Singapore Layover
A relatively short flight away (~4-5 hours) is the very hot city/country of Singapore. Having never been, I prepared in advance by watching many “24 hours in Singapore” videos on YouTube. This gave me many sights to see, all within a close proximity given the nation’s small size. However, when I first arrived it was evening and I was on the hunt for something else…
I stayed on Orchard Rd, the shopping hub of the city. Here were some of the largest and flashiest malls I have ever seen. There were numerous multi-story, multi-store, multi-restaurant monsters all along this one street. It was getting close to closing time when I arrived and I needed to eat! I found a lovely chicken Katsu place in the vast basement food labyrinth of the ION mall. While the mall was still open, I navigated my way to the Swatch store and purchased a space inspired watch which my colleagues had told me about, a Mars MoonSwatch.
The next morning my walking, metro-ing adventure began. The temperature was stiflingly hot and my first walk through a park, containing what was left of a British imperial fort, brought on the sweat. It was only morning and already felt like well over 95 deg (I think it reality is was only 85 deg but the humidity was killer). While in the park, I found a slide and scooted my way down. Apparently, my sweaty clothes were too sticky to achieve the proper sliding effect.
Despite the heat, the walking tour continued. I happened upon several beautiful city scenes that are just better seen than described.
Next up was a place featured in every “do this in Singapore” video and article: Gardens by the Bay. A botanical garden on steroids, I can see why this is such an attraction for tourists around the world. Given my relative early arrival, I experienced the park in a generally serene way. Since I was there, I sprung for a ticket to walk the bridge amongst the Super Trees. Clearly people are paying for the photos and I was no different.
As I could see from the gardens, and as you could see from many places in the city, I had to go to the Marina Bay Sands hotel. On the roof is a bar by the famous infinity pool. As I was not a guest at the hotel I couldn’t use the pool but luckily the bar was open to all! Here I asked initially for a Singapore Sling but the bartender refused saying that if I wanted that it was best had at Raffles Bar where it was invented. This was a strange refusal but I did learn something about the drink and it inspired my next stop… to Raffles.
Another sweaty walk later I arrived at the Long Bar at Raffles hotel. Lucky for me the line was only 1-2 groups long so about 10 minutes later I was in with a seat at the long bar. Maybe a novelty for some, the small bag of peanuts and shells strewn on the floor didn’t impress me. However, the price of their signature, historic Singapore Sling sure did! Something around $30 (rough conversion from Singapore dollars) was the price of 1 drink! But I was there so I had to do it. The drink was exactly as it was supposed to be, I suppose, but not really the drink for me. Glad I didn’t get a taste for it and have more than one. The most impressive aspect of the bar was this multi-shaker, hand crank machine. It took some time to setup and made me think just making the drinks individually may have been faster but what is speed when you have spectacle?
I crammed a lot of activities into my day in Singapore and I felt like I really saw the place. I would certainly go back but maybe take it a little easier, sit by the beach and soak in the sun.