf ● ●
Something quite different from the exhilaration we felt at Universal Studio was the cultural satisfaction we experienced after going through the major sections of the National Gallery of Singapore, a visual arts institution housed in two national monuments - the City Hall and the former Supreme Court. We were awed by the light installations and had fun choosing artworks from the gallery’s Social Table to make into posters which were then emailed to us.
u25cf ● ●
Shopping is a major component of the Singapore experience and we choose to do it at Singapore’s “golden strip,” the tree-lined Orchard Road, that time of the year all ablaze with Christmas lights. And to top it all, most of the stores were having a sale.
Our final foray at the Lion City was at the Christmas- themed Gardens By the Bay. It was Christmas Wonderland at the Flower Dome with towers of poinsettias, toy soldiers, golden trees, to mention a few. We were in awe with all the beauty around us. The Flower Dome is known as the world’s largest glass greenhouse.
Though it is a small country, Singapore has made great strides in positioning itself as a major tourist destination in Asia.