Sunday, June 14, 2009

Singapore. Where did the money go?

We made it to our flight. We arrived 2 hours early and got a hearty breakfast of soba (buckwheat) noodles in soup, fried rice, and fried bean curd paste around sushi rice. Mmm. Delish!

Nothing special on our 7 hour flight to Singapore, but we did get exit rows. All Nippon is the way to fly! Individual tvs for each chair, decent food, and small servings of Haagan Daz ice cream. They do need to work on the movie selection.
It was on demand, but consisted of such new films as Dirty Harry, the Matrix, and Thelma and Louise. If anyone knows how Thelma and Louise or The Majestic end, please feel free to send it along.

I did not get yelled at in Changi airport in Singapore. The temperature scanner as we went down the escalator was interesting- they are very worried about good ole swine flu here. People young and old wear face masks all the time. We've seen someone hitting on a girl in one, and another driving his car by himself wearing a mask. This was in Japan- not as bad in Singapore- but we are not sure this isn't something that goes on regardless of swine flu.

We took a Mercedes taxi to our hotel (wait- I mean
Chris Rogers' apartment on Orchard Road). The ride was beautiful, minus the dark clouds that quickly swept over the island. Our taxi driver gave us a full run down and we got to the Paterson Residence without incident. After tracking down the key and getting instructions on how to use it (i.e. open the door), we entered what we will call 'The Palace.' The Palace is amazing. It has 3 bedrooms, four baths, and a built-in espresso machine. The views of the city are amazing- we almost didn't leave today. We even have tv with... wait for it... wait for it... English speaking channels! Woohoo! (author change) The building itself has a fountain and outdoor lounge chairs in the entrance driveway, a normal pool with built-in lounge chairs, 2 smaller pools and a bar area. Thanks Chris!

After we settled in, we of course pulled a Carrie and Dave. We went out to dinner. Cab to mall - $7.00. Realized we didn't want to eat at mall. Cab to Newton Hawker center - $5. For those not familiar with Hawker centers here, the government, in order to regulate the street vendors, organized them into eating centers where you can go and get almost everything. Yes moms, read between the lines. We ate street food last night. After walking around and getting asked by every stall there to eat at theirs, we finally settled on stall 70. She roped us in when she pulled an enormous prawn and broke down it's anatomy to us. Yum Yum.

We ordered the grilled prawns, black peppered beef and fried rice. Everything was delicious, especially my coconut juice in a real coconut!
Dave ordered a Tsing Tao for dinner, but didn't realize it would come in a 40 ounce bottle. Nice. Supposedly, you can eat at these places for $6, so what damage did we have? $60 of course. Who knew that the $8 for the grilled prawns was actually $8 per 100 grams. Oh well, live and learn. Plus, it was totally worth it. May even go back.

Cab to Orchard Road- $5. Walked around a bit and when exhaustion hit, headed home (cab $6) for some Conan. Ahh - English TV.

Woke up this morning and had to wait 1.5 hours for our clothes to dry in the dryer (thanks again Chris for the use of your machine!).
We finally headed out, made our way to the train station and headed to Little India ($1 - trains are much better). Got side tracked on the first street an ended up eating at the Banana Leaf Apollo (recommended by Lonely planet and the guy trying to sell Dave a tailored suit for only $450). We ordered Butter chicken, Chana masala, rice, butter naan, garlic naan, raita. Your plate is an actual banana leaf. Was one of the most amazing Indian meals we have ever had (Sorry Ina, we know this puts alot of pressure on you now :)

Now, we are here and see internet is no longer free ($2/hour - we need to save money for our prawns) we are going to go. I'm trying to convince Dave that silk pillow cases from India are a good thing, if only I can convince Cody of that too.

Pictures will be added at a different time. Until then, reach back to your childhood and use your imagination!

2 comments:

  1. I want to come and be with you. Your descriptions are wonderful. I almost can taste the food. I have a feeling there is a lot of laughter going on with you two. Chris's apartment sounds great-enjoy it because I have a feeling the rest of your places will not quite be up to that standard.
    Lve
    Mom

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  2. Thelma and Louise kill themselves by going over a cliff-very exciting.

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