(An advance warning: this is going to be a LONG post, with lots of photos. If you don’t mind, keep reading =D) Along with Susan and Mari, I caught a late-night flight on Friday, arriving in Singapore around 1 AM local time. Tiger Airways was rather annoying in that they charged fees for as many things as they could think of (e.g. drinks on the plane), but the tickets were super-cheap (less than $200 USD round-trip) so I guess they have to make their profits from somewhere. Other than that, the flight was fairly smooth, so I managed to catch some shut-eye with my trusty (magenta) travel pillow.
The plane that would take us to SingaporeWe had booked three beds at the Mitraa, a hostel in Little India, which was small but clean and welcoming. Even at 2 AM, the receptionist was quite cheerful, providing cups of water, showing us up to our rooms (third-floor walk-up) and running back downstairs to get blankets. Best of all, in the morning they provided breakfast: fruit, tea/coffee, and toast with your choice of butter, peanut butter, and/or Nutella!
Breakfast of champions?Even though we were in the middle of Little India, we passed several Chinese shops and temples walking from the Mitraa to the Farrer Park MRT station. This was just one of the many indications of how well Singapore deals with its multi-cultural population compared to many other large cities: historically, there were different districts for different groups, but by now many of them have mixed together so it's completely natural for Chinese temples to be next to Hindu ones, or to see English/Chinese/Malay/Tamil on every public sign. Some photos of the temples near the Mitraa:
A Chinese temple...
And a Hindu one!Our first stop was Orchard to get MRT tourist passes (yay for unlimited rides), but we were quite surprised when we finally came above ground:
Yeah, you're not seeing things. They were putting up Christmas decorations even before Halloween! I know some stores in the US are bad about skipping holidays too, but at least they usually wait until Thanksgiving to start putting up the snowmen and trees.
Our first bus ride was to the Singapore Botanical Gardens, where we especially wanted to check out the National Orchid Garden. To get to the orchids, though, we first had to get past the swan pond (not large enough to be called Swan Lake), people picnicking on the carefully-manicured grass, a few jungle-like areas, and the intriguing “Ginger Garden.”
The gate of the botanical garden
Swan lake, er, pond
One of the three resident swans
Entering the jungle…
In the Ginger Garden…
Fountain at the entrance
A “black lily,” although it doesn’t quite live up to its name
Some of the many flower arches in the garden
The garden also had the only squirrel we’ve seen so far!
By 1:00 PM our stomachs were starting to growl, so we headed back toward downtown to look for a hawker center, having resolved to try as much local fare as possible. We eventually ended up by the Arab Quarter at Golden Mile Food Centre, which was visited (and praised) by Anthony Bourdain, so we figured it had to be pretty good. On the menu: fresh-pressed sugarcane juice, chicken/beef satay, and char kway teow, a classic Singaporean dish of rice noodles cooked with dark soy sauce, various meats, and other spices.
Squeezing sugarcane juice
Char kway teowFor dessert, we found a famous place for 湯 圓, aka glutinous rice balls (GRBs, as Susan calls them) with various fillings. Ah Balling definitely lived up to the positive press, as the GRBs were perfectly gooey without being too chewy, and the fillings (we tried red bean, peanut, and black sesame) were quite flavorful. Mari got quite excited about this new food, as you can see:
After such a filling meal, we walked around the Arab quarter, which included the largest mosque in Singapore, a whole street of gorgeous textiles, and also lots of Chinese curiosity shops, where there were interesting pieces like this soldier-themed chess set and dragon-shaped…candleholder?
We then walked back to the Raffles Hotel for a few photos, intending to catch the bus to the East Asian Civilizations museum, but we ended up taking an impromptu bus tour of Singapore because we didn’t want to get off in the monsoon-like rain.
Yeah, it was that bad.Eventually, we made it to the museum, which had a lot of special events going on for Halloween, such as a witch making balloon animals, a costume contest, and this performance by the Red Queen Dance Project.
In general, the Asian Civilizations Museum has quite an impressive collection of art and cultural items that you probably won’t see anywhere else, especially many of the items from Southeast Asia that are too delicate to be moved elsewhere. As another Halloween special, admission to all the galleries was free, so I got to see things like these shadow puppets and this ceremonial shirt made of (believe it or not) pineapple leaf fibers!
The museum, all lit up for HalloweenSince lunch was late, we weren’t that hungry for dinner, so we just decided to sample some pratas at the Tekka Food Centre in Little India. I guess you could say they’re like the Indian version of crepes, but there are savory options as well as sweet. The egg and onion version was satisfying without being too heavy, especially with the yummy curry dipping sauce =D
There’s an appetizer at Bentara similar to this…We hopped back to the hostel to don costumes: Susan dressed up as a butterfly in a garden, Mari as a vampiress, and myself as an angel, complete with fluffy/sparkly halo heh. All costume pieces found at the Macau Tower Toys 'r Us =P
We headed out to Clarke's Quay, a riverside bar/club area where they had a live band playing most of the night, plenty of Halloween-themed parties, and therefore lots of costumed revelers. We ended up not going into any of the clubs because they were already super-crowded by 11 PM, so we just got dessert/drinks at a bar and people-watched for a few hours, which turned out to be equally entertaining. There were all sorts of creative/non-PC costumes, including the old man/boy scout from Up, matching bumblebees, a six-foot-plus white guy in black shorts and fishnet stockings, and a bunch of "Mexicans" in ponchos and sombreros. Btw, my apologies to my friends from Singapore, but the Singapore Sling is one of the ickiest drinks I've ever had, and I'm not just being picky...it was like bubble gum gone wrong -_-
Clarke's Quay
The live concert (also note all the decorations)We didn't want to stay out too late because we had plenty of plans for Sunday sightseeing, so we hopped a cab back to the hostel, spent some time scrubbing off costume makeup, and went to sleep. Next post - Singapore day 2!
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