On a fine Saturday afternoon, migme organized an international bloggers meetup in Singapore, and also invited some of the local bloggers like myself, Grace (@thegracetan), Tiffany (@tiffanyyongwt), Sochii (@sochiikamiya) and Yuki (@iamyuking). Bloggers from 6 different countries gathered for this first ever Singapore ‘migup’ to network and make new friendships.
So what is migme anyway? Migme is an upcoming social media network where you can chat with friends, mingle, discover the next big star or just hang out. They are predominantly more prominent in South East Asian and Middle Eastern countries, but have setup headquarters in Singapore.
Kindly supported and chaperoned by Changi Recommends, the international bloggers first met at Marina Mandarin for an amazing buffet lunch and were then joined by the Singapore bloggers who mostly had prata or something meh nearby. We were then whisked off to Gardens By The Bay to check out this local tourist attraction with its amazing scenery.
Gardens By The Bay
Address: 18 Marina Gardens Drive, Singapore 018953
Gardens by the Bay is a Singapore park spanning 101 hectares and captures the essence of Singapore as the premier tropical Garden City in Asia to live and work.
Here is where you will find the renown man-made ‘Super trees’, which are 25 to 50-metres tall and come alive with an exhilarating display of light and sound at night.
One of the sections within this Garden city is the Flower Dome, which is a giant cool-dry conservatory filled with beautiful sights of nature.
You can also observe the wild bloggers in their natural habitat like Stone (@stoneip), Ken (@kenlumlee) and @wheninmanilla.
Other than providing excellent Disney Princess backgrounds for photos, the Flower Dome also showcases the adaptations of plants to various arid environments.
Here we have 3 rare flowers: Carmen (@carmenlo) from Hong Kong, Valyn (@valynlim) from Malaysia and… … Andrea from the friendly nation of Changi Recommends, working the camera for the 7382th group photo.
Take a delightful slow stroll and stop to smell the flowers in the ever evolving flower fields that vary in display according to season.
Enter the Cloud Forest, a luscious green habitat completely different from the Flower dome. Upon entering, a 35-metre tall mountain covered in lush vegetation showcases plant varieties from tropical highlands up to 2,000-metres above sea level.
Via lift, there is also a mountain top trail you can take to further appreciate the plants at a higher altitude. It mostly reminded me of Jurassic Park and I half expected a T-rex to appear.
After a long exploratory walk through pretty much the entire Gardens by the Bay, we proceed to the equally touristy Marina Bay Sands integrated resort.
Marina Bay Sands (SkyPark)
Address: 10 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore 018956
The SkyPark observation deck on the 57th floor is honestly not that much to shout about other than its enormous wide angle view of the city’s skyline and the strong typhoon-level winds. The only takeaway I had here was a bad hair day. The famed MBS infinity pool is only accessible to hotel guests by the way.
You can also hang at Ku De Ta for a drink which is more my speed actually. Yes, I’m an alcoholic.
Marina Bay Sands itself is an excellent integrated collection of great celebrity restaurants and luxury brands though, and there’s no better place in Singapore to spend a lot of your money instantly. There’s a casino here too you know.
Well if anything, the sky park provides yet another exquisite spot for more photo taking.
Carnivore (Marina Bay Sands)
Address: 2 Bayfront Avenue, #01-80 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore 018972
After the intensive walking and multiple panoramic views, we were hungrier than a kid on his third day of fat camp.
Fellow food bloggers Anton (@antondiaz), Willy (@wthmy9982) and Rian (@gastroficionado) should agree with me that dinner is the highlight of the day! For some reason, local Singapore food bloggers seem to be pretty average sized despite the copious amounts of food we eat everyday.
We arrived at Carnivore for dinner, which presents Brazilian Churrasco (Brazilian Barbecue Meats) via the Brazilian tradition of grilling skewered meats over fire. A barbecued meat buffet? I’m sold.
As part of the buffet, there is also a salad bar for you to pick out various appetizers like potatoes, marinated octopus, fruit salad and soup.
Carnivore also makes a pretty decent Caipirinha cocktail, which consists of Cachaça (distilled from sugar cane), sugar and lime. Cachaça is afterall, Brazil’s most common distilled alcohol and should make an appearance at a Brazilian restaurant.
Being the alcoholic food reviewer, it’s my duty to try one cocktail right? Or two, or three, who’s counting anyway.
Don’t stuff yourself on the salads though (I think I ate a grand total of 2 stalks of broccoli), as soon the servers will start appearing with meat, meat and more meat. I’m sure the name of the restaurant was an obvious hint to what to expect here.
A large skewered hunk of grilled Beef Hump being cut table side.
The meat will come around to each guests’ table soon enough.
There are all sorts of meat served out periodically, like lamb, bacon wrapped sausages, various cuts of beef and even grilled pineapple. You can specify how big a slice you want, and even the doneness (the more well-done parts will be on the outer edge of the meat while the inner parts yield rawer flesh). Something exotic to look out for is the grilled chicken heart.
Boy were we stuffed, and I retreated back into my man-cave for a good rest.
A pretty casual day of networking with various international bloggers, there’s always so much to learn from overseas guests. Looking forward to more migme events where I get to fly over instead!
————————–
Got you interested in migme? You can sign up for migme by filling up this form. Add me at @sethluicious if you’re on the platform!