The Original Sling

The Raffles Hotel

Built in 1899, and named after Singapore's founder, Sir Stamford Raffles, the Raffles Hotel is one of the worlds most famous hotels. It has been home to guests such as Michael Jackson, Rudyard Kipling, Queen Elizabeth II, Joseph Conrad and even No Doubt and The Black Eyed Peas. Despite it's notable clientele, Raffles Hotel is most widely known for being the birthplace of The Singapore Sling. The date is not known specifically, but sometime between 1910 and 1915, Raffles Long Bar bartender Ngiam Tong Boon invented and perfected the cocktail.

It was a beautiful hotel
(At $600+USD/night it should be...)

The Front Entrance

A fountain in one of the inner courtyards

You're right, $25.00 is a bit steep for an afternoon cocktail, but how could we order anything other than the sling?

The Singapore Sling!

This was actually the first time we had ever had one, and will probably be the last. It was tasty, but much sweeter than we prefer our drinks. We generally gravitate towards drinks that are cheap, dirty and strong. The Singapore Sling is none of those!

Roving the City

Hotel Berjaya

The exchange rate was almost 1 USD to 1 SD, making Singapore the most expensive country we've visited, besides Japan.

Every time we left our hotel, we passed this damn, almost life-size naked dude reflexology chart. Every single time! And we always looked at it too!

The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

In 1980, during the restoration of a stupa in Myanmar, a tooth and other various artifacts of the Buddha were discovered. They were kept hidden for 22 years, until being passed into the hands of Venerable Monk Shi Fuzhou. Ven. Shi Fuzhou then took upon himself the duty of designing and funding the The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum.

Although our hotel was just blocks away from it, and we walked by many times, we never went in. During opening hours, there were always crowds of people bowing and praying in front of the building, either on their way in to worship or their way out from worshiping. To us, it didn't seem right going in and wandering around as non-Buddhists.

A quick, claypot brunch

Claypot Chicken & Rice

Claypot cooking is a common method in Southern China, Malaysia and Singapore. Generally, the rice is cooked in the bottom of the pot first and the other ingredients, such as chicken, cabbage, onions and soy sauce are added later, as they don't require as long to cook. Traditionally, claypot cooking is done with a charcoal heat source which gives the food it's distinct, smoky flavor. While in Singapore, we tried a few claypot dishes, and they were all about the same. They were good for a few bites, but the extreme amount of soy sauce became too over powering after a while.

Lau Pa Sat Festival Market
It was neither a festival nor a market...

In the late 1800's, the site of the Lau Pa Sat Festival Market was the first and only market within the city/state of Singapore. It served as one of the main centers of commerce for about 80 years, until in 1973, it was declared a national monument and completely reconstructed in 1990. Today, it is no longer a market, but a huge, food court / hawker center in the heart of downtown offering hundreds of dining options to the business men and women of Singapore.

We stumbled upon Lua Pa Sat right around noon on a workday, so the place was packed with the lunchtime rush. It was chaotic and frightening. For those reasons, we don't have many pictures of it.

A buffet style stall offering any sort of
Southeast Asian cuisine you could imagine

The Shrimp and Double Shrimp Supreme from Wendy's!

No smoking, no food, no wiener dogs, no cameras and no cats allowed!

Working Men

We didn't try it, so we don't know for sure, but this is most likely one of the grossest things that could be pulled out of a microwave.

Apparently, Santa spends his time during the off season in Singapore, moonlighting as a saxophonist at the Guo Fu Steamboat Restaurant.

The Singapore River
Huge & Dirty!

St. Andrew's Cathedral
The country's largest Anglican church

Hangin' wit tha girls

As always, we were outside of Korea, so we could buy real cheese... The baguette was still not quite up to European standards, but the stinky blue was spot on!

To Singapore!

Monday morning, while D&T were at work, we slept in and relaxed. After a little breakfast (at Big Apple Donuts again), we packed up our suitcases and got ready to go. Since they had to work all week, and that would interfere with our playtime, we decided our best option would be to spend the work week in Singapore, an easy 3.5 hour bus ride away. After our first Malaysian bus experience, we were slightly nervous, but unlike the last, we were able to buy our tickets for this one online prior to leaving Korea, so it was already 1,000 times more reputable!

"Yay, this bus hasn't been on fire before!"


A note from Singaporean Immigration:

WARNING! DEATH TO DRUG TRAFFICKERS UNDER SINGAPORE LAW
(It was a good thing we smoked it all with D&T...)

As feared, we hit traffic just outside of the city

Generally, 'Super VIP' would never be a description we'd use on any bus, but after the KL to Malacca bus earlier in the trip, 'Super VIP' didn't come close to describing how nice this one was!

We didn't dare

After unloading our stuff from the bus, finding an ATM, taxiing to the hotel and checking in, we had enough time to change our clothes and head out in search of dinner. Our hotel, near the Chinatown area of town, was very centrally located, so we were able to easily walk to a number of areas. On our first night, we decided to head to the Singapore River area, and check out Clarke Quay and Boat Quay, the streets/wharfs skirting the river known for bars and restaurants.

Many of the streets still had their Lunar New Years decorations up, which made the city look awesome both during the day and at night.

Tiger: Singapore's favorite beer since 1932!
A standard Asian lager. Not great, but not terrible.

Beef in black bean sauce!

Tom Yum!

We could never figure out if the BK Whopper Bar was actually affiliated with Burger King or not. Andrew thought it was just another copyright infringement in Asia, but Judy was convinced that it was related.

Sake Time!

Self-Timer

'Appreciating' the art outside of the Asian Civilisations Museum

Judy's favorite picture from the trip!

Even though most 7-11's outside of North America don't have Slurpee machines, they have other machines or other products that completely make up for it, and make them phenomenally better...

A mashed potato & gravy vending machine!
A mashed potato & gravy vending machine!
A mashed potato & gravy vending machine!

While, of course, the Magic Mashed mashed potatoes weren't really too good, they were certainly magical. That was no lie! And, after well over a year of not being able to buy mashed potatoes & gravy anywhere they definitely hit the spot.

Singapore had it all!