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It was much more enjoyable in Singapore than at the border! No surprise there, but we were lucky enough to have contact, through One Dollar, with John - a Singaporean through and through, who showed us a completely different side to Singapore.
First off, we went to see the Marina area - the Marina Bay Sands hotel, shaped like a boat with an infinity pool on the roof!, then the Gardens By the Bay - twin domes with cooler climates similar to the idea with the Eden Project, then the new Cruise Centre, passing by areas of land that are being reclaimed.
We went to the URA next - the Urban Redevelopment Association office. We would have never thought to come to this office, but it is like a historical museum of the city and includes some of the future plans and a couple of really great models of the city and the island. It was great - and a good overview for when you go up to the Marina Bay Sands observation deck and look out over the city. I couldn't believe I was getting excited about city planning, but it was so interesting! I loved the 'concept plan' and then 'the master plan'! This exists! Awesome!
John then took us to Singapore's finest chicken rice stall - Tian Tian. We were a bit early for dinner, about 5:30pm when we got ours... but as we were finishing and heading off the queue for this stall was passed the next 3 stalls and around the corner! Chicken rice is a staple in Singapore, and I haven't really seen it elsewhere. The chicken is cooked in a different way to I would ever imagine - first dipped in boiling water, then in iced water and this is repeated several times... The chicken should be just cooked, with the skin and fat like a jelly coating. Then the hot water is used as a stock to cook the rice in. I liked it, but Fintan isn't one for the fat, so I think he kind of missed the point of it...
We decided to head back to the hotel and went to get the car, but in the parking lot Fintan started to gravitate towards this Aston Martin DB9, I had to remind him it wasn't our car! Then he spotted a Royal Enfield bike parked up as well! Wow!
John collected us the next day and gave us a further tour of the island, a section he said we would be able to look out on over dinner from Sentosa Island. We got to walk on the Henderson Bridge, looking out for wild monkeys, and had a drive around in John's lovely Lexus 450H hybrid (now also on Fintan's Christmas list).
We went to dinner at the Boxing Crab on Sentosa Island, with John and a group of his friends. Everyone was really nice and John helped me with my terrible chop stick skills through our enormous feast! First we had a Chinese New Year Salad - there is a whole poem that goes with it as you put the ingredients in and mix it up together. Then we had prawns with oats, then tortilla chips with chilli crab dip, soft shell crab, and then came the big crabs - chilli crab, salt crab, caramalised curry crab and black pepper crab! What a great evening - I have never had so much, and such delicious crab!! We even had bibs!! Ha ha!
So we had a good time in Singapore, but know that we only saw such a small part of it we will have to come back!
- comments
mum Oh that sounds so good. I've shown Peter your photos of the indoor falls which are amazing. Hoping to go there ourselves sometime. And the real tour, the real deal, so good. And excited to see you're off to Perth Thursday! What a trip you've had!!