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Published: October 5th 2009
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Mega Mac
A little too much for me. A Night at the Airport
Now that we have been on the road for 8 months now we have had a lot of experiences typical of backpackers. One experience, though, eluded us, until now - spending the night in an airport. We left Hanoi on a ridiculously cheap Tiger Air flight that landed in Singapore at 1:30am on the night of 27 September. The flight was cheap enough that we agreed to land in the middle of the night. And, we thought that by the time we exited baggage claim there would be no reason to pay for a hotel in Singapore, of all places. If we could find a $15 room like in Ho Chi Minh City, it would be worth it to book a room. But, this was Singapore, it was the last night of the Singapore Grand Prix, and rooms were pricy. We booked a room at the Sheraton on the night of the 28th, and figured our best shot was to hope a room was open when we arrived in the morning, or we could hang by the pool until one did. All we needed to do was bide our time until the city
train started running, at 5:30am.
I have to say if you are going to get stuck in an airport in the middle of the night, this one was not too bad. We arrived at the budget terminal, and took a shuttle bus to the main terminal. We joked that we should just ask the driver if we could lie down in the back of the bus and let him drive us around for a few hours, like a baby in a car seat who won’t sleep in her crib. After we hit our food wall in Vietnam, all we talked about was McDonald’s. As the shuttle bus pulled past the terminals, I saw the golden arches gleaming like an oasis in the Sahara. We have always tried to avoid McDonald’s while traveling. We have had McDonald’s at a few airports thus far, including Australia and Kuala Lumpur. We also had it while combating jet lag in Hong Kong and when we were absolutely sick of China our last night in Beijing. But, as a rule, we try to avoid it like the plague. As soon as we were dropped off at the terminal I wanted to run screaming towards
Skid Marks and All
Singapore Formula 1 - the day after the McDonald’s. Okay, that was a bit of an exaggeration, but it tasted oh so yummy. Eric ate the “Mega Mac” a Big Mac with 4 burgers on it. I tried to talk him out of it, but he told me not to be his mother - and stop being a buzz kill, stealing away his fun. So, I watched him eat the Mega Mac, and heard him get yelled at by his mother when we skyped her after our meal.
After hanging at McDonald’s for a bit, we strolled through the airport to kill time. We noticed how many other people were asleep throughout the terminal. It was a little freaky. Some looked like they had moved in. I took a little nap at Gloria Jean’s coffee and a little before 5:30 am we made our way to the hotel, checked in and slept. All things considered, our night in the airport worked out just fine. We arrived at the hotel a little before 7am and they were able to check us in to a room with two single beds. We spent a few minutes in the room and both fell asleep until about 11am. Considering we only
Din Tai Fung
I can't say enough times how much I LOVE the dumplings here. had a one hour time difference from Vietnam, I felt a serious case of jet lag having stayed up all night, slept in the morning, and I could have slept all day too. But, there was food to eat in Singapore.
Gluttony is NOT a Sin in Singapore
Starting with the Mega Mac we continued our Laure Lee inspired tour of Singapore. We rode the MTR subway to two of our favorite eating destinations in the Raffles City Mall. But, this being Singapore, many things are named Raffles, and we exited at Raffles Place, assuming Raffles City was there. We were wrong. A nice guy sorted it out for us and suggested we hop back on the train for another stop to City Hall. It was all coming back to me and things were starting to look familiar. Instead of taking the train one stop, we took a leisurely stroll, albeit driven by our desire to gorge ourselves silly, to the Raffles City Mall. We saw the remnants of the Singapore Grand Prix which ended the night we arrived. There were high metal fences running on either side of the street with overhead lights, bleachers, and
Donut Factory
We actually finished all of them in about 24 hours - the last were finished on our flight to Japan. skid marks on the road. It was kind of cool. Then, we finally hit Raffles City.
You may think I am on the payroll of Din Tai Fung, the dumpling restaurant from the last time we were in Singapore and in Shanghai (and, hopefully in Tokyo later this week). It is one of the most heavenly foods on earth. I cannot thank Laura enough for turning us onto the steamed pork soup dumplings. After our dumpling feast, we hit another Laura recommendation, Donut Factory. This is where the true gluttony comes in. There was a special on a dozen donuts because of the Grand Prix, so we carried an even dozen back to our room, hoping we could finish them before our 10am flight the next morning. The dozen included chocolate raspberry, cookies and cream, peanut butter, peanut butter chocolate, and the 4Cs (chocolate, coconut, cream, and corn). This was the first time I ordered donuts with directions. The very friendly woman at Donut Factory warned us that we should eat the 4Cs donut first. For whatever reason, the other donuts are fine until the next day. So, we went back to our hotel room, opened our two boxes of donuts, and started with the 4Cs. Complete decadence. I love Singapore.
After a brief nap we hit the free happy hour at the executive lounge of the Sheraton and spent some time talking with our new friend, Tan Mei Ling, the Director of Marketing and Business Development. She spent a decent amount of time talking with us during our last two stays, and sat for awhile with us this evening. It is nice to have more friends in Singapore. She even sent a bottle of wine to our room. We could have talked to her all night, but we had one more gorging of food scheduled for that night, at Newton Circus hawker center.
We enjoyed a spicy plate of BBQ stingray, one of my Singaporean favorites, along with a black carrot cake. We are still not sure what is in the carrot cake, but we think it is some sort of thick rice noodle, chopped to look like a vegetable, and then stir fried in soy sauce. It is totally tasty and something that we have only seen in Singapore. We finished the evening with a traditional breakfast food - roti canai. We did not think we would be able to find it for breakfast in the morning, so we found a guy who ran a Muslim food stall to make it as a desert for us - a soft, thin, warm bread grilled and served with spicy curry sauce. Have I mentioned recently that I love Singapore. But, it was the end of our day of gluttony, and we were off to Japan in the morning.
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laura
non-member comment
thanks for the shout out
i wish i were there with you. you must try chili crab at big eater next time in singapore. i'm impressed with mega mac! i'll be back there this christmas myself, i'm excited!