Author: My Husband

After spending two weeks in India, my colleagues and I went our separate ways. One decided to fly home via Frankfurt (effectively flying around the world to get to/from India), and the other spent the weekend in HK before continuing on to Vancouver. I was the laziest and decided to simply spend the weekend in my transit city, Singapore, for some personal R&R before heading home.

In the foreground is the symbol of Singapore – the Merlion. The tall building in the background is the Swissotel Stamford, which used to be the tallest hotel in the world. In the middle is the Esplanade (also affectionately know as the durian for its spiky exterior), which serves as Singapore’s stage for cultural events. To the right of the Esplanade are the hotels at Marina Bay.

Being in Singapore is a treat, and despite my being away for years and years, it always feels like home every time I’m back. It is all too easy to slip back into the warm embrace of the country, of family, and of my childhood sights, sounds, and tastes; once I step through the sliding doors of the airport terminal, I’m back in familiar territory.

When in Singapore, I would usually take a room in one of the hotels at Marina Bay, and over the years, I’ve stayed at most of them. However, Marina Bay is a little out of the way and I wasn’t interested in spending the bulk of my 2 days commuting, so I decided to put up at the centrally-located Intercontinental this time around.

The hotel boasts a fusion colonial/peranakan theme. It feels quite genteel and thus appropriate for an Intercontinental. However, uncharacteristically for an Intercontinental, the service was not always all that it should have been. My favourite Intercontinental is still the Paris Le Grand in France.

The hotel is attached to the Bugis Junction mall, which boasts of a fully air-conditioned “shopping street”. The mall was built around several blocks of restored Peranakan shophouses, and a portion of it was enclosed with a glass roof and air-conditioned.

The glass ceiling and walls enclosing the space between the restored shophouses.

The interior of Bugis Junction. These used to be real shophouses. In days of yore, the shopkeepers would operate their businesses on the ground floor of these buildings and live on the second and third stories.

Across the street from the hotel, you can still see some of the unrestored, un-gentrified shophouses. This stretch of shops are mostly traditional coffee-shops and eating houses. I’m sure the food at these places are very good, but I’m just not used to eating hot foods in 30+ degree weather anymore…

My first full day in Singapore, I met up with some close relatives and had lunch and dinner at the Shang Palace and Palm Beach respectively. These will be featured as quick takes in the next couple of posts. The next day, I went to Orchard Road to pick some items up for my wife, and I again took the opportunity to have lunch at… Food Republic. I had my aunt and uncle with me that day, and the three of us really went to town on the food at the Wisma Atria FR outlet…

FR… again…

Thye Hong hokkien prawn noodles. These were savory, but with a slight tinge of sweetness imparted by the prawn stock used to cook the noodles. The mix of noodles gave this dish differing degrees of al-dente’dness.

Also from Thye Hong. Imho, these were even better tasting than the prawn noodles. Expertly fried with plenty of “wok hei” and fresh cockles, this was the best cha kway teow I’ve had in quite some time. Our Vancouver readers can find an approximation of this dish at the “Curry King” stall at the Osaka supermarket mall foodcourt.

This is the local fried radish “cake”. The “cake” is made with a slurry of rice flour and grated radish, and then steamed until solid. The “cake” is then sliced up, and fried up with eggs and other seasonings. This is a personal favourite, and I’ve never lost the taste for it after all these years. As far as I know, nobody makes a dish like this in Vancouver.

Rojak. Best I’ve had in quite a while. See the difference between the rojak in Singapore and that which we ate at Kedah House? Needless to say, the Singaporean version was quite a bit better.

This is a crepe filled with cooked jicama, shredded omelette, grated carrots, chopped peanuts, and some sweet/spicy sauce. It’s akin to an unfried spring roll, and quite satisfying. However, my wife has not developed a taste for this at all…

Singaporean roti prata. Another personal favourite, especially the egg-y version. Roti prata is available in some SE Asian (Tropika, Kedah House, etc…) restaurants in Vancouver, but they look and taste slightly different.

 
Ice kachang (flavoured shaved ice) with sea coconut (the brown stuff – it is sweet and has the texture of jello) and flavoured grass-jelly shaved ice. In the heat and humidity of Singapore, eating some shaved ice provides much needed cold relief.

Milk tea served in a traditional coffee-shop teacup. I’m sure it was all in my mind, but I think the tea tasted better when drunk from one of these traditional teacups.

To give you an idea of what the interior of a Food Republic looks like, here are some snaps I made at the Vivocity location.

This is a snap of the Roti Prata cook flipping and thinning out the prata dough. You can see formed pratas cooking on the griddle.

Finally, after lunch, we happened by an Old Chang Kee stand. Since resistance was futile, I dutifully bought a couple of their traditional curry puffs (a deep fried pastry shell with a curried chicken/potato/egg filling) to eat back at the hotel.

It was a fantastic two days. My R&R in Singapore, in addition hanging out by the pool, was mostly spent eating.

Not a bad place to spend a couple of hot and humid days

However, it’s just as well it was only two days. If I had spent any more time in Singapore, Christina would probably have put me on a bread-and-water diet after I returned home.

Author: My Husband

Three weeks ago, on my way to India, I had to connect between flights at Singapore’s Changi Airport. I usually try to fly direct to mitigate the risk of missed connections and lost luggage, but alas direct was not an option between Vancouver and Kolkata. The travel agent gave me two choices: fly Singapore Airlines and connect in Singapore or fly Air Canada/Lufthansa and connect in Frankfurt. It was a VERY easy decision and I said “Singapore Airlines” before the agent could even finish saying “Air Canada”.

I think most long-haul fliers will find it easy to identify with my choice. Singapore Airlines’ reputation for safety and service has been second-to-none for the last two decades, and Singapore’s Changi Airport has consistently been rated the best in the world. Rankings and marketing propaganda aside, Changi is truly a very practical choice for connections as it offers transit passengers a huge variety of activities with which to occupy themselves. For passengers on a layover, they can: watch current release movies at the free airside movie theatre; or play video games at the free x-box stations; or catch a nap in one of the many free chaise loungers in the terminals; or take a swim in the roof-top pool; or go for some food and retail therapy at the many eateries and shops spread between the three large terminals; or take a free guided tour of Singapore; or… why don’t you take a look for yourself at Changi’s website. Even with a long layover, chances are you will not run out of things to do at Changi – it really is that good of an airport!

I remember my first visit to Changi shortly after it was opened in 1981. I was just a wee lad then and everything about the airport – from the now iconic control tower to the multi-story waterfalls, travelators, shops, and check-in counters in the terminal – was ultramodern and exciting. For me, that first visit to Changi held out the promise of adventures in far-flung places in the future; even now, many years and trips into/out of Changi later, I still feel a sense of excitement whenever I set foot in that airport. Since 1981, four additional terminals have been built, passenger traffic has increased multiple-fold, and Changi has become the major air hub in SE Asia, but it still manages to be the most user-friendly and efficient airport that I’ve traveled through.

On this trip, my two colleagues and I landed at Changi T3 at 6am, but our connecting flight did not leave until 10pm that day. Since we had sufficient time to pop into Singapore proper for a quick visit, we decided to do just that. A ‘quick’ visit was sufficient for me as I had a two-day stopover (the topic for another post) planned when returning from Kolkata.

Terminal 3, which was officially opened in 2008, is one HUGE terminal. It takes a full 20 minutes to walk from one end to the other, and houses many shops as well as a bunch of eateries. I’ve heard that there is a very good basement foodcourt landside, but I did not have the chance to visit it during this trip.

As one of my colleagues has never been to Singapore, we decided to avail ourselves of the free Singapore tour for transit passengers. While it wouldn’t have been very illuminating for me, it was the easiest and quickest way for my colleague to get a feel for the city. Getting through immigration was painless and literally only took half a minute. It actually took me longer to fill out the immigration form than for me to clear immigration! My personal record at Changi, set in 2007, for disembarking from the plane, clearing immigration, picking up my checked luggage, getting cash from the ATM, and hopping into a taxi was 15 minutes. 15 minutes!!! That is not likely to happen anywhere else, not even at HK’s Chek Lap Kok.

The tour took 1.5 hrs, and quite honestly, was a bit of a time waster. For the price – free – I won’t complain. But suffice it to say, if you had a few hours to spare, take the hop-on hop-off bus (free for transit passengers) or purchase a ticket on the MRT (the subway) into the city and do your own sightseeing instead.

Juxtaposition of old and new

We ended up having lunch at the Food Republic, my favourite food court chain, at Vivocity. More on the food at FR in a later post.

Decorated in the style of days gone by

Then we took the Express to Sentosa, which is a resort-like island just off the Singapore mainland. My colleague M commented that it felt very much like a place run by Disney.

The Sentosa Express – $3 gets you a return ticket

Palawan Beach

Siloso Beach

Bridge leading to the southernmost point of the Asian continent

We then went for a quick shopping expedition to Orchard Road. We paid Ngee Ann city – specifically the food hall in the basement of Takashimaya – a quick visit.

Bengawan Solo = favourite place for kuehs and Bee Cheng Hiang = favourite place for Singapore-style jerky (the bacon is fantastically tasty!!!)

We then found ourselves at the Singapore river, but didn’t stay long as it started to rain. As it was getting late, we grabbed a quick dinner in the vicinity and headed back to the airport.

This place really comes alive at night. Pub row in Singapore – can’t remember if this is Boat Quay or Clarke Quay

View of the Fullerton Hotel

Before hopping on our Kolkata flight, I decided to have a quick snack at the Toast Box in Terminal 2.

It may have been the paper containers, but I didn’t enjoy the taste of this much. The toast tasted quite bland compared to the food produced at other Toast Box outlets, and there was a paper-y aftertaste to the eggs.

After finishing the snack, it was off to Kolkata for two weeks. India, here we come…