Singapore: Part II

(Here's Part I)

I'm back with Part II of our Singapore trip! 

On Tuesday, Dan and Kristen both went to work, so Jeff and I were on our own in Singapore! Dan was super sweet and left us a detailed itinerary of activities and instructions though, so we were just fine! We started the day with croissants and coffee at Tiong Baru Bakery (isn’t vacation wonderful?), and then we went to Little India.

We walked through Little India for a couple hours and saw lots of fun things!

We ended up at Tekka Center around lunchtime. We strolled through the “wet market” where they sell meat, fish, veggies, etc. (named for the wet floors that are covered in fish goo and who knows what else).

We bought some chicken briyani for lunch, and it might be my favorite thing we ate the whole trip. So good!

We also walked through another part of the center where people sell clothes. The dresses were so pretty!

After Little India, we hopped on the MRT and went to see two of Singapore’s most iconic sights, the Marina Bay Sands hotel and the Merlion!

The Marina Bay Sands has a big garden, so we walked around there as well.

Kristen and Dan took us to their favorite pizza place for dinner, and then we went back to Orchard Road to see it at night (it’s kind of like Singapore’s Times Square).

We stopped for dessert at Mochi, where we ate these squishy little balls of dough and cream that are actually as tasty as they are cute. I think we need them in the U.S.!

On Wednesday, Jeff and I went to yet another mall that was on the harbor with a view of Sentosa Island. We decided to just grab whatever looked good at the mall food court for a snack (but nothing we had ever eaten before), and we ended up with a “Hong Kong cheese egglette,” a “chicken flossy pancake,” and a “cheese pancake.” The egglette was delightful, the cheese pancake was kind of like two bland pancakes with cream cheese in the middle, and the chicken flossy was disgusting. Haha. But two out of three isn’t bad, right?

We stopped by a grocery store to explore a bit and buy some of the British candy bars that we loved as kids when we lived in London (they sell some British things in Singapore that you can’t get in the U.S.). The rice aisle was kind of hilarious... so many varieties, and no bags smaller than 5 kg!

Next we went to Haw Par Villa, which is by far the strangest thing I’ve seen in a while. It’s an old amusement park that’s Chinese-mythology-themed, but now it’s just empty and you can walk in for free and walk around.

There are statues all over that depict various stories and legends. It was weird though because some of the stories apparently are pretty graphic in nature, and the statues were super-graphic as well. I’m talking people drowning in pools of blood, people being sawed in half, people being thrown onto hills made of knives. It was just bizarre.

Definitely a weird little theme park!

We spent the rest of the day exploring in two other neighborhoods, Holland Village and Dempsey Hill. Then we all went to get dinner at “Satay Street.” Satay Street is awesome. They close off a street downtown in the evening and fill it with tables and stools, and dozens of satay vendors set up carts to sell satay sticks and other food. Here’s our yummy dinner, satay sticks and prata:

Wednesday was our last night in town, so we planned a bit of a splurge with Kristen and Dan. We went to the Marina Bay Sands hotel to partake in their “Chocolate and Cheese Buffet.” The restaurant was up at the top of the hotel, so we were able to walk around and see beautiful views of the city and the bay, as well as the hotel’s super-fancy rooftop pool.

The chocolate buffet itself was incredible. There were cookies and mousses and tarts and cakes and bread pudding and candies and pretty much anything you can think of. The cheese selection was pretty great too! I started with a plate of chocolate goodies, then went back for some cheese and crackers, then another plate of chocolate stuff, and then some fruit. It’s definitely like the least healthy thing you could possibly do, but it was sort of a once-in-a-lifetime thing, so I think it’s totally okay. :)

The chocolate-covered strawberries were zebra print on the bottom!

And then, all too soon, we packed up our stuff and went to the airport. And now I’m sitting on a plane, going on Hour #20 in the air, and typing this blog post. And this time, we’re actually going home and not on another vacation (I’ve got to start work here pretty soon). Our lives have been absolutely crazy for the last month or so, and we’ve loved every minute of it, but we’ll be glad to get back to our little house and return to normalcy!