First day in Singapore

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Geo: 1.28941, 103.85

Day 1 started with us getting off at KLIA in transit. We landed at around 4.15am local time and our flight wasn't taking off until 8.05am. So we went around the airport looking around. KLIA has changed a lot since the last time I was here more than 15 years ago. It's more modernised and now has 2 terminals which are connected by a driverless train.

KLIA is actually quite a good airport now. I remember it used to be quite chaotic but now it seems less so. There are shops and a couple of places there were shops and shops selling only chocolate! Harrods' even set up shop here. It's a bit like Singapore where every gate has a security screening. It seems that KL is now also a bit like Singapore, being used as a transit hub.

Going through security was quite a funny experience. G6, which we were meant to go to, and G4 are next to each other but once gone through the metal detectors, the gates are not connected anymore so the gates are linked behind the security screening. We lined up at G6, thinking it was going to take a long time as it was long queue, then we noticed that G4 had no one lining up so we jumped the queue by going through G4 and joined up with the rest of the Singapore passengers in a much quicker time.

Once at Singapore, collecting our luggage was quite easy – from leaving the plane to getting to our hotel took only an hour! Our driver talked to us a bit about Singapore and somehow diverted to the brand of Bata which I know from my childhood days – he said it stood for Buy And Throw Away!

Once at the hotel, we caught up with the other two guys. We went to visit Chinatown. That was busy! For a Friday, the markets were open and there were quite a few things to look at with a lot of souvenirs were being sold, especially shirts, fridge magnets and pens. We had lunch at Maxwell Food Centre, which is basically a collection of Chinese food. We had Tian Tian's Hainan chicken and it was yummy! They put a special sauce to it which enhanced the flavour of the chicken and the chicken rice, you could have eaten on its own. They seem to have an endorsement from Anthony Bourdain but not quite sure if that was 100% correct.

We did a quick visit to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. Though it was a nice temple and all, it seemed to be very commercialised, especially inside with them selling souvenir items.

After that visit, we ended up with more markets before finally heading to our hotel for a quick break before dinner...except that we ended up walking the wrong way. We wanted to go past the Bakkwa place but instead of a left, we did a right and walked for 10 minutes before we realised we went the wrong way. In that heat, 10 minutes walking felt like a couple of hours, so we quickly turned back and went up the street in the correct direction.

Winnie wasn't happy as she was tired from the night's flight and didn't like to walk in that heat! We got some bakkwa to appease her. Finally got into out hotel room and cooled off before going to dinner.

What's on the menu? Chilli crab!!! Our driver said Jumbo is very very expensive BUT also very very good so we'll see tonight if the price matches matches the taste!

So the chilli crab! That was super yummy! So much so that in fact we complained when we got to our hotel room that it wasn't enough. The sauce was sweet enough to like it and hot enough to give it that kick. The crab was not hot at all, in fact it was more sweet than hot. Since we were at Riverside Point, we were able to sit by the river. We nearly missed our booking as our booking had a 15 minute grace period.

The crab was finished clean! We had the sauce with everything that was presented to us, noodle, vegie, man tou...even by itself. Halfway through eating, they started setting up
other tables and every table had a 'reserve' sigh on it! I've never seen something like this before!

The good things about Jumbo Seafood was that it had free wi-fi. I saw the sign and password and as soon as I said, guys there's wi-fi here...everyone dug into their bags and got out their phones to log in! Email, skype and facebook were all used all at once by all of us!!

After dinner we went to Gardens by the Bay. They had these giants pods which light up in different colours. So much so that I thought I was in a scene straight out of Avatar. Those pods were about 15-20 metres high. We took a walk on the canopy high up above the pods.This would have been about 10 to 15 metres up. The canopy connected two pods. It wasn't so bad as the view from the canopy was quite good but I accidently looked down by checking the photos on my digital camera and then I realised how high up I was. However the scariest part was when the wind picked up and started rocking the walkway! So high up and with no safety harness, with the walkway swaying a little bit, that's a bit scary!

After that we had a look at the lanterns. They were there because of the mid autumn festival. The lanterns were quite impressive with different themes and animals being portrayed. For us after this proved to be the end of the day, with less than 3 hours sleep in 48 hours, for me it was quite a day and quite tiring.

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Photos

Chinatown
Those are actually heritage listed and the outside can't be changed

Tian Tian Chicken Rice
Someone was so hungry that she couldn't wait