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.

 

Singapore Sling Tour: Day 3 Exploring Sentosa

By the numbers

No Monkeys

12.42 kms

16,162 steps

The day started early enough as I wanted us to be down at Sentosa island before we ran out of time to meet up with friends at the mega shopping centre of Vivocity for lunch, which would be awesome. At the time I was wanting to take the train the long way round on the circle line from Bischan to Harbourfront station on the MRT, but it was kind of lucky I instead went the other way to the downtown line via Dohby Ghaut. We seemed to have left at the wrong time of the morning as it was like the morning commute became really crowded even when we went through the rush at Dohby to change trains. We had to stand, but everyone got off at Harbourfront. We could have caught the monorail into Sentosa from Vivocity, but I thought it would be more fun to get the cable car over there even if we had to catch two since both went in different directions.

 

We were wondering where it was at first and followed the signs. We had to hit the lift button in one of the buildings so we could take a ride up to whatever floor the cable car was. The theme for the car was Hello Kitty due to it being 50 years. We had two directions we could have taken and that was either up to the mountain or onto the island. We would have to go over the Universal studios resort on out way past and see the ships off the coast. At the same time you could see the roped off areas from the recent oil spill and several small vessels hanging around. Once we got off, we had to walk over to the next cable car that went to Siloso beach. There was a reason why we ended up here as we were visiting the most preserved fortification in Singapore. The Fortress was Fort Siloso, part of the fall of Singapore in World War 2. We could walk around the area on several different paths. The first one we would take was the skywalk and that would give us a great view of the area with information panels about various landmarks in the area like the islands and even the offshore waste facility. That I didn’t know they had. It did seem pretty quest even though it was nearing 10am. The stories spoke of the beginning of fort Siloso and how there were other fortifications on Singapore. Also the myth they were positioned wrong, which the truth was more interesting. They had the wrong ammunition for land based battles as they were used primarily for naval attacks. The story went on about the fall of Singapore where the guns were either destroyed or pushed off the cliff, the people’s experiences of the war especially from the POW perspective as some were on Sentosa at the time and the aftermath of the war when Singapore ended up with its independence. You could walk around most of the area and others were getting some maintenance done to them. It was well worth the visit so I was happy for that.

 

After we walked out of the Fort area that was next door to an upmarket luxuary resort, we had photos taken at the sign for Siloso, although very few people were on the beach even though you were not allowed to swim. We did notice by this time of day nearing lunch time that there were plenty of people arriving for the touristy parts of the area. It was also getting to become the hottest part of the day and we were heading off the island. Before we left, we did part of the Imbiah walking trail right next to the skyrail. We still didn’t see any monkeys as there could have been some at the fort. I think it was lucky we had taken the skyrail as we saved alot of walking. We caught the gondolas back to the other side, where we went into what we thought was Vivocity. I looked at the map and found we were at a smaller shopping centre next door called Harbourside. We decided to walk next door and then went up to the Sentosa express monorail was located as we were meeting up with Dawn for lunch nearby. It was actually good to sit for a little bit and then we were off to have lunch in a robot restaurant. Though first we ended up getting our glasses washed.

 

Lunch was at a Japanese robot restaurant where robots delivered your food to the table and you ordered through their website on your phone. It was pretty different and the food did arrive and stopped next to you so that you could take it out. Dawn’s sister arrived and we were chatting over the food and not long after we were going to visit a dog friendly pet shop. I had a quick look at the local library and you could only really enter with a library card. The petshop had plenty of pet products inside, even more than I had seen before, although I don’t usually visit petshops. We all parted ways to have a wander and I did find some shops that were interesting including a blind box where you could end up with one of half a dozen figurines, but you don’t know which. As time went on, Dawn also had to leave. Though we both wandered on a random path towards the MRT station, we soon found the two shopping centres Vivocity and Harbourside were connected. I somehow ended up with new socks from a sock shop as I thought the deals were really good. This time the ride home on the MRT took us the long way round on the circle line where we changed at Bishan. Then we ended up at the home station of Novena where we walked back to the hotel. Turns out a bus load were waiting to checkin and the lobby area was getting rather crowded.

 

Singapore Sling tour: Day 2 Amongst the Orchids

By the numbers

17,527 steps

13.98 steps

 

Last night as I was writing my blog, I was crashing and hitting the sleep wagon pretty hard. Today I was refreshed and ready to roll for another day. I must have really needed the sleep as I was wanting to take off today. The plan was to visit the Orchid garden at the Botanic Gardens. I had seen it last time I was over here and was wanting to visit it with mum as it would be pretty much interesting. We both got moving as we were going to be dropped off after meeting with our friend Dawn, who also wanted to check it out.

We had a quick breakfast and met Dawn, who got a grabcar for us to get to the gardens. Last time I had caught the train so it wasn’t that bad. The traffic looked pretty busy, but that could be Singapore on a normal day. It could also be something Singaporian not to post the fuel prices so when you pull into the servo you have no choice. It was great being dropped off out the front and being able to walk in. Mum got a shock when she seen her first squirrel that ran out in front of us and then proceeded to act like it was twitching on drugs. A nearby sign did say there were monkeys along with the otters that were around. Also a fine if you feed them, so you don’t really want to do that.

 

The National Orchid Garden houses many Orchids and I soon found out just how many. The heat outside was constantly muggy, but not overly that we would be too uncomfortable. Mum was pointing out the many different Orchids to Dawn while I was the one taking photos, although it was interesting watching several people with camera equipment floating around and taking photos. One of the flowers I never knew about was a black Orchid that I would have dismissed as nothing. One part had celebrity Orchids, which were named after a variety of people from royalty in Europe and Asia to many politicians including Australia and New Zealand. We got to see many Orchids from around the world including some from Australia. A coolhouse that was temperature controlled was great to wander through fort a little while as it wasn’t hot like the outside, and there were plenty of flowers. It was enjoyable just to relax instead of trying to rush from location to location as I tend to do. Once we were done in the Orchid garden, we looked through the gift shop before calling it time at the Botanic gardens as it was warm outside and we were going to look at sandals for mum on Orchard Road.

 

We were heading for the Takashimaya building that was a Japanese store. It had designer everything and Dawn had dropped us off to go looking. I had a bookshop on the top floor I wanted to see. It is the flagstore in the country, so I can understand why it would be so big. Deciding before we went hunting that getting food would be a good idea. We both were not sure what we wanted as we looked at the different Japanese style foods. I found crustless sandwiches and then ended up in a supermarket called Cold Storage. I grabbed a Bento box mainly as I didn’t want to keep wandering around. Mum found a fruit salad that she would eat. Looking for a seat was the next big thing, but we found one. I ate with my hands as I never had utensils and never asked as we used the self service machines. We soon found the prices to the sandals to be out of our range so would be happy to look in a smaller mall. We soon found ourselves wandering through the bookstore. I knew it was huge and there were books I was looking for. I ended up with several on Singapore history, and then manga as they just appeared. I left a few things alone as I didn’t have the room in my bag for more books. My bag was actually full enough that I couldn’t fit several things in.

 

I wanted to take a pic of mum outside the Cartier watch shop, but she didn’t want to. The Ion building was huge and we went there for the train back to our home base. Once we were back in Novena, we ended up in a shop to get some sandals at the fraction of the price for the ones on Orchard road. I surprised mum when we popped out of a different part of the shopping centre, and we still havnt been to the upper floors yet. We walked back and had a little rest before walking down the road to get some food for dinner. We ended up in a small Thai food restaurant with a roll that was really nice. The lady had laughed when we didn’t want it too hot and as a normal hot. Can imagine the kick from the chilli. Exploring the general area was a great idea and one we should do often.

 

Singapore Sling tour: Day 1 Long flight to Singapore

By the numbers

1 plane

15 kilo bag

2 people

We were a late night flight out of Brisbane and we ended up at the airport pretty early, where we had dinner and a little wait before we could drop our bags off. The long term airport parking got us in straight away as we turned up. It wasn’t a huge drama to print things off, but we had a soap opera that built up. I could print off my bag tag and boarding pass, but mum tried 3 times until I took over. Magic touch until bag drop came around and somehow it tried scanning mum’s boarding pass and didn’t like the bag being weighed. I was starting to panic and worry until it fixed itself somehow. Now I was worried it wouldn’t follow me to my destination. Once through to customs I couldn’t find my passport as it somehow ended up in another bag pocket.

 

We waited around for the plane to board and it was boarding by class and rows. In we went and it didn’t even feel like a plane as I couldn’t tell that we were picking up speed until we took off. I found the movies that I wanted to watch, although I ended up watching one and later on two parts. I was sitting in an aisle seat and kept being bumped by everyone walking past, but I got enough rest along the way to survive getting to Singapore. Once we landed it turned out we had to walk from one end of the terminal 4 to the other and it was a huge terminal. It seemed to go on forever, but we made it to the near empty immigration hall. I gave a thumbs up to the lady who asked if I had filled out the arrivals card. I got a thank you for acknowledging her work. Our bags were going around the bag claim on approach, so I got mine and mum waited for hers to arrive.

 

I had to make sure we got the right train to the correct station and turned out the cost of travel was $!.20. We met up with a friend, Dawn who turned up for breakfast and we made plans for the time we are there. Though I did edit plans afterwards. The good thing was we were told we could check in early at around 10am. That came quick and we got out bags stowed and I had a sleep. I ended up waking mum up to go sight seeing. Off to Raffles Place we went. We explored some of the area including The Merlion and Marina Bay sands. Singapore was getting to know how to do its National day, with time in advance. I had never walked through Stamford place, and that was interesting with red carpets. We ended up following streets back to Raffles place, and we ended up lost. Up and down several escalators and people were still in a hurry.

 

After getting back to our rooms we rechearged and then went out to a condo for dinner with Dawn. The security guard was confused, and turned out to be just in our bags. We made our way to Dawn, where we had dinner by the pool. We were going to swim, but we dint have enough towels for that. It was pretty easy going outside and the weather stayed fine luckily.

 

Singapore sling tour

 

This journey to Singapore has been a year in the making with an addition I had not expected. I wanted to visit Singapore for my birthday and be elsewhere for once basically being somewhere different. Mum asked if she could come along and I agreed as it would be interesting for someone who hasn’t been further than New Zealand to experience somewhere completely new.

 

The preparation of this Singaporian journey is more relaxing than my last whirlwind trip to New Zealand as I had to get ready to fly within hours, forgetting some things along the way. All on which were a minor problem.

Several days before I leave, I have already sorted out my declaration card, set my flight to auto check in, mostly packed my bag, printed off my itinerary, I even know some of the movies being played on the aircraft. Devices are being charged and looked at to be in working condition

 

There is still a to do list before leaving, but I seem to be the chief organiser and don’t really want to leave anything for the last minute. Somehow I am thinking this entire trip will become a gastronomic tour with a good friend showing us the best foodie type places, where I will have to be rolled onto the plane home.

 

Yes, there is also the planned visit to Raffles for a Singapore Sling. Before the epic journey, there is the mandatory reality check of going to work before any of the final preparation. I do have the day off so I am not rushing around. This time the trainlines are shut down due to track works so I know this before hand.