The Big Raffle

Day 2: Singapore. We wake up at a normal-ish time this time around but everyone seems to have forgotten to do something, and we leave later than expected. We plan to head over to the Marina Bay Sands Sky Park Hotel to go to the top of those Behemoths- basically it looks like a boat is on top of three buildings. The swimming pool crosses all three buildings and it looks like the pool goes to the edge of the building. Google it, unfortunately I have not been able to upload photos yet.

Anyways, when we get to the adjoining mall (which is massive in its own right, with small boats inside it), we see a curious sight- people are skating. They are using hockey or figure skates on a plastic rink- no ice. One could wonder why they would not just use rollerblades or make some fake ice like the rest of us- but I guess this falls under the "only in Singapore" column.

After making our way through the mall, we abort our mission to go up the tower to see the view of the city and take in the gargantuan pool. I was disappointed, as this was the one thing in Singapore I wanted to see, but I relented.  I was told we would return when we came back to Singapore at the end of the trip, when we could get a deal that included in the famous chocolate buffet.

In its place, we went to the ArtScience Museum which is on the same grounds as the hotel. The whole point of the place is to show the coming together of the Arts and Sciences- it helps that the building looks pretty cool as well. There was an extensive Salvador Dali exhibit but the Van Gogh Alive exhibit was nothing more than video projections of Van Gogh's life and work on the walls. It looked cool for about 5 minutes but when Andrea realized that we were not going see any actual Van Gogh's, she gave it a thumbs down and we left. There was also a shipwreck exhibit of a trading vessel that went between the middle east and Singapore centuries ago, which was filled with thousands of relics.

To cap off the day, we went to the Raffles Hotel- which is a beautiful colonial hotel was named after the founder of Singapore, and was where the Singapore Sling was created. Like typical tourists, we were convinced to have a Sling at the Long Bar at the Raffles, at a mere $26 SGD (about $22 CAN or so). It also helped that Andrea's dad was willing to pay for all of us to have one. Sitting and having a drink there was like taking a step back in time, and it was fun to throw peanuts on the floor of a bar without any fear of retribution- especially in Singapore! Ernest Hemingway and many literary giants of that era used to hang out in there, so it had to be good right? Still I was not willing to pay the $45 for a tiny bottle of premix Singapore Sling.

After another dinner at Jen's place, we rested up for the next day and a flight to Malaysia.

Next up..."Headaches in Malaysia"....