The
search to find a hotel in Singapore that fit our price range was quite a
challenge. My readers should know by now that when traveling, I like to stay at
nice hotels for affordable prices. I always do a lengthy amount of research and
comparisons to find the perfect spot. I hadn’t booked a bad room yet and didn’t
plan to break that streak for our last vacation. Since we traveled to Singapore
during the holiday season it seemed the hotel prices were higher than their
already high prices. I aimed to snag a location off of Orchard Road, the swanky
boulevard lined with restaurants, malls, hotels, and gorgeous Christmas
decorations during the holiday season.
Orchard
Road is a one-way street about 1.5 miles long. I had the pleasure of walking
the full length a few mornings. I don’t usually tote my camera around when
exercising, but I specifically carried it with me while I powerwalked down the
beautiful street. At times I felt like I was in a garden with all the lush
greenery I passed. Visiting from Hanoi
was a welcomed and refreshing change in atmosphere. As much as I have enjoyed
my time in Hanoi, I have greatly missed clean air and streets landscaped with
flowers, greenery, and convenience shops that sell items I actually want to
buy.
There
were moments when my heart raced with excitement upon passing a 7-Eleven.
Seriously, a 7-freakin’- Eleven…who gets excited about that? A girl whose been
living in two third-world countries over the past three years, that’s who! I
mainly thought of Douglas each time I crossed paths with one because he loves
their Slurpees, particularly the red, blue, and orange ones. I wanted us to walk the street at night to
adore all the colorful Christmas lights hanging from the trees along the road.
But, somehow, we never made it to Orchard Road at night; either it was raining
or we had already spent the entire day wandering around the city and were worn
out by the time we returned to the room.
|
The surrounding area was adorned with Christmas decorations everywhere. |
|
It was nice to see some greenery on the roadways as we walked around. |
|
INTERPOL Singapore |
|
Entrance/exit for the subway |
|
Douglas wanted to explore his photographic side...not bad! |
|
We got a new lens for the camera that took wide-view and extreme close-ups. |
I
finally booked our reservation at Hotel Jen Orchardgateway. It was situated
almost mid-way between the beginning and ending of Orchard Road – perfect
location. This hotel was different than others I’d booked because it was situated
on top of a mall. Most of the malls in Singapore are found underground so it’s
no surprise to have establishments built above them. The hotel has a separate
entrance from the mall that is located slightly off Orchard Road. You enter the
elevator from a general lobby area and get off on the 10th floor to
find the main hotel lobby. If anything were a tad inconvenient about staying at
Hotel Jen it would have been the need to take two different elevators just to
get to your room from outside or inside the mall. It was cumbersome but
definitely not a deal breaker. Otherwise the hotel was lovely in its
simplicity.
Though
the room was smaller than most we had stayed in, it was perfectly designed to
give the illusion of a bigger space. Neither of us ever felt cramped moving
about the room or when storing our luggage and shopping bags. The hotel conveniently
had a small fridge in the room which we used to store our breakfast food and
snacks. Our hotel reservation did not include breakfast, which I usually
arrange, so we planned to dine out for breakfast. However, after seeing the
price options of most breakfast establishments we decided we’d get more bang
for our buck by going to the nearby grocery store and buying our own food. This
would not be the first time we did something like this; we grocery shopped at
the base commissary in Seoul for the majority of our breakfast and lunch meals.
Not only were the prices extremely high
there, but we also didn’t favor Korean food. Our decision to visit the
grocery store while in Singapore proved to be a great choice. We didn’t have to
plan to exit the room by a certain time to make the hotel buffet breakfast and
we ate light to save room for outside food during the rest of the day.
Our
favorite part of staying at Hotel Jen was dining at its Makan Restaurant for
the seafood buffet. One night when Douglas and I exited the hotel lobby
elevator, I turned around and found my husband’s jaw nearly on the ground as he
gawked at something I could not see. I walked over to see what caught his
attention…a massive bucket of crab legs. Douglas is a crab leg fiend and could
eat them all day! We asked the staff member outside the restaurant for more
details. She explained the hotel had a seafood buffet every Friday and Saturday
evening available to their guests. Uh…yes, please! At the time it was Friday
evening, so there was no other option but to go the following night. I did have
previous arrangements at a restaurant in town to try Singapore’s famous chili
crab but this alternative would be extremely hard to pass up. What made the
buffet even more tantalizing was the cost – only $44. The total cost would be
cheaper than what I planned to spend for us to eat dinner at a popular chili
crab restaurant in the city. After a very short conversation, we decided to add
the seafood buffet to our itinerary. This entire conversation went down just
after midnight Saturday morning. Both of us were excited to get to bed just to
wake up and check out the buffet that evening.
We
spent our Saturday visiting the scheduled locations on our itinerary. Douglas
came up with the bright idea for us to basically starve ourselves throughout
the day so we could enjoy all that the seafood buffet had to offer. I mean, is that American or what?! This
plan was clearly ridiculous but I went along with it because I too wanted to
enjoy the buffet without packing on too many extra calories in the day. We ate
a very light breakfast and snack food for lunch. I also powerwalked about 8
miles that morning to earn my prize that evening. We planned to eat at the
buffet at 8pm and stay until closing at 10pm. Only problem was that I was done
just after 6! We were about to visit one last location when I told Douglas I
couldn’t see another sight unless it was being served on a plate. He and I were
starving at that point. We both decided to go directly to the hotel, bypass our
room, and go straight to the restaurant.
We
arrived at Makan at 7. The woman at the front pleasantly greeted us as we told
her we were there for the buffet. She then said, “Okay, do you have a
reservation?” Without batting an eye I told her no and that we spoke with a
lady the previous night and she said we could come back that night. The lady
then proceeded to ask us for our names so she could try to find us in the
computer. Now, we knew good and well our names were not in that computer, but
there was no way we were not getting into that restaurant. We had come too far.
Douglas poked my arm at one point as if to say baby, it’s not going to happen. I pursed my lips together as if to
say dude, you must not know who I am.
I offered the woman our names, hotel room number, anything to aid her search
that was already hopeless. During those passing seconds I thought to myself, This man done had me starve myself…I done
walked eight damn miles to prepare for this meal…oh, we are getting at that
seafood buffet tonight! All the while I was cool as a cucumber not
displaying any sign of trepidation or disappointment. After about five minutes
the lady informed us that she didn’t have our names but she did have an open
table in the back. We didn’t care if the table was in the kitchen itself – we
were taking it! We were escorted to our seats which were nowhere near the back.
We actually sat towards the front which was perfect! All Douglas could do was bow
his head and say wow, just…wow. I
imagine it’s moments like that when a husband thanks God for the moment he said
“I do.” Yes, moments like that will have any man reflecting on the joy of
making a woman of such persistence his wife. LOL
That
buffet was so much more than we envisioned. They had everything a seafood lover
would want – crab legs, whole crabs, cocktail shrimp, oysters, mussels, clams,
a grilling station with freshly cooked jumbo prawns, salmon, tuna steaks,
lobster tails covered in melted cheese, Singapore’s famous chili crab, seafood
paella, and even roasted pork with veggies for those that wanted to give their palette
a moment’s rest from all the delicious seafood. And the dessert bar was just as
extravagant. There were about eight different flavors of gelato with every
topping imaginable, cakes, pies, pastries, and more. I don’t usually get
excited about buffets but this was not your typical buffet. We had a grand time
filling our bellies with gastronomical delights. All of that scrumptiousness
for only $44 per person…now what seafood buffet do you know, anywhere, would
serve such a selection at that low cost? Since Hotel Jen had opened a few
months prior to our visit, they started this special as a way to lure more
customers to their hotel. Great decision! I didn’t even know about this offering
when we booked here but would surely book again in the future just to have
another outstanding seafood experience.
|
Would you not drop your jaw too??? |
|
Missing the "K" there, but we forgive you... |
|
Take your pick of meat and sauce, and they grill it on the spot. |
|
These were the cheesy lobster tails. Yum! |
|
Remnants of Singapore chili crab |
|
Douglas had to have a Singapore Sling of course. He said it was the best one he'd ever had. |
|
That reaction tells you why it was the best! A bit much for you? |
|
The fruit and dessert bar was grand. |
|
Inside of Hotel Jen |
|
A drink lover's dream Christmas tree |
|
Dude, you see I am trying to take a picture... |
|
Our room for the stay |
|
Someone's a little too cozy. He loves his rest! |
|
Not your usual vending machine fare... |
|
The roof and the view were a dream combination. |
|
We took a trip up to the executive lounge just to scope it out. Very nice. |
|
Nightfall put the hotel in a brand new view and lit up the city wonderfully. |
|
What a magnificent time! |