We started Saturday staying in Singapore with breakfast and swimming 20 (me) and 40 (Susan) laps in our pool before dodging a few rain drops before we finished.
We were picked up at 2:30 Pm in an Audi A-4 by Perlita Tiro of the Rotary Club whom I met when I exchanged flags from the Rotary Club of Fox Chapel Area with the Rotary Club of Singapore. I will present the Singapore flag to Fox Chapel on December 17.
Perlita had graciously agreed to show us around Chinatown and to sample some items from the “hawker” food booths there.
Along the way I complimented her on the Audi which she had had for three years. She mentioned a law in Singapore that you may only own a car for ten years because of stringent emission standards. And there is an auction process to buy a car so as a result the prices are among the highest in the world and Singapore ranks second in the world in terms of used car sales since people have to get rid of them. You can apply to extend the ten year period by 5 years by paying a fee which for her small Audi is 6,000 Singapore Dollars a year or 4,800 USD per year – Crazy! I’m glad the public transportation via the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) or public buses is so easy and taxis are also readily available and not too expensive except at peak hours.
She drove us to Chinatown which is only about ten minutes away but then again the entire width of the entire country of Singapore is only about 31 miles across by 16 miles deep.
We parked in a crowded parking garage using the EPS (Electronic Parking System) which is similar to EasyPass except that it monitors the time you spend parking and automatically bills you. It does seem like they monitor almost everything here such as with “red light cameras” and general monitoring cameras and signs with messages such as “57 shoplifters arrested in 2018 in Singapore malls” etc.
We had a nice time with Perlita showing us around the many booths in Chinatown and we shared a nice meal of chicken fried rice and a beef dish with fresh coconut juice drinks. A few of the photos are included below but I will share a couple more after Christmas since we bought a trinket or two for presents and don’t want to give those away!
We returned to the apartment amongst the hectic shopping crowds and for dinner Susan just was wanting a place we could sit outside since it is still 77-80 degrees at night. So I searched around and also asked the front desk people who are very nice and just across the street from Orchard Road and all the malls is a quiet older street with three outdoor bars/restaurants on Emerald Street called Emerald No. 5 (cocktails), Que Pasa (wine bar) and Ice Cold Beer (Stella, Hoegaarden and others), so they are pretty organized!
We sat outside Ice Cold Beer as they still had Happy Hour pricing and we also had great chicken wings and pizza (before starting diet challenge on Monday). It was truly a respite from the city life and in the photos you may be able to see the old buildings and the new mall across the street.
On Sunday we went to a delightful brunch place called Symmetry by first taking a taxi and then walking about a half mile to take the MRT back to our place. The waffles with ice cream were great and they have “the best” coffee in Singapore according to reviews.
Then for Sunday evening at 8 Pm I reluctantly took Susan downstairs to the Oriole Restaurant in our building. I say “reluctantly” because a few days before when she was working late I went down there and ordered margarita pizza, pasta and a bottle of red wine and brought it upstairs to our place and served Susan while she was on 10 Pm calls back to the US.
When I was carrying the food away from the cash registers one of the servers “Missie” noticed I was hobbling with my ankle and knee and she was saying “be careful, be careful” to me and offering to help me carry up the food but I declined. We chatted a bit and it turns out she works at Oriole at night but also is an auditor and a physical therapist during the day so I told Susan about her “keen” eye noticing my hobbling. (Of course anyone who wasn’t blind might have noticed me.)
She told me that her husband was from England and that he worked for a travel company and that he would be back in town on Sunday for dinner at Oriole if we wanted to meet them. So, not being one to pass up a double connection (physical therapy and a travel advisor at one time!) Susan and I stopped by around 8 Pm and Missie waved us down.
We had a great chat with them and got some good touring advice as Dominic has been in the travel business for like 30 years and actually coordinates tours before turning things over to “locals” such as he did the week before in Thailand and Malaysia. He looks like a weight lifting instructor for The Pit but said he belongs to GymBox which apparently is a chain of fitness centers.
He currently works for Tucan Travel but is trying to get a job in Singapore since he and Missie (probably in her late 30s) have only been married for 7 months and this was their “anniversary”.
So we volunteered to pay for dinner because of all the travel and physical therapy tips we received and because it was their 7 month anniversary. Dominic even mentioned Chiang Mai in Thailand which is an Elephant Sanctuary that Meg and Jen mentioned visiting if they visit next year.
This (the 7 month “anniversary?”) sent up some warning signs which were exacerbated when her “co-worker” asked us what room we lived in upstairs when she handed me the bill.
I was a bit taken back and Susan was thinking “home invasion” but I didn’t blurt out the room number and instead said “why do you ask” and it turns out that some people renting apartments daily can charge meals to their room. But since Susan’s employer is getting charged directly for the room we just paid using a credit card although it would have been nice to stick them with the bill!
So I think that was just a false alarm and we exchanged contact info and hope to see them again some time. No pictures sorry!
So the weekend ended with Susan thanking me for filling my role of meeting people and exploring new places!
Jim Hollingsworth
Singapore Travel Blog 