Singapore Slings and Singapore Swings....

I know I have some catching up to do so I do apologise for the tardiness. You will undoubtedly notice that I spell many words with 's' where we usually use 'z' and that is just how it is here, so get used to it lol;)
We went to Singapore April 28th for the long weekend.  Loved it! Had a fantastically cheap 1 hour flight out of a tiny airport here called Subang, on an airline called Firefly. The name says it all - Small, cute, and quick. I highly recommend this double prop plane to anyone living in Malaysia. I wasn't so sure about the signage, but I did feel "alighted" when I left..

We were very fortunate to stay the first two nights at the new Marina Bay Sands Hotel, that looks like a boat stacked on top of 3 pillars. We were in the pillar on the left. Great view!

This resort is just incredible! To quote from Wik, Marina Bay Sands is an integrated resort fronting Marina Bay in Singapore. Developed by Las Vegas Sands, it is billed as the world's most expensive standalone casino property at S$8 billion (which is about 6.5 billion CDN).




The resort features a 2,561room hotel, a  convention centre, the 800,000-square-foot "The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands" mall, a museum,
two large theatres, seven "celebrity chef" restaurants, two floating Crystal Pavilions, an ice skating rink, and the world's largest atrium casino with 500 tables and 1,600 slot machines. The complex is topped by a 340m-long SkyPark with a capacity of 3,900 people and a 150m infinity swimming pool, set on top of the world's largest public cantilevered platform, which overhangs the north tower by 67m. The 20-hectare resort was designed by Moshe Safdie Architects.

The grand opening of Marina Bay Sands was held on 17 February 2011. It also marked the opening of the seven celebrity chef restaurants. The highly-anticipated Broadway musical The Lion King debuted on 3 March 2011. Okay, I watch too much Discovery Channel...I digress...


The "Shoppes" is very chic mall with Jimmy Choo and Versace for those Souvenir $1750 pair of shoes you just "have to have". I settled for some souvenir hiking sandals from the Outdoor store (save the judgement people...save the judgement)...

The architecture throughout Singapore is stunning.  It is extremely modern, kept very very clean (chewing gum is against the law), and is, what I would call, the "high end" little island in S.E. Asia..

The Singapore dollar is just under the Canadian dollar, so it was easy to calculate how much we were spending day to day. I've become so accustomed to Malaysian Ringgits that converting to SGD was painful. I realise just how good we have it in KL for cost of living in comparison to Singapore. A regular priced night at this new hotel is $800 SGD, which is about $2400 Ringgits. OUCH. Glad we found a deal.

It is worth staying at though! They have an infinity pool on the roof of that incredible building. It was amazing! When we finally found time to enjoy the rooftop splendor it was raining, but it was refreshing! That weekend was a record hot one in Singapore so this was just perfect:)

 This is us at the edge of the rooftop infinity pool. It was awesome! Now I can say I've peed in the highest pool on a structure in Asia (notice how warm Mairianne looks...little did she know...)

      Love this pic! Mairianne, HANG ON!!!!!!! lol

We had an exceptionally impossible meal at the award winning rooftop restaurant called Ku de Ta, which served Japanese inspired dishes. Reservations had to be made weeks in advance which we didn't do...so of course the next logical move was to show up at the door all dressed up for Mairianne's pretend special 40th birthday dinner that they must have lost our reservations for....(he he he )....

This restaurant was amazing not only for the view but for the service and the patio that overlooked the city. The menu could please any taste. I still remember that fantastic wok-charred baby kai-lan...soooo good.

Since it was Mairianne 'birthday" and all, they brought her a wonderful dessert. This is after we drank the "must have" Singapore slings and a full bottle of wine. I don't even think she knows that she's inhaling instead of blowing in this picture...oh c'est la vie...lol

There is no denying that Singapore is home to some of the best bartenders in the world. In fact, Agar, the bartender pictured above, won 3rd place in the 18th Golden Cup Bartending Competition in Taiwain. I'm not sure how or why I remember that, but I do. Agar became important to me that night. He fed us all kinds of concoctions. I thought he was like Harry Potter of the alcohol world... The result is the picture of us to the right, which at the time we took it thought we had the flash on....I don't remember how we got back to the room that night, but we did. YAY!

Next logical thing to do in Singapore is the Singapore Flyer! Especially on a hangover! It's the largest flywheel in the world. Again, I'll turn to Wik: The Singapore Flyer is a giant Ferris wheel, constructed 2005-2008. It reaches 42 stories high, with a total height of 165m (541 ft) making it the tallest Ferris wheel in the world, 5m (16ft) taller than the Star of Nanchang, and 30m (98ft) taller than the London Eye.

It was lovely. The first 15 minutes of it. It turns so slow that after 15 minutes you realise just how long this is going to take. About 40 minutes in total. This is not good when one is not feeling well...lol

The view was fantastic though, and we snapped some good pics and met some lovely people like the older couple from Australia who said they were finally living their ROI lol.

Above Mairiane is holding on for two reasons: 1. Boredom, and 2. Someone...I'm not naming names, but 'someone' hot boxed our car.

This is me pretending to look like I'm trying to figure out the map for our next thing to do when really I'm trying to hold back my 'give away' laughter because I know who that 'someone' is....

Us being giddy kids at the souvenir shop after the flywheel ride....You're only as old as you can count! No wait, that didn't make sense....umm..you're only as old as your last single malt scotch (much better).

We decided to do the "Hop on Hop off anything" for 24 hours so we could see the city. This was a fantastic deal! They never check your ticket so we used it for two days, and could hop on and off the bus and the boat whenever the mood hit us. We loved the boat ride, which took us up the historical Singapore River. Note that until 2005 Singapore was the largest port in the world (now the title is held by Shanghai).

The river boat ride was such a favourite because it let us see all of Singapore's beauty. Beautiful historical buildings and hotels are juxtaposed with modern skyscrapers and avant guarde architecture. Eco buildings are taking the city by storm as well so it's common to see green rooftops and areas of buildings that appear to have foliage growing out of different levels of it. so amazing!

The area above is called Clarke Quay, which is a hot spot for seafood restaurants, pubs and what we'll talk about in a little while...the Singapore Swing....

 The Fullerton Hotel is a local favourite, and dates back to 1919, made in honor of Robert Fullerton, the first Governor of the Straits Settlements.

The bronze statue to the right was incredible! They actually look like muddy kids jumping into the water off the pier ;)

 On the left you will see Merlion. This Lion head on a fish body is a mascot of Singapore. It's pretty amazing, but it also bothered me how much was spent on it. They moved it 120 metres in 2002 to this location because of issues with being able to see it where it was. This cost something like 5 billion Singapore dollars to do! Unbelievable.

From the boats we went on land to the hop on bus to explore the inner city. 

We saw the ultra modern business district, passed by little India, and stopped off at Chinatown...

It was hot and we found a nice little bar in the middle of Chinatown selling ice cold Tiger. So we made the necessary stop....lol

After our quick little cool down is was finally time to do a little bit of shopping...

You can buy anything here...cameras, geisha dresses, wooden carvings, silk underwear, prostitues, snakes in a bottle....

....you can buy a carton of eggs off a bicycle....

...slouch socks!!! (Yes Lisa, hold your breathe, I never forgot your birthday gift don't you worry lol)

 Translations get lost here. We went into Beavers thinking we'd find 'like minded' people...not so much.

Then there was porn's, yet another misunderstanding...

The funny part of Chinatown in Singapore is that you'll always find that special someone. We captured her on the video below. I bring you, the Asian Cowgirl teaching the two-step....

 It's time to do something spur of the moment! The Singapore Swing!!!! This is a bungee swing...basically your strapped into a cage and pulled up over 50 meters high, then launched, catching G5 as you get thrown 100 meters over the Singapore River. AWESOME. Even more awesome was that Mairianne went because if she didn't I wouldn't be able to go, it's a minimum of 2 people. She HATES the feeling of falling but did it for me (I fear that will come back to haunt me one day).

My video which filmed our faces the whole time is too big to post. I'm working on cutting it so I can share, it's PRICELESS. In the mean time, I found someone's footage from the ground of two other people that will give you the idea of how fun this was. I highly recommend it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9umndQeBBos

 Found a Hooters on the Pier...check out the menu he he he ...


This little guy on the right clearly just came from Hooters.

 Had some great food at a little Dim Sum restaurant close by, loves the greens there, soooo good. No food poisoning here! lol

 Lastly, I bring you: The Japanese Tourists in Singapore. They road our boat back to the hotel with us. I started taking pictures of them taking pictures and next thing I know they wanted me in all of their pictures. I'm in some asian photo album somewhere....

Lastly, Ode to the Singapore Sling. Definitely the best sling I've ever had. Stay tuned for my next blog where I share our adventures on Sentosa Island...home of Singapore's "Universal Studios"...ohhh yeahh...

This is Christine in KL, Selamat Datang!