On our way to the hotel, I was surprised that singaporeans were actually quite active at late night. The eastern district was full of 24-hr food stalls and they were reasonably busy at 2am! That was my first impression of Singapore...
Our hotel is just next to Clarke quay. So after sleeping till the morning, we walked towards Clarke quay along the Singapore river. Clark quay, full of pubs, bars, restaurants, is something redeveloped from an old rundown area by the urban redevelopment authority. Quite nicely built albeit lacking the kind of nostalgic atmosphere one would expect to feel at rebuilt site. However, it's not uncommon in big cities like Hong Kong and Macau too. We later found out it was so so busy on Saturday night.
We then walked past the Boat Quay and reached the central business area near raffels place. Skyscrappers in Singapore are not as crowded as in Hong Kong. Well, the streets are much less crowded than in hong kong too. We were always wondering where the locals would go during the day and weekends. The area around raffels place is kind of a cultural place with quite many colonial-times buildings standing. While on the other side of the river stand the modern-times high risers.
After visiting the busy merlion park, we followed the path and cross the bridge to the Esplande. There's a magnificient view of the marina sands from the esplande bridge.
Then we reached the heart of the city which was the colonial area since 1819. There we found the raffels hotel in which the Long Bar, where the cocktail Singapore Sling was created, is located. Several large shopping malls are conveniently located around the area and we had a very nice grapefruit and orange cake at Fruit Paradise in the raffels city shopping centre.
Orchard Road, the most famous causeway bay-equivalent shopping district of Singapore, was just nearby. Huge and modern shopping malls are lining up along Orchard Road. The 12-storey Orchard Central is particularly impressive with its sleek and contemporary design. We sampled a durian pancake at Four Seasons Durians as snack. For lunch, we chose the Hainan chicken rice of Chatterbox at Meritus Mandarin Hotel. Priced at S$22, it was probably the most expensive chicken rice I have ever had. Quality, of course, was great.
Following the advice on our guidebook, we headed to the east coast for the 'no signboard' seafood. The white pepper crab was excellent, nothing short of its reputation, even though I am not really a fan of shell seafood. Candy loved it. I knew she would have jumped at the chance of having another round if time had permitted.
Well... We didn't go back to the hotel right away after dinner. Instead we made a great decision to visit the legendary Long Bar to get an authentic taste of the original Singapore Sling. Despite a price tag of S$25 for a drink, every bit of the experience was worth it. One would certainly love the atmosphere in the Long Bar as much as we did. By the way, the non-alcoholic Virgin Sling would be a good pick for those who don't drink much alcohol, like me.
What a fruitful day we had in Singapore!! This feeling grows stronger now the more I write about it.
And it wasn't finished yet. We wrapped up our first day Singapore adventure with a walk all the way from the Esplande, along the river, to our hotel in Robertson quay. Clarke Quay was busy busy busy. There we realised where all singaporeans went on a Friday night. You must go there and see the bustling scene, feel the vibrant ambience and the radiating energy yourself.
Tired.
We enjoyed every moment though.......
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