23/05/12 - Singapore's playground

Afternoon Tea in the Tiffin Room at Raffles

A mocktail at Mt Faber overlooking the
Cable Car

Now we'd left Aus things were
getting serious!

Sentosa island was the first port of call this morning, where we got an education on the history of the cable car system into the island after having ridden it. The island was essentially a massive playground, full of touristy activities and theme parks. Annoyingly the water park hasn’t quite been built yet, so that one will have to wait until another time… Of course, there’s another massive Merlion there – we somehow resisted the temptation to climb into its mouth. 

Baby and lady Merlion

Another Merlion

Back on the ‘mainland’, it was straight to Raffles – the most renowned hotel in the city, and famous for the first Singapore Sling ever made. Instead of heading straight for the bar, we went for the more sophisticated option – afternoon tea. We arrived just in time for the afternoon session which included the tea stand and a help yourself buffet with dumplings, lots of cakes and fruit. Several trips to the buffet later, we rolled out of the Tiffin Room and popped our heads into the bar, but with our bulging stomachs we couldn’t face tucking into a drink (might have also had an issue maneuvering our bulks into the bar!).

View from Marina Bay Sands - by day

Unsuccessfully tried to walk off some of the food heading back towards Marina Bay Sands, where we zoomed up to the 76^th floor for another view of the city in daylight this time. After that we pottered around the shoppes for a bit, enjoyed the Wonderfull light show, then got our 15 minutes of fame at the Andy Warhol exhibition. Given we hadn’t eaten in about the previous 6 hours, we headed for some local fare (a laksa) at the Lau Pa Sat hawker centre (they wouldn’t let Annaliza buy a single satay stick for 60 cents – how rude!) before doing a nighttime walking tour of Chinatown.

No Gracie, so jumping dolphins had to suffice

One for one at Happy Hour -
where's the bar?

Key Learnings

1.  Xerxes Medora (an old Deloitte UK colleague) knows his stuff when it comes to Singapore – the notes he gave us before our trip out to Australia were still spot on 4 years later!

2.  Not sure Singaporeans understand the concept of happy hour. Getting 1 drink when you pay for 1 is not exactly a reason to keep flocking back!