Sakura International Buffet Restaurant @ SAFRA Jurong

SAFRA Jurong

My company, Cameron runs this Engage To Excel event quarterly to ensure that every department commits to teamwork through team bonding activities.

I joined the Quality Control department since July 2015 and I was kinda assigned to organize one for this last quarter. To be honest I suck at organizing events and so the best option for me is to go for lunch/dinner as a group and that's it.

We did gather opinion from the shop to get feedback and well, having dinner at Sakura International Buffet has the highest vote so we went ahead for that.

It's $42.80 (incl. GST) per adult for dinner on a weekend because we went on Sunday so that more shop floor employees are able to make it. You can find out their rates at the Suki Group website.

It's located at the north corner of the club, but that's not the main entrance.


Turn left after passing the main lobby and you'll find the main entrance


The interior

And my favorite sushi bar







You may approach the chef to slice sashimi for you

Coney Island, Singapore

West Entrance of Coney Island

It was a short Sunday getaway at Coney Island (also known as Pulau Serangoon).

As it's located near Punggol, no way we're gonna travel there by public transport, we cabbed there.

Visiting the island has become a trend this few weeks/months (friends visiting too, random people sharing posts/articles about Coney Island recently), owing to the fact that it was officially opened to the public not long ago on 10 October 2015 by the Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure Khaw Boon Wan. It's said that before that, there's a "NO ENTRY" sign at the island entrance.

The island has two entrances, one due west and the other due east. From The Punggol Settlement, we entered the island from the its West Entrance. We only managed to visit approximately 40% of the island, having no bicycle. Therefore I'd recommend that you rent a bicycle from Punggol Point Park and ride into the island for a vaster coverage.

So how did Coney Island get its name? I learnt that the island inherits rich history, after reading a few articles and blog entries, where one of them is from Remember Singapore. It was once owned by the Haw Par Brothers in the 1930s, but sold to Ghulam Mahmood, an Indian businessman in the 1950s. He then named the island after the Coney Island amusement park in Brooklyn, New York, with the intention of transforming the island into a pleasure resort.

According to a news article from The Straits Times, on 4 April 1950, the island 'is to have facilities for swimming, boating, fishing, all kinds of outdoor and indoor sports, a skating rink, and will contain a main building with a restaurant and bar, a dance hall and rooms', alongside with six cottages for honeymoon couples or families. Wow...

West Entrance

Green green...

Ko Samui, Thailand

03 (Tue) - 08 (Sun) Nov 2015

Lodging: Samui Beach Residence Hotel, 155/44 Moo 2, Bophut Sub-District, Chaweng, Ko Samui, Surat Thani 84320, Thailand



No idea why but similar to skydiving, it was never in my bucket list but because my friends wanted to do it, I did it with them and my bucket list for skydiving is instantly added and completed.

Not skydiving, but this time round it's diving, specifically, we're on our way of getting our open water diver license because my friend Mei Ling wanted to fulfill her bucket list of diving.

I travelled with Mei Ling (a friend of mine working as a nurse), her boyfriend Roy and her younger sister Yi Jia (who's also a nurse and librarian wannabe). Only Mei Ling, Yi Jia and I were attending the course as her boyfriend was already a certified open water diver.

Bangkok Airways PG962
Changi Airport Terminal 1

Our flight details
03 Nov 2015 (Tue)
Changi Airport Terminal 1 - Samui Airport
Flight No: PG962
8:10PM - 9:05PM

08 Nov 2015 (Sun)
Samui Airport - Changi Airport Terminal 1
Flight No: PG961
4:30PM - 7:20PM

Average fare per person: S$492.72 (booked through Expedia)

Mei Ling helped to book the accommodation, at S$88.25 per person for 5 nights.

---

Day 1

It's my first time flying with Bangkok Airways (not to be confused with Thai Airways). Its economy class comes with a free 20kg luggage check-in and a meal during the flight per passenger. Not deliberately wanting to be extravagant, but the only airlines that operate directly between Singapore and Ko Samui are Bangkok Airways and SilkAir.

My in-flight meal, a freeloader like me always asks for red wine. :D

At the airport, we bought their local AIS 3G SIM card at 100฿ (~$4) each, it comes with data and local calls a week. We took a taxi at 500฿ that fetched us from the airport to our hotel. At the exit of the airport, I find the airport a very humble one, it looks more like a villa.

Samui Beach Residence Hotel, the place we stayed, might be as foreign to their local drivers too, especially with the address that Google can't even pin accurately. But thank God we reached safely and we're staying at the highest level (level 3) and check out the room, it's much more spacious than we thought.

Good night~~

Little Guilin 小桂林 @ Bukit Gombak

Opposite Sunshine Villas
along Bukit Batok East Ave 5

Little Guilin 小桂林 got its name for a reason - for its scenic resemblance of Guilin in China.

Who knows, lying within a modern society in a country like Singapore, hiding behind a stadium in Bukit Gombak, is this picturesque park with a granite rock sitting within a lake.

Despite the slight haze, my housemates Emilia, Alison and Wei Jian were with me, exploring the quintessence of Singapore's nature reserve.

Having witnessed and embraced the lovely landscape, I really felt like 吟詩作對, lol...
Brace yourself, I'm gonna come out with Chinese poetry which most likely have no link with the pictures themselves... XD

桃花影落飛神劍

碧海潮生按玉簫

A quote by 黄蓉, which barely has any link with the picture...

山重水復疑無路

柳暗花明又一村

飛流直下三千尺

疑是銀河落九天

No waterfall also...

路遙知馬力

日久見人心

Oops it's a puppy...

兩岸猿聲啼不住

輕舟已過萬重山

I guess this pair has the closest link, except there's no boat or ape, only flying creature's screech. But I really like this view a lot. In fact, the haze created a very Chinese smoggy scene.

暮雨不來春不去

花滿地　月朦朧


Two little girls taking a break



In this picture, we literally stood facing the HDB clusters behind the camera - the irony...

For more photos, please check out my photo album Little Guilin on Facebook.