One Altitude

One Altitude is the world's highest outdoors bar. Situated on the 62nd floor of the UOB building, the bar is a garden on top of a glittering city. The view up top is truly amazing. With multiple bars, garden decoration, and chairs around the side for patrons to enjoy the view, the lovely One Altitude definitely lives up to its hype. I only had the smallest complaint - the music was ridiculously loud like a club, unlike the relaxing atmosphere the garden ontop should've been. In comparison to Ozone, the world's tallest bar at the Ritz Carlton in Hong Kong, I think One Altitude is superior. The outdoors fresh airs give it a feeling an indoor bar cannot replicate. The whole point of a rooftop bar is being in the open air! Second, Ozone was slightly too tall at the 101st floor of ICC, where you are literally looking so far down on the rest of the Hong Kong that you have a feeling of being in a plane. At One Altitude, you're at the perfect height where you are looking at the rest of the skyline with awe. Singapore does have one of the prettiest skyline with the Marina Bay Sands standing proud for its residents.

Isn't this the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?

One must always remember how small Singapore is. Singapore is literally a swim away from Malaysia and Indonesia. From the top of the Marina Bay Sands, you can see Indonesia. On top of One Altitude, your phone gets Indonesia. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, in the downtown center of Singapore, you are so close to Indonesia that you are literally roaming. To let you know how city center One Altitude is, the building One Altitude is in is on top of Raffles Place, the busiest MRT stop in Singapore. Almost all financial and commercial firms work there. Yet on top, you're already close enough to Indonesia.

ZoukOut 2011

ZoukOut is one of the largest beach parties in Southeast Asia every year. Every year, tens and thousands of people gather on Siliso beach on Sentosa to enjoy the party. People dress up in costumes and bikinis. Thousands of people flying in from around the world to party all night long. This year, I have had the great pleasure to be in Singapore with friends flying for the music festival. Here's a few suggestions for the weekend.

1) Book flight tickets and hotel rooms months in advice. Hotels on Sentosa book out early in advance. The ones that are not booked costs hundreds and thousands of dollars. However, it is so difficult to get a cab back from Siloso Beach after ZoukOut. the phone lines are busy. lines are super long and it takes hours to get through. We were lucky and stole an on-call cab from someone else. (Don't tell Mr. Chris).

2) Don't go crazy partying the night before. The crew arrived at the Ritz at 1AM - we decided it was a great idea to go get bottles and jagger bombs at Attica at 2AM after raiding the mini bar. Then, the crew decided it was a good idea to pick up korean girls and whiskey bottles until 8AM.

3) Don't drink massively before ZoukOut. Started pre-gaming at brunch at 2PM... Let's just say one member didn't make it to the party.

4) Pre-game before ZoukOut - you have to lineup for coupons for drinks before you can buy drinks at Zoukout.

5) There are multiple stages and areas for ZoukOut. Find the main stage and party there. The big shots are all performing there.

6) Find the bar that serves vodka and redbull only - that's the bar without a line.

7) Show up around 2AM - the headline DJs usually performance around 5AM.

8) Don't lose your friend - you'll never find him/her again. Cell phones don't work too properly and there are so many people in the dark. Everyone stumbles around like crazy. We lost one of our friend (who partied til 8AM the night before and started pre-gaming at 2PM). We never found him again. (until he showed up in his hotel room somehow).

9) Have loads of fun. The party is one of the greatest parties in the world. Fireworks synchronized with music. State of the art lighting coordinated perfectly to the music. Great crowd, great music, great fun. I can't wait until next year.

The Singapore Food Experience

Singapore is famous for its hawker centers, these outdoors food stalls that services some of the cheapest and tastiest food you can imagine. For S$3, you can you have full meal. I didn't realize food is that cheap. I went to Lau Pa Sat, an old style, traditional hawker center in the midst of the financial district. Labelled as a heritage site, it's a scene to be scene on weekday lunches. People from all classes and walks gather into this huge hall of outdoor food stalls. The food is cheap but good. So everyone comes no matter what. It's so crowded yet organized. People save their seats with packets of tissue paper that's so common here in Asia. Then, you go to a stall for food. There were hundreds of stalls packed in this place. How do you know which one to go? Easy, the one with the longest queue (or line). My Singaporean coworker told me: "I have no idea what's good here, but if you see a lot of singaporeans lining up, it has to be good." 

See all the skyscrappers behind it? 

$5 Indonesian Set. Can't believe there's somewhere this cheap in the middle of the most expensive area in Singapore.

This is how you save your table - with tissue packets.

Fruit sago for desert!