Day 37 Dec 2nd

Our adventure was drawing to a close, but we still had two days left in Singapore before we flew home. We wanted to make the most of it. We had afternoon tea booked at Raffles at 3:30, but that was the only thing that we had planned.

Monday morning, we were up bright and fairly early. The plan was to visit Marina Bay Gardens, then take it from there.

After breakfast, we decided to get a taxi to the gardens. Two reasons, it was about a forty-five minute walk, and it was hot and humid. Taxis are fairly cheap in Singapore, off-peak. They get much more expensive at peak times.

The gardens are a mix of gardens with a sculpture park thrown in for free.

The artificial trees are impressive, even more so at night when they are lit up. Unfortunately I don’t have a photo to prove it. The gardens are worth a visit.

After the gardens we decided to visit the Art Science Museum. It is situated in an attractive flower shaped building.

It is part of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel / Shopping Mall complex. Like a lot of Singapore it is even more spectacular when lit up at night.

There were several exhibitions on in the museum. The one we went to see was called Future World

There were eight installations, more information is available if you click on the link above. They were all interactive but I particularly liked the first one.

The Sketch Aquarium was a lot of fun. You drew sea creatures and coloured them in. Then they were digitally scanned and they swam around the walls of the “aquarium”.

Diane’s green Jelly fish floating around. My shark is in there somewhere as well.

After all that excitement it was time to head back to the hotel. We needed to get changed for afternoon tea at the world famous Raffles Hotel. We couldn’t afford to stay there, but afternoon tea was an affordable luxury.

We decided we needed to dress up. I thought about wearing the suit I wore at Rob and Georgia’s wedding, but it was too crumpled. so I settled for a shirt and trousers. Diane chose her least crumpled frock.

The afternoon tea was great. A touch of colonial decadence.

After we had eaten most of our tea, there were too many cakes, we headed for the Long Bar. The Long Bar is the home of the legendary Singapore Sling

Long Bar and the Singapore Sling

In colonial Singapore of the early 1900s, when improved rail and road systems were bringing rubber and palm oil plantation owners to Singapore from Malaya every weekend, Long Bar was located at Cad’s Alley. Not a formal bar, but rather tables placed next to each other facing Bras Basah Road, it was known as ‘the rendezvous of planters’, a good vantage point for watching the world go by.

It was common to see gentlemen nursing glasses of gin or whisky, but etiquette dictated that the ladies could not consume alcohol in public. For the sake of modesty, they were served with teas and fruit juices. In 1915, resourceful Raffles bartender Ngiam Tong Boon decided to create a cocktail that looked like plain fruit juice but was actually infused with gin and liqueurs. Based on gin, it also contains pineapple juice, lime juice, curaçao and Bénédictine, while grenadine and cherry liqueur give it its rosy pink hue. This deliberately feminine touch, together with the use of clear alcohol, led people to believe the cocktail was socially acceptable for women. With that, the Singapore Sling was born and, needless to say, it became an instant hit.

_{Taken from the Raffles Hotel website}

Diane’s cousin, who died last year, spent three or four years in Singapore when she worked for the Foreign Office. She was particularly fond of a Singapore Sling, and apparently often drank in the Long Bar. So we had to have one to remember her.

The peanuts are complimentary. You are supposed to brush the shells onto the floor. The Sling is very fruity, slightly too sweet for my tastes, and also very expensive at about £20 per drink. We only had one.

While we were waiting for our taxi back to our hotel, Diane made a friend.

It was then that we discovered that taxis at peak time are more expensive than off peak.

We got back to the hotel sat down, and went to sleep. When we woke up we decided that we couldn’t be bothered to go out to eat. We weren’t that hungry anyway. So we changed into our pyjamas and called room service.

A really good light meal to finish off a decadent day.