The Thrill Is Gone

The Boyfriend had to see the Raffles Hotel once. So on an afternoon when I was struggling with a cold and jet lag, a lovely restored hotel seemed just the amount of sight seeing I could muster. We arrived about a half hour before they started serving afternoon tea. I thought we would walk around the hotel and work up an appetite for another meal.

Off we went:

I enjoyed the Leica shop, the APC shop and we both enjoyed the Raffles Hotel Museum. There were some lovely old memorabilia and letters from the hotel's heyday. Photographs of the restoration work really showed how much the building had deteriorated and needed the work. Funny that the museum was the only part of the hotel in which I could feel what a lively place the hotel had been. A model of the hotel also showed that there was now a rooftop swimming pool. I imagined the hotel guests lounging around or splashing about in the pool as we padded quietly around the museum.

After the museum visit, we were just not ready for another meal. I wanted to leave. As soon as possible. As we wandered the galleries all afternoon, there was barely anyone else around. I was sad that the restoration had done away with all the bustling life I remembered of the old hotel.

Raffles Hotel

1 Beach Road

Singapore

(6337 1886 / fax 6339 7650)

Mannequins

The Boyfriend spotted this great fabric shop in the Arab Quarter. The fabrics are really beautiful. For whatever reason, this reminds me of Mario Bava.

Night Time Skyline

Taken on the night we went for a walk along the Marina Promenade with our friends, D and C.

Tranquility

Our friend, also D, lives in a house with a koi pond just off the front sitting room. After a stressful day at work, he finds it soothing to sit by the pond with his fish. Each fish has a distinct personality. When he feeds them, one or two will come and eat out of his hand.

Thanksgiving Interlude

Before it's too late to be appropriate, I am interrupting the Singapore posts to share highlights from my Thanksgiving Dinner. As per our tradition, the Boyfriend, his son and I went out to dinner at the Gotham Bar and Grill. I had my usual Thanksgiving lobster:

This year, it was Thai-spiced Maine Lobster with some water spinach, snow peas and rice noodles. It was divine. The roasted lobster meat was perfect - flavourful, springy but yielding. And the broth tasted like lemongrass kaffir lime-laced lobster bisque.

My favourite of the desserts was the slightly bitter Chocolate Sesame Devils Food Cake. I love a rich, dark chocolate:

Needless to say, I fell into a blissful food coma on the sofa at home after all the richness.

Gotham Bar and Grill

12 East 12th Street

New York, New York 10003

(212) 620 4020

Tropical Storm

One of the great pleasures of our hotel room on our Singapore trip, was remote controlled blackout curtains. Pitch darkness at one push of a button. The only way I could tell night from day whenever I woke up was by sound - the discreet alarm clock was on the Boyfriend's side. The chorus of frogs meant that it was still night. Bird call - of many birds - meant that dawn was breaking. The steady sound of the waterfall alone meant that it was probably mid-morning.

A few days into our trip, I woke up to an unfamiliar sound. I had trouble putting my finger on it. No sound of frogs. No sound of birds, either. No sounds of people moving around outside. Then I realised what it was - the sound of the waterfall in stereo. I went out onto the balcony. It was a proper Tropical Storm. The skies had opened up and the palm trees around the pool flapped about wildly under the downpour and wind. It was still dark but the raindrops reflected so much light that the sky was a pink gold.

Lunch in the Botanic Gardens

On the last day of our quick jaunt to Singapore, the Boyfriend and I went to lunch in the Botanic Gardens. It was a great suggestion from our friend D whom we had seen the night before. In fact, he had suggested a night time walk in the gardens. Coming from New York, the idea of park and night seemed a not-so-great. I remember walking through the Central Park as darkness descended. It was a little sinister. Of course, I highly doubt there would be anything remotely sinister in the Botanic Gardens at night - we were in Singapore, after all. A night time walk in a garden could be romantic even. Except for mosquitoes. Lots of them. They seem to like me a lot. So we spent the last evening at Dempsey Hill - more of that in a later post.

D had suggested that we go to lunch at Halia restaurant and then take a leisurely walk through the gardens before getting our bags and going to the airport. As it turned out, we had a lovely, albeit brisk, walk to the restaurant in the gardens and a longer meander after lunch. Here are some highlights of the walk:

It was relatively overcast and I was blown away by the beauty and tranquility of the lovely, vast green space smack in the middle of a very bustling city. The rainforest part of the gardens bordered one side of the path we walked along. So on our right, we had gorgeous open gardens and on our left, what looked like a thick rainforest.

When we got to Halia, I asked for the glassed-in air-conditioned room. The covered outdoor area looked lovely, but even a short walk on an overcast day could induce perspiring in the tropics. We opted for the two-course set lunch, the highlight of which was the Spaghetti with Chilli Crab, the restaurant's take on the popular local dish. I was thrilled we got to cross that off our foods-to-try list and that it was done without my having to excavate the crab meat out of crab shells. I loved the sharp spices and heat of the dish. The soft and smooth textures of the crab meat and pasta contrasted so well with the vivid sauce. I also have to make a special note of the standard breakfast tea they served at the end of the meal. I imagine it probably came from a supermarket standard teabag, but it was so strong! My after school mugs of tea came back to me instantly. (Of course, again, I inhaled lunch before I even looked at my camera on the table.)

Lunch over, with some time on our hands, we decided to explore a bit of the gardens. We went to the National Orchid Garden next to the restaurant. The varieties of orchids were pretty staggering - small, large, bright, pale. Everywhere we turned there was another gorgeous orchid species:

We had to skip the covered enclosure - with even more orchids - because I could feel the mosquitoes within two steps into the shade.

The sun had come out and I was reminded of Noel Coward's song about Mad Dogs and Englishmen. It was clearly time to return to the hotel for a rest before the twenty-odd-hour journey back to New York.

More images from the Botanic Gardens:

One of the things I love about Singapore, is proximity of nature in its incredible beauty.

Halia Restaurant

1 Cluny Road, Ginger Garden

(enter via Tyersall Road)

Singapore

(6476 6711)

Singapore Botanic Gardens

1 Cluny Road

Singapore

(6471 7361)