We showered off the sweat and grime of the day, changed and set off to find somewhere to eat local before heading back into town. We decided to try out the local eatery at the corner of our street, first though we ran the gauntlet of what can only be described as knock off joints all the way up from the hotel to the corner of Geylang Rd.
I think the seedy looking blokes and ultra violet lights inside all the small one story buildings gave the game away, that and the scantily clad women peeking out from inside. Nevertheless we still decided to try out the food at the local Hawker street side cafe.
It was one of those occasions, again, where we didn't have a clue what to do. There were about three choices of different types of food on offer. Did one go up and choose, then pay? Was there waiter service? How did we order a beer? Thankfully a chap nearby heard Lynn talking about noodles. He offered up the advice to go for the local dish of chicken rice, a popular favourite - "avoid the noodles", he said as he got up and left - we did.
To be honest, it was pretty bland and served with a thin soup that was better poured over the dry rice, still, it sustained us enough to get us on our way back into the city centre, and it was cheap. We headed back to the MRT station, jostling through the early evening crowds and the hookers who plied their trade from the main road, obviously this area is away from he tourist traps in what is a Conservative Muslim country. There were not many police officers to be seen around here and yet it still felt a safe if not colourful part of town.
We had previously checked out the guidebook and decided to first of all head to the Marina Bay Gardens to watch the light show, this required a metro journey to Bayfront. When we eventually emerged to ground level we were amazed at the modern architecture built up on what had previously been the sea, dominating it all was the Marina Sands Hotel.
According to the map the gardens were behind the hotel, however it was impossible to find a pedestrian route to them. We did eventually ask a security guard who put us in the right direction, this was after we had walked through the ultra luxury hotel lobby. Actually when I say lobby, I mean three lobby's, all dripping money with bars and restaurants well out of our price league. The hotel is constructed with three huge towers interconnected at the top with a sky park - over 50 floors up with its own infinity pool, couldn't get Lynn to go up there!
We did get to see the light show in The Gardens on the Bay and how spectacular they were, even more so than those we'd seen in Kuala Lumpur below the Petronas Towers. The view back from the gardens also allowed me to photograph the hotel in its entirety. The gardens themselves are a botanical wonderland, not best viewed in the dark and with the mozzies out to play we headed back to the station with the leaving crowd to revisit Raffles.
Returning back to the Long Bar through subtly lit walkways we felt more at ease now, dressed smart casual. The same meet and greet man was on duty as we propped ourselves up on a bar stool each and ordered two Singapore Slings. We were offered the famous Long Bar peanuts (free!) served from a hessian sack, the tradition being you break open your nut and throw the shell on the floor. Not believing the barman I looked around and found to my amazement: the well heeled, well off and well, just poor folk like us all doing the same. Not to be left out we chucked all our shells on the floor.
The cost of the two drinks was to be honest astronomical: S$72 for the two! I suppose though you don't frequent a famous hotel like Raffles every day of the week and at a conversion rate that made the two drinks work out at £16 each you are obviously paying for the name of the hotel not the drink.
Needless to say, we didn't order a second drink but retired across the road within the Raffles Shopping Mall for a beer and a wine in Brotzeit (Breadtime), a German franchise available in Asia and Australia. The beer, as you can imagine was superb, the food looked wholesome and tasty as well, mind you, we didn't try it, one for another trip methinks.
We navigated the MRT back to Aljunied and counted the ladies of the night still working the main road. The so called massage parlours down our road were doing good business as was the Hawker restaurant, this area obviously doesn't go to bed early. We, however, were knackered again. Another tiring day - time for bed!
No comments:
Post a Comment