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Published: January 9th 2009
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We leave Katoomba and eventually arrive at our 'Chinatown' hotel on the edge of Chinatown in Singapore at Midnight after about 16 hours travelling. So its off to get some food and we get directions to a very downmarket chinese cafe in a nearby side street. Neither of us know what we are doing, no-one speaks english, so we order from the glass counter by pointing. Sue went safe by getting chicken, rice and chilli paste while Bill went for the very crispy fried fish, and silver fish (like elvers) - apparently its a delicacy but don't think he was so sure about that ! Absolutely exhausted we retired to bed.
Up early next day to have a wander around Chinatown and find some breakfast. The locals were setting up their stalls and there were no other tourists about. We stopped to look and buy some small Chinese New Year decorations from a stall and also purchase some money envelopes which they give as gifts. After a while we are in need of breakfast and stop at a cafe which was displaying pictures of the food on offer, spring rolls, bacon rolls (chinese variety) crispy fish and freshly squeezed juice.
Not really breakfast food, more lunch but it filled us up for the morning. We then went to visit some temples. At the first one we took off our shoes and socks and paid to put them in a locker as we did not want to come out to find our boots gone. The sculptures and paintings were very impressive and there was incense burning which gave a very authentic smell. the second temple we visited was Buddist and quite large with a wall of 100 Buddas and lots of golden colours and offerings.
We then went back to our Chinatown hotel to collect our bags and get a taxi to Raffles Hotel which was to be our home for the next two days. When we arrived we were offered a drink and we had tea which was served to us from a silver teapot!! We then headed off to Mt Faber for the afternoon. The taxi driver tried to take us to a market to shop on the way which we think was owned by a family or friend and he was on commission. We declined and he took us the long way round, but eventually dropped us
off at a shopping mall and pointed to a cable car. We were definately ripped off. We had trouble finding the entrance and were looking around a shopping mall, and ended up buying a pair of shoes for Sue which was a first all holiday!!
We eventually find the cable car and choose the glass version and 2 minutes later we are at the top of Mt Faber. We get out and wander about, not much around but the views were quite good. We then see a taxi so decide to go to Little India. This is just like a small Delhi, very noisy, smelly and lots of Goldsmiths selling yellow gold by weight. We found an indian cafe for lunch and we had paper masala thosai, dahl puri and murtaba all for under Sing$10 which is about 5 pounds - spicy, but very tasty.
Back to Raffles and we are shown to our suite, huge colonial style, with a separate dining area and overlooking a grass courtyard the size of a hockey pitch - and the bathroom has more toiletries than Boots - absolute luxury and we have a butler on call. The butler booked us into
A Famous Temple
We don't remember the name the famous Long Room Bar for drinks and dinner, and called back 2 hours later to escort us, which was lucky as the hotel is huge and there are so many corridors with dead ends we would never have found our way. At the Long Bar we both get free Singapore Slings (first drink free for guests) 😉 which is the Raffles signature drink, and start on the box of peanuts on the table - tradition is you throw the empty shells on the floor, which crunches as you walk - a great tradition ! Dinner follows with Sue enjoying Pumpkin Soup, well it was really pumpkin froth and really nice. The steaks that followed melted in the mouth. Bill decided a last drink was in order and we had to stop at the Billiard Room Bar (how did we find it ??) for a final beer in the open air before going back to the room and our very comfy bed 😊
The next day we decided to walk round the harbour front and river. On the way we looked at the war memorial, a very tall, 4 sided, open square and the Singapore concert hall which was
Inside the courtyard of the temple
Just the roof of one of the buildings for worship built to rival Sydney's - but not sure it succeded. We looked at the Merlion which traditionally guards the entrance to the Singapore River. We then hop on a Bumboat (the old river cargo boats) for a short river cruise. Quite nice and we did see all the main river sites, with very little effort. The cruise finished , we walk back to Raffles for lunch, via another shopping mall - where Sue gets a nice charm necklace. Lunch is the traditional Raffles indian buffet Tiffin, which we just could not resist. And it was very nice - stuffed, we pop on our swimmers and head for Raffles pool, on the 3rd floor, open to the sky, very large, with comfy sun beds and large fluffy towels. Bill proceeds to sleep for 3 hours, while Sue listens to the snoring 😞
In the evening we decide to head off to Chinatown to eat from the hawkers stalls. But when we get there we are the only english tourists and do not have the confidence to; find something we like, try to explain this with everyone else ordering at the same time and then find a table that is both
empty and relatively clean. So we retreat back to Raffles Hotel and eat at the Billard Room Buffet - the food is great and so much choice - but the desserts were best ! Then off to our comfy bed - for the last time in a long while. Not a cheap couple of days, but we both want to go back. 😊
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