Monday, March 1, 2010

Singapore Slings!




We are coming at you from the Singapore Airport. Free wifi..nice place although they won’t let us check in yet so we are just sitting here waiting. However we are first in line for check-in!! woo woo! See above. I think we last left you a few days into our time share. We were sad to leave after our week at the hotel. We honestly didn’t do that much besides sit by the pool, catch up on some school work, and watch weird movies we found on TV. The Net 2.0 or Zethora the Space Adventure anyone?? The Boy is the Striped Pajamas was terribly sad and we wouldn’t recommend it. And there was a wonderfully awful Keither Sunderland movie with devil possession and weird mirror black hole things. All had terrible endings. We would go see our girls the Rock Angels play every night and got about ten shoutouts to the beautiful Kates each set..they even played Bon Jovi for the entire state of NJ one night; we would then return to the room and leave the Olympics on all night to catch up on what we had missed.

When we left the hotel we got many goodbyes, some hugs, and a few even wanted us to book our next trip before we were allowed to leave. We cannot thank Mrs Yanez enough for her generosity!! She is truly the best!! We left Lumut and took the overnight bus to Singapore. We were expecting 14 hours but were surprised it was only 10. And let me tell you, the customs leaving Mayalsia and entering Sing were very modern, efficient, and fancy. Crazy to compare it to our experience leaving Vietnam and entering Cambodia…two totally different worlds. Entering Singapore we immediately noticed a difference…while Malaysian is very developed and had excellent road organization and the insistent honking ended in Cambodia, Singapore is even more so and very modern and well run. There were so many trees and highways…not many people on them at 430 AM but we could tell Singapore was different. It doesn’t have an Asian feel to it at all..kind of a European feel mixed with some British tropical Colonial accents we would say. There was a little India, Chinatown, Arab City, and a fancy downtown area and each had their own little feel with buildings with wooden shutters.

We got to our hotel and checked in early and took a nap because neither of us slept on the bus. Our hotel was this tiny little little room with a glassed off portion that served as the bathroom….there was a halfway modesty frosting on the bottom portion however it did not provide much modesty. We heard Singapore was famous for it shopping so we had our first meal in almost 24 hours and headed out to Little India to get it started.

Ohhh a funny story about free KFC. In Lumut we were waiting to board our bus and had little Malaysia Rinngit left so we decided that one of us could walk to the KFC we had seen and pay in credit card so we didn’t have to take money out. Caitlin stayed with the bags and Kate went off with the promise she would be back in 15 minutes. If she had not returned in 15 minutes then Caitlin could worry but would just have to wait longer. (It was a long walk through the port town, over roads, and through dried fish stalls with no means of communication back and forth anything could’ve happened people!) Impressed with making it to KFC in 6 minutes, Kate quickly ordered and went to pay with CC and would be back in the allotted time. The drinks were poured and in their bag (yes you get drinks in bags here) and the potato wedges were in one too…she was just waiting for the popcorn chicken… And then the credit card machine broke…the people at KFC tried and tried and couldn’t get it to work. It was getting stressful with about 5 workers working on the problem and about 10 customers staring at the person who would use cc at KFC and finally they whispered “just go. Take it.” Now Kate was trying to figure out a way to run to an ATM or to Caitlin to get her credit card from her and was stressing and sweating and scared the bus was going to leave without her..and wondering if maybe they could throw the popcorn chicken in the bag for free too. But finally they pushed the bags and said “just go. Go go go.” Defeated with no popcorn chicken…but carrying free Miranda oranges and potato wedges from the kind Malaysian people Kate returned to the bus station just in time to board and get on the road to Singapore. Back to little India.

Little India turned out to be not the shopping we were looking for..however it was a super charged version of Walmart or Target. So we next hit up Chinatown..where our taxi driver told us just to buy gifts from there and tell our families we went to China. And then we went to Orchard Road the fancy part of town. Raffles Hotel is the most famous and first hotel in Singapore, named after the first Dutch settler in Sing, it is also where the Singapore Sling was invented…when in Singapore.

We got to the Long Bar, a really cute british colonial wooden place with palm fans that swayed back and forth..not around. There were peanuts on the table and a nice crunch as you walked around the bar too. We sat down and opened the menu. $17.76 people!! For one drink. It was shocking…however we were there and it was the drink to have and our money running out issue is a distant third to our love of the finer things in life and ability to justify over-spending (an art form that we have perfected). So two Singapore Slings it was. We drank our dinner.

It was super sweet and the beakers of beer the men next to us had looked more our speed but it’s not every day you can drink a Singapore Sling in Raffles Hotel in Singapore right?? We walked around the courtyards of the hotel for a little after that and pretended we stayed there before returning to our hotel and turning into school work and bad movies on the Asian Star movie channel for the evening.

Oh but we before we did that we hit up a food court. Singapore is known for its food and its shopping. While the shopping not exactly what budget travelers in us are in the market for however we did partake in the food stalls. After drinking our dinner budget down we stopped at one and snacked on some dim sum and satay..it was so cheap and delish. Here is a picture, they really are like the mall food courts of anything editable and Asian:

The next morning we headed to the airport for our flight to Bali....wait.until.we.blog.about.our.hotel.!!!! It is soo lovely here we might never leave! More on that later!! Lots of Love!

9 comments:

  1. Sounds like your travels continue not to disappoint except for no popcorn chicken and a very sweet and expensive liquid dinner. Love hearing of your travels and adventures.

    I am really hoping to see many photos of your next hotel since the crib video never did make it to your blog. Hope you still want to come home Caitlin after your stay in your next "humble" establishment.

    Can't wait to see you again, hear all your tales in person, and see all your pictures.
    Take care of yourselves, keep safe and enjoy the last leg of your travels before returning to reality and hopefully no snow.

    love you both, mom

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  2. Hi Ladies, I smile every time I see an update. Oh, the tales you will tell your children ...you might want to leave out "drinking dinner," however!! Glad you enjoyed the down time in the condo...you know you had to rest up from all that Thai treking you did.

    Continue to enjoy your journey....Stay safe and I gues I can now say we'll see you soon.

    Hugs and kisses to you both,
    Mom

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  3. I'm so glad you enjoyed the time share. I love reading your blog and seeing your pics. Can't wait to hear about Bali. Be safe and continue to enjoy your last weeks of SEA. Love, Daria

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  4. Boy this blog was over due, Ikeep checking everyday to see whats going on with the Kates
    what am I going to do when your journey is over.
    Get a life I guess. Just love reading of your travels. Love AP

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  5. Ladies, I think I have this particular piece committed to memory....isn't it time for an update!!

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  6. I agree. I'm stuck in the house. I need an update to make my life a little more interesting.
    love u
    mom

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  7. I was going to email your mom and see if she had an update... but apparently not!

    hope all is well and you're just being luddites.

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  8. "Chant no more your old rhymes about bold Robin Hood,
    His feats I but little admire.
    I will sing the Achievements of General Ludd,
    Now the Hero of Nottinghamshire."

    very cool word!!!!!

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  9. Hello lovely ladies!

    I haven't commented because you haven't updated in a week! I have not disappeared I promise.

    March is kicking my butt. I have something scheduled every day after school all month. But I am reserving the 27 for your return to 307! (Unless we get together before then and I'm there too.)

    Can you believe you only have a week left? Are you anxious to get home? You'll be coming back to 60 degree weather (but possibly some rain) so it will soon be time for flip flops and beach towels!

    Let me know your travel home plans so I can make sure you are safe.

    Much love!
    BP

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