I just returned from a four day whirlwind trip to Singapore, and I had an amazing time. The newness and the buildings of Singapore remind me of the over-the-top feel of Vegas buildings, plus I was a little indulgent. I had been looking forward to the trip for a few weeks for several reasons, most significantly for food and drink (I live in a dry city). And Singapore did not disappoint. I arrived very early Thursday morning and slept until the afternoon. First up: Korean BBQ buffet. I’ve had Korean BBQ many times, but never a buffet of meat where you choose the quantity of every type of meat you want to grill. The restaurant also had some non-meat Korean items which hit the spot for my Korean cravings. Anyway after we stuffed ourselves, we went out for drinks. Drinks in Singapore are ridiculously expensive. Like, really expensive. I’m a lightweight so it’s not a huge deal, but it’s still pricey. My lychee martini was SGD 18, which is about $14. Yea, ridiculous. Anyway we had drinks and I also checked off the next item on my food list: waffles covered in chocolate and fresh strawberries. It was delicious. After debating whether to stay out later, we ended up going home and watching Arrested Development in celebration of the new episodes. We rested up for night #2.
After about an hour of sleep, I force myself awake so we can make our 8:30AM bus to Melaka. I pretty much am a zombie through most of the sight-seeing we did, but we had some good Malay food and satay for dinner. We had planned on seeing the Kung Fu Doctor, this amazing kung fu master who swallows knives and can pierce a coconut shell with his finger. However it started raining pretty heavily so the night market was not very lively. We ended up at a bar (surprise!) where I got some amazing apple pie, check. From there we wandered a few more bars and made it to the hotel.
Korean BBQ
After about 4 hours of sleep, I woke up to go to the American embassy to pick up our passports. We had gone the day earlier because we both needed to add more pages to our passports. After that, I shopped in the Orchard area. I went a little crazy; it had been so long since I had been in a Western style mall. Shops in India generally don’t have many Western clothes, and the ones they have aren’t very fashion-forward. That and for some reason they only have like one or two of each item of clothing. The Singapore stores were overflowing with really cute shirts, dresses, and SHOES! I went pretty crazy on the shoes. I spent about two hours in the first store I went to trying on shoes, and forced myself to only buy two pairs. From there we went to sushi. Again, absolutely delicious. I also had udon and donkatsu to make sure I got my fill of Japanese food. From there, more shopping. About 4 more hours of shopping. Then, more Korean food. I love soondubu, it’s my favorite restaurant food. So my friend did some research and we ended up at a restaurant with good soondubu. Then onward to home to shower and go out for the night. We met up with my friend’s friend, and his friends, and went to Zouk, where apparently a big-name DJ from Japan was spinning. That’s cool. My friend’s friend’s friends left at around 4AM to make their 7AM flight (crazy people!) and we went on to a bar for a few more drinks.
Trishaws in Melaka.
After my longest night of sleep, 6 hours, we get up to catch our bus back to Singapore. I had a quarter pounder at McDonalds (more meat!), then slept a little while we made our way into Singapore. After a little respite at home, we had ramen at Ramen Challenge. There were six ramen iron chefs from Japan who set up shop in a part of a mall. The chef with the most votes wins the Ramen Challenge gets to set up a restaurant in Singapore. Needless to say, the ramen was delicious. Then onto a building that looks like it’s from Gotham where we had a drink at its beautiful bar. The last stop of the weekend was a bar on the river where we passed out on a daybed while sipping Singapore Slings.
Ramen!
Ok so maybe I didn’t see much of Singapore, but I did have a nice break from my daily grind. I am predictably exhausted and wondering when I can make it out to Singapore again.
View from our daybed at Lantern.
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