Singapore Post #2-Celebrating the National Pastime of Eating and Drinking

One upon a time, Sandip studied abroad in Singapore.  He frequented a place in a row of bar/restaurants.  Many have Chinese characters on signs, but not his favorite.  Imagine his parents' surprise when they got the bill, which had the name of the restaurant clearly stated.  

Yes, the place is called "Ice Cold beer"

Sandip enjoying an Ice Cold Beer at Ice Cold Beer. 

So...one of the two favorite past times of Singapore is eating and drinking.  So we of course had to be respectful of our host country, right?  We ate a LOT and have the pictures to prove it.

Food here is best at what are called hawker stalls-basically little stands where the vendors cook on the spot.  Similar to street food, but regulated by the government.  We stayed across the street from the best one in town called Maxwell (see, Maxwell stands for the best things all over the world!)  Below are pictures of us eating and drinking our way through Singapore.  Enjoy!

Outside the Maxwell food stand.

Inside the Maxwell food stand eating delicious veggie noodles.  And Tiger beer hits the spot with spicy food.

Another shot of it inside.

At this great rooftop bar at the Marina next to the Fullerton.  Sandip heard of it from a friend of his at the Singapore Embassy here in Delhi.  Delightful!

Same bar (see Fullerton in background), with delicious mojitos.

Ah Kaya toast.  We didn't take a picture of the toast, but at here 3 times.  Basically is toast with coconut jam you dip in soft boiled egg with black soy like sauce.  Yum.

We made a special trip to Little India for this fishhead curry.

Also made a trip to the Paulaner brewery.  We tried to find Oktoberfest and were told that was over in September.  Well, at least they had it...

This is at the Whopper Bar, from Burger King.  It is all decked out like a nightclub with music to match.  But you can get Tiger beer there at lunchtime, which we did.

Outside the Clarke Quay where we had coffee.

Peanuts at the Raffle Hotel.  You eat them and put shells on the ground.

Raffle Hotel is where Singapore Sling was invented.  Here we are drinking them at the place of their birth.  Tourist trap?  Yes.  Necessary stop? Definitely.

We didn't go here, but took this picture for dad who loves Dunkin Donuts.

Chili crab Sandip had in Chinatown.

Egg and greens dish I had.

Restaurant we had all these dishes at in Chinatown.

 Next posting on our trip...Christmas in Singapore



Singapore Post #1-Am I in Caprica?

BSG fans have the perfect vision in your head, right?  There are some parts that look like Florida, but the majority of downtown is like Caprica.  I half expected to see 6 walking around.  By the end we were calling the downtown Caprica. No joke.

Non BSG fans let me explain...

Singapore is like NYC only with tropical weather, uber futuristic buildings, Disney world level cleanliness, and a higher percentage of Asians.  If you go back to childhood and what you pictured in your head the skyline of future cities, this is it.  Uber funky, modern, and you cool actually feel the creativity because of the buildings.  But I am getting ahead of myself.

What is there to do in Singapore?
Turns out a lot.  First, Sandip did Study abroad here in undergrad, so there was a lot of memory lane that I could share with him.  (remember this when you read post 2 about Singapore) Also, like any big city (and in this case state and country too!) there are museums, gardens, zoos, and historical sites.  We were interested in most of these things before we arrived.  Once we arrived we quickly got whisked away into just checking out the buildings, walking and people watching.  All this is partially because it is hard to walk around from place to place in Dehli, whereas Singapore is much like DC and is a very walkable city.  We took full advantage of that and walked EVERYWHERE.  ok, we cheated and took the metro a few times.

Hopefully these pictures give you a sense of the city.

Here are some really awesome futuristic buildings in the heart of the business district.

This is what we call the spaceship. It is a fancy hotel with an infinity pool and bar on the roof.  You can see this from almost anywhere in Singapore. It is like the mother ship.

Ok, this colonial building on the right is the old Supreme Court building.  The big War of the Worlds spaceship building thing in the middle is the new Supreme Court building.  Seriously.

Dogball and duck are loving the buildings.  Again, Caprica?

Boat Quay and Caprica. 

We actually sought out this mini-version of the city plan-total dorks.

We also rode around on the Singapore Flyer-basically a big Ferris Wheel. Some of these cool aerial shots come from that ride.

The big domes are the new performing arts center.  We started calling them the honeycombs, then the hedgehog, and ended with "weird fly eyes"

The tall building on the left is the spaceship.  Then there is the Marina and Caprica.


Caprica at dusk


Fullerton Hotel-one of the older and nicer places. 


View from a rooftop bar at which we had drinks.  Spaceship again.

Singapore's national symbol is the Merilion-half Mermaid, half lion.  We discovered this thing was created in the 1960s to boost tourism.  We had to go see the fountain they put in the Marina. 

Dogball, and Duck meet up with Tigger vacationing from Australia!

Here is the Merlion at night.  Awesome. 

Next blogs...Sandip's study abroad experience, Christmas and national pastimes!