It was our good fortune to be staying in a suite facing both the east and the west. We watched the sun set over the city skyline the previous evening while the next morning, we witnessed the sun rise over the horizon of the sea view.
The pool opens at 6 am daily and it sure seems like the pool would always be crowded at any time of the day. I guess a normal kiasu Singaporean would rush to be the first in line at 6am. I thought I would be like that too but the lack of sleep drew me to the bed like bees to honey and kids to iPad. I set my alarm at 6 am but snoozed myself back to sleep till the first sun ray beat the butt out of me. Boy was I glad to capture this sun rise shot!
At close to 8 am, we had the good fortune to snag an empty deck chair and were soon chilling in the pool. We managed to claim an edge and clear an area for ourselves. The most important question I had at that time was, "How do I continue to hold my phone and be IN the pool?"
So we did like what everyone did:
Snap, snap, snap and hold the bloody phone with one hand.
Shake, shake, shake water off.
Snap, snap, snap and hold the bloody phone with the other hand.
Some had waterproof casing for their phones and cameras. While some had "professional photographers" armed with a DSLR on the deck and snapping from afar.
This was our view. Rain clouds in the distance!
It really isn't very scary to be on the 57th floor in an infinity pool. If you look over the infinity edge, it looks like this. There is a considerable distance to the actual edge.
We were standing too near the edge and because we are not naturally born with chimpanzee arms, we couldn't get a good wefie that could capture the infinity edge and the city backdrop.
Oh well, it's ok.
I didn't know kh captured this.
The story behind this picture was this lady (who could be a Korean or a PRC Chinese from her English accent) asked if we could take a picture for her. Before that, she was already snapping lots of selfies. She offered to help us to take too but kh declined. In my bimbotic mind, I couldn't fathom why he would decline somebody's offer to take a pic of us. After that, he said she looked wobbly handling her own phone so he reckoned she be even more wobbly holding her own phone and ours. Wow... guys think of everything!
After thanking me for helping her to snap landscape and portrait mode photos, and a few more, she snapped a few more selfies in the pool and then went on the deck to snap more selfies. You could see her seated at the edge with her back facing us in this photo. After snapping 374043023644 times, she removed her oversized celebrity look-alike sunnies, put on a nerdy specs on her bare face and strutted off. I found it so amusing!
Have I already mentioned that there were so many non-Singaporean East Asian females who were alone at the pool taking selfies? We noticed this since Day 1. Were they really alone on a solo trip or were their friends and partners sleeping in while they grabbed more opportunities for pool shots?
This has since become MY iconic MBS pool shot and you would know it if you are following me on Instagram and Facebook. The caption for this is:
I am on top of the world... Together with a million others in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and armed with selfie sticks, cameras, phones, sunnies, various degrees of pool fashion not seen in this frame.
It sure looked like I owned the pool!
So once an infinity edge is claimed, snap all you can before the next person claims your edge when it gets too crowded.
The hubby also wanted a "It's just me and my pool" shot.
The refraction made all of us look funny. Remember those naked people in the pool? Refraction!
Ninja eyes... or frog, maybe.
This caption aptly reads: Aviators holder.
Kh asked me hold on to his aviators while he (attempted to) go for a swim.
I made this Instagram VS Reality meme and posted on Instagram after my colleagues laughed at my description of how deceptive my iconic MBS pool shot was.
I was on the pretext of taking photo of the edge but I was really taking photo of this group of ladies. They are good-looking but their pool fashion came in the form of tank top with shorts, caps, flowy white dress etc etc. Do other pools actually allow clothing other than swimwear in the pool?
And then kh came and parked himself there to block my view.
He joked about swimming along the whole length of the pool and making big splashes of water while people were taking their selfies/wefies.
To that guy swimming, You go guy! It is virtually impossible to swim in this pool!
I know it coz I saw a solo Caucasian lady (who is so pretty btw) badly wanting to swim but each time she passed a group of photo-taking pool dwellers, she would give a sheepish smile as if she was invading their space. In the end, she went up to the deck chair to people watch.
Aside: I'm tickled by the coincidence of the 2 guys in the same hunched pose on the left of this photo.
I told kh that the group of ladies behind was a gorgeous bunch (who all wore clothes into the pool wtf?) so he did this to pretend that I was taking a photo of him.
The gal in white shirt turned and gasped at our ploy. Hahaha... That didn't happen but it sure looked the part!
I had a fun time telling my gal pals all about what I saw at the MBS pool. They found it an eye-opener and kept laughing at my stories. You know what's the in thing to do before going to the infinity pool? Slather on 3-cm thick make up to make sure your face make up is photoshoot worthy. Only then could you camwhore 393765948548 times in and around the pool.
I do not know about famous pools in other countries but I swear that MBS is the only pool that I observed 95% of the female population in make up and 60% in very thick make up. Me? I belong to the 95%. Except for the eyes, I don't think my make up is considered thick. Look at all the visible freckles! I was melting under the scorching sun.
Some females with no make up would be in their shades the whole time and some looked great because almost everyone in shades look like superstars right?
Perhaps it is all the same or even more dramatic in Miami or Las Vegas or some other pools. When I see people donned in super beautiful and chic jewellery to match their swimwear, all I could think about would be the uneven tan lines after that.
I know I have a soft and flabby tummy that is especially visible when seated. The only time I have abs are when I wake up with empty tummy sucked in and when I was much younger years ago. But I feel comfortable in my own skin coz all the people there are like that too. Flabbiness... cellulite... they are all common sights.
Check out this link of our Bintan escapades a decade ago when the hubz had 6 packs. Now all he has are the United Nations.
That lady there looked like she was singing in an opera. That guy there looked like he had toe fetish.
This is such a staged Instagram shot with caption:
"I'm having a lazy day tanning by the empty pool."
But you know that's not true.
Only little puppies or kittens did that to my toes.
One last shot before we leave the pool for breakfast.
The selfie lady, the selfie stick guy and the one with the DSLR.
There was complimentary breakfast at either The Club or Sky on 57. After checking out the breakfast buffet spread at The Club, we decided on Sky on 57. Besides, I really love it there when I had my birthday dinner there last year. Still can't help thinking of the heavenly broth.
It was a semi-buffet style breakfast at Sky on 57.
Each person could choose 2 ala carte items each from either the Western or Asian concept.
We had omelette which was like any other buffet omelette.
The Baked Egg Printemps was delicious. It reminded me of egg confit and I love the straw potatoes!
The laksa was a little too rich and I always prefer cockles in my Laksa the hawker way.
I cannot remember the name of the chef's special dish. All I know was that my eyes lit up when I heard that it was Asian broth. I was head over heels in love with their Langouste Superior broth soup that I kept on hoping it would taste something like that. I was wrong.
But still, I love Asian soup.
Let's take a look at the buffet spread.
A variety of pastries was available, of which we only took those fruity ones.
The cold cut and cheese was so so. We preferred the one we had at The Club the previous day.
After breakfast, I spent some time soaking in the bath tub just to make sure we made use of of it and then it was time to pack up.
After checking out of MBS, we went to town to shop for some necessities and ended up eating at Paul just because the hub wanted to sit down and that place reminded us of Paris. It was supposed to be a relaxing staycation but I'm not sure why we felt soooooooo tired.
Sigh... even on leave, kh is constantly on his phone for work.
I was still full so we ordered a duck leg confit, pumpkin soup and hot chocolate to share.
The interior decor was semi elegant and reminded us of patisseries in Paris. The service was slow but apologetic and courteous. The food was so so. We were just glad to sit down and recharge. After that, we spent the rest of the day at home sleeping till night fall.
This post rounds up our staycation at MBS. Just in case you need, I've provided the links for the previous parts here:
Staycation at MBS Part 1 - Virtual Tour Of MBS Orchid Suite & The Club
Staycation at MBS Part 2 - DB Bistro Moderne
