Arlyn’s Birthday in Marina Bay Sands

Arlyn decided to celebrate her birthday with me and Betchie by checking into Marina Bay Sands hotel, Singapore’s most famous hotel of the moment.

So last Friday the thirteenth, Arlyn and I checked in first as we had taken vacation leaves while Betchie followed after office hours. We checked in and got a key to room 2419.

It was a pretty standard hotel room, kind of disappointing, actually, because we had expected something better, and there wasn’t even a bathtub in the bathroom.

But I told Arlyn I guess the higher price is for the facilities in the hotel, like the famed infinity pool on top and the view of Singapore from there.

We stashed our things and headed towards the Marina Bay Sands mall food court for a very late lunch at Gerry’s Grill. We ordered liempo and grilled squid meals and split them between us.

Tummies full, we went back up to our room and changed into our swimsuits, donned our terry cloth bathrobes, and took two sets of lifts to get to 56th floor and found ourselves at the famous infinity pool.

What’s different about this pool from your typical swimming pool is that it looks like it’s overflowing at the edge and you might fall off the building, and also, at 56 stories high, the view is breathtaking from there.

But what we were not prepared for was the crowd. There were so many people and it’s not even supposed to be peak season as far as we know.

We finally found empty recliners where we tossed our robes and things before wading into what turned out to be freezing cold water. The strong winds did not help this situation at all. Still, it was very beautiful, so it was still a worthwhile experience.

We stayed till it got dark and the view became even more beautiful.

We left when we got a text from Betchie saying that she had arrived. We needed to fetch her from the lobby because she could not come up to our floor without a key card. So we did just that and went to our room where we changed for our evening out.

Earlier on, Arlyn and I had walked through the mall and spotted a lovely Italian restaurant called Mozza and decided to have dinner there. It turned out that that restaurant was actually split into two. We wanted to go to the Pizzeria Mozza, the right side of the restaurant, but it was full to capacity but luckily the other half of the restaurant, the one on the left called Osteria Mozza, had three counter seats available, so we went there instead.

We didn’t realize until the next morning that this was actually the world famous chef Mario Batali’s restaurant.

So we pored through the menu and liked one pasta but couldn’t decide on what else to order, so we asked the waitress for recommendations and ended up getting everything that she suggested, including the wine.

This is the second time we’ve had wine with our dinner, the first time being at Betchie’s french cuisine dinner. “Is this becoming a tradition?” I asked, after pointing out this observation. “Or is it just a sign of maturity?” LOL.

Our wine, a glass of Bastianich Friulano – Friuli, was served first. I’m no wine connoisseur so I can’t say if it was good wine but it tasted fine to me, though I still prefer the rose wine over white.

We were then given some bread with small saucers of olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dip them into. Then they served a small platter of appetizers, compliments of the house.

After that they served the antipasti, two dishes of cheese and mussels, then our two main entrees, pasta dishes that the waitress thoughtfully suggested could be divided into three plates for us so that we could taste more than one dish. We had actually intended to do just that, but having them already divide it for us made it so much easier.

After we finished each dish, waiters would swoop in to remove our plates and all our utensils, only to come back with a fresh set. This is what fine dining is about, and it suddenly reminded us of our favorite aligaga waiter from another Italian place, the one who had indignantly protested, “This is not a fast food restaurant!” when we told him that he didn’t need to clear our plates for each new entree.

The food was delicious, as expected. We got full on the antipastis alone. Betchie especially loved the bread that came with the mussels and said she would order it again just for the bread. I wasn’t too fond of the first pasta dish because of the overpowering herb taste, but I loved the second one because I’m a huge fan of liver.

We left the restaurant and headed back up to our room where Betchie saw an opportunity for a stylish photo op.

While we were standing there taking pictures, a couple of hotel guests passed by and one of them, a Korean girl, actually doubled back to volunteer to take our picture.

After she did that, she then asked to have her picture taken with us because we “looked so cool.” Is this what celebrity feels like?

When midnight struck, we brought out Arlyn’s birthday cake and presents. We had forgotten to bring a lighter so we couldn’t light the candle.

We shared a slice of choco-banana cake and Betchie tried to fit the rest into the fridge but it wouldn’t fit. Halfway through her rearranging the items in the fridge, I suddenly remembered that some high end hotels have a technology where the fridge has sensors so that you automatically get billed for items removed.

So I rushed to Betchie’s side and checked the fridge and sure enough, there was a sign indicating this. So we called front desk and told them about our stupidity and they said we had already been billed indeed but not to worry, they would send somebody up to check out the fridge and ascertain that nothing had been consumed so that the billings could be reversed. They did so the next morning in fact. Whew.

After that highly panicky moment, we brought out tequila and had five shots each.

We left our room in a highly buzzed state (or at least, I was) and rode two sets of lifts to get to the 56th floor again but not for the pool this time but the hotel’s indoor club, Ku De Ta.

When we got to the door, they just waved us in without asking us to cough up entrance fees. How awesome is that? It was my first time to this club and it offers a mesmerizing view of Singapore at night. It’s so small, though.

The music was also a refreshing change from the typical house music that you hear in most clubs these days. We hit it up the dance floor for about a couple of hours then left.

We were so exhausted that we slipped into bed without changing or washing our makeup off. Tsk tsk, not a good thing to do when you’re no longer young!

The next day, Betchie woke us up. We changed into our bikinis and headed for the the pool again. It was still as populated as the day before and what’s more, the water was still as cold. @__@

Nonetheless, we braved it and took a 5-minute dip before leaving so we could prepare for the ridiculously early 11am checkout time.

After checking out, we headed towards the food court but didn’t eat there, instead opting for the nearby burger joint that Betchie has wanted to try since before – Kraze Burger.

We ordered three original recipe burgers and a plate of chili fries. I also had a cup of mocha. It looked pretty but when I took a sip, I complained that it was too sweet to which Arlyn replied, “that’s because it was made with love.” LOL.

And that was the end of a very special birthday celebration for a very special girl. The next one’s mine. Pressure pressure!