Blog - SIN/KUL #1: Singapore, 1st day
SIN/KUL #1: Singapore, 1st day
Thursday, September 20
Singapore
We arrived in Singapore around 1am on September 20. As we wanted to get some sleep in a bed, we had looked around for a cheap hotel, and ended up staying at a Hotel 81 (cheap chain) in Bugis which we chose for both price and location. It was clean but the room was very small considering that one night was ¥10000, this is on the cheap side by Singapore standards. The bedroom was approx. 2m x 2m, and the bathroom about 1m2, the latter which combined both shower and toilet in the same space with no separation. We were only there for a few hours though so it was ok. The staff was fine.
We checked out late in the morning and left our backpacks for the day. We started by going a few blocks down to the famous Raffles Hotel and getting some ice cream (for breakfast, yes) at the Raffles Creamery. They offer Cold Stone Creamery-like ice cream mixed with stuff on a cold marble plate. However being that it just opened recently, the very nice staff didn't seem too trained. They didn't do the mix thing but just dumped the ice cream and toppings in the bowl. I also got probably 5 times more macadamia nuts than I paid for. :)
After just a bit of looking around in a nearby mall, we took the MRT and headed down to Raffles Place station where is located Singapore's symbol, the Merlion, said to be one of the world's top 3 most disappointing sightseeing spots. This time it was even more disappointing than usual because it was being repaired and water didn't flow from his mouth. :) Nevertheless it's something to see in Singapore. Just behind the real Merlion, which faces the sea, there's also a smaller one that can be used to take a photo together.
Then we walked towards Chinatown station, meanwhile passing by Telok Ayer St. and Amok St. where are located some mosques and temples. Continuing towards the station, we stopped on Bridge street to view the impressive Sri Mariamman Hindu temple, on which stand hundreds of sculpted idols.
We did some shopping on the tourist street that leads to the station, and while there we stopped at the Chinatown Heritage Center, just because it looked a bit more trusty than the other shops, and asked how to get to our next destination. There we had incredible luck because the sister of the person who helped us lives on the same block as Fook Seng Goldenhill Chicken Rice, a 20-minute bus ride away in a residential area. It's even the last stop of bus 63 (which can be caught in front of a CK department store just south of Chinatown station on New Bridge Road), so it was really easy to get there. It was already 14:00 and we were getting hungry, but we knew that's where we wanted to have chicken rice.
Fook Seng Goldenhill Chicken Rice had been selected by blogger Liao Yusheng as the best chicken rice in Singapore, and picked up by Gridskipper. I had printed a coupon for a free plate of vegetables from the site, which the owner redeemed looking very happy that someone had found them through their web site. All the other people at the small restaurant seemed to be locals. Oh, and the chicken was as delicious as advertised, so tender and of course no hint of a bone.
Taking the bus back to the city, this time riding up to Bugis (back near our hotel). These bus rides only cost S$0.90 one way (that's about 70yen). From Bugis we walked towards the west, finding some legal graffiti wall advertising Converse. It was now about 17:00. We stopped on the way at a building called The Bencoolen to have a Taiwan-style shaved ice dessert at Ice Monster, and also to look at the strange design of what seemed to be an art school. Along the way we also saw some lady doing I don't know what with some snakes. I didn't stare for too long.
Then we walked to Little India and up Serangoon Rd. where the sidewalks are thin and crowded with goods from the shops, many selling Indian scarves and garments. Up the street was the Sri Veeramakaliamman temple in which we took turns entering, as you have to take off your shoes and we didn't want to risk our sandals disappearing.
It was 18:30, we walked back down Serangoon Rd. we stopped at Indian restaurant Saravanaa Bhavan to have masala dosa and spicy dosa(?) for dinner.
As the day was pretty much over, we went back around Bugis and did a little bit of shopping in nearby malls before picking up our luggage at Hotel 81. Then we walked up Queen St. Terminal for our next adventure.
Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr
Gmaps Pedometer GPS route from Merlion to Little India (may take a few minutes to render, and make your computer run slowly meanwhile)
Posted on September 30, 2007 at 12:02 | Tweet
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