Singapore: Day Two

Reblogged from Housewives of Rural America… To see Part 1 of our journey in Southeast Asia, follow this link! To read more about our trip and where we plan to go, visit this link! 

Our second day in Singapore brought more rain. We were able to sleep in as we were exhausted from the big day we had our first day there. It was Sunday so we lounged a little bit in the morning and then made a plan for the day.

We had hoped to be able to get in a city tour but with the rain, we decided to wait for a better day when we could really get a good view of the city. We headed down to the Suntec Mall. In my first post, I mentioned how Singapore is a shopper’s paradise. Malls are a big deal here and it is where people go on the weekends. The malls were packed out with people out to shop or simply just be social with friends and family. We browsed around the malls for a bit, jaws dropping at their extremely high prices. $100+ for a pair of simple Levis jeans. I didn’t dare wander into a higher end store to even tempt myself.

With our city tour cancelled, we decided to hit up the famous Raffles Hotel. It was the first hotel in Singapore and is world famous. Authors like Ernest Hemingway have written about the Raffles. It is also home to the famous drink called the Singapore Sling. I can’t tell you exactly what is in it but the original contains gin and lots of fruit juices. It’s basically a concoction of fruity deliciousness that tastes nothing like alcohol. They could be potentially dangerous as you could suck them right down, but at $27 a pop, we didn’t down too many. We enjoyed the afternoon in the Long Bar at the Raffles, eating mini peanuts and drinking our Singapore Slings then strolled down the street to the Singapore Art Museum in the heart of the University district.

The Singapore Art Museum was a neat old building that used to be a boy’s school and has since been converted to art galleries. There were only a few galleries open at the time but the building is huge and when all the galleries are fully installed, it could take the majority of the day to wander through all of it. It was interesting to see the different takes on art. Some using more contemporary Western techniques, some using vintage techniques like Chinese ink, and some using a hybrid of both.

Later that night we decided to get our fill of the traditional, local food. There are food centers known as hawker centers that house small food vendors. Think like a local fair.. Small booths that offer up a whole variety of different dishes. Singapore is known for a dish called Chili Crab. Basically it’s like a whole crab boiled and cut up in a spicy chili sauce. Most of the vendors have the live crabs tied up in a little cage in front of their booth. My dear hubby picked out our crab and it was served up to us piping hot. The chili crab was DELICIOUS if you enjoy crab. The crab was wonderful and the sauce was spicy and delicious. I wish I could have downed more if it but the spice was getting to me. The hubby and I thoroughly enjoyed the chili crab, but I am sure plenty of locals around us were laughing at us as we ended up a messy disaster afterward. How they eat the chili crab gracefully is beyond me. We also enjoyed some chicken and pork satay with peanut dipping sauce and some sweet and sour chicken which had grilled apples in it. It was a great addition I wouldn’t have thought of. The next time I make sweet and sour chicken, I may have to try that along with the pineapple in it. We enjoyed the local Tiger beer with our meal. It is apparently world renowned and was very good. I’ve been drinking a lot of beer on this trip which hasn’t been normal since I’ve been on my health kick, but hey I guess I am getting my calories and carbs in! 😉

We are off to Cambodia for several days. We are looking forward to taking in lots of temples as well as the culture there in Cambodia. It will be definitely interesting going from the most expensive city in the world to somewhere that is still very third world like Cambodia. We have pretty full days while in Cambodia so I will do my best to check in and share some photos with you all. As I said in my first post, if you are interested in following along with our trip, check my Twitter or Instagram. We hear that Cambodia is one of the places people even well traveled have enjoyed to go and love to go back. We hope our trip is all that and more and you know I will be taking lots of photos. Ciao for now!

Have you ever been to Southeast Asia? Where did you visit? What did you see and do?

Related Links:

The Layover with Anthony Bourdain: Singapore