Singapore

Ah, Singapore, the land of heavy fines for eating chewing gum, and airport toilets so nice you think you’re living at The Ritz. Since we were on Singapore Air for our flights, we were routed through Singapore both ways, so we decided to stop for a few days on the way back to break up the trip a bit.

The cab from the airport to our hotel took around 25 easy minutes, and we got a good feel for the country/city on the journey: lots of high-rise buildings, a decent amount of green space, and immensely clean footpaths. Three days later did little to alter this impression, but I must admit that all those lovely clean footpaths leave you feeling very sterile as you wander through the green spaces between shopping malls.

Upon arrival, we asked our hotel’s porter where to go for some food, and he directed us to Clark Quay, a very trendy, happening area on the outskirts of Chinatown. One bar which looked very interesting – an on reflection, I wish we’d have tried – was called The Clinic. As the name suggests, it was outfitted to look like a hospital; instead of sitting around a table, you sat around a table in wheelchairs. Instead of lounging on a… err… lounge, you lounged on gurneys. Cocktails were served from a drip, by waitresses in nurses uniforms wearing little pointy hats. It was very corny, but extremely appealing – I think the only reason we gave it a miss was that they didn’t have a dinner menu.

On our first full day, we had breakfast in Chinatown, at a Dim Sum place which seemed quite popular with the locals. I found the number of frog options on the menu rather curious, however this quickly turned into a rather sick feeling, when I saw a huge clear plastic container full of some very sad looking frogs. Poor froggies.

Like all the tourists, we also paid the mandatory visit to Raffles hotel, home of the Singapore Sling. I think the bar staff lamented the fact that the drink makes the place so famous, and judging by the number of them we saw on people’s tables, I’m guessing they get pretty sick of making them all the time. To top it all off, they’re actually so sweet, that they’re almost undrinkable. Nick didn’t even come close to finishing his!

Shopping until dropping

I suspect that the days of uber-cheap shopping in Singapore are long gone, but that’s not to say that bargains are impossible to find there. Coming from London, clothing was definitely the winning purchase, and each of us picked up a few new things for our wardrobes.

Electronics however, were a bit of a hit and miss. After spending hours trying to bargain prices down at Sim Lim square, we came away with a new speedlight flash for our SLR, and a HP Mini netbook computer for Kristy. We didn’t save a huge amount on the price we would have got them for in London – maybe 15% – 20% – but I guess part of the fun is in the excitement of trying to land a good deal.

Teachings of the Father of the Revolution

Possibly the most entertaining part of our Singapore visit was on our final day, when we told Nick that he was the captain of our three person ship, and for the entire day, he was to decide what we were to do. Now obviously, the most important thing when planning a day for three people, is to work out a suitable name for your party – Nick decided that we would be known as, “The Children of the Revolution”. He later told us that we could call him “Father”, if we wanted to. We didn’t.

There were many lessons to be passed on to us by our great leader, but perhaps none more-so striking as the parable of the availability of a western breakfast in Singapore’s Indian quarter. It goes something like this – three people wander through the back streets of little India, in search of something that remotely resembled breakfast. It’s 27 degrees, and humidity is around 75%. Giving up after an hour-and-a-half, the party of three ends up eating at Burger King, but never forgetting the valuable lesson that they were taught.

Still, our Father wasn’t all that bad of a leader. We took the subway to St James’ Power Station for some “Farewell to Singapore” drinks. After choosing a bar, Father went up to order us some drinks. A couple of lads who had ordered a mini-keg between them – which holds about 5 pitchers of beer – overheard Nick ordering, and offered us the remainder of their keg. There would have been a good 2 or 3 pitchers in there still, and given that it was retailing at about SGD$120, we saved ourselves quite a packet of cash – all thanks to Nick’s booming voice!

Our three night stop in Singapore was immensely fun, and the perfect way to break up our flights back home. I’d definitely go back again – the food was good, the people were friendly, transport was easy, and there’s loads more that we could have seen.