Tribute: Mr Lee Kuan Yew 1923 - 2015

Tribute: Mr Lee Kuan Yew 1923 - 2015

As you all are aware of, this is world wide news, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, one of the oldest residence of Singapore, the holder of NRIC number S0000003E has finally come to rest. The people of his generation, have already went before him and finally, after battling with the natural wear and tear of the human body, he finally has a chance to be at peace and rest.

I'm no traditional blogger, with no ability to write a proper tribute like them, nor poems, nor songs. But what I can do in my own capacity, is what I have always been doing. To give a final review of what kind of person Lee Kuan Yew has shown himself to be. I'm but a layman, but like every other layman Singaporean, this is what I know about him and what I feel about him from all the sources of information around me and the Singapore around me.

Leadership 5/5
Lee Kuan Yew was a person who worked his way up. He didn't start in a position near political power, but as a ordinary lawyer like many Singaporeans today, but he didn't have interest in money, he didn't have interest in fame, but he had interest in Singapore, and in making Singaporeans different from the rest of the world. We are not the traditional country with plenty of resources to get rich by, we are not even the country with plenty of people to utilize. But he made the most of what he could do, going around the entire Singapore to rally support for decisions and to relay confidence when the country was shaken. Look at the people and yourself and think of the aims for money, fame or property we have today, and you will know why we are not like Lee Kuan Yew. At best we want a good life for our families, but for Lee Kuan Yew, he wanted a good life for everybody and he did it.

He knew he had the influencing power to give confidence and direction to the people, and this was what he knew he had to do personally. He was a born and trained leader not through academic studies, but through discipline and the drive to lead. He was a leader who spent as much time on the ground as he spent in strategy making.

There will never be a leader like him, to do both ground work and thought work simultaneously especially if you look at how Lee Kuan Yew started out in the very beginning stages of his political career without a entire entourage to help him.

Speechcraft 5/5
If you listen to his speeches, you will notice something about this man. He speaks his mind without fear, because he knows that if you follow his direction, it will be the right direction. He speaks for his team, and makes good of his promises and is more then willing to be held accountable for them.

He speaks with fire and with emotion, because he feels that the country is as much his as much as it belongs to the people, and he knows he has the right direction to lead Singapore. And he was right. When he speaks, you can see the determination he has and the enthusiasm to make good of his words and he does this while not constantly referring to a script. For people who do speeches or plan to do speeches, if you believe in what you say, you will realise that you don't need a script, because this is your natural direction already. Lee Kuan Yew knew of the direction he would take Singapore, and was convinced and assured as time proved that he was right.

Also, respect to MR Lee Kuan Yew, who though being english educated, made it a point to learn Mandarin, dialects and Malay for the sole purpose of appealing to the crowd he is talking to. This was the sacrifice and mental energy that he expended to make sure he was perfect in speeches, and all his efforts paid off in the end.

Do we have a leader like that today? Do we still speak what is politically correct in fear of offending others? Do we make effort to learn the language of others just so that we can identify better then them? You know the answer to these questions and suffice to say, he deserves respect in the speechcraft arena.

Dedication 5/5
If you haven't, google Lee Kuan Yew's little red box which described the way he carried out his task on a daily basis. I can safely say that if you spend time surfing the net during your work hours, you are far away from how dedicated Lee Kuan Yew was to carrying out his task as a minister of Singapore. This was a person who eat, sleep and breathed Singapore. A person who dedicated almost everything to Singapore and as he famously said, his life for Singapore. A person, who stayed up late and lost sleep to make sure that his people could sleep longer, with peace and security.

You see a person whose his wife rested earlier then him, yet managed to shift his focus to Singapore and his work to keep himself going instead of breaking down benefiting no one.

He was not in it for the money and honestly, there is hardly any news that said Lee Kuan Yew misused or was extravagant in his spendings. He was truly a person who was in politics for the people, and not for himself, because he was dedicated to Singapore and the people and nothing else.

You see a person, that dared to give promises beyond death that although impossible, are strong words that not many of us dare to even imagine, let alone utter out. This was the extent of the dedication he had for Singapore.

Would our leaders today be like that? It's hard to say because none of them are like Lee Kuan Yew who spent nearly 30 years as PM of Singapore, another 14 years as SM of Singapore and 7 years as a mentor to Singapore. He didn't want to stop as long as he thought he could contribute and regardless of whether or not he did especially in his older days, his spirit and drive for Singapore can't be denied.

Foresight 5/5
Mr Lee was a leader in attitude and spirit which is all good and important, but what he also had was foresight to see what the country needed, and to lead the country in the direction to get it. This is a blessing that not many people in the world would have and share, but Singapore had the fortune to be blessed with foresight through Mr Lee and his direction.

He saw the importance of the English and Chinese language, and thanks to him, we are now able to go compete and gain economically from both powers of the world to the extent where westerners are amazed at our grasp of English and Chinese welcome us as we converse in their familiar language.

He knew what steps he had to take to lead to the economic prosperity of Singapore and this is evidenced in the Singapore you see today that stemmed from the good direction that he set right at the get go. Even more commendable was that he did this without the natural resources that other countries have.

He never forgot the importance of being green, and thus we do not have a grey urban country, but a country that has its pockets of greenery that do bring some calm to the hectic lives we live in today that will be enjoyed by us and the generation to come.

No one today has been proven to have seen as far as Mr Lee has and has created a country that is comfortable to live in whileunder his charge. And let us also remember, Mr Lee did this without the help of computers or simulations which is an even more insurmountable feat and I am doubtful anyone can do this anymore in this modern age.

Personal Touch 4.5/5
When you look at the crowds of people who are visiting him as he lay upon his state rest, you see people from all walks of life, all ages, all races, coming together as one to bid him farewell. You see the elderly, the people who directly benefited from the decisions of Lee Kuan Yew,  making their way to the city (a place that the old won't really find a reason to be in) just to say their final farewells, with tears in their eyes. They can personally testify to how their lives were changed and are grateful because the lives of their children and grand children are better, because of his sacrifice. You hear the stories from the people whom he fought for while as a lawyer, right from the start, before he started his fight for all Singaporeans. He didn't aim for GDP growth for GDP growth sake, but he aimed to give us Singaporeans a good life, a standard of living above that of the world and this resulted in the GDP growth during his time as the Prime Minister. He was a down to earth minister from the get go, and the people of his time all knew this.

When you look at Lee Kuan Yew, you don't see only a minister or a politician, giving speeches and meeting dignitaries, but you see husband and a father, living and bringing up his family the only way he knows how, which is by giving his best. He is not just some person high up, but a human who loves, just like you and me and finally he may rest, together with his wife, ashes to be mixed together, for as long as time permits.

Credits to Ashley

The only thing he lacked out of necessity, was to be gracious to people who may or may not (but in his opinion may) had the motive to harm Singapore all the way to the end which might have been a impossible task when the country he had worked so hard to achieve and build was at stake. But let's face it, Lee Kuan Yew is only human, just like all of us.

You can't hear of dedication on the personal level like him today. To esteem and remember all the moments with his wife, with ZERO issues that plague politicians all over the world today such as scandals and corruption.

Spectacle 5/5
There will never be someone else like him whose achievements are recognized all over the world even by people of stature and authority. There will never be any chance to make a difference as big as him in Singapore, because we have already travelled the entire path from 3rd to 1st world and are already in front of the pack. There is no longer as large a developmental gap left in this world for Singapore to bridge as we grew exponentially faster to catch up with the front. There will never again be someone, who can touch the hearts of the Singaporean people, uniting them regardless of race, language or religion to respect even if they did not agree, with the direction LKY took us.There will never be anyone else, as synonymous to Singapore as Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of modern Singapore.

Overall 

Leadership: 5 (A leader who led by example, coming from the bottom up)
Speechcraft: 5 (A persuasive man who spoke his mind and walked his talk)
Dedication: 5 (A person who gave up everything for his people, including his life)
Foresight: 5 (A person who made Singapore the way it is, respected by the world)
Personal Touch: 4.5 (A person who was a father and husband and taught us how to be a good father and husband too)
Spectacle: 5 (A person who is likely the only one in the world with such an achievement of bringing up a country like Singapore, from 3rd to 1st world.)

Overall: 4.9 (There's no doubt about it. Lee Kuan Yew will be remembered in Singapore as the person who led and gave the direction for the development of the country and more importantly, succeeded. He did this from the bottom up, starting with small feats that garnered him respect, worked with all sorts of people to push his agenda, handled setbacks and made personnel sacrifices, all for the country that he loved and the people of that country Singapore. There will be no one like him but rightly so, because there is no one with his leadership, speechcraft, dedication and foresight, matched with his personal touches that made him so human to the people he served. Singaporeans have much to appreciate and be grateful for and the best way to do this is to serve with the spirit that Lee Kuan Yew has served, to the best of our abilities. Majulah Singapura!)

RIP : LKY

Disclaimer: This post is written with information obtained from the net and research and are accurate to the best of the author's knowledge. There is no intent to offend any party, political or otherwise. The author merely wishes to pen down his tribute, at this significant juncture of Singapore's history, to Lee Kuan Yew in the most appropriate way that he knows how to and has the utmost respect for the accomplishments of Mr Lee

Food: Han Ka Ram Korean Restaurant

Food: Han Ka Ram Korean Restaurant

Occasionally, you will find yourself in a strange place, unfamiliar, hungry, and with no willpower to move on, the need to just find a place that doesn't have a long queue and can keep you alive for a while longer takes over the need to find famous places that you can discover on the internet or on other review sites.

This is one of those places. The original intent was to go to eat at Mad for Garlic at International plaza, but upon seeing the long wait time due to the small size of the shops, we decided to just explore nearby and found this quaint little place.

I would expect that this place is well known to those working in the Tiong Bahru area but to those who are like me who work miles away, here's a review to help you decide whether you should make this trip and would it be worth it!

This place is located in B1 of the AXA tower and is a pretty small place. So what food we have here?

Here is the menu

Has a pretty reasonable variety ranging from the Bibimbap to the noodles to the soups and the rice cooked with meat. Its pretty good with a fair choice of meat.

Their set meal

They even have a set dinner promotion and at $35 nett it is a pretty reasonable spread. We got the Beef Deopbap set and the following are the pictures

The 3 side dishes

There are alot of other more expensive Korean restaurants that sell unlimited servings of side dishes, but here you are entitled to 3 (or is it 6) side dishes. They probably just meant 3 types of side dishes. Overall tasted pretty fine for a side dish, but it is not hard to go wrong with this.

Haemoel Pajeon or seafood pan cake

Here was the appetizer that we got. It was between this and some fried meat with veg. It was a reasonably big portion and tasted pretty good. It's not the best pan cake that I have eaten but it was at least crispy and tasted pretty nice.

Beef Deopbap

WHY IS THERE THAT P  inside!! deo-p-bap!!! so hard to pronounce. But this was easily the best korean meat I have eaten. It was even served in the a hot bowl to keep it nice and hot while we ate. And it was not burnt and stuck to the bowl either. The beef was nicely marinated. Only qualm was that there was so much more beef then rice. There was also an egg inside. Because of the lack of rice though, I personally thought it was not going to be filling.

KalbiTang

This was the beef ribs soup that we ordered with such a cute name! KALBI TANG! see it even sounds like mandarin! Tang!! I always knew i could speak korean. Either way, i counted 4 chucks of meat in total which is ok.... but the plus point was the meat was perfectly soft. Not over cooked, not under. Just nice. And served on the hot bowl again meant that the soup stayed hot. The soup tasted fine also and wasn't like too salty or MSG soup or anything like that

Overall, the taste of the food is up there, add to it the variety because you can choose any other type of soup as well as different types of meat. Like I said earlier, the food overall was just almost filling thanks to the pancakes but there could have been a bit more rice given or meat put into the soup.

Food 4/5

Atmosphere 4/5

It was a really quaint place, small, but it was well spaced out with a TV showing korean singing or korean MTV.  Not really a fan of that because they all look the same to me but its there! There was only one single girl staff doing the waitress but she really really really looked like she was working very very hard. I would even say she managed to do the job of 2 waitresses with the same level of professionalism.

She also showed some extra care when she actually directed us to change our seats to a 4 persons seat even though we were only two people to our confusion. After being confused for a while, we finally found out that because we ordered the set meals, it would be more comfortable to eat given a bigger table space. Its this kind of additional touch that made this place stand out.

Still, for one single staff it is hard for her to keep this up so they would have gotten more points should there be a bit more hands on deck.

Price 3.5/5

37.00 SGD for 2!

My impression when I eat korean food is that it is usually pretty expensive. Usually above 40 dollars. For this place however, we had a full meal complete with appetizer and even drinks at 37 dollars. Its cheap. 

Still being the cheapskate that I am, I would say it was almost at the 4 mark if they had put in a bit more rice into the rice bowl! I felt that more of the fillingness came actually from the pancake as compared to the rice and meat itself which was slightly a waste. 

Accessibility 4/5

Note the opening and closing times

Note that this place is not open on weekends at all!! NOT OPEN ON WEEKENDS! They should though.. if they had a branch else where. However, like many shops in the raffles place/tanjong pagar area... its closed during weekends. Nonetheless when we were there it was about 7 pm and we finished at 8 pm. The place was filled, but there was no queue outside or at best a 1 to 2 group queue. I suppose this place might be crowded during the weekdays itself given its good price and location in the office area.

If going for dinner however, a weekday dinner that is, it is veryveryvery near the Tanjong Pagar MRT exit. Less then 50 meters so it is easy to go if needed and with no visible queue, this is a place to try out. Anyway the number is over there in the name card so just give them a call if you wanna check it out!

Overall

Food: 4 (The taste is definitely there. It tastes authentically korean we were wondering if the chef was korean. Its nice and has good variety for you and your eating group)
Atmosphere: 4 (Good staff, could be more, but space is well utilized and spaced out)
Price: 3.5 (Drinks are included into a NETT price. Definitely cheap for korean food standards)
Accessibility: 4 (Easy to get there and IN there. Only qualm is no where else to go after)

Overall: 3.875 (A worthy high score pushed up because of good food and good service. A place you should consider going if you want a korean food fix. Also won't burn a hole in your pocket so you will feel pretty comfortable and content after.)

This place has no website but I believe the picture of the menu should help you know what to expect. Any readers who are from that Raffles Place/Tanjong Pagar area that eaten there before? Let me know your views!!

Food: Buffet Town

Food: Buffet Town

Was looking for a review to do today and manged to find out that I have slated to review before but didn't have a chance. Thankfully I ate at this place not more then 2 months ago so I can still remember the associated points to review about! So this place is none other then buffet town!

Its a pretty crowded and popular place that has been around for a while under raffles city (NOT AT RAFFLES PLACE MRT). The nearest MRT station for this place is City Hall station and you always see a queue outside of it especially before it begins its buffet sessions which are afternoon lunch and dinner only. It's an international buffet and I have some pictures that I took below that you can refer to!

So all in all how did the whole experience feel for me? Read on to find out!


So these are the pictures of the food we ate

Has soup, rendeng meat, sushi, snippets from every cuisine

 So like any international buffet this place has the obligatory cream of mushroom soup and on the japanese side they have all the sashimi from salmon as well as the tuna flavors

Some potato some fish and carrot cake plus ham

 Really many various types of food here, all these are already pre cooked and you just have to collect them up from the warmers

Of course international buffet has the thin crust pizzas, 3 types here

 3 types of pizzas being the seafood, meat type and the margherita which is like some vegetarian pizza

Cooked chicken

 There was actually also a station whereby they will directly cook some of the food choices provided there, they provided seafood which i believe is squid, then chicken and some veggies, so you can get the guy to freshly cook some meat from you

Adding the asian flavor to the mix

 Has also the satay cooking area right beside the cooked chicken area but for this you had to wait awhile because it was always empty. The moment the satay is done its quickly wiped off by other hungry customers

Some of our own cuisine

 The laksa that they cook relatively fresh for you! obviously the soup is already pre made! Pretty milky taste but overall its not the spicy type

Finally some spaghetti

To top it off there is also spaghetti from the Italian side of the world although pizza should be from there too!

Besides this, there were some other items not pictured here which are cold seafood choices Chilled Prawns, Mussels, Big and Juicy Freshly Shucked Oysters, Scallops, White Clams and Slipper Lobsters which is also advertised on the website. It didn't seem supremely enticing to me but if seafood is your thing this might be what brings u here.

There is also desert and drinks provided from cute little cakes down to crepes and ice cream which is about 4 varieties and fruits all that. Drink choices included soya bean, coffee and tea as well as a lot of ice teas peach green lemon and the rest of the soft drinks

Overall, the taste of the food however to put it bluntly is pretty ordinary. Nothing particularly stood out from its outside counter parts. Satay tastes better outside, laksa better outside etc. Probably not a surprise for a place that tries to cover everything. Sadder part was the foods that were already cooked like the potatos and rendang meats were not particularly hot either which doesn't feel as tasty. 

Probably, the only thing that has going for it is its variety. Its variety is pretty vast with at least 15 choices for even the most picky of eaters such as myself and I think there are about 25 to 30 choices of food out there. Nonetheless, you won't be very impressed with the taste of the food no matter what you eat. Just to clarify again, I didn't eat the seafood so especially if you don't eat seafood like me, your rating would probably be similar.

Food 3/5

Atmosphere 3/5

Sitting place wise the whole area is pretty well spaced but being buffet style there will be people walking past your area especially if you sit in the center section. The other areas are all at the sides which means you will be pretty far away from at least one station of the food.

There is little interaction with the waiting staff and some of the cooks tend to be doing their own things sometimes which means its hard to ask them about what you are supposed to do with the food at this station such as the teppanyaki cooking station whereby they just leave the food there without telling you explicitly that you need to pick the food and pass it to the staff. The staff also don't tell you when the next batch of satay is ready neither is there a visible queue. So these will make it slightly more disorganized then usual.

There is a lot that can be done to improve the customer service and overall feeling but its still passable as it is not unpleasant.

Price 2/5

Prices range from $26.80++ on a weekday lunch to $41.80++ for a weekend dinner. 

This for the quality of food and service atmosphere, is pretty crazy especially for the weekend dinner section. Put simply, there is probably no way the food you eat will feel worth the $41.80 dollars excluding the plus plus. 

Only plus point is that drinks and dessert are all provided in house at no extra charge but worth it? I don't really feel so.

Accessibility 3/5

Perhaps the only obviously positive point of this place is that it is near. However, this place has strange popularity that means that you might need to try to reserve a seat during peak periods or you need to queue up or reach there earlier just to secure your seat.

It didn't fail in this category due to its ease of getting there but there is little ease to getting in. Also they follow the end time strictly which means once you cross the 3 pm mark for lunch and 10 pm mark for dinner, there is nothing left for you as they pack up. So if you don't get in at 1 pm for lunch or at 7 pm for dinner, you probably should just come back another day.

Overall

Food: 3 (Variety is "vast" but food taste is nothing impressive at all)

Atmosphere: 3 (No clear instructions on what to do, confusing, not too attentive staff)

Price: 2 (Extremely overpriced for the standard of food honestly)

Accessibility: 3 (Near MRT, doesn't mean you will get in though)

Overall: 2.75 (A barely passable score. I'll put it bluntly, I have no reason to go back there to eat ever again and even if my friends were to suggest it I probably would tell them that there are other places to eat compared to this place. Nonetheless it is still ok to eat on a weekday lunch if you really have no where else to go. I have absolutely zero reasons to eat a weekend dinner there though. Keep your expectations low if you are going there and maybe just try to convince yourself that you are there for variety)

Been there before and don't agree with the score? Post your comments below!

Here is its website if you want to check it out!

Disclaimer: Since this is a neutral or slightly negative review, I would like to say that all this is just words of opinion based on the dishes we had. Its not a professional review but the first impressions of a layman as per blog objective. So please don't be offended if you are a staff from there!

Attractions: Alive Museum

Attractions: Alive Museum

Hi all, its probably the first time im gonna do a review on a attraction itself, although i actually have a lot of them in storage that needs time to put into writing such as theme parks and zoos or gardens.

Since in Singapore, there recently been a sudden opening of not 1 but two such photo taking attractions called the Trick eye Museum which is in Sentosa, and Alive Museum in Suntec City, it would make sense to do a bit of a review on the one I visited. These museums are the latest in thing that was brought over from Korea which first opened this kind of photo taking museum. The draw of these places are that there are many pictures painted on the floor and walls and you can take pretty artistic real looking pictures. There are some photo spots with other additional props. Heck might as well show you what pictures I took to let you know what I am talking about before I focus on the ratings!

This is the place, or at least the signboard of the place!

This is the place

 Not sure whats the relevance of the dragon little creature!

These are the rates!

 Note that if you pay with certain cards such as for me it was POSB DBS master card, there are discounted prices. Heard you can get the tickets from groupon also. Mine cost me 20 SGD so you can use this as a reference!

So this is the first picture that I took and as you can see, where you stand is important, and also hoping that the shadows from the lights don't screw up your picture. Will give you all a veryveryvery important tip at the end of this review so don't miss it!

So what kind of pictures will you get, here you go! Obviously I did not upload all the pictures, but all the pictures that chose to upload will have a specific reason that I uploaded it. There might be some advices given to help you guys take better pictures there!

Must Cover nudity!! THERE ARE CHILREN HERE!

 First of all, this is not the place for you to bring your kids if you cannot take nudity... even those of the arty farty kind... There is nude bums as well as breasts in this place so don't say i didnt warn you! Of course they are all just pictures but you get what i am saying

Me the king! Muahahah

 There are some more elaborate setups with 3D figures all around to create the scene. But note that when you take the picture try to make sure the edges of the picture are within the scene itself. If you look at the top of the picture you can see the black backdrop that takes away from the immersion

ME and my mama!

 Some pictures are pretty safe like this one here, you have to climb into the belly that pays with perspectives. As long as you take the picture from the prescribed photo points, this picture will look nice. Don't stand at an angle for this picture though. You can also see that this whole picture is within the scene itself. So make sure you zoom in if necessary.

Me and my good bud Michael having a moment

There are some shots that are slightly physically exhausting and you might not be able to hold the pose for a while.. so make sure you are well rested and fit! like me :) with my giant muscles and all that

I'm supposed to be falling somewhere i guess

There are some shots that are pretty hard to take to have the effect shown. Like this one for example, the lighting is very bright which means most likely your faces will be dark. I seen some people just put their feet around and take the photo directly downwards.. Guess that might work...

Hanging over Singapore!!!

There are some pictures that span across the entire room or floor like this one. Only problem is, for this picture, the door is directly behind the pole which means if people keep not cooperating and coming in, you are going to have a nightmare taking the picture.

Me and my trademark 1 finger handstand! Still need
the wall for some support

As you can see, some of the other photos require you to be extremely physically fit... so sorry if you guys can't take the picture like me... but I mean my fruits of training are finally showing... No worries about this picture if you can't take it...

BAD KITTY Why do u catch me instead of delicious mousie

 Some of the exhibits sometimes get angry and might squeeze you a bit too hard. So dun be afraid to scold the naughty little kitty. Also for girls be careful of the cutie mouse over here. Such a darling mousey.. by the way, some pictures will have places to sit on and stuff, so try to make sure you hide them using your body, or the photo angle. Look closely in the picture above and see the box That i was sitting on. It would have disappeared if the photographer was slightly more to the left.

Woops so this is how I did it

Okok the picture 2 pictures above was really taken like this... If you wanted it to look more real however, you can try making your shirt hang down a little bit as if pulled down by gravity... Floor remember... might not be necessarily clean.. So I won't recommend a white shirt or dress for the ladies... Also... SKIRTS!! you may need to lie on the ground so just note this..

NIGHT FEVA NIGHT FEVAAA

There was also this other room that was filled with mirrors and because of that, you may mistakenly take strangers into your pictures like what you can see behind me. Also again here.. SKIRTS! The floor is a mirror in this room and it is lighted so be careful if you are going with "Just friends" and your friend is a guy and you are a girl and you get the idea

DIE ZHANG FEI you are no match for me
I am a true dynasty warrior!

There are some air shots that you need to take so you need to be able to jump high..... Ok fine just kidding. Here is another shot where you need to lie down so make sure you place yourself nicely. For this picture, your legs must definately bend to look like you are jumping. If you keep it straight it will look totally strange..

Finally showing my Olympic talents at table tennis

Ok some learning points in this picture, first, enjoy yourself and exaggerate your pose a bit! only then it looks fine... next you can now see what happens when you dont zoom in enough. You can see the two ugly corners!! So just take note of this when you take your pictures

Besides being immensely strong, I am also
immensely flexible see??

Ok at this point you probably already know that thats not my body, because my body will be a bit more slimmer then that.. but nonetheless, for these pictures try to make sure other parts of your body are not seen such as my shoulder and the blue shirt I was wearing!

AHH The picture is spilling penguins!

Finally, the last thing to take note of when taking pictures, make sure you don't reveal stuff that you are not supposed to reveal.. If you look closely in this picture, you can see that I am actually doing a rather sexy advertisement for Calvin Klein so unless you are as sexy as me, try to double check all this!

I will now do the review and after that summarize all the tips that I got from my visit there!! Being my first attraction review I will also write what are the areas covered!

Fun Factor 3.5/5 (The amount of enjoyment derived by smiles, laughs and happiness)

There is a good amount of sculptures or wall paintings with different styles and methods of taking a good picture. The joy when you get a pretty good picture is pretty good and you will see many people posting the nice pictures online. Overall, it should be enjoyable to most people especially people who are going to this type of museum for the first time.

Family 3/5 (Is this place really suited for family fun inclusive of children)

Kids will be entertained by the pictures, but lets be honest about this, this place is not meant for kids. The pictures are all already painted on and at best you probably only have about 10 pictures that the kids can do something with. Stuff where you will put your heads in will look terribly tiny for kids.

But why not fail on the score department?!?! Because kids don't bother! They like the nice color and they will be happy with whatever pictures you put them in even if they do not turn out nice. So no worries, bring your kids, they will have fun and if that is what makes you happy it will be good enough. Note that you gotta make sure your kids dont go photo bomb other people's picture too

Price Worth 3.5/5 (Cost of ticket versus time spent and fulfillment)

Ok the stated price for an adult is actually 25 dollars, but i paid 20 dollars to go in. 20 dollars easily will give this a 3.5 rating whilst 25 dollars might be a bit too pricy for me and it might just be worth a 3 dollar.

Compared to a movie that will last 2 hours at 13 dollars, this attraction took us about 2 hours to clear and we did it relatively slowly. Of course the results of this attraction can last for a while and I see no reason to return in the next 4 to 5 years its a reasonable price.

Atmosphere 3/5 (Service and overall feel of the attraction)

The atmosphere was ok, the service staff were quick to tell you how long the wait was going to be but of course there are some sad quirks like there is no readmission as well as no toilet within the attraction.

There is too little staff spread across the grounds also and not many were willing to give advise on how some pictures were to be taken. The attraction also feels entirely cramped with some of the photo sets impossible to take. The wolverine claw picture in this place is impossible to take without people behind you or without a person who is thick skinned enough to chase the people away.

Accessibility 3.5/5 (Ease of getting to attraction and getting into attraction)

Being situated in Suntec city means it is extremely easy to get to. There was a short queue however but it was on a Saturaday late afternoon from about 3 to 6 so expect this if you are going at that time.

Spectacle 3.5/5 (How does this place stand out among other similar attractions)

From the results of the picture taken, it seems to be pretty similar to the results from the other attractions such as Trick eye of the one in Korea so a fair score is given here. Even though the pictures were nice however, it was not a fantastic superb experience as there were issues such as lighting and too little backdrop causing u to need to zoom in quite a bit on the cameras. On the other hand, the queue overhere is slightly smaller and it seems like it is a bit more bigger then trick eye museum.

Overall

Fun: 3.5 (It is fun to get a nice pose and also keep the picture as a memory and share it around)
Family: 3 (Kids will enjoy it although not meant for it, there are many pictures for couples too)
Price worth: 3.5 (Reasonably 2 hours spent in this attraction and you probably will only feel the need to go there once in a blue moon like 5 years)
Atmosphere: 3 (Service staff a bit too little, no music or anything to help entertain.)
Accessibility: 3.5 (Central of Singapore, has a queue but not spectacularly long)
Spectacle: 3.5 (Has good picture taking spots with different styles but the overall ease of taking pictures and lighting made it a bit difficult)

Overall: 3.33 (This score is indicative of a place that you should go to at least once in your life, you probably wont need to go back to the same place after that but also make sure you are prepared cause the whole experience probably won't go as well as you planned such as long queues and other inconveniences, its worth the 20 dollars admission but for a even cheaper price, it will help interest people to go back again)


Now for a summary of advice to those who intend to go

1. Check for discounted prices cause there might be discounts even at the counter
2. Try to plan to go on a weekday morning as much as possible as the thinner crowd will allow a better overall experience (more time to take pictures, less need to chase people out of your shot)
3. If you are bringing kids, be prepared that not all exhibits can be fully utilized and control them to not create fuss for others
4. Dress correctly, skirts would require extra care to not allow people to see things they shouldn't and also there will be some lying on the ground 
5. Don't bother bringing tripods, no time for you to set up, be prepared to ask others (even strangers) to help you take pictures cause they won't have enough staff to help you out. Best if you can bribe someone to be your photographer
6. Not all pictures taken from the photo points turn out best
7. Zoom in if needed to make sure you don't take any corners or undesigned walls
8. Remember to go to the toilet first before you enter, there is no toilet (although you could try to convince the guy at the exit to allow reentry)
9. Be creative with the pictures, exaggerate and have fun!
10. Set aside about 2 hours to for the entire experience
11. Bring a professional camera if you want but MOST photos can be done with your normal handphone cam as they already have some lighting
12. Refer to the notes on the walls for ideas on how to pose
13. When taking pictures, make sure shots of your underwear are not seen, unless they are like mine :P

With this advice, I hope you will have a good time at the Alive museum, but one final piece of advice which is the most most most most important!

PLEASE REMOVE THE TIME STAMP FUNCTION ON YOUR CAMERA OR PHONE CAMERA OR ELSE ALL YOUR PICTURES WILL TURN OUT LIKE MINE!

Food: Peperoni Pizzeria

 Food: Peperoni Pizzeria

Went to a place to try out pizza after paying a visit to the Alive Museum down at suntec city! The thing that struck out to me that invited me in was the nice wood furnace that they use to cook the pizza and the fact that the pizza was huge. As in the XL sized one. Nonetheless after looking at the menu we decided to pay this place a visit. Did the food turn out as good as expected? Read on to find out.

Food 3.5/5

You can get a two faced pizza here!

 This place sells quite the usual variety of food and not just pizza, but we got the pizza for the dinner there. There was also spaghetti and the usual italian cuisine. They had probably about 10-12 varieties of pizza and even have the super veggie type of pizza where its just greens all over the top of the veggie.

We however ordered a portion of supreme on one side and the other side was salmon. The names on the menu is a bit more cool sounding. The first is suprema! See its so professional sounding. I can't remember the salmon side name.. probably was salmone or something.. definitely wasn't called salmonella so no worries there!

Anyway as you can see from the picture, the supreme has pretty good amount of content on top of it and it did taste a bit better then the usual you eat at the standard places like pizza hut. The salmon on the other side is a bit less meatier, but i would say still a fair amount of meat. Overall, the taste was good and it was nicely cooked. This pizza we got however was just the large one which is 12". The extra large comes at 50 dollars but its a whopping 21" in size.

The only unfortunate outcome however, was that this pizza was not filling enough. Pretty sad but true. With its thin crust and sharing between two people, it was not filling enough for my bottomless belly. I would say that you probably can have 2 large pizza for 3 eaters and it should be nicely filling.

All in all, it was a pretty good pizza, nothing extremely stunning though but the taste was there as well as the amount of ingredients put in.

Atmosphere 3.5/5

The seats are actually very very well spaced apart although there is the metal type of chairs around that might be a bit cold and uncomfortable to the butt. Didn't sit on that one though but rather we got the sofa type of seat. It is pretty easy to walk around inside the premises as the onslaught of customers are kept outside which makes the experience more comfortable

Water is served for free and the waiters are pretty quick to fill up your cup as long as you get to them, but during my time there, at least I did not have to wave to excessively to get the attention of the waiters.

Price 3.5/5

I know we just ordered little...

For both of us, we had water and a large pizza and it was at a pretty good price of $24. This is cheaper then the skinny pizza and you can see that there is no service charge and GST is already factored in. This is what makes this place cheaper then the rest. But of course it is not entirely filling but for a bit more above this price there are a few pizza places that sell those pizzas with thicker crust that might do a better job of filling you up. The spaghetti and other choices price ranges from about 12 to about 22 so I guess you could probably be filled for about 20 per pax but if you are really not hungry, you can just go for the single large pizza. 

Accessibility 3.5/5

When we left the place at about 7 plus, there was already a queue building up. However when we entered at 5.40 there was almost no queue but the place already had some people inside. This was for a Saturday crowd also. Places like Astons would be super packed at this point of time.

Being at Suntec which is quite a central location, there should be no problems driving or taking the train there so it scores some good points there.


Overall

Food: 3.5 (Tastes pretty good [hard to go wrong with pizza], has good amount of ingredients on top and doesn't taste cheap. Just not that filling only)
Atmosphere: 3.5 (Spacey, they could actually fit quite a bit more tables but risk feeling crowded)
Price: 3.5 (Good price, dumped the GST and Service charge and also don't charge for water)
Accessibility: 3.5 (Has a queue during peak periods but it is pretty accessible by train)

Overall: 3.5 (A pretty fair reflection that indicates this could be a place for you and your friends to meet up if you want a pizza feast and are willing to go a bit earlier to book your seats or wait for a bit. Its relatively cheaper price also allows for revisits and is probably good for students looking for a place to chill and not get charged too much. You could come back and eat again and I won't see its price kicking up too much of a fuss.)

That's it for the review today! Been thinking of trying to up my game by taking videos instead of pictures and to possibly even do this videolog style instead of just blog since I have a Mic and everything like that. Who knows! Thanks for the support nonetheless and look out for my next review on the ALIVE Museum in Singapore

Here is its website if you wanna find out more

Food: Empire State Restaurant

Food: Empire State Restaurant

Good day to all, heres the first of a few food reviews that I have backed logged up to this day. This food review is on this western/italian cuisine type of food called Empire State Restaurant.Ate this at the Woodlands Branch and I am sure there are a few branches over the country that you can check out at the website below. Here is their icon or logo or something.

So is this place worth the visit? Read on to find out!

Food 2.5/5

This place is supposed to be famous for their empire burger which is pictured here

Its a giant burger that obviously will be too much for our Asian appetites but nonetheless at 22++ SGD if you are really hungry you probably can eat it. I didn't order this unfortunately so my food review will be based on what else i managed to eat which is pictured below.

Looks huge eh! Well its not as big as the burger

For me I ordered the next best choice which according the name, should also be one of their signature dishes cause its the EMPIRE HD for Hotdog! not High Def...

Look at it and it really looks very nice and cheesy but look closely you will realise that its only one portion that was with the cheese. The bacon is fine, texture and all but all in all the whole dish wasn't very special. There was no extremely strong taste of the sauce or anything and the fries obviously was just plain. The hotdog itself at best, just felt like another hot dog. Its not like those from that hotdog fast food joint with its RIPPERS and stuff. Nope, its merely just a hotdog.

Cheesy Penne

The other dish that we chose was supposed to be like some very cheesy type of penne thingy. That was what the name of the dish was supposed to be.. like 3 cheese pasta or cheesy pasta or something. Unfortunately at best, I would say that the dish didnt live up to its name. Worse of all, the pasta sauce was actually considered watery. Like someone put in sauce and added a bit too much water to it. Wasn't satisfying and at best it is just barely passable.

Fries with 4 sauces?

This was where it was totally sad for us. We ordered a fries that was suppose to come with various sauces. In the end, there was one mayonaise like sauce, another holder with chopped up tomatoes, another with olives and one more with a grand sum of 2 and a half piece of a pickle. Yep.. How is this supposed to work? ITs not a sauce is it? or is there some method to eat that I dont really know? Its probably that.. but overall, its not tasty at all... it might have been slightly cheesy but I really didnt know how those other 3 holders are sauces. The Mayo i still understand though...

Atmosphere 3/5

Atmosphere was average. It was the type of open seating whereby the seats are inside the shopping centre themselves. That means that this shop doesn't have an entrance per say and shoppers can just walk through the two eating areas as there is a walking path right in the center. Of course it has air-con and all that and I guess its just some style but all in all, there are better ways to do it.

Also given the two distinct areas belonging to the shop, the staff may sometimes be pretty hard to call over. I guess you could still sit there and buy their desserts and sit and talk but there are other choices like The Coffee Bean etc. The staff as a whole, are alright but it is obvious that they are slightly understaffed during the time we were there.

Price 3/5

Here is the receipt and the amount we spent for two people. Oh look... water is chargeable... Not sure why there is a need to charge for water in Singapore.. you can count it under service charge seriously.

Its not expensive per say, but its not really worth it. The fries for $5.90 was quite a bit and we actually didn't manage to finish everything. But overall I would say that quality to food taste, does not really match.

Accessibility 4/5

Perhaps the only good point of this eatery, its totally near the woodlands MRT station and also didn't have too many customers which means you can probably get a seat with no problems. But its most likely because the food is not distinct enough and tasty enough to attract the crowd. Still, it works in their favour...

Overall

Food: 2.5 (Overall,  its just passable. You won't be put off, but you will really expect more)
Atmosphere: 3 (Average atmosphere, you will feel that it can be improved)
Price: 3 (Charging for water? Not entirely cheap either for the quality)
Accessibility: 4 (Good location, easy to get to, probably won't have a queue so you can start your dinner faster)

Overall: 3.125 (Surprisingly the score is above 3. I would say that you could choose this place if you really wanted western food or italian food and you don't want to queue and just want to get dinner over and done with. Yea that would be the best explanation for this place at this point of time. Eat there once and see for yourself and if its ok type of food, then you can come more often. For me though, not entirely impressed and probably won't revisit unless there is a strong impetus.)

Here is its website http://empirestate.com.sg/ in case you want to try it out. Maybe try out some other dishes and tell me if it is better...

Disclaimer: Since this is a neutral or slightly negative review, I would like to say that all this is just words of opinion based on the dishes we had. Its not a professional review but the first impressions of a layman as per blog objective. So please don't be offended if you are a staff from there!