on the Go with Bo!

Happy Holidays!

Going to keep it short and simple.  It's been an absolute blast writing my blog this year on the many places that we've been to.  And even better, it's been great to have had so many readers find the information useful.  To many more adventures in 2009.  HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

ZoukOut ... partying under the stars

I promised myself this year that I have to do one big party ... and big it was.  ZoukOut ... 26,000 people dancing on the sand at Siloso Beach on Sentosa Island.

ZoukOut is the largest regional party, which is attended by many local kids but also a lot of foreigners.  It is huge!  And as you would expect in Singapore, it's very well organized.  There were several dance floors and many DJ's playing their sets throughout the night.  There were laser shows, confetti blowers and even fireworks.  At several points during the night you looked up into the sky and saw these flying objects with lots of colourful lights on them ... I think they were remote-controlled kites.  Best of all it wasn't too hot, and there was a full moon in the sky.  It was wild!

The way Saturday started for me was that we first did a Xmas cruise with a group of friends.  We rented a yacht from the Marina at Keppel Bay (thanks to an AMEX promotion) and went out for 4 hours in the waters surrounding Singapore.  It was fun to see Sentosa Island and Singapore downtown from the water.  What I wasn't aware off is that just to the east of Sentosa Island, there are a group of islands called the Sister's Island, St. John's Island and Pulau Seringat.  The latter one has a really beautiful bay with a sandy beach, where several boats were anchored along with us ... having BBQs, swimming, relaxing ... as were we.  It was surprising to see this sandy tropical beach, for right above the palm line you could see the top of the Singapore skyline.

We arrived back to the marina at 7pm after which I headed to the Sentosa Spa & Resort, where my friends had booked a room.  And this was a smart idea!  Instead of trying to get back home along with 26,000 people, you walk to your hotel, spend the night there ... and then leave for home in the morning with absolutely no hassle.  You can tell they've learned this from experience!

Another thing that you need to be forewarned has to do with your footwear.  The debate is between flip-flops and runners.  It's a beach, so flip-flops make sense.  However, dancing in them, or barefoot, for 8 hours would do me in.  So I chose to wear some old runners, even though most people there were barefoot.  I was concerned that I would get sand into my runners and thus blisters ... but it didn't happen.  There was some sand in them by the end of the night, but nothing that was too bothersome.  If I'm to do this again ... I would definitely wear runners!

Fast forward ... when we finally started walking back to the hotel a little past 5am, backs all sore, legs tired ... I went to pick up my backpack and then decided to head home.  I could have slept on the couch in the suite of my friends ... but at that point all my body wanted to see is my bed.  And as I was waiting for my cab, I decided to clean my runners and get the sand out of them.  As I'm standing barefoot and shaking my runners, I finally put them on the floor by my side, all clean ... eagerly awaiting my cab.  When I saw the familiar blue Toyota cab ... I jumped up from joy, dashed into it and rode home.  Yeah ... my bed was awating!

The only downfall to the evening ... I left my runners on the steps in front of the Sentosa Spa & Resort!

The Basilico Buffet

Not surprising for Singapore, in the building where I live, there is always some construction going on.  And by this I don't mean construction of new neighbouring towers (although we have that too!), but renovations of the apartments below, above, to the left, diagonally to us.  I'm sure you know what I mean.  And construction equals noise!

But given that the owner of the building is very nice to us, we always get a coupon for a restaurant as compensation for putting up with the continuos pounding.  I've had many such coupons that had expired, but this time around I promised myself I'm going to go out and use it.

And that's how I got to Basilico Restaurant at The Regent Hotel, just off of Orchard Road.  And what a brilliant surprise that was.

I had heard of the restaurant previously, for it had just opened a few months ago.  The lunch buffet was tremendous.  So much choice, so tasteful ... and the staff were very attentive.  It's definitely not a cheap lunch, but if you want a swanky locale with delish dishes, this is the place.

I'm definitely coming back.  Actually ... I already booked for a dinner in 10 days.  What they don't know is that I have yet another coupon.  This time a prize I won ... 13th place draw in the Run for Hope 2008.