Holiday: Day 31 – Singapore Thing!

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7.25pm: Morning all! It’s our penultimate day of our holiday and a VERY wet one here in Singapore! ⛈️⛈️☔☔

⌛ 9am UK time/5pm Singapore time: There’s a major outage affecting my Blog on this side of the world.
If you can read this Post, but there are no images showing, that’s the issue!
I suggest you come back later today. Sorry, it’s being fixed, but it’ll take time!⏳

We checked in to the Holiday Inn Express in Clarke Quay in the early hours of this morning. – but despite that, we woke at the usual time this morning! Body clocks, ehh! 😬. I also ‘enjoyed’ two separate bouts of cramp in my right leg 😬😩😵‍💫 that certainly ensured I didn’t go back to sleep! 😯 – Weird! I haven’t suffered with cramp for ages! Anyway, we were now wide awake and not feeling the effects of our 24 hours ‘straight’ yesterday getting here from New Zealand.

For those considering a first-time visit to New Zealand,
a summary of our 27-day adventure will be available in the next few days

All our photos
(and none of my chat)
HERE

Day 31? Missed a Post?
Click HERE

Day 31 – Where are we?
(Friday, 29th November)

9.32am: We’re in Singapore, and neither of us thought we’d be ‘up and about’ at this somewhat early hour today. We were both pretty ‘with it’ too, and so we headed for breakfast much earlier than we’d planned. The breakfast area on the ground floor was 1) very busy, and 2) a bargain! How so? We’d only booked ‘Continental’ thinking we’d both be ‘fragile little flowers’ after our short sleep overnight. Instead, the Buffet was a free-for-all. From Corn Flakes to Chinese Dumplings and Mash, there was something for literally anyone and everyone it seemed! – and no-one was checking who’d booked what! 👍

We think we’ve been to Singapore 6 times in the (almost) 40 years we’ve been together, where we’ve already enjoyed the ‘must-sees’ such as Orchard Road, Gardens by the Bay, The Singapore Flyer, The Merlion, Marina Bay Sands and the various Hawker Centres and much more. We were last here on 1st April 2018 and as we’ve only got today and tomorrow here in Singapore before flying home, we wanted to make the best of our short revisit.

Some of you have suggested (and it was on our list too) visiting the newly re-opened Changi Chapel and Museum that was closed for revamping last time we were here (re-opening eventually in 2020). So that was first on our list today.

Changi Chapel and Museum

The location is a bespoke War Museum dedicated to the infamous Changi POW Camp, Singapore’s history during the Second World War, including the Japanese occupation of Singapore – their comprehensive website is HERE.

Getting there: It was a slightly convoluted route from where we are by public transport, including a walk, the MRT, a Bus and another walk – so we took a cab instead! 👍. It took around 25 minutes and cost S$24.60 (£14.50).

It was still raining when we arrived and were glad to get inside. The Museum was maybe smaller than we expected, but we were given a warm welcome and offered tissues to dry ourselves before they even thought of taking our money! Admission was at the senior rate (they insisted… err, thanks! 😬) costing S$10 for the both us old crocks (£5.87).

The Museum consists of various information boards, photographs and real objects from Changi POW Camp’s that began ops in 1942 until the end of the War. There are also testimonials from families descended from the original prisoners that helped to bring everything up-to-date.

The whole thing was spread across a single floor, with the Chapel (more about that later) outside. It was subtly lit and everything was explained in straightforward terms. Lots of testimonials too!

Given the conditions in Changi, you had to admire the resourcefulness of the prisoners. At one extreme, we had a morse-code generator secreted in a matchbox….

…whilst at the other size extreme we saw various full-size murals created and painted by Stanley Warren, a British bombardier and Changi prisoner-of-war. Pretty amazing under ordinary circumstances, but here, he had to MAKE his own paints too! 😯

It’s perhaps a POW story that doesn’t quite get as much airplay as others when recounting WWII and its many atrocities.

Outside, we saw the restored Chapel originally constructed by the Prisoners themselves.

As you might imagine, this was all quite a moving experience!

We thought the Museum deserved to be busier and wondered if the non-straightforward journey by public transport might not be helping attendance figures? Allow around an hour to see it all – and prepared to be moved.

Next stop was somewhere for some ‘light refreshment’! 😉. There was nothing nearby, so we grabbed a Taxi and headed for…

Raffles

12.42pm: No visit to Singapore would be complete without the obligatory visit to the famous Raffles Hotel. The last time we were here was probably 30-odd years ago with friends Steve & Amanda. Since then, on our various returns to Singapore, we’ve never managed a re-visit. Today, we changed all that!

More specifically, a visit for us to the famous Long Bar, well-known the world-over for its Cocktails, and in particular, its Singapore Sling! Yes please! 😋😋

There is also the tradition of serving peanuts with the drinks here and the customer then throws the husks on the floor for that authentic ‘crunch-under-foot-feeling’ – there were plenty there already by the time we arrived 😊

Ann went oft-pist and instead, chose a Straits Cup (Gin, Pimm’s, Tropical Fruits and Soda Water). You can see their complete list of the Hotel’s (ahem) ‘healthy options’ HERE. Two cocktails and a sack of nuts wasn’t cheap – S$86.33 (about £50!) Well, it is a holiday!!!! 😉

It all went down a treat! And what a great experience! It was good to see Raffles again after all these years! 👍👍.

Public Transport – The MRT

The weather was on the turn again, and we decided to head back to the Hotel by using public transport.

1.56pm: After studying Google Maps, we worked out that the MRT system (‘Mass Rapid Transport‘ – their ‘Underground’) would get us close enough, plus a short walk at the end. Boy, the MRT network has grown even more since we were last here, and it was busy too! 😯. Payment is simple, just use your credit/debit card. These days, I’m pretty sure the network is cashless throughout. Still as quiet, cool (it’s got AC) and speedy as ever. 👍😀

One thing that HASN’T changed is Singapore’s hate of the Durian Fruit on public transport. Why? It’s the smell!! Often described as “A mix of sulphur, sewage, fruit, honey, and roasted and rotting onions”, it’s loved and loathed in equal measure around Asia.

2.36pm: We arrived back at the Hotel with time to head for the top floor to take a look at their swimming pools. Luckily Sadly, it was raining again, so we appreciated them from a distance!

Hawker Hunting!

6.25pm: Time to take a wander into the nearby Chinatown for somewhere to eat – The nearby Chinatown Food Centre was nearest and had the largest choice. We had eaten in the area last time at the tongue-twisty Chang Hang Bian Shang Restaurant. We both had ‘Chicken Satay‘ on our minds, so that was a good start. Sadly, the evening didn’t work out as planned. Why not? No sign of Chang Hang Bian Shang and the recollection we had of the Hawkers cooking food in front of you while you wait, was nowhere to be found. It looked like things had ‘moved on’ (not in a good way) where instead, the surrounding streets seemed to be filled with Chinese Restaurants/Takeaways! 😯

6.40pm: But amongst all this disappointment was a glimmer of hope! Step forward Liao Fan Hawker Chan – a restaurant/takeaway at 78 Smith Street – that boasted ‘The Cheapest Michelin Star Meal in the World’. A Chinese Takeaway with a Michelin Star – that’s got to be worth a try, and surely they’ll have Chicken Satay? Surely!!

Talk about ‘Lost in Translation’. What we ended up with was in the photo above. No sign of a satay sauce… and was that actually Chicken? Having seen an advert for ‘Cattle Ligament…’ ‘…in a spicy sauce’, at a nearby competitor, we were beginning to wonder… 😬 (and don’t mention the Appetiser: ‘Pig’s Intestines’!)

Anyway, what mattered, surely, was the taste! Disappointingly, no-one had told the Chef about that part tonight, and the meal was absolute rubbish! Warm at best and as bland as it comes. Wait, there’s more! Pink in the middle (great for steak… chicken – not so much) but at least it was cheap. The bill including a beer and a Coke came to a puny S$22.40 (about £13!). Yes, but it was the cheapest Michelin Star meal in the world!!! 😉

We soldiered on, seeking out somewhere – anywhere (apart from the Cattle Ligament in a Spicy Sauce shop) – that had Chicken Satay on the menu. Twenty minutes later, having looked at most of the eateries here in the Chinese Quarter, we gave up! In the end we concluded it was a memory that had now moved on – and Singapore, as many of you know – is a country that likes progress.

7.35pm: We grabbed a taxi back to the Hotel and over hot cuppa, laughed and lamented in equal measure, about our failed mission to seek out some Satayed Chicken. Tomorrow night, we might try eating in the Arab Quarter… what can possible go wrong? 🐪🐫🐪🐫🐪🐫. And talking of Saturday…

Tomorrow

It’s our final full-day here and depending on the weather, we’re going to take a boat trip from the nearby Quay (thanks for the tip/reminder, Geoff & Rhonda!) See you tomorrow. 💤💤