A Glamourous Long Weekend in The City of Lions

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Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin flew away. Kojak lost his lollypop, but he found a Milky Way - Oh, Jingle Belllllllllls……..…. Yes folks, Christmas comes to Singapore too - and its hit town big time judging by all the mega decko’s sprucing up most of the buildings round the city. Shaz was in a shop the other day and Shakin’ Stevens as belting out Merry Xmas Everyone! Totally bizarre in sweltering conditions such as we have here. ‘Snow is falling, all around me’ - eh, I don’t think So!

Anyway - back to the travel diary. We caught a minky rattletastic bus from Malacca to Singapore on Thursday. While at the bus station we got chatting to an Aussie guy who was travelling back home to Perth with his wife. He’d been in Vietnam buying tyres for his motorbike (go figure!). Turned out he was on the same bus as us and was very helpful in keeping us right when we had to go through the elaborate protocol (palaver)on leaving Malaysia and entering Singapore. Basically this involved getting off the bus in Malaysia to exit through passport control, getting back on to travel down the road a bit, getting back off the bus with all of our bags this time, in order to get though Singapore passport control and customs, reloading the luggage onto the bus and getting back on the bus for the final push towards the bus station. Phew!!!! The whole time the Mr Aussiechops kept us ‘entertained’ by talking about the price of petrol from one end of Australia to the other. Fascinating subject and one he clearly felt passionate about. He also kept showing us his bus pass, which we found riveting.

We spent our first night in Singapore in a newly-opened bar near our hotel called The Crew Room - it’s been set up by a bunch of friends who work for Singapore Airlines. All that malarkey getting into the country had worked up a thirst and we sank a few beers while chatting to the owners about the enterprise. It was opening night and it’s safe to say we well and truly christened the place! Next day we split up to tackle the city in a two-pronged attack - one of us fancied going shopping on the famous Orchard Road while the other wanted to pad about the place looking at the sights. We’ll let you work out who wanted to do what. At night we nipped off for a curry at the Shish Mahal - ahh, just like home - then had a stroll around Little India. Some of the streets are decorated with amazingly large silk-covered decorations for Deepavali that arch over the 5-lane roadway and look fab. Imagine life-sized silk pink, yellow and green elephants and you’ll get the picture.

We love Singapore. It’s incredibly clean and well laid-out as we discovered the next day when we took an open-top tour bus around the town. Stamford Raffles clearly knew what he was doing when he laid out the floor plan for the place and he’s commemorated throughout the city by way of street names, monuments etc. We got a river cruise in a bumboat (honestly, that’s what they are called) included in the price and got some fantastic views of the esplanade with its mix of modern skyscrapers and older architecture such as the Fullerton Building. Top Tip - if you take the Hippo river cruise in the bumboat, be sure to sit on the right hand-side of the boat since the commentary is all geared towards looking out that direction! Also, the narration of the guide is undertaken by a Lloyd Grossman soundalike, which is unintentionally hilarious, and therefore distracting. By the time we’d finished the tours we were a bit worn out and headed back to the hotel where we discovered there were 2 hot tub Jacuzzis not ten paces from our room. Naturally we had to avail ourselves of these facilities! This backpacking is really hard work y’know.

Naturally, we’ve also been to Raffles Hotel Long Bar for a drink or two. Rather than go for the expected Singapore Sling, we bucked the trend, and opted for a Gin Fizz and a Dry Martini - ten out of ten to Malcolm Talcum for the tip that the Slings are served from pre-made jugs. You were spot on!! The hotel itself is amazing but at 250 quid a night, just beyond our budget. We were happy with the drinks in the bar which gets covered in shells from the free peanuts they hand out - you are encouraged to chip these on the floor rather than fill up the ashtrays. Nuts in more ways than one! We got a rickshaw ride from there through the city nightscape to Molly Malones which is a nice bar near Boat Quay that we discovered earlier in the day. We also sussed that it served up the tastiest Shepherds Pie and the most magnificent plate of chips we’ve ever had - and after years of research we consider ourselves self-taught experts on the subject of chips. After a few beers & zoiders we ended up in a Karaoke Bar where Shaz was disappointed to find that they had about 2 Western songs on the menu, therefore she was denied the chance to show off her vocal talent. Believe me when I say that Singapore doesn’t know what it missed. Actually we were the only Westerners in there (ever) and this was so obvious that one guy started talking to us to find out why we were there and what we made of the place. After a few slurred, ‘’sgreeeeat and that, paaaal’’ type comments, we relieved him of our steaming presence and bogged off home to bed.

Next day we were up at the crack of noon in order to mosey on down to the Singapore Turf Club. This weekend the Singapore Gold Cup horse race was the main event and we Eggs enjoy a day at the gee-gees. The Turf Club is fantastic - amazing stadium and facilities and easily gotten-to by MRT train from the centre of town. Our strategies diverge slightly - one of us uses the form guide, jockey and trainer stats, weather and changes in class etc to pick a winner. The other goes on name, colour of jockey’s top and longest odds (for maximum return). Again I’ll let you work out who does what (clue - Shaz would bet on a pantomime horse). We had great fun working out how to place a bet and had reasonable success with 3 wins and 1 runner up. We shared a taxi back to town with a lovely Aussie couple (they get everywhere don’t they?!) who are working here in Singapore for one of the banks - they’ve given us some great tips for travelling round Australia - where we’re off to at 9am tomorrow. YEEHA!!!!!

Some other stuff about Singasong. Oops, I mean Singapore.
* Fake tan cannot be found for love nor money, however there is about 50 brands of Whitening lotion. This is crazy bonkers. The western girls are mostly not happy till they have achieved Donatella Versace status, yet the Asian girls all want to look like Siouxsie Sioux. Just shows ye, we’re never happy with our lot, whatever that may be.
* Loads of kids have these brilliant trainees with wheels that pop out from the bottom, so they can walk OR skate. Amazing. Shaz is desperate for a pair, but she’s not allowed.
*There’s a place where you can get fabby breakfast and coffee called The Coffee Connoisseur . Alan had the Milkshake of his life in there - it was Raisin flavour. Just gorgeous.
* Singaporeans are very very friendly. We’ve met more folks here than anywhere else we’ve been so far - and its not just our Antipodean friends - everyone that you come across is interested in where you come from, how you are enjoying your trip, and what you think of Singapore. Curiously enough though, they are not backward in asking you how much your house cost, or how much money you needed to save to jack in your job for a year and go travelling. We just make out we are millionaires. We find you get better service.


Last thing - here is the official Singapore Sling recipe from Raffles hotel. Enjoy!

Recipe
30ml Gin
15 ml Cherry Brandy
120 ml Pineapple Juice
15 ml Lime Juice
7.5 ml Cointreau
7.5 ml Dom Benedictine
10 ml Grenadine
A Dash of Angostura Bitters
Garnish with a slice of Pineapple and Cherry


See ya later Alligators! ….Or, should that be Crocodiles???????????????

Shaz and Alan Egg. xxxxxxxxxx

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Photos

Kraftwerk??
This sculpture is part of a design exhibition.

Somebody take the hoover to that floor!!
Lovely feet though.

Alan Egg outside the Esplanade Concert hall.
Not entirely dissimilar to the Science Centre in Glasgow, methinks.

Merlion
Apparently most photo'd thing in Singapore.

Monty Python's Pigeon.
There's a lot of sculpture in Singasong.

Outdoor air conditioning at Clarke Quay
This is literally a cool thing. This air con takes the temp down about 10 degrees so that diners in the waterfront restaurants can eat their tea in more comfortable surroundings.

River bin motor.
Alan insisted on putting this picture in. Sorry. He wants to tell you that it keeps the river clean by eating up all the rubbish. (?!)

Aircon
Singapore has fabulous aircon - but this is what happens to the outside of some buildings.

Comments

[Gareth]

The Zoo
Yes, get to the zoo. The night safari is awesome. Also the aquarium and pink dolphins on sentosa island. Glad to hear it's all going well.