ABC guide: where to go on dates in Singapore?

"Where do you guys go to in Singapore? Singapore's so boring!" is probably the most common dating woe I've heard. Often, I too wonder what there is to do on this seemingly mundane island, but upon research and also with much recollection, there really is a lot of unexplored gems in Singapore. R and I have been dating for close to 6 years now, and maybe because of the time constraint of him having to go back to London so often, we now prefer spending more quality time with each other just chilling around with dramas, cooking at home or baking. But this gave me a chance to go down memory lane and recall some of the dating ideas we had.....arranged in alphabetical order for a nice challenge. Note that this is limited to Singapore, but can be applicable elsewhere. Some of these pictures also date back to circa 2008 and a few of them are taken overseas. So here we go, an A-Z dating guide in Singapore which includes quirky dating venues:

Art gallery

Art galleries sound a bit tacky to be placed on this list, but it's surprisingly fun to share different interpretations of art work (whether intellectual or not). We stumbled upon the Musuem of Contemporary Art (MoCA) at Demsey hill whilst exploring the Farmer's market at Loewen gardens, lovin' the white washed space. It's a private gallery that is housed in a colonial building, which contrasts against the modern works. Worth checking out if you're into contemporary art as it's the only place that shows entirely contemporary art. The exhibition area is not very big though, and you can see photographic evidence of R teaching me how to play around with aperture settings on the camera. Speaking of art exhibitions, we also went for the Singapore art Biennial - some exhibits were pretty quirky so it's worth checking them out!

Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA)
27A Loewen Road 
Singapore 248839

Beach bar

R and I like to go to the beach once in a while to unwind and soak up the summer goodness. Nothing says summer better than an abundance of sunshine, cool sea breeze and a couple of beers with your man. And of course, not forgetting our all-time favourite card game from our Greece vacation days....2-player gin (check it out here). We usually go to beach bars at Sentosa, such as Tanjong beach club where they have comfy sun beds and deck chairs if you order food. Its's surprisingly empty on weekday mornings, so you can have breakfast while enjoying the therapeutic peace.We usually spend the day munching on calamari or hot wings, playing card games and lazing around with our favourite books. If you're afraid of the sun (like yours truly), you can get deck chairs in the shade and with a cold cocktail in hand, you're armed against the tropical heat.

Azzura beach club
46 Siloso Beach Walk
Singapore 099005

Coastes
50 Siloso Beach Walk
Singapore 099000

Tanjong beach club
120 Tanjong Beach Walk, Sentosa Island
Singapore 098942

Cafe hopping 

This is a pasttime we enjoy both in Singapore and when were in London, so we're always on the hunt for great cafes - especially the ones with fresh pastry, comfy couches for book reading and of course comfortable with our wallets. I love it when R gets the car for the day and we get to explore hidden gems that may be very inaccessible without private transport ♥ We love Rider's cafe (we've been going there since his pre-army days) because of its ambience and we get to walk around the stables or wander away from the beaten path (we got lost once trailing red ants) Oh, good times! We also like cafes like The Book cafe @ Martin road because of its couches and its endless supply of National geographic magazines (at least for me). And being tugged away from the crowd near Robertson quay meant that we don't feel the pressure to finish up quickly. In recent (or not so recent) news, R swung by to pick me up after school to try Carpenter and Cook as I heard a lot of good reviews about it. Felt in love with the Passionfruit meringue tart, and we tried baking it before he left for London :')

Carpenter and Cook 
19 Lorong Kilat, #01-06
Singapore 598120

Wild Honey 
333A Orchard Rd
Singapore 238897

Duxton sunset

The Duxton hill area is a quaint spot for camera enthusiasts, for there are murals, old shophouses and back-end alleys to walk into and poke your heads into. Start the ball rolling by meeting at Tanjong pagar train station and making the beeline for Once upon a Milkshake for ice cream. Red dot museum and Maxwell food centre is also nearby. On the way to Pinnacle@Duxton there were a few thrift stores too (regrettably, we didn't stop by) so they might be worth checking out. The main highlight about the trip was to explore the seemingly unheard Pinnacle skypark and to try to catch the sunset. It's a pretty interesting concept, as it is a residential building with public access to it's 50th floor skypark, check it out here. You need to pay $5 for entry, and there's a quota of 200 visitors every day. The only gripe is that there are no sanitation facilities available at the top. But it's definitely worth going, and you get to see Singapore from a bird's eye view. On a good day, you can probably see further out than we did. There are deck chairs lying around for use too, so you can just lie back and enjoy the scenic view. We stayed for the sunset and the night view, which was a lot more beautiful than the day view in my opinion - Singapore's illuminated cityscape is such a delight!

Pinnacle @ Duxton
1 Cantonment Rd, Pinnacle@Duxton 50/L
Singapore 080001

Once Upon A Milk Shake
32 Maxwell Rd
Singapore 069115

Exploring childhood places

As photography and film enthusiasts (but not necessary very good at it myself), we frequently go on photo trigger happy trips. Lamenting on how my childhood home was going to be torn down within the year, R and I decided to revisit my childhood estate one last time - I did a post on this here. Fond memories of the animal playground flooded back, especially when I was a kid and we used to grab ice popsicles and run around these structures like nobody's business. Swung by to the other blocks and brought R to see my kindergarten playground which has been conquered by weeds and creeping plants. The Pelican structure was also very nostalgic, as R and I frequently climbed up while walking me back from school, just to lay on top and staring at the canopy of trees above and talking about our day ♥

Well, eventually the government decided to abolish the demolishment, and instead restored the estate as rental flats. But....we enjoyed exploring a place where I'll always remember fondly as Home.

Farmer's market

Held every first and third Saturdays of the month, the farmer's market at Loewen gardens (check out their website here) is a perfect place to gallivant on a lovely brunch weekend :) The main idea behind the market is to capture a piece of home from everywhere - be it the pleasure of chatting around about food or being passionate about homemade produce. There are many stalls set up (much like European markets) selling an array of produce such as dips, homemade jams (yum), pastries and veggies. It has a really quaint vibe to it so I really like it! Especially with so much gourmet food around (albeit steep prices), and the kids playing with the swings and trampoline. After brunch, you can wander about the dempsey cluster and we found old abandoned buildings at the back door - intriguing indeed, we're always up for an adventure! If you wanna retreat back indoors because of the scorching afternoon heat, you can always pop by The Pantry School for tea. I've previously posted a mess of pictures here if you're keen :)

Farmers' market @ Loewen gardens / The Pantry School

75 loewen gardens
Singapore 248844

Gardens by the bay

This was a relatively new venture on our part and the most recent one on the list. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at the gardens! Just before R left for London once again, we headed to Gardens by the bay after hearing so much about it :) We headed to the indoor cool-dry and cool-moist conservatories which were equally gorgeous, couldn't believe that we didn't head there earlier. The tulip exhibition was over though, which was quite a bummer. But the flowers in both domes were truly well maintained and so beautiful ♥ The cool-dry conservatory housed flowers and plants unique to different regions such as Africa and Australia. The cool-moist conservatory was tons more intriguing because of the interior design (brownie points for the creative use of space) and the in-house waterfall which was overwhelmingly placed at the entrance when you step in (caution: You might get a tiny bit wet because of the force of the waterfall and the water droplets in the air caused by mist vents). The temperature of both domes are maintained at low degrees so do bring a jacket! We spent about 3 hours in both domes, taking our time strolling in each section and being trigger happy. When we made it to the outdoor gardens, the sun had already set so it was a perfect timing to just lay back on our backs on the warm concrete slab and watch the Supertrees dance in the night scape.

Gardens by the bay

18 Marina Gardens Drive
Singapore 018953

Haji lane

A relatively undiscovered gem in Singapore, Haji lane offers yet another cultural exploring trail. It is mostly popular for the independent fashion boutiques (got myself some canvas shoes teehee) and Middle eastern restaurants. I've previously blogged about this here. Start the trail by getting some well-deserved ice cream at Pluck....then set off! If you look closely enough, there are many quirky corners and back alleys around, which are really fun to wander about aimlessly. Brightly coloured wall murals, graffiti, and decorative tiles are perfect for a photography adventure if you're for one; and for the shopping enthusiasts the shops by Kampong glam also offer a wide variety of fabric for sale (hello DIY) and rattan/vintage goods. We also dropped by the Children Little museum, near the majestic Sultan mosque. They have the most peculiar vintage toys from the 1950s to 1970s and whatnots inside! The shopkeeper was extremely friendly, and enthusiastic in helping us take pictures in the museum, with no request for any token fee. He was so zealous in being our photographer and asked us to pose by the scooter and posters.....hence the embarrassing pictures below. He was a tad disappointed for not being able to preview our pictures though as I was running on film. R also taught me how to eat Vadai but I didn't like it.

Pluck

31/33 Haji Lane

Singapore 189226

Sultan mosque

3 Muscat St

Singapore 198833

Children Little Museum

42 Bussorah St

Singapore 199460

Ice skating

One of our very, very first dates was to go ice skating, and alas we both can't ice skate for nuts so expect a lot of falling, grabbing onto each other and the side railings for support. No pictures because they were mostly blur (our smartphones weren't very smart back then)....but it was a lot of fun. Gets a bit tired towards the end though, but perfect excuse to hold each other's hands hahaha I think but we were both occupied with trying to stay upright on the ice. Anyway, we recently went to JEM shopping mall to try our hands on ice skating once again, pop by the customer service counter to get a discount booklet on your birthday month to enjoy half price off :) They have disco nights on Fridays, maybe I can convince R to go!

Kallang ice world

5 Stadium Walk
Singapore 397693

The Rink
2 Jurong East Central 1
Level 3, JCube
Singapore 609731

Japanese food

We are fans of Japanese food so this made it to the list without a doubt! (Even overseas) Sashimi, udon, rice bowls, softshell crab handrolls, tamago, shabu shabu, sukiyaki, bring it on. We don't necessary go for buffets, because we aren't really buffet people oops. We loved Ichiban boshi at Esplanade, but they have since closed down :(

Kampung hunting

Armed with the car, we went hunting for the last surviving Kampung in Singapore: Kampung buangkok. It's located in the Buangkok which is quite a distance from where we live but we had transport means so it was a breeze to get to :) It was built in 1956, and remains as the last kampung in modern Singapore. Some of the houses seem to already be enveloped by nature, and there doesn't seem to be many inhabitants in the place as it was extremely quiet. Some trivia about the place whilst I was reading up on the net: this blog provides some interesting facts about the kampung. For instance, it was known as "Kampong Selak Kain" by the community there as it was typically prone to flooding. Selak kain means 'lift up your sarung'. And the postal code of the place still remains at 4 digits whilst modern residential areas now use a 6-digit postal code. Wikipedia also says that some residents living there now are paying $13 rent, almost unbelievable in modern Singapore context.

Kampong Buangkok
5 Lorong Buangkok
Singapore 539748

Lanning

Okay, I'm admittedly not very good at gaming buuuut it can actually be quite fun. Apart from holding back my screams in an almost predominantly male environment in the LAN shop. No better someone to teach you strategies but your own boyfriend! I also recently purchased L4D2 on my steam account with some friends, so sometimes when R's back in Singapore and online on steam, I can bother him in-game with steam hahaha especially when my intuition tells me that he's busy gaming.

Museum

Make best use of your student discounts/free entries to museums whilst it lasts! My student privilege got me to exhibitions at the Singapore Art museum, such as Botero, Renaissance art.....I honestly can't remember which exhibition the pictures below were from. The Art science museum is also worth checking out together, we went for the Titanic exhibition which I thought was pretty cool because we were given real identities and could check if these personas survived the collision or not.

Singapore art museum

71 Bras Basah Rd

Singapore 189555

Night talks

Well, some days we like to kick back and chill by the poolside at night (often when he's sending me home or came to visit). A lethal combination with wine. Nothing like a peaceful moon watch and talks about the future to end the day ♥

Order in….or cook your own meal

When we were both overseas and hungry at unearthly hours, we loved packing back or ordering in while watching dramas or movies (finally finished Lord of the Rings, much to his delight) - oh good times! Or just chilling with Indomee and Adventure time ^^ Here are some meals we cooked together (or me being his minion in these shown) in the UK because of the availability of an awesome kitchen and spurts of enthusiasm to whip up fancies of Gordon Ramsay. Mostly his idea....he can't even cut a butternut squash or a red pepper without googling for Gordon Ramsay's way of cutting it. But kudos to having a boyfriend who enjoys cooking!

Pictionary

You can never go wrong with this, it's one of the all-time classics apart from Taboo. This was taken at Cold Rock @ Holland village - endless ice cream and pictionary fun whoohoo. I can't remember when these were taken, but these were actual drawings of our game. No idea what R was trying to describe with these drawings, but any suggestions are welcomed :) Another place we love to relax with games is Tea party cafe in Bukit timah, which is usually quiet on most days (read: no couch snatching) and they have a pretty reasonable tea set + an array of board games + an old guitar to serenade your dear girlfriend with. 

P.S. Another P place I thought of was Pulau Ubin, which we went a long time ago when we first started dating. We went cycling on the muddy tracks, and into various nooks and corners because I had to get water samples for my Geography report (did it for my IB extended essay too)....but I crashed and fell, so it was a bloody mess which he had to sacrificed his sports towel for, hahaha not a very good first impression for clumsy me I know. But Chek Jawa at low tide is a worthwhile place to check out, along with the many historical gems the island has in store. Such nostalgia really.

Tea party cafe

805 Bukit Timah Rd

Singapore 279883

Quiet time

As a Christian couple, we always look forward to more ways to strengthen ourselves in Him, and this was one of the highlights of our Greece trip where we did QT on board the 8 hour ferry ride from Athens to Santorini...and catching the sunset thereafter. Being right in the middle of the vast ocean really reminded us of His greatness and how small we really are relative to His presence :) It was also rather apt because we were reading Matthew 14 on Peter's doubts.

Railway tracks

I don't think these are open anymore but the tracks are quite an amazing place to wander aimlessly along. There are a variety of trails to try, the Bukit timah stretch is probably the most accessible because you can get a peek of it from the main road - started near MGS, and ended at the Rail mall Starbucks for a much needed freshening up. The trails covered a little bit of history and tons of greenery, but it was the small quirky bits that really caught my eye - strayed cables along the way, abandoned sign posts and signal stands, and even scribbles on the tracks. Some sections shows signs of gradually being reclaimed by nature, with weeds and vines creeping all around. Try playing with the rocks or skipping stones into the swampy waters for a cheap thrill. And bring along your film cameras to capture the rustic nostalgic feel :)

Singapore botanic gardens

A laid back day in the gardens goes a long way. I've previously blogged about this back here, we headed to Botanic gardens for a homemade surprise picnic (not so surprise because R picked me up from home) before he left for London. White wine, homemade soba in tea cups and freshly baked cupcakes for sweet treats in nature. It was raining during the first half of the picnic, hence the washed out looking background. But nonetheless very therapeutic for we had the entire swan lake to ourselves, we placed a picnic mat in the middle of the pavilion and were pretty much alone ....before the birds, swans, fishes and turtles came to visit. 

Singapore Botanic gardens
1 Cluny Rd
Singapore 259569

Tea at Tiong Bahru

We love tea, it's our favourite time of the day (I think) because it's always nice to kick back with a hot cuppa tea, soothing music and a nice chat. The tea-philia in me is speaking perhaps, but it's always nice to have tea after a long stressful week. We're always on the hunt for the perfect tea place, amongst our favourites are Fosters, the English rose cafe at Holland village cafe for their cosy ambience and affordable tea sets, please leave a comment if you know of any nice tea places :)

Sooo we went to explore the hidden gems in the Tiong bahru area during my birthday! It's just a 10 minute walk from Tiong bahru train station. We had lunch at PoTeaTo along Yong Siak street (post note: just found out that it's the combination of potato and tea, which are their main specialties), ice lemon green tea, potato cakes and truffle fries. I wasn't feeling too hungry because of the heat and also because the other restaurants and cafes around were really pricey. But settling on a table next to two middle-aged lomography camera enthusiasts made us feel like we're well in hipster town :} Books actually was around the corner, which showcases many local literature talents, so we grabbed an autographed copy of Jerrold Yam's Chasing curtained suns (our talented school mate). We then headed to Orange thimble for tea and drinks, love how their drinks come along with childhood colour jewel biscuits! Being the lazy bums we were, we spent the next few hours watching a movie on his laptop over tea before joining my family for a joint birthday celebration for my dad and I.

PoTeaTo
78 Yong Siak St
Singapore 163078

Booksactually
9 Yong Siak St
Singapore 168645

The Orange thimble
#01-68, 56 Eng Hoon Street

Universal studios

Free tickets from mumsie, and we were on our way to USS! I've gone there with friends before, but it was certainly a score going once again. I'm not really a roller coaster fan (I see Karen and Shiany cringing already hahaha) but the Battlestar galatica was quite fun....or maybe that's just my hindsight bias speaking. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed exploring the park with R and getting away from work and into a new world :) And getting on that pretty darn cool Transformers ride.

Universal Studios Singapore
8 Sentosa Gateway
Singapore 098269

Visit a floating restaurant

There aren't many floating restaurants in Singapore, but one of the more affordable and interesting ones is Stewords Riverboat! You can check it out here, and it promotes itself as a floating lifestyle venue :) It's not very accessible via public transport, but if you take the circle line to marina bay and then take a bus down, it doesn't take very long. We dined at the main deck Santa Fe tex-mex grill, think tacos, tortillas and quesadillas. Food was pretty good, and very filling. Also, on certain days there is free corkage so you can bring your own favourite wine to go with the meal. We brought along some red wine and they very kindly helped us to chill it before serving. I reckon that people prone to seasickness should stay away, because the rocking of the boat is dependent on the current and tends to rock quite a bit during the course of dinner. Ambience wise, I really like it because it's cosy and perfect for a date♥ You get to stroll along the sides of the boat, and along Marina bay for some after-dinner breeze. But getting a cab in such an inaccessible place was a pain. Hoping to go back to their upper deck for their breakfast cafe one day!

Stewords riverboat

31 Marina Coastal Drive

Berth 1, Marina South Pier

Singapore 018988

Wild wild wet

We only did this rather recently because R has never been to WWW so we decided to drop by. They were having a bundle promotion with NEBO subscription, so we signed up and earned ourselves free WWW tickets and bowling sessions! Sentosa cove next to Universal studios is extremely popular right now, so we figured that this place wouldn't be so crowded (we ain't really crowd people). And truly it wasn't, even though there was a substantial amount of visitors to make it merry, we didn't have to spend half the time queueing up which was such a delight on our part. Most of the rides have a really fast turnover time, especially the Ular-lah and Slide up so we could try them over and over again, such luxury. We spent about half a day there, especially lazing on the wave river. There's a new ride coming out which looks really scary....you're positioned standing upright above the catch door which opens and you free fall down 4 storeys high. 

Wild wild wet
1 Pasir Ris Close
Singapore 519599

Xperience pre-college all over again

Okay I'm cheating a bit on this one, but we really had a lot of fun trying to do a mini makeshift AC photoshoot for AC founder's day overseas - all in the name of school spirit! And who doesn't wanna go back to pre-college days teehee.

Youtube

One of our favourite pasttimes that no other modern age couple can escape is giving in to these addictive Youtube videos. Sometimes we like to watch certain Youtube videos that either one of us found funny....and even on skype during our LDR. He recently made me watch Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen nightmares of this restaurant called Amy's Baking Company - you should really check it out here because no words can sufficiently describe the nightmare of the episode.

Zoo

Last on the list, but not the least! We have only been to the zoo together once, but it was definitely a memorable one :) While it's pretty inaccessible, it's worth the trip because you'll probably want to spend the entire day there. I would suggest skipping all the animal shows and just heading straight for the feeding trails (especially the ones where you get to feed and interact with them). The giraffes, goats, elephants and baboons are the greatest joy to feed, and the $5 spent per food basket usually goes straight to the conservation funds! P.S. Just went back to the zoo last week with my nephew, and looking forward to catching the River safari when it opens at the end of the year!

Singapore Zoological gardens
80 Mandai Lake Rd
Singapore 729826

There are tons other unique places that I didn't write about, but do drop a comment if you know of any interesting places to check out :) Ciao!