Singapore - Round Three!

I had to go to Singapore again two weeks ago. Some of you have been itching with curiosity on why I’ve been making these unexplainable trips to Singapore. I guess I can tell you now considering the first ad has been released so it’s not a secret anymore.

I’m one of the 9 women in Asia chosen to be part of the new SK-II campaign. The first trip to Singapore was for the photoshoot for print. This second trip was to shoot the TVC.

I hate not planning. I’m a planner. I like to plan everything. For some strange reason though, I didn’t plan anything for this trip. I didn’t sleep at all that night. Was trying to finish up some work then had to pack my bags. I didn’t make any plans on how I was going to the airport and at the last minute realised I didn’t print my e-ticket.

Thank God for Becky. She picked me up, printed my e-ticket, and took me to KL Sentral. I was flying Malaysian Airlines there. If you’re flying MAS, you can check-in at KL Sentral. Brilliant, I thought. So I stood in line. And waited. And waited. And waited. Two counters open. I waited for about 20 minutes. It WASN’T a long queue. They just work at a VERY slow pace. When I was two spots away from the front of the line, an announcement was made.

If you’re checking in, you’ve got to have your KLIA Express ticket.

YOU’RE JOKING.

Bloody fuming, I lugged my bags and went to buy the bloody ticket. Had to stand in line AGAIN! Finally my turn came and guess what? THEY DIDN’T ASK FOR MY KLIA-EFFIN-EXPRESS TICKET! You know what was worse? The idiot looked at his watch and said, “Oh, you cannot check in your bag anymore. 10 minutes late”. I wanted to screammmmmmmmmm! He said I could check-in my bag at KLIA though. Fine… So I let it go.

Grabbed a quick breakfast with Becky at The Chicken Rice Shop. Either something was in the air or all the people who seem to work at KL Sentral have no sense of urgency whatsoever. Didn’t help that the food wasn’t at all very good.

Took the train to KLIA, went to the MAS counter, and guess what?

“Sorry. Closed already. Cannot check in your bag”.

Fools! All of them! Fools!

You’re probably thinking, what’s the big deal? No biggie. The problem is, I wasn’t using one of those roller bags that I could just roll along effortlessly. I was using one of those big one shoulder duffel bags. And I had my laptop bag on the other shoulder. And I had my handbag. So yeah, I wasn’t a happy camper.

My streak of bad luck didn’t end there. I was sat next to two children from a big Indian family. They couldn’t get seats together so all of them were split up. Mine was an aisle seat and the annoying kids kept going in and out and in and out and in and out. After awhile. They didn’t even bother saying excuse me. They just climbed over me to get out.

I tried to close my eyes for the rest of the flight to block everything out. But the stewardesses kept bumping into me! On top of that, they weren’t exactly the most polite cabin crew around which was quite a surprise to me. I guess it’s true that the 'Best Cabin Crew' are only on long haul flights.

Got to Singapore to find a massive queue at Immigration. No sleep, and stuck in stupid queues all morning. Oh... I wasn’t happy.

Limousine was waiting outside for me. Thought my nightmare of a morning was over. Oh no… the limo driver decided to get into a verbal argument with another driver! Joy of joys…

Finally, I got to my hotel. The New Majestic Hotel. Perfect service! On my way there, they called the cabby to find out where I was. When I arrived, there was someone to open the door who already knew my name. Bags taken in for me, and I was led to the reception counter. Again, all the staff knew my name. All the papers were ready for me to sign and a parcel with instructions on everything I needed to do for the next few days was given to me (from Tequila\, the ad agency handling the SK-II shoot). A nice boy, Gordon I believe his name was, took me on a tour around the hotel and then to my room where he explained everything. Asked me if I needed anything, I said yes, an iron and ironing board. In 5 minutes, he personally delivered it to my room.

I love good service.

The New Majestic Hotel is a boutique hotel located in Chinatown on Bukit Pasoh Road which apparently use to house the mistresses of wealthy businessmen back in the day.

The lobby has an eclectic mix of chairs (apparently from the owner’s personal collection) including an old fashioned dentist chair. The ceiling is stripped bare to expose the original 1928 structure which is vastly contrasted by the colourful hanging blown glass baubles.

I was so excited to see which room I got. My first reaction to my room:

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkkkk!! Aliens! I’ve got aliens and spaceships on my wall!

But to Gordon, I said, “Oh, how interesting”.

Tell me, tell me your first impression is not scary alien looking creatures…

I tried very hard to figure it out. Worse of all, there was a stupid cat on my wall!! That freaky gold cat that waves it’s hand!

I immediately went online to tell everyone that I had aliens in my room.

I'm drama that way...

Only later when I went out of my room did I discover a little sign by my door:

Ohhhhhhhhh! Then I got it!

See? See? Get it?

Hey Diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon,
The little dog laughed,
To see such sport,
While the dish ran away with the spoon.

The dish and the spoon.

The stupid cat!

I couldn’t see the dog laughing so I went in search for it. It was hiding behind my pillow.

A day later, Rachel asked me where the fiddle was. It was bugging me that I didn’t know where the damn fiddle was! So that night, I went in search for the fiddle! Found it hiding behind the chair. Hah!

Anyway, other than the bizarre painting, everything else was pretty awesome. (except the cat. I couldn’t make peace with the cat).

I was curious to see the other rooms. This other room was on the next block (no I wasn't peeking at my neighbors!):



Can you see it? I think I prefer my nursery rhyme with an Asian twist as compared to having a huge painting of someone with Mickey Mouse looking ears staring at me.

My room over looked the pool.

See these holes in the pool? Right below is the restaurant. So diners at the restaurant can look up and see people swimming!

An hour after I checked in, there was a knock on my door. It was Gordon and another staff to give me a welcome donut and card.

Gobbled down my donut then had to rush for my wardrobe fitting and briefing at the Shooting Gallery.

Just before leaving the hotel, I was moving my bag out of the way when I broke my nail! Now, I know that might sound like such a bimbo thing to whine about, but you must realise that I was there for a shoot and a broken nail WAS a big deal!

At the wardrobe fitting, they asked to see my hands. With a sheepish look on my face, I told them I JUST broke my nail and showed it to them. My broken nail was met with simultaneous gasps.

Arrangements were made immediately to get the nail fixed.

Had the rest of the evening free but I was really tired since I didn’t sleep the night before. Went back and had a nap till Rachel finished work then she met me at the hotel.

Check out the cool chair!

Took a walk to the main Chinatown area. Randomly in the middle of no where, was a lady singing some Chinese songs karaoke style, and this man was dancing solo! On the streets of Chinatown! I was so amused.

Chinatown

Had dinner on Food Street which is amazingly clean for street hawkers (I’m comparing it to Jalan Alor which I would say would be the closest comparison)

(Then again, anything is cleaner than Jalan Alor).

Along this street was what used to be Chinese Opera Houses.

We did a lot of walking that night. Passed Sago Lane which is also called Street of Death. All the shops that lined the street used to be ‘death houses’. The ground floor would typically be a funeral parlour while the upstairs was a living space for the dying to spend their last days. How creepy is that? It was so morbid and I was freaked out (didn’t help that eerie music was being played by nearby shops as if on cue).

I don’t get it though. The Chinese are the most superstitious people ever. Why then would they want their business (now restaurants, souvenir shops, etc) to be in a place where people used to go to DIE?

Anyway, moving on. We passed the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple which was massive.

Walked up Ang Siang Road which is lined with funky boutiques and unique designer shops. Shame that it was so late cause I would have loved to check out some of the shops. Checked out Club Street but couldn’t decide on where to go so we headed back to the hotel cause apparently the Majestic Bar was pretty good.

Funky lights

Strawberry & Kiwi, and Raspberry Caipirinhas.

Woke up bright and early the next day for breakfast. Had to fuel my stomach for a day of shop, shop, shopping! Met Valerie for a few hours and she tagged along while I shopped on Orchard Road. Val went back to work then I went to meet the make-up artist who took me to the manicurist to get my nail fixed. Initially I was supposed to get an acrylic nail but because my whole nail had broken, they needed to attach a fake nail instead.

As I’ve been blessed with quite nice fingernails, I’ve never had to get a fake or acrylic nail. My impression of a fake nail was still stuck in the 80’s. Remember those really fake long plastic scary looking nails that were attached to your existing nail with some adhesive? Yeah, I still thought fake nails were like that.

But she started doing all sorts of strange things to my nail and voila! I had nail again!

I asked her, “So… will it just fall out or what?”

She laughed.

Apparently this was now MY nail. It will just grow out like the rest of my nails so I can cut it or file it or whatever. Though she advised me to get it professionally removed after a month.

Can you guess which is the fake?

After getting my nail done, I continued shopping for another few hours. The Great Singapore Sale sucked! Maybe because it was my third time in Singapore this year but still, I didn’t see very much at all. Bought a few presents including a pair of super cute baby Converse for Rayn!

My feet were killing me from all the walking I did. But yet I decided to be adventurous and take the MRT instead of just hopping into a taxi! I was so impressed by myself. I had to change to a different train line and figured it all out by myself *pat on back*. Credit due to my Singapore-teacher Rachel of course. I am but a mere student.

Was really hungry so I ordered some food. This is possibly my only complaint about the hotel. The restaurant staff seemed confused when I wanted to order room service. But that was made up when the food arrived (quite fast too) and was scrumptious.

I was a bit skeptical about the salad which had fruits like strawberries and grapes but was drizzled in some sort of salty Chinese dressing. After the initial shock to my taste buds, it was pretty good.

Rachel came over then we went to Chinatown to grab some dinner for her (chicken rice for only SGD2!).

We went to some bar on Club Street to join some of the people from the agency for drinks.

Me, Rachel, Alexi - French dude, Eunice - the Wonder Woman, and Joanne.

I wasn’t supposed to be out (let alone drinking!) as I should have been locked up in the room, getting some beauty sleep – literally. Had a few drinks then I was sent back to the hotel like Cinderella before midnight. They were terrified I wouldn’t be able to wake up for the shoot the next morning.

But I did wake up… at 6am! I had to set 5 alarms just in case. Two mobile phones, two separate times on the radio alarm, and a wake up call by the hotel. There was no way I could have slept through that entire ruckus.

The first shoot was at The Arts House and involved some super cute children so that was really fun. Especially one of the girls. She had major ‘teacher crush’ on me. It was so cute.

They gave me a few hours break. What does a girl do when she has a break?

Go back to rest?

Of course not.

I went shopping! Again!

This time, I went to Raffles City. Had no idea where I was going. I just know I walked… A LOT. Took some underpass that led me to Suntec Mall. Walked another whole lot then stopped to get some lunch at Food Republic. I walked about 4 rounds trying to decide what to eat. But I just couldn’t get chicken rice out of my head! I blame it on Rachel for eating chicken rice the day before and therefore planting the thought in my head. So I had chicken rice which if I may add grudgingly, was more than triple the price of what Rachel paid (and I bet tasted way better!).

Took the MRT back to the hotel (I’m a pro now), got some rest, then off for round two of shooting. Second shoot was at the Shooting Gallery which is an awesome office/gallery/production house/whatchamacallit. I loved it!

It was such a long night. About 20 over people running after me. Shooting me. Watching me. Only me. All me. Rather stressful really. And I wasn’t able to capture exactly what the director wanted. Especially one line for the VO. I think I repeated that one sentence over a hundred times. I just couldn’t get it right. Let’s just hope they can work some magic in post-production.

We shot non-stop till about 1am. I was exhausted. And rather deflated as I knew I could have done better.

With the renowned Director - Sebastian Tan

My phone had a ridiculous number of missed calls and text messages. Many of them from Rachel who had been waiting with Kevin for me for hours!

Dragged Joanne along and met them at Zouk. It was Mambo Jambo but I couldn’t be arsed to go in. I was way too tired. We had a couple of drinks at the Wine Bar then called it a night.

I was ready to pass out when I got back to the hotel. The agency was really sweet. They wanted to arrange for a massage but the only ones available at that hour were from Chinatown and might have been the ‘happy ending’ type so they decided against it. Instead, they arranged for a foot bath to be sent to my room and a pot of Camomile tea with some biscuits. The hotel was really accommodating. They didn’t have the facilities at that hour but they made it happen to the best of their ability.

I was flying Singapore Airlines back so the agency checked-in online for me which meant I didn’t have to go to the airport so early. Woke up to find my hair looking as if I had been electrocuted! I was too exhausted to wash out the hairspray from the night before so it had done all sorts of funky to my hair in the morning.

Grabbed a quick breakfast before checking out then headed to the airport to fly back to KL.

The SK-II ads will be out in August. Look out for it!

Song of the day: Till We Ain’t Strangers Anymore (Bon Jovi ft. LeAnn Rimes)