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Wednesday 29th September
We were woken by Lin on the phone telling us to get ready as she and her mum were taking us to her health club for a swim and chillax in the jacuzzi. We had planned to see Lin but not until the evening, it was party day, Wednesday night was cheese night in Singapore... We were going to make the most of it! It was a wonderful surprise to head out early and was great to meet Lin's Mum who was lovely just as you'd expect. Again it was a fine warm day and it was great to finally do some exercise in the Olympic size pool of the health club. The whole place was very classy set right by the beach with wonderful views over the water. Indeed we spent most of our time in the jacuzzi watching the sun set over the still sea, a great way to spend the day.
A shower and dress up in the plush changing rooms and we were ready for a night on the tiles, before being surprised with another treat as Lin's Mum insisted on taking us for dinner. The restaurant, situated in the health club was a fantastic mix of Chinese and Malay food, we were joined by Lin's dad, a lovely man. While he and I chatted about golf, cameras and gadgets the girls talked weddings and families we all tucked in to the delicious meal. It was lovely to sit down and have a family meal, something I know we had both been missing. After the meal we both sampled some of the traditional desserts, which I must say were very bizarre. Sweet mixed with savory like kidney beans, we also managed to try the infamous durrian, indeed it tasted as bad as it smelt. It was a wonderful meal, Lin's parents were fantastic and we couldn't thank them enough for a wonderful day, they had really spoilt us and made us feel at home.
The night, however was just getting started, as darkness fell in we made our way into the city, geared up for some drinking and dancing. We started at the quayside, a place full of bars and restaurants, packed even on a Wednesday night with skimpily clad teenagers and suited and booted twenty somethings. Clinic bar was our first port of call, complete with wheel chair seats, operating chairs, drinks dispensed from drips and waitresses dressed as nurses. It was a great idea and we ordered a pricey but fun cocktail drip which we quickly dispensed with. After a few comical pictures we moved on to a different bar with great decor and live music, complete with a huge Singaporean drag queen. Here we enjoyed the music while sinking a few beers, even TJ got in on the action now taking a liking to the good stuff.
After an hour or so, sufficiently intoxicated, we jumped in a taxi to the main event... Zouk. This huge internationally renowned club every Wednesday night turns into a cheese fest, students from all over flock here to dance to old school cheese... Think Rick Ashley. Not only that but they come to dance in unison, yup now think Rick Ashley with a mass of drunk students following a lead dancer throwing different shapes in unison to the lyrics. Insane is the only word to describe it, well actually insanely fun. After two jugs of seriously strong long island iced teas we were all trying to follow the masses making complete fools of ourselves and having a blast along with it. It had to be one of the funniest nights out we'd had since our uni days. After hours of laughing, dancing and hugging we topped it off with the obligatory burger to wash the copious amounts of alcohol down. At this point, we left Lin and the night was seemingly coming to end, until things took a little turn for the worse. Its not hard to imagine what came next the taxi had to be stopped, the clean streets of Singapore were dirtied and we had to wander around for a good couple of hours stopping regularly for a little spit. You can imagine what I'm talking about, you are probably picturing it right now and I know who you've got doing all that no doubt you are feeling sorry for the other person right now. That's in your mind I know it is... Now I can't get into trouble here because I haven't actually said who did what but let's just say someone had their first hangover the next day and boy was it a big one!
Thursday 30th September
The day of the hangover... Headed to Wendy's on Orchard Road for some much needed grease to cure someones hangover... That's about it, oh and lots of talk about why someone doesn't feel very well and how bad they feel about defiling the clean streets of Singapore.
Friday 1st October
Now that everything was back to normal we headed into the city to soak in some of the central landmarks and visit the IT mall, a huge complex with floor upon floor of cheap IT goods. I'm going to be honest and tell you that we were still getting up ridiculously late in the day, not that we were being lazy but we didn't seem to go to bed until four or five in the morning. We couldn't shake the jet lag and it meant that it was late in the afternoon before we made it to the mall.
The Mall was amazing with hundreds of small IT shops, some independent some branded, selling everything from laptops to audio equipment. At the top and bottom of the mall there were two big department stores selling everything you could think of, with all the shops in one place, prices were low. Restaurants were dotted around here and there and eventually TJ had given up and retired to one as I kept wandering around, looking at cameras and drooling over the cheap Apple prices.
We left and headed to the quay to meet Lin after her lectures, by now it was early evening and she had gone to watch a friend sing at a bar. We were quite interested; the bar, named Beer Market, had a live stock market on all the alcohol that they served. Prices dropped and rose depending on real time sales, if a beer was being bought a lot the price would slowly rise, likewise prices would drop slowly if people stopped buying. There were also market crashes where a beer would collapse and the price would plummet, this was a great for everyone as the beer became cheap, although wouldn't last long as everyone bought as much as they could. It was a fun bar, I think London has one that's similar that we will have to check out.
Lin had got talking to some people at the bar so we all chatted together as her friend sang in the band. He was very good, with a kind of indie style, he sang some of his own and lots of covers requested by us and other people around. A while after he'd stopped playing he joined us, already half cut, as we got chatting he told us about his time on Singapore Idol. He had gotten to the finals but was voted off in the third or fourth week, he told us fascinating stories of his brief venture into fame. Eventually the drink got the better of him and comically, he had to visit the toilet, doing what someone else had done not two nights ago. We left late into the night after sampling many of the different beer crashes, with Lin leading the way we hit a late night eatery to fill our rumbling stomachs. The Hong Kong Cafe where TJ found some delicious veggie food, a rare thing in Singapore. It was 3am by the time we left arranging to meet up for dinner the next night to thank Lin for everything she had done, she had been the most amazing host and we were sad that our days in Singapore were drawing to a close.
Mark & Tejal x
- comments
Suzanne TJ, so good and sincere, Would 'tut' when Mark drank too much beer, Then one night in the East, She had an Alcohol Feast, Now she knows what it's like to feel queer!! Sorry, Tejal, just couldn't resist it - don't worry we'll get in extra alcohol for when you next visit!