#772 - Food As Motivation #49 - Flavour Flings / Neptune Dim Sum / Birds of Paradise

Visited Flavour Flings the other day w East meets West, missing Kai Xin who joined us later. Gonna categorise this under Food As Motivation (long time no see).

This actually happened on the same day as the Clip’ N’ Climb’s! Click here to read more about my Clip ‘N’ Climb experience.

Anyway, it has been awhile since we visited a cafe and I suggested Flavour Flings because I had seen videos of the raclette cheese being sliced and melting on the beef and I know I had to try the dish! Anyway, we were in the East area so getting there only took us a few bus rides so why not!

The cafe was located under a HDB flat in Hougang and it was not v huge. We ordered 4 mains and 1 sides for sharing. Food arrived fast, like in minutes and they were served hot. I M P R E S S E D.

 Truffle Fries (SGD8.90)

Truffle taste just right, we love this and wish the portion was larger!

Beef Steak & Raclette (SGD24.90)

Actually even though there was a generous serving of cheese, it didn’t go well together w the beef in the sense it’s like eating them separately. I guess people order this for the hype. But I would say the beef was done well (we asked for middle rare doneness) and it was really tender!

Benedict’s (SGD14.90)

Benedicts were decent! Sauce a little sour from the lemon but it was alright!

Carbonara Pasta (SGD14.90)

A little watered down and not cheesy enough for me. The rest find it alright but thought the portion was too small.

Flying Fish Roe with Tender Chicken Breast (SGD20.90)

The chicken breast was good! Not tough/dry at all and I like how the fish roe gave this dish a different kind of 咬劲! But one thing to note, it was really salty!! I can take salty stuff well so trust me, when I say something is salty, it IS really salty.

Yes we were THAT hungry after climbing hahaha.

Blurry photo but hello!

Overall I would say food’s okay, portions a little small but friendly staff there! It was not really worth the hype but it’s nice to have a cafe right downstairs to pop by and chill at! It's halal by the way! J

Details if you're interested:
Flavour Flings
121 Hougang Ave 1 #01-1348
Singapore 530121
Tel 6286 0051 

We proceeded to Nex for Dessertstory after that. Dessertstory because they have the popiah icecream from Taiwan on their menu!! They had it in 2 flavours, one Taro and the other Coconut.

Picked the Taro one because it feels more authentic? It was quite nice, even w the parsley. Normally I don’t take parsley at all, but somehow the icecream and the popiah skin went well together w it. Still, it can’t beat the one at 九份!

We also ordered the Mango Shaved Ice to share but wah it sucks, sorry. Mangoes too sour and ice tasted really weird.

Window-shopped awhile and proceeded to meet Kai Xin and then we had dinner at Marine Parade Hawker Centre – yes whole day just eat and eat and eat hahaha.

Photo edited using Insta-stories lol.

We wanted something light since we weren’t that hungry thus we opted for dimsum at Neptune Dim Sum. Not sure why it's Neptune everywhere online but the picture clearly spells it as Netune? Hahaha.

Errr we ended up ordering quite a lot actually hahaha but bill came up to SGD48.50 only! Worth it! I would say skip the xlbs and go for the hargow and the fried layered dumpling!

Proceeded to Birds of Paradise for desserts!! I have been wanting to try it since I saw people mentioning about their “exotic” flavours.

Cones were handmade okay!

 Hahha Y U SO GREEDY Kai Xin.

Got myself strawberry basil w their thyme cone. No regrets man, super good!!!

 Happy w our ice-cream! :)

One of our last few stops of the day was Watsons (really detailed entry right here) because I wanted to get the Biore wipes Kai Xin introduced!

This!

They are scented powdery wipes, which you can use like e.g. after exercising etc. Tried it after our climb and it was pretty good! Can’t wait to try the berry one and see what it smells like! J

Okay abrupt end, X

#770 - Clip 'N' Climb Singapore

Let us take a break from all the travel backlogs and focus on the present, shall we?

2 weeks ago, I visited Clip ‘N’ Climb w my cousins. It opened not long ago at Our Tampines Hub (so far IKR). Managed to Grabhitch a Merz from west side to there for free since the first Grabhitch ride is free!

Instead of the boring rock walls that most of us know, all the walls here are colourful and interesting (to me at least). Apparently they are from New Zealand!

There are like 19 climbing walls inside with different difficulties (rated by the number of carabiners). It comes with automatic belay system and to climb, you just need clip the carabiners to your harness and proceed!

Admission prices as below:

Clip ‘n Climb Walk-In	90 Minutes Experience
	Member	PA/ SAFRA	Guest
Individual	$18	$22	$25
Additional Pax	$14	$18	$21
Additional Climb Time (+ 30 minutes)	$4	$5	$6
Savers Pass (10 Climbs)	$126	$154	$175

How the additional pax things work depends on whether you are a Hometeam/PA/SAFRA member or not. There were 4 of us but only 3 of us had PAssioncard (all cards have to be shown). Thus we paid $22 + $18 + $18 + $21 (additional pax guest price) in total.

Before we started, we were given a locker for storing of our bags and then attended a short briefing by one of the staff on how to wear the harness, how to clip and prepare ourselves for climbing. We had to say “Check me” before climbing and “Watch Out” when coming down. – But truth be told, most of us proceeded to climb w/o waiting to be checked.

What I like about this place:

·       Different from your usual rock climbing places with many different styles of walls

It make rock climbing more fun and the colours make everything more cheerful

·        Automatic Belay System

Makes things easier for everyone, no help needed and going up and down was smooth

·        Friendly and helpful stuff

When we have issues/concerns, we were able to get the help we needed and the staff there are all v approachable

What I dislike about this place:

·        Lack of staff

The day I was there, there was a party and there were many kids running about. There was a lack of supervision and I feel that the staff was not enough for the crowd. In fact, my cousins and I helped most of the kids on the loading/unloading since they just stood there helplessly.

·         Safety issues

1.       Kids are not aware and not caring about keeping out of the designated climbing area each wall has. I have seen people who were abseiling down accidentally stepping on kids’ heads.

2.       To shout “Watch Out” might not be THAT useful since many kids are not aware of keeping out of the designated climbing area and it was actually too noisy to be heard even though most of the times we were already shouting.

3.       The lack of staff as I mentioned earlier may also cause a dangerous issue on safety since some kids just clipped and climbed on their own w/o bothering for a check.

4.       We saw a kid with a hand full of bangles and they were stuck to the carabiners. My cousin told her maybe it would be better if she was to remove it it, but she refused. I understand from the website that loose clothing and accessories should be avoided and this could be a one-off case (because of the party) but I feel that staff should check during their briefing to the kids before letting them go ahead?

Sorry I got affected and churned out long paragraphs. Personally, even though I am not a parent yet, I feel concerned regarding the safety of these kids. The lack of supervision and knowledge might cause an accident someday. :/

Anyway, moving on to less serious things. All of us came prepared to conquer all 19 walls (#jiambitious) to make it more value for money, but by the time we tried our 4^th or 5^th wall, most of us were already tired. We clearly overestimated ourselves!

The first wall I tried was this above, Morse Code, which was really tough because it was hard to grip! I had sweaty palms so it made things worse.

Some climbing walls photos because why not?

I am sorry Jia Xin, I don't have your photos in my phone!

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These were the walls I managed to try. Around 8/9 fully covered (I didn't complete some) in 90 minutes even w the crowd, so no complaints there. Actually waiting time was quite fast even though we shared the place with 30+ people and waiting gave us time to rest and recover too!

Lightning Crack was super hard I didn't even progress and the last one I did was Cloud 9 and I had no strength left to pull myself up hahaha. Both of the walls are those w me in the photos above!

Twister Left is one of my favourite walls because it looks quite tough (only 1 carabiner difficulty tho) but is actually quite easy to conquer as long as you stand mostly in the middle. #sharingtips Read a blog mentioned that the other side called Twister Right had a different grip and is much more difficult!

Took a video/photos at this wall called Speed Climb where you could challenge yourself and see how fast you climbed! There were buttons on the bottom and top (start and stop the stopwatch). Heard from one of the staff the fastest record is 4 seconds plus. WHAT.

And this video of us “competing” Face to Face. Sad I kept falling down so laokui! And uh there were times I couldn’t find a proper grip thus the different trials in this video. It was only until I descended then my cousin told me some of the grips are at the bottom. OMG NOOB.

This was Skyscraper which was quite manageable even w sweaty palms!

I realised that climbing is easier for people w longer limbs? No joke. Like some of the steps I couldn’t reach because legs too short. No joke. HMPH. Take the Dry Ice above for example. Pei Wen and I were legit struggling when we reached a certain part because we couldn't get up but Shi Min w her long limbs managed to reach the top!

And she left one of the 'picks' up there hahaha. The staff had to climb up and he did it damn fast?! Maybe that was one of the criteria when hiring people at Clip 'N' Climb! Haha anyway this is also bad for sweaty palms, the picks were wet w from my perspiration omgah.

Oh and I also realised how bad my fear of heights are HAHA. I never know it was THAT bad until I climbed all the way up and had to let go to descend down. When I looked down after reaching the top, I was like shit do I really have to do this. It’s really scary even though you know the belay system and harness will not fail you. For the first 2 walls, I actually climbed my way down to a less scary height and slowly release. So loser. Subsequently I just got better at letting go. ;) The Caving Ladder was scary to me though! You had to climb with a view of the stadium and I was at the halfway mark and already feeling scared. And the thing is usually when you let go, your feet will hit the wall and slowly bring you back down but with the ladder, there was nothing solid to hit!!

My advice would me when you reach the part when you let go – DO NOT HESITATE OR LOOK DOWN. Just go down gracefully while shouting “Watch Out”! J

It was a fun and great experience I would say, despite me listing out so many things I dislike. I hope it is a one-off case lah, regarding the lack of staff/safety issues. After the climbs, I ached for 2 days btw. My arms and back especially… Haha.

Would I be back?

Maybe if I am near the area? I wouldn’t specially go down for it! Yup and that concludes the end of my Clip ‘N’ Climb experience!

Clip 'N' Climb
HomeTeamNS Tampines
51 Tampines Ave 4
#03-03 Our Tampines Hub
Singapore 529684