Last day in Singapore (for now)

Friday 21^st August 2015.

Decided to take a run over to Chinatown and drop off a little goodie bag to Patrick’s hotel seeing as he hasn’t had a chance to be a tourist this week. Our MRT cards are getting low and hopefully we can get over and back without having to add to them. The Reception staff at Patrick’s hotel (Park Royal on Pickering) were very helpful and happy to deliver the bag to Patrick’s room. We’re also close to Spotlight (yes they have one here!) so divert there as well, just in case……. Nothing much different to home and the prices are no bargain either, so come back empty handed. Our MRT card didn’t quite get us there, we had to add a trip to the paper one we got on the first day because I left the MRT card in our room. So no point in trying to get any credit back, we’ll just use it next time, cause there’ll be a next time! It must have rained while were underground, but it wasn’t long before the sun was beaming down again, turning up the humidity again.

4 t-shirts for $10 is too good a price not to buy more, so when we get back to our favourite haunts, we pick up a few more and another silk scarf, because you just never know, right? Our final lunch in Singapore was decided days ago – Chicken Murtabak at Zam Zam, just around the corner from our hotel. We tried the mutton one the other night and said we’d go back. The chicken one was just as good, and I could eat one every day for a long time before I got sick of it. And at $11 for lunch including a lime juice each, who can complain? After we finished, we hadn’t even gathered up our belongings before another group were trying to sit at our table! I hope they jump in my grave as quick!

Time to head back to our room and pack up, but first a quick side trip to the money changer on the corner to see what sort of deal he can do on Thai Baht and Malaysian Ringgits for next February. Not a great deal of difference to what we can get at home, so Trevor decides not to change any $$.


I'm not going to overweight with my suitcase, but I'll certainly give the 30kg allowance a fair nudge.

Our plan is to leave the hotel by about 4pm, jump in a cab and head to the airport. That's plenty of time to get there, even allowing for rotten traffic. So, of course, we get a dream run with a really nice driver who is very chatty so that makes the time go quickly too. He knows a lot about a lot and tells us the Parkview Square building, 'my precious' was build by a Hong Kong tycoon who built it as an exact replica of the one he built in HK. That goes some way to explain where all the money is coming from to fund the building that is going on all over the city. He talks about the Mustafa Centre, how small it was when it started and how it now runs 24/7 with only a day off when Mustafa's father died.  Apparently, the government want the people to work 7 days a week, he tells us Singaporeans don't work to get ahead or get rich, they work to survive, a sobering thought.  Maybe all that glitters is not gold here after all. We've seen many, many elderly folk still working when they can barely stand upright, it just doesn't seem right. Mostly clearing tables in food courts and probably other low wage jobs, sweeping the streets etc.

The cab fare is less than the ride into town when we arrived, $16.40 today, we got in before the peak toll taxes I think. We've got loads of time, even with the inefficient check-in process. All Qantas flights are checking in at the same 4 desks and the queue is growing every minute. Luckily we got in before it got too long, but there was no 'cattle run' so the line went back to the terminal door. Someone left all their travel docs sitting on the check-in counter. Pay attention people!! We figure out where our gate is and then decide to kill some time, and a few more Singapore dollars at the bar. The Cactus Garden/smoking area is upstairs and outside, perfect for both a cactus garden and for smoking, although there is a non-smoking area. We get a spot in the shade, but it would be baking hot out there in the middle of the day. Gin tonics and I don't mix at altitude so I have one now. I didn't realise how expensive it would be although I should have had an idea by now. Anyway, we don't want to take much currency home!

We're in need of some Western food and find a Burger King in the terminal so grab a bite too because we're not sure if or when we'll be fed on the plane. It's an 8.20pm flight, so even allowing for the best case scenario, it could be 9.30 before we eat and I don't want to eat that late. As it turns out, it takes until 10.30 for the food service. Really not interested by then. Conditions are good for flying and if we depart on time, we'll get to Sydney before the curfew lifts at 6am, so we sit on the runway for a bit. When we get to Sydney, it's like someone has turned on a homing beacon, planes are coming from everywhere. In the pre-dawn light it's easy to see their lights and the queue they form. Good landing, grab our pre-paid duty free, get a quick run through Customs and Immigration and we're out waiting for our shuttle pick up in just under an hour. Home around 9am, chuck through a load of washing then it's off to Terrigal to catch up with some cousins to watch their son play his last game of soccer for the season.

Looking forward to bedtime tonight!!

 

Happy Birthday Trevor.

Thursday 20^th August 2015.

Running out of time and the list of things to do is still long. I remembered seeing a travel show a few years back where the host was eating marrow bone soup. In 2 minds about trying it, but I tracked down where the show was filmed and it turns out the food centre isn’t far away from our hotel. So after a small breakfast we head towards Beach Rd to catch the bus to the Golden Mile Food Centre. Of course, as we walked down Arab St I had to have a little peek into a few fabric shops so I would know where to come back to. But as with many best made plans, our bus ride was totally waylaid when I found a shop selling ready made clothes and then another selling tablecloths, scarves, cushion covers and the like. The shop owner was an absolute gentleman and he had great respect for his wares and his customers. The silk scarves were absolutely diaphanous and the block printed tablecloths were a very reasonable price, so naturally I had to buy. He even went as far as handing out bottles of water because we had been in his shop for so long. A very nice touch and much appreciated. Dilip Textiles 74 Arab St. 

200m or so to our hotel, so back we go to drop off our packages, including another ready made top and some fabric. Naturellement! 

Blinkers on, we head back up Arab St for the bus. It’s only one stop but it’s 1/2km and the less we have to walk at this stage, the better. No problem finding Golden Mile, or B1-17, the appointed place for the marrow bone. It’s about 12.15 by now and the cook is busy in his tiny stall but the lights aren’t on. He tells us the dish isn’t ready and won’t be till 1pm, so we grab a beer and sit down to wait. I think that must have impressed him, he expected that we’d leave instead. I wish we’d discovered this food centre earlier, it has the cheapest beer of the trip so far. A longneck of Tiger for $6.30. The Sup Tulang (marrow bone soup) is 4 pieces of bone for $6, and it’s in a dark tomato red sauce. Not all that spicy either. It’s really messy to eat, luckily we had planned ahead and I wore a top that I didn’t mind if I dripped sauce on, but the red stains our fingers and hopefully not our faces. It’s impossible to eat without getting it all around your mouth. Not a particularly good look!! The final part of eating this dish is to use a straw (BYO) to suck the marrow out of the bones. Delicious if you like to suck the marrow out of the lamb chop bone.

Also on the list of ‘to do’ things for the day is to go back to Raffles to have a drink in the Courtyard, a Barefoot Contessa. Not served in the Long Bar as we discovered on Sunday.  It was really good, better than the Singapore Sling the boys had and I’m going to have to find out how to make them. 

There’s a Food Republic food court in Suntec and as we still have some vouchers and Trevor wants to try the fried chicken we’ve seen in some places, it’s over the road for 2^nd lunch! We should have hopped a bus to come home but set out walking, not the best idea really, but anyway…………

The phone rang in our room when we got back and the voice asked if it was ok to bring something up to the room. ?? Mystery, what could it be?? My money was on a birthday surprise for Trevor but I didn’t say anything. Sure enough, 2 young women from Guest Services present Trevor with a piece of cake and a birthday card. How nice! They also take a photo and promise to email it to us. We’ve had a few little issues with this place, but on the whole, we’ve been well looked after. 

Some relaxation time in our room to cool off and recharge before heading out to forage for food again.

Dinner.  Another wasted meal!!! No, we don’t have time for this! Too many places to eat, so little time. I read about a hawker food place on Queen St, near here, that was supposed to be very good. We got the ‘tourist’ serving, it’s all we can think of to explain the size of the serve. It was nice enough, what there was of it. And not wanting to be chased down the street by a man wielding a meat cleaver, we didn’t complain!  Whose opinion do you trust? The Golden Mile was far better today at lunch but who knows what it's like at dinner time? 

Online check-in completed for our flight home tomorrow and the lovely people here at the hotel printed off our boarding passes and delivered them to our room. Really can't complain about this place. It's not flashy or new but the staff are always ready to do what they can for you.

Singapore. Closed for renovations.

Wednesday 19^th August 2015.

Another peaceful breakfast in the Sanctuary that is the 5^th Floor restaurant, then off to find our own way on the local buses. Using the official Singapore transport website, I find buses that will take us down North Bridge Rd and if we get off near St Andrew’s Cathedral it’s only a short walk to the Ancient Civilisations Museum. The 197 or the 145. Trevor found a better way using the Singapore Map app on his tablet. The 130 from Bugis Station on Victoria St will take us right to Connaught Drive and the Padang, outside the Singapore Cricket Club, leaving us with a much shorter walk to the museum. Better. Apparently the official transport site has been ‘improved’ and it’s now pretty useless according to locals. 

The information I found about the Ancient Civilisations Museum was that the displays were very extensive and if you only had time for one museum in Singapore, this was a very good choice. Excellent! So after the disappointment of the National Museum the other day, we head off with hopes high.  Are we surprised when we arrive that we have to negotiate our way through a work site to access the underpass to get us onto the other side of Fullerton Road and to the Museum? Not really. Are we surprised to find that due to renovations and rearrangement of displays, many are closed or packed away? Not really. Thankfully admission was free. What we saw was very good and we did enjoy wandering around, but I’d have thought with 2015 being the big anniversary year for Singapore, all this work would have been done in 2014 or earlier this year in time for the big celebrations in August. This side of the Singapore River is going to be wonderful when they finish working on it! Seems the anniversary played no part in determining when the work would be undertaken. I’d have thought the powers that be would have wanted everything  done either beforehand or leave it until after. But that’s how it goes!

Next stop, Chinatown, and with bus routes sorted before we left all we need to do is head along the riverfront to North Bridge Road to wait for the 197 or the 145 which will drop us right outside the Sri Mariamman Temple, but an 80 comes in first and Trevor says that will also take us there, neglecting to mention it doesn’ stop at the Temple but at the stop after meaning we have to walk back in the boiling heat! Not particularly happy about that. Strangely, the oldest Hindu Temple in Singapore is in Chinatown. The iconography doesn’t disappoint, but the hot ground on soxed feet is a bit much, so we scurry between shaded spots of ground to view the images of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer.

I was also curious to see the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and as it’s a short walk down the road we put our shoes back on and make our way there. It’s a 5 storey pagoda style building which reputedly houses the left canine tooth of the Buddha, recovered from his funeral pyre in Kushingar, northern India. It’s truly bedazzling inside and worth going to see. Shoes can stay on here, bonus as I’m still struggling to walk barefoot on hard floors and the Temple down the road was hard work for me.

Fabric shopping and lunch are now atop the agenda and according to some posts on TripAdvisor there’s fabric aplenty in Chinatown. Sadly though, the shops are no longer there, so it looks like Arab St might be the best bet, with Mustafa’s running a close 2^nd. We had some steamed dumplings for lunch in a hawker centre in the People’s Park Centre, not to be confused with the People’s Park Complex across the street!

A quick browse in a pedestrian street market follows, and we stumble on the Chinatown MRT entrance so rather than walk back to the bus, we jump the train and head back to our ‘village’. After some cooling off time in our room, we went for a swim then headed to Dubaii Escapade because Trevor fancied a pizza for dinner, he’s a bit over rice and noodles. Worst. Pizza. Ever.

And, of course, the Sultan Mosque just across the road is closed to visitors - for renovations!

 

Little India

Tuesday 18^th August  2015.

Breakfast on 5^th floor is sooooo much better! It’s a bigger room with fewer people, there’s more space around the food and it’s also very peaceful compared with the 3^rd floor. I can’t believe the difference and I’m so pleased I decided to speak up. All the food is Halal but there’s still an egg station and toast, tea and coffee and pretty much everything we need. There doesn’t seem to be bacon anywhere on the premises so we’re not missing out there, but we’ll need some stat when we get home! 

Still on the hunt for bargain fabrics, the Tekka Cantre in Little India is on the hit list for today. Also hoping to find the markets the lady at the pool told me about. She said she walked up Arab St toward Little India, over the river and there were markets. So, off we go. Following local practice, we walk in the shade as much as possible, but it’s still pretty hot already. No sign of any markets, so we continue on to the Tekka Centre where Trevor buys a watch and I manage to find a nice white top for $10. We both got bargains!

inside the Tekka Centre

Wandered around a bit through the little side streets, ‘window’ shopping, saw a really nice bowl, it was probably 40cm across and would certainly used up a lot of my baggage allowance, but it turns out the damage to my wallet would have been greater. $380!! And that was the smallest one of the set! Thanks, but no thanks. Sadly………….

Head towards the Mustafa Centre because we remembered we didn’t check for the insect repellent I liked when we were here the other day. We find it in a little supermarket on the way to Mustafa so we stock up. Not really much need to go to Mustafa’s now but we want to go to City Square Mall on Kitchener Rd to use up our Food Republic vouchers and buy some more wine. We also got some cash to keep us going. Lunch today was Honey Glazed Chicken Hor Fun for me and Black Pepper Pork for Trevor and lime juices to drink. No alcohol here.

Black Pepper Pork

Jumped on the MRT at Farrer Park to head back ‘home’ and drop off our shopping, cool off a bit and then realise that the Textile Centre I want to visit is only a half a km away, so an easy walk. For nothing as it turns out. What was supposed to be 3 floors of fabric sellers turned out to be zero retail fabric sellers, not even many wholesalers either. Very disappointing. 

Nearly swim time but it’s hot and probably beer o’clock so on the way back to the hotel, we keep an eye out for a place that has happy hour. We spot a place called Dubaii Escapade and the pints are $9 so that’ll do us. We’re just across the road from Kamplong Glam Café, one of the places I wanted to try for dinner. The information I had was that it didn’t open till 8pm but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Back for a swim, shower and back out for dinner. Venue as above, Roti Kirai and Mee Rebus with lime juices again, no alcohol here either. Very nice meal and $10.90 all up. I can’t get over the prices in some of these places!

From where I’m sitting I can see the sun setting behind the Mosque and it’s really lovely.

Sultan Mosque

7.15pm and the call to prayers start, we heard them about 4.30 just after our beer stop. It’s very mesmerising and melodic, we wander toward it and take some photos and video. 

Head home, day done. We settle in and catch up on the news of the day (Bangkok bombings) when there’s an almost constant knocking on the door. Who could that be??! It’s the Manager, Mr Zu. Apparently we’ve had our do not disturb sign up for too long, and it’s management policy to doorknock and make sure we’re not dead! Probably good practice, they’ve had a few ‘incidents’ where they’ve had to call an ambulance or the morgue. Ewwww! 

Chinatown tomorrow.