After my Cebu stint, the trip back involved an overnight stopover at Singapore. There were aspects of this place that I absolutely loved before so I made them my first priority!

Another season, anther fixture! Last time it was the giant rooster, this time, a giant boat! It turns out it’s mid autumn festival or whatever the mooncakey festival thing is, which is pretty cool! Not only was the main street lit up with bright fixtures, but there was also heaps of incense being burned on all the streets.

First stop, claypot frog porridge! I loved this place last time and I didn’t even know frog porridge was its specialty! This time I ordered the actual item, instead of the ginger claypot frog and adding porridge to it. The porridge tasted so good, but I felt the frog may have been a bit overcooked compared to last time. Still delicious and a great treat, but I think I prefer the ginger claypot with porridge separate – the sauce of the standalone frog seeps into the meat better. And I’d love to eat the chicken feet from here again!

I’d also deliberately undereaten because I decided that I’d take my chances at Burnt Ends too. The porridge was enough that I could continue eating, but also if I didn’t manage to get a table, I’d be satisfied and not hungry again till morning. So after a short trek through Chinatown, I came upon a closed Burnt Ends. Oh, they’re not open Sundays… which meant no extra feed, but my wallet thanked me!!

Instead I snacked on this croissant taiyaki since last time I had the mochi version. Not bad, especially as this was freshly made!

A quick scout of Chinatown also meant to opportunity to say hello to these adorable foxes!

Alright, hotel time! As this was an overnight stay and I’m not allowed to splurge, I decided to test out a capsule hotel! I chose one that wasn’t quite budget and seemed rather nice and had decent ventilation according to reviews. I ended up at Cube, which had some cool and hip interior design. Just don’t expect much in the way of their continental breakfast; the hawker fare 2 minutes away is so much more worth it.

How cute! It came with a towel and water bottle, a main light and a reading light, three pull out compartments, of which the largest doubled as a table and had a mirror installed, as well as a towel rack at the end of the bed.

There was a secure set of doors located below this capsule to store luggage.

I actually found this quite roomy! There were also charging ports and a powerpoint tucked away, which was really convenient. I think I like small spaces like this, I wish my bedroom was this size!

And how the capsule room looked. Here you were supposed to place your shoes in the lockers just outside this room, but I guess most people ignored that. You can see the massive air conditioner that did really well to keep the temperature regulated, but also, the capsules had pull-down blinds. This meant there was a draft into my capsule though, and moving cold air prevents me from sleeping well. I managed okay, and it was better than being stuck in a place with no air movement at all.

The bathroom was located across the lobby though, I found that setup a bit odd since you’d have to walk in your pyjamas through a public area. There were more bathrooms on the other floor, but I didn’t venture or explore the full setup.

Also, I didn’t anticipate that because these were just capsules sharing a room, with the only privacy being a blind, that there’s no way to tell the time and you can hear everything. So…. how does one set an alarm if they need to be up at a specific time? No idea. But if I was ever on the clock, I wouldn’t choose a capsule hotel. My flight wasn’t till midday so I let my body clock do its magic. However… that didn’t stop me waking up to the sound of someone else’s alarm at 2am!

Morning came around, and luckily, having had the same morning schedule 7 days a week meant that I got up at around 7AM – 8AM. Perfect time as most hawker shops should start opening soon! And here are more foxes!

I circled the stalls at Chinatown Complex, wanting the 1950s cafe I went to last time. I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t find it, until after my third lap I realised it was closed. Maybe it’s closed on Mondays? That meant I had to find some other food to eat. I also did a round of Maxwell Centre, and in the end went back to Chinatown Complex and tried out the vegetarian shop.

Time to do the point and choose thing! I ended up with noodles, tofu, soy “chicken” thing? And hopefully that white stuff was radish cake. I said no to extra soy sauce, and I think the lady thought I was weird for saying so! However it had enough saltiness as is, and was actually rather enjoyable! Man, the food here is so simple, so cheap and so good!

My final mission was also supposed to be impossible. When I had heard Kurasu Singapore opened, I thought I wouldn’t have the chance to try it since I hadn’t planned a Singapore visit. But hey, when opportunity presents itself… I had to get this cafe when it opened at 9AM, try all the coffees I needed to, and then get to the airport as fast as possible to check in for a 12PM flight. Okay well, it was made slightly easier because I already had my boarding pass and my luggage was automatically being transferred cross planes.

This is such a nice space! It wasn’t too difficult to find Odeon Towers, but my GPS wasn’t playing nice this visit so it did take some fiddling and old school map orientation efforts to get to all my places this visit. In addition, Kurasu is located on level 2 of an open office, rather than an actual shopfront.

Like all Japanese cafes, Kurasu has a lovely and clean aesthetic. Lots of Kalitas and nice glassware! Single O’s Reservoir blend was great as an espresso, and the filter by Mount Coffee was quite nice too! Would have loved to spend twice the time here to really take everything in!

But alas, it was airport time, where I actually had another goal. Last time I visited I had some great beef tendon noodles with a really good flavoured sauce, but I couldn’t find it again. Maybe it was a different terminal? So I settled for this other cantonese place and ordered similar, but this didn’t quite taste as amazing, but was good feed before my flight.

Man, Singpore is so cool! I really should come back and explore things like the art gallery and surrounds. Maybe even pay more attention to Suntec City and Raffles. Plus maybe even actually save up to enjoy Burnt Ends!!

But different adventures are lined up for me in the upcoming year, hopefully!