Days 50-54, Singapore

Day 1

We arrived early in Singapore after an amazing time in Thailand. We were gutted to leave but so excited to see what the various eateries of Singapore held in store for us. As it would happen there would be three hurdles to face on the very first day....

The first hurdle being the fact that we had mixed our days up and had booked the hotel for the next day and they had no space left. Cam tried to negotiate with a local nice hotel but was left a little disgruntled when they tried to get him to pay MORE than on the website as it was "the walk in rate". The hotel we had booked into was a hostel also so we decided to stay in the bunk beds. Not great hardship, and so hurdle 1 was successful traversed.

Once settled we decided to head out to one of Singapores famous "hawker centers", effectively food courts but the food is local rather than a KFC. We opted for a Michelin recommended noodle place and a curry soup. Both were bloody delicious but the Michelin recommended noodles were insane. They came with pork char sui and a super rich sauce. It was also accompanied with a soup (more on that later)...

Full bellies we decided to have a walk and aimed for the famous Raffles bar, where the Singapore sling was invented. And it was as we arrived we were met with hurdle number 2, a massive queue and a tropical thunderstorm. We spent a good bit trying to find a bar which was surprisingly difficult in this area of town at the time we were looking and eventually settled and had a beer.

By the time we had finished our drinks it was time to head out to the food tour we had booked for the evening. The most expensive to date and we were both knackered and feeling quite stuffed from our meals at lunch but we soldiered on! We had chicken rice, carrot cake (which is not a cake but is a savory dish made with radishes, that resembles a spanish tortilla), paratha, a milk tea, and satay. It was a pretty sorry affair in all honesty and we felt a little ripped off. Now, dear reader, I wish I could tell you that was our third hurdle to navigate on our first day in Singapore.... But unfortunately, we were to have something far worse in store. In the small hours of the morning Kirstin sent Cam a message from the shared bathroom with no AC "I've just been sick". Unfortunately, Kirstin had been struck down by a nasty bout of food poisoning which kept her up through the night. Cam had a glancing blow but by comparison was right as rain. We suspect that it was the soup which came with the amazing noodles as Kirstin finished most of it herself as Cam wasn't a huge fan...

Day 2.

Kirstin, having spent all night in the bathroom was in no fit state to do anything nevermind leave her bed. Thankfully the hostel agreed to letting her stay in bed until our room was ready. Cam went to the shops to pick up supplies which included a Chinese sickness medicine which was a little suspicious looking (see photo below). Cam went to the gym in the hopes of feeling good about himself in case the food poisoning came for him next as he wasnt feeling 100% either. Having completed the gym and feeling better for it, Cam threw himself right back into contention for being sick with a pork floss and egg custard bun. As risky as it sounds, it was delicious!

Once we were let into our room we just spent the night watching netflix. Cam went out for a solo dinner at a Michelin recommended spot which he thought Kirstin wouldn't like (they did a peppery soup similar to one we had in Bangkok which Cam loved and Kirstin didn't enjoy). It was a hearty peppery soup served with pork rib and braised pork belly. It was really tasty! And so ended day 2.

Day 3.

Kirstin woke up feeling a bit better so we decided to head out and have some lunch. This time we went for something safer in the form of pizza. A Michelin recommended pizza no less. It was a wee trek but we made it with a stop at Uniqlo first so Kirstin could get herself a patch on her bag, she opted for a very Singaporean chicken and rice. The pizza we had was incredible, for Cam it was the best pizza he has had. Kirstin was less emphatic but said the flavours were unreal. Cam had a sausage pizza, Kirstin had a BLT pizza. As good as it was, the richness of the food and the heat if the city was a bit too much so we went back to the hotel to chill a bit.

After a good amount of chilling out, Cam got hungry again so we ventured out to try another hawker (feeling brave). Cam went for a nasi lamak which is effectively spiced chicken leg with rice and sambal. It was tasty enough. Then we called it a night and went back to bed.

Day 4

After doing mostly sleeping and resting due to illness we woke up feeling refreshed and revitalised (for the most part). Today was the day we were gonna scratch some more bits off the list, i.e. it was time for some drinks.

Cam's mum had convinced us that the queue for raffles was well worth it, so that's where we started. We queued for about 45 mins and to be honest... It was well worth it. The cocktails were ace and the colonial era aesthetic was very cool albeit a tad problematic. You were also served unlimited peanuts and were encouraged to throw the shells on the ground, which was way more fun than it should have been. To finish off, Kirstin found a shell with four peanuts in it, which is as lucky as a four leaf clover apparently! We had a couple of cocktails and then it was off to our next engagement.

For lunch, it was a Michelin star Chinese restaurant which was pretty cheap. We went a la carte and to be honest it was fairly disappointing. We ordered the full duck and the skin was quite chewy, we had dumplings which were nice and a fried rib dish which was recommended on the guide and it was all just okay. Not Michelin star worthy in our humble opinion. Which is a shame.

Down but not out it was time to see the famous gardens , which in fairness were really cool. We didn't pay to go up the trees or go into the botanics as it was extortionate but we did see a snake. So it was a success!

We then went to go to the Marina Bay hotel, which is the big hotel with a boat planted across the top of its 3 towers. We had heard from Cam's mum and our friend Stacey that the play was to go up to the bar, which is higher than the observation deck and you don't have to pay!! We went to Stacey's recommendation, LAVO, which was an Italian restaurant and bar with 360 views. There was a minimum spend, but it's less than the observation deck and you get to have drinks and snacks, it's a win win!

We stayed up the top for a while and got a little tipsy and chatted away which was really lovely, as it always is and then started to get hungry! We decided to have another Michelin recommended pizza, this time unfortunately it wasn't as stand out. Just good, but for being on the other side of the world it was a true representation of neopolitan pizza, so fair play to them for that.

We ended our time in Singapore with a nice stroll home and an early night. It was off to Bali in the morning to catch up with the other Lloyds, and Isa! Singapore was ace, we were gutted that we didn't manage to spend as much time as we intended due to illness, but regardless we had fun and ate well.