As a businesswoman and mommy of four, I may be too busy working and with the demands of parenting but I will always allow myself to get away from all these through traveling.  If I have the chance, I’ll go. If I don’t, I’ll devise a way to find the opportunity to travel. If I can bring the kids, I will. Otherwise, I am more than happy and guiltless to pack my bags and be gone for the entire semestral break without them. But of course, nothing beats traveling with the whole family.

 It’s semestral break, and this is one of the “times in a year” when my feet are the happiest.  Plus the better part of it is that I will be traveling for free. Well, almost.

  First stop: Singapore.  Mr. Big is on a two-week business trip to this country, and he gets to stay in Marina Bay Sands, the newer, hottest hotel in the city. His company is paying for it, and he is also allowed to entertain “conjugal visits”. 😉 
 

  Marina Bay Sands is a destination on itself. There’s a casino in a mall, an Arts and Sciences museum, restaurants, shops, observation deck, convention center, a full resort on the 57th floor, the Banyan Tree Spa, a club, a skating rink made of wax, and many others. It’s a three tower hotel where once you step out of your room you come out to everything you needed for a vacation or a business trip. The casino and the “surfboard” – with an infinity pool that caps the three towers – are the main attractions. One can even enjoy a full week inside the Sands and never get bored. 

 
 
 
 
It’s an enormous hotel but how do you get lost with a map like this?
 Access to the infinity pool is exclusive for hotel guests.
Juan Nightstand: “I’m diggin’ the green bikini top! Reminds me of Anne Curtis in “No Other Woman”..
 
 
 
View from the top:
This is another attraction under construction, and another reason for a revisit and to buy a tourist EZ-Link.
I doubt that my kids will be as excited to dance here with wax beneath rubber blades. Maybe that is why the rink is almost always empty.
  It is a luxury hotel but I wouldn’t give it five stars since the rooms and the service are average to my taste, except for the view. I believe the view in the rooms is the very reason why staying in the Sands will cost you somewhere between S$500-700/night for a standard accommodation. If you can splurge, get the clubroom. It comes with free breakfast and cocktails and easier access to about anything the hotel has to offer, including the VIP lounge in the resort.

View from our room in the 15th floor, Tower 3

  There are restaurants that showcase the menus of the celebrity Iron Chefs, but you may also want to visit the Rasapura food courts in the Canal level for a tasty meal (not as divine as that of Wolfgang Puck’s 35-day old Australian Angus Porterhouse in the Galleria level) for a reasonable price. Or try the restaurants by the river just outside the hotel.

 
 
  I am not a fan of bus/river tours but if you feel like doing it, the Hippo Bus stops in Tower 2, the concierge will be more than happy to provide the schedules for the red and the yellow buses. There are also ATMs and money changers in the casino level. Also, do not forget to sign up for the privilege card, registration is for free and it works just like the SM advantage cards, earning points you can use to pay full or partly in restaurants and shops and discounts for The Flyer and next visit to the hotel. WiFi is not free at S$8/hour or S$20 for 24 hours. I must say; everything inside the hotel is overpriced. Nevertheless, a splurge once in a while can also be healthy in a relationship. So go upgrade your accommodations from the company sponsored standard room to a room that will make you feel like you’re not really there for the job alone.
  I have been to this awesome country a couple of times before but every time I visit there is always something interestingly new.  I wasn’t really expecting that I will be “re touring” Singapore since I felt like I have seen the entirety of it but was I surprised to see that much have changed, and been added, there are just too many things new! Another new place to be in SG is Resorts World but I will only go there WITH my children. I can’t wait for summer!