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Published: February 23rd 2008
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We had to leave India because of a mess up with my Visa at the London office, they stamped me with a 180 which means that I have to leave after 180 days, get an exit stamp then an entry stamp and everything is OK. Bit of a pain but at least it’s forced us to take a holiday and we know that the lads are more than capable of looking after things at the bar. We decided on Singapore because it’s a short flight away and we’ve never been there before so somewhere new to experience and enjoy.
Our flights up to Mumbai with Deccan were a bargain Rs 2/- plus taxes outward and Rs 350/- plus taxes return. The flight was on time and so we arrived in Mumbai at 7:40am which meant a 4 hour wait ‘til our Singapore Airlines flight to Singapore. Mumbai airport; well what can I say?, bring a book, a sandwich and plenty of mossie spray, although the International Terminal is clean that’s all that it has going for it, 3 shops, 1 restaurant BORING!!!
The Flight to Singapore was OK, we both watched an Australian movie called “BoyTown” on board, absolutely hilarious -
we cried laughing and the woman next to us was not amused. If you get the chance watch it, it’s a real Mickey take type of movie…….think Take That, Backstreet Boys etc!! Anyway we landed in Singapore at 7pm local time and took a 25 min taxi ride to our hotel which cost SGD17 - a bargain we thought, (£5.50). Everyone had told us how expensive Singapore was but we weren’t complaining. We were booked into the Bayview Hotel on Bencoolen St - this turned out to be a great location as we had hoped, very close to Raffles in one direction and Orchard Road for the SHOPS in the other. After checking in we made a visit to the seven eleven store next door for some essentials and then found the nearest Burger King; stuffed ourselves on Whoppers which tasted fantastic after being deprived of them for 6 months, while listening to Ferry Across The Mersey on the Burger King piped music system!!!….not exactly an authentic first night in Singapore but we were happy.
Breakfast at the Hotel the following morning was good with a wide assortment of food on offer, everything from curry and noodles to sausages
and fruit. We ate ours early and then headed off to the nearest Mall on Orchard Road for some retail therapy. After the shops we headed down to Boat Quay via Raffles and the Merlion, the half fish half lion fountain that most people associate with Singapore. We also had a look at the Esplanade, or as it’s more commonly known “The Durians” nicknamed so because the twin silver hedgehog domes look quite like Durian fruits - which funnily enough are banned from most parts of the city because they stink!!! Getting closer to Boat Quay and getting hotter with every step we said a quick hello to Sir Stamford Raffles (or his marble statue). He was the geezer who first set up a British trading post in Singapore and has the world famous hotel named after him. The statue stands at Raffles landing place - where he supposedly first stepped foot on the island. Eventually we found ourselves in Boat Quay which is basically a strip containing bars and restaurants - all of them had a Happy Hour at this time so we had a couple of long cool Tiger beers before heading off again in the heat and
Scubs up well!!!
Gorgeous Raffles Hotel humidity back to the hotel.
Our Air Conditioned room was a welcome retreat for a couple of hrs and after cooling off we dressed in our best togs and set off again for a night on the town. We were undecided on which of the million and one restaurants in Singapore to eat at and decided to discuss it over a Singapore Sling in Raffles famous Long Bar. We were greeted at the front entrance to the Hotel by a burly Indian wearing the Full Monty get up including turban and curly moustache, “Welcome to Raffles Hotel Madam, Have a pleasant evening” he said as he opened my taxi door - I like this place!!! It’s much friendlier than the Peninsula in Hong Kong where we told off for taking photo’s in the lobby……SNOBS!!
Raffles Hotel is beautiful, well worth a look around if you have never done it before. Its so oldie worldy, and ever so British. We loved it. We had a good look around the hotel and took some photo’s before heading upstairs to the Long Bar for a couple of drinks and scoffing some peanuts then chucking the shells on the famous floor (you can
Scrubs up well too!!!
Whats with the Riverdance pose??? take the girl out of Widnes………), it is a tradition though and everyone does it. One couple collected their mound of shells neatly in a pile on the table only to have the waitress go over and shove the lot of them off onto the floor. And in case you’re wondering it definitely wasn’t OTT expensive, £13 for a Singapore Sling and a Pint of Tiger Beer, with the free peanuts we thought it was a bargain!!!
Next stop: Equinox on the 70th floor of the Swissotel. Only problem was we’d spent so much time in Raffles that the Equinox restaurant was closed by the time we got there so instead we went into the New Asia bar which is attached. The view was amazing from up there and it had a really nice atmosphere. Cocktails were good, again it cost around £13 for a cocktail and a beer. Good music, friendly staff and lots of comfy seats. Needless to say we stayed ‘til late and ended up eating at Kopitiam a 24 hr Hawker Centre close to our hotel. Hawker Centre’s are brilliant - a bit like food courts in shopping malls at home. We both had Chinese
food with a couple of drinks for about £5.
After a long tiring first day we went back to the hotel via the seven eleven, had a couple of drinks and slept like babies.
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