Singapore Sling Tour: Day 4 Slinging Singapore slings

By the numbers

1 Singapore Sling

1 Million Dollar Cocktail

9.97 kms

12,826 steps

The day started with us eating some really nice pastries that we had been given the day before. The plan was to have a nice lunch at a Peranakan restaurant and then off to Raffles later in the afternoon with two stops in between at a toy museum and a building with a garden on several floors. That was the plan anyway. We headed off towards the train station where we found a coffee shop to have a drink before meeting up with Dawn who was going to give us a tour. We headed to Raffles City, where we would walk past buildings like the Capitol Kempinski Hotel that is a grand old building compared to everything else.  We walked around to where the Peranakan museum is, and the same area that seemed to have been the first botanic gardens in Singapore at the base of Fort Canning. We were heading for a restaurant basically next door called True Blue, which was a Peranakan restaurant that served authentic foods.

Once we were able to enter the building after looking around a little bit outside, we were shown out seats, and were given some sweet tea known as Longan and red date tea, which has no caffeine. Chicken with black nuts I think it was and you had the sauce that you put on the rice while scooping out the contents of the nuts. All I can say was that it was very interesting even though we had several other dishes including an omelette. They even included dessert. I was pretty full, but mum did try a Durian mousse type dessert, although Dawn ate the rest of it. We had a look around at everything in the building as we were stunned by the displays including the wooden cabinets with their designs. All throughout the meal, the servers kept pouring the tea to top the cups up. You know what? At no stage did we feel like our bladders were going to burst. The food was also made to make sure it wasn’t too overwhelmingly spicy.

 

When it was time to leave, and we could have always been rolled out the door if we stayed longer. The thought for us to walk to our next destination was dashed as it was pretty humid and thought best we didn’t attempt it. Along the way we had a look at the Armenian church with its little cemetery. Nearby was a Children’s museum and the Singapore National Archives building. We kept being proven that it was so easy to catch a grabcar within minutes of being ordered. Something that was surprising. The next destination was the Capitaspring building. We arrived early and asked about entry to the floors for entry to the gardens. Turns out in the fine print of the website, you had to spend $10 each at one of the linked restaurants / cafes so you get a speedy entry. We got some drinks and would soon be on our way up to the 51^st floor. I thought it best to start there and then work our way down. The view from the top was spectacular and I could see out to the ocean. The plants had names and their used, although the signs were spread out. There was plenty to see and something different on each side of the building as you went up. When we made our way by lift to floor 21 and work out way down to floor 18 or 17, I found that it was a good ideas as we were doing down steps and not up. The gardens were not as good as the ones on the roof, but it was worth going to see. The museum we were going to visit, would be left for another time.

 

Another grabcar later, we were dropped off at Raffles Hotel. We were here for a Singapore Sling and we took a wander around the grounds, although we were supervised in the lobby to take a quick series of photos before being ushered out. The doorman was an Indian bloke dressed in finery and up for any task. We made our way towards the Long Bar via everything to the side including several shops. Security reacted when I looked at jewellery. They literally were alert when I approached the window. The line up at the Long Bar was actually long. We ended up at the other end in the Writers Bar as that was where our booking was. The bartenders gave us customer service out of this world and even included a little bit of philosophy along the way and a sense of good humour. We ended up with a Singapore Sling and a Million Dollar Cocktail, Dawn had a False Dawn. I even got a little cake towards the end of the time there. Early, but it was so nice. We were even asked to come back sometime. By this time it was already evening and time to head off back to where we were staying even as I took some pictures on leaving.