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Published: February 15th 2009
Merlion Statue
The Merlion Statue with the skyscrapers of the city and the Fullerton Hotel in the background.Imagine the "oh shit" look on my face when, a week before I was to fly home to New Zealand for two weeks, I discovered that I had a
14-hour stopover in Singapore. Fourteen hours. From 1845 to 0845 the next morning.
What would I do for fourteen hours? The logical thing would be to find somewhere to sleep, but where?
Fortunately, I have a cousin who now lives in Singapore and thanks to Facebook, I also had the means of contacting a guy I hadn't seen or talked to in years.
Perhaps more importantly, my cousin Marcus is an awesome and generous guy and was more than happy to put me up for the night.
So what initially looked like a major hassle has now turned into the perfect, refreshing stopover that would neatly break up my 30 hour journey to the other side of the world.
After a day at work, my journey started with a trudge through the snow to the tube station. It was literally freezing. London's biggest snow storm in 20 years had got me worried that my flight would be delayed or even cancelled. Thankfully, the flight left with no major hitches and
Singapore Skyline
Brilliant view from the waterfront. I would make the wedding that I was going back to New Zealand for. Hmmm, perhaps I shouldn't have had that hot Indian curry before a long haul flight though...
Arriving in Singapore, the sudden 30-degree shift in temperature was a bit of a shock to the system. Even more so after realising I still had my thermals on after stepping into Singapore's stifling humidity.
I then took Singapore's very efficient MRT system to City Hall Station where I met up with Marcus and his rather shy girlfriend, Evelyn.
It was fantastic catching up with him, as we talked about our family, old times and of course, football. Turns out we have quite a bit in common.
We then headed to Chinatown, where I was looking forward to tucking into some Singaporean cuisine.
We went to a place known simply as "Food Street" which is basically a whole street of stands selling, well, food. We managed to get quite a variety of food for our Singaporean feast including "la la" (not cooked Teletubby although that would be highly amusing - small chilli and bean paste-fried shellfish similar to pi pis or mussels), curried stingray, char kuay teow fried
Marcus, Me and The Feast
About to tuck into some scrumptious Singaporean cuisine. noodles, tang yuan (balls of rice-dough with peanuts or lotus paste inside them, served in a ginger soup) and chicken and beef satays topped off with coconut juice directly from a coconut.
It was delicious...om nom nom...
Feeling rather full, we then thought it might be a good idea to sweat out some of the calories by walking around Chinatown for awhile.
Singapore of course, was a British colony for a while and many of the pretty, old colonial buildings remain in Chinatown. Many shops were also selling souvenirs and I politely declined Marcus' offer of a lion-dance puppet, a remnant of Chinese New Year that was just a week earlier.
Many of the streets still sported Chinese New Year lighting and decorations though, which really livened up the area.
We then took a cab to the waterfront, where a colleague of mine had recommended I go. Right opposite the six-star Fullerton Hotel, the waterfront afforded a beautiful view of Singapore's skyline by night. Among the buildings that stood out was the new Esplanade Exhibition & Concert Hall and the Singapore Flyer, Singapore's version of the London Eye. The waterfront is also home to arguably Singapore's most famous
Souvenir Store
Full of Chinese New Year paraphernalia. landmark, the Merlion Statue which is a mythical creature that is half-fish, half-lion. Singapore is in fact known as "The Lion City", despite lions having never actually inhabited Singapore apart from the zoo.
After the waterfront, we then took a cab back to Marcus's apartment in Ang Mo Kio, but not before a supper of roti chanai (greasy naan/chapatti-like bread dipped in curry sauce) with egg and sugar washed down with an iced "teh tarik" (traditional Indian milk tea, literal translation = "pulled tea" because of how they repeatedly pour the tea from one cup to another from great heights while making it). Yum.
I have had most of all these foods before on previous family visits to Malaysia and it was awesome to sample them all again here in Singapore.
Rather unsurprisingly the food didn't help me sleep, and with my body clock completely out of whack, I was wide awake for most of the stopover that I was meant to sleep through. Oh well.
Up not-so-bright and early at 6am, Marcus and I then made our way to Singapore's Changi Airport, one of the biggest in the world, and into the flashy-as, futuristic, brand new Terminal
The Waterfront
Trendy and newly built-up part of town lined with bars and restaurants on the water's edge. 3 from where my flight was to depart.
We enjoyed one last meal of french toast with "kaya", a custard-like spread made of coconut cream, eggs and sugar. Yummo.
It turned out to be the most awesome stopover, nothing like the sleeping-on-the-terminal-floor stopover I had initially envisaged. In two weeks time, I will be stopping again in Singapore, albeit this time only for six hours, where I will once again catch up with Marcus.
So off into the sky towards New Zealand and home I went. I won't be blogging on New Zealand since it's home, but I thought that the Singapore Stopover was definitely worth a blog.
It was a feast of a time, although lots of hot food and curry is probably not the best thing to eat before a long haul flight as I failed to heed the lesson of the first flight. Oh well, it was worth it.
Derek ;-)
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Debbie
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Wah Lau!
Wah! So much food leh! Aiya, I'm so jealous lor... can't wait til I go home to Singapore la! check out my Singlish Derek... pretty good for a kiwi.