Day 60: Sin-Ga-Po’
The one hidden trick in using United mileage tickets (or any
tickets) is that any stop less than 24 hours is considered a layover, and
therefore a free day off during flight. Because of the high connectivity and
proximity between Southeast Asia cities, it is hard to get a real layover in any
city. However, for some reason that is unknown to anyone, almost all
international flights leave India late at night. How Late? Well, my Singapore
Airlines flight out of India to Singapore left at 12:15 am, and that was
probably the earliest flight out of India I’ve ever taken. Well, because of
this, my flight in Singapore lands at 8:15 am local time, and because of the
advantages of night flying, Singapore has a flight to Melbourne at 9:00, and a
flight to New York (through Frankfurt) at 11:55. So, being a person who loves
to maximize utility, and doesn’t mind the prospect of a total flight time
(counting layovers) of 46 hours, I took the decision to have two extra days in
Singapore. I wouldn’t get to experience Singapore at night, but Singapore
during the day isn’t all that bad.
I arrived in Singapore at 7:40, about half an hour earlier
than the expected arrival time, fresh off of a 4-and-a-half hour flight aboard
Singapore Airlines’ beautiful Boeing 777-300ER (probably the most efficient
plane in the world). This was my first experience aboard Singapore Airlines,
known as probably the pinnacle of commercial aviation. I was still in economy,
but it had all the trappings that most airlines pass over. They had menus
(there were only two options, but still). They gave complimentary wine and beer
at the start of the flight when we were on the ground. They had the largest
movie selection that I’ve seen (I’m no longer really impressed at the depth of
South African Airways’ movie collection, as I guess the 100 options is kind of
standard). My one quibble is that their video screen wasn’t a touch screen,
which is strange. Still, their food was very good (for airline food). Their
beer was very cold (often a problem on planes). They had more drink services
than any flight I’ve been on when adjusted for length. Their seats had more
room than most. All in all, it was a great flight.
My only issue was that it was way too short. Obviously, this
isn’t their fault, but the distance between Mumbai and Singapore isn’t long enough
to get a good sleep, especially when one is determined to watch Les Miserables
(I fast forwarded through the more boring parts). I arrived in Singapore off of
essentially two hours of sleep, but surprisingly awake, ready to experience the
most unique city in the world.
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| Butterfly Park in an Airpot? Well, Anything Goes in Changi |
Since I arrived early in Singapore, I decided to take some
time to explore Changi airport. Like most things in Singapore, the airport is
just plain unique and brilliant. I was in Changi’s T3, the newest of the
airport’s three main terminals, and while there are certainly more glamorous,
grander terminals with larger glass facades, those terminals are mostly
soulless and empty. This is the opposite. All around the terminal are
fountains, rivers, greenery, and other subtle reminders of how nice this place
is. One of the hidden treats of the airport is the garden walking tour, as the
three terminals house an Orchid Garden, a Cactus Garden, a Rose Garden, a
Butterfly Garden and a few other gardens I’m forgetting. Only two are in T3,
and only the Butterfly Garden appealed to me, so I went there and had scores of
butterflies flutter by me. Around 9:15, I finally decided to escape from my
dream world inside Changi airport and head for my Dad’s cousin’s flat in the
heart of Singapore. Because I waited a good hour from when I arrived to leave,
I encountered one of the true rarities in air travel: no line at immigration.
Seriously. Zero line. I’m not sure why those people were even there, waiting
for passengers to come through immigration. After a quick hop, skip and jump
(escalators, mostly) to Singapore’s Changi MRT station, I entered the clean,
efficient and always punctual Singapore MRT, off to Orchard Street.
I would have loved to sleep on the MRT, but the Singapore
one is mostly outdoors on the path from Changi, so I couldn’t pass on the
opportunity to view Singapore. What immediately struck me about the city was
just how damn clean it was. I knew this already, but you kind of make yourself
forgot just how clean clean can be. About an hour after my trip started, I
landed outside the Orchard Road station, greeted by the only bad part of
Singapore: the heat. It may because I was expecting it, or it may be because I
had been to hotter places on this trip, but I actually was pleasantly surprised
that it didn’t seem as hot as last time. Certainly, I was already sweating
greatly after the 15-minute (really 10-minute, but I was misdirected) walk to
the apartment, and certainly I was already patting myself on the back for
packing not one, but two, changes of clothes, but it really wasn’t as bad as
last time.
By the time I finished catching up with my Dad’s cousin,
enjoying the incredible view from their beautiful flat high above the heart of
Singapore, and bathing the sweat away after she generously let me have a shower
to clean off, it was around eleven. I was dismayed, because the amount of time
between 8:15 (my estimated arrival in Singapore) and 9:00 (my scheduled
departure) is never as much as it really seems. We made plans to meet up again
at the flat around 4:45, to leave for a dinner on the East Coast Seafood
Center, which gave me a good five and a half hours to play with. I had seen
most of the main sites in Singapore last time I came, so I knew I could relax.
There was just one major hole in the sites I had seen, and it was a big one. I
hadn’t visited the Marina Bay Sands Resort and Casino, a stunning, sprawling
hotel and entertainment center in the heart of Singapore’s Bay.
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| The Marina Bay Sands |
I took the MRT to the ‘HarborFront’ station, which opens out
to the Marina Bay complex. I first went to the Gardens by the Bay, a beautiful
botanical garden complex featuring multiple sections of Asian flora. By the
time I finished, it was nearly 1PM, and I was getting increasingly hungry. From
the Marina Bay, I took a cab to Clarke Quay (or more accurately, Boat Quay –
but no one’s really heard of Boat Quay), the riverside walk up the Bay. I went
to lunch at Riverfront Grille, a restaurant overlooking the river, one of the
many on either side of the river. I ordered Crispy Calamari, which was
essentially dried calamari, which was very, very good, and a Scallop in XO
sauce. I posit that ‘XO’ is just what they write when they don’t know or want
to convey what the sauce really is. It was fine, but not as good as the Crispy
Calamari. I had long dreamed of being back in Singapore, eating a meal
overlooking the Quay, and while it was a bit hotter and more than a bit emptier
than I remember it (I, as do most people, usually ventured that side at night)
being, it was still good to be back.
From there, I went back to the Marina Bay. Thankfully, the
cabs were a lot more affordable than I remember them being, because my
zig-zagging wasn’t really the most economical way to see what I saw. I wanted
to go to the casino, partly because as a foreigner, I could walk past the sad
locals who had to pay a $100 fee to enter the casino floor. Of course, had I
known the amount that is gambled by everyone in that casino, I would have
realized that a $100 fee isn’t really that large. I wanted to play some poker,
but unlike US casino’s there aren’t small tables. The smallest table had a $10
ante, which is kind of ridiculous. I decided to go with $250, with a rule that
if I fell below $150, I would leave. This put me as short stack, which ended up
being no disadvantage. However, it took me a while to realize this. Apparently,
Texas Hold ‘Em in Singapore is played in a Blackjack style, where the players
at the table play against, and only against, the dealer. Basically, it takes
bluffing out of the game. I had no idea this was the case for the first three
hands or so, which caused the other two older Asians at the table to ask me if
I knew how to play. Of course, I didn’t show myself of knowing after the effing
dealer Rivered me twice in a row. I left with about $175, which considering I
didn’t know what the game was, wasn’t all that bad.
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| The sight of a strange version of Texas Hold 'Em, and also some of my money |
After I finished losing money in the casino, I decided to go
spend some more over at the hotel. I was smart, though, in foregoing the normal
observatory deck experience for a drink at the rooftop bar instead. While it
sounds extravagant, the $20 scotch isn’t that bad considering the view is
included in the price, and considering it costs $15 to just go to the
observatory deck on itself. So, basically, I was paying the view for $15, and
getting my scotch for $5. After my Mom and I utilized a similar loophole at the
Menara KL, I realized that this should be standard operating procedure at any
observatory deck. The view from the top of the Marina Bay was quite stunning,
giving me the best view of Singapore possible since the Marina Bay Sands is
located across the Bay from the rest of downtown Singapore. I sipped my scotch
slowly, knowing that this was about as good as I could have imagined my first
day in Singapore going.
After I finished with the observatory tower, I decided to
venture back over to the Clarke Quay area, to check out an old haunt from my
last trip, the micro-brewery Brewerks, at the end of Clarke Quay. This time, I
decided to take the MRT there as I had some time. The beers were nice, a great
way to relax the afternoon away. I soon left and took a cab back to the flat,
where I had another shower (again, despite it being less hot than normal, it
was still way too hot for me to be totally comfortable). We soon left to pick
up her husband on the way to the East Coast Seafood Center.
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| Good Ol' Clarke Quay |
More than anything, I was looking forward to a meal at the
East Coast Seafood Center, a string of seafood restaurants on the sea on the
southeast side of Singapore. Being near Changi, it is a perfect place to go
right before heading over to the airport, and serves as a great plane-spotting
point, as the planes fly over the seafood center on their descent into
Singapore.
We went to Jumbo seafood, one of the two main seafood
restaurants in the center (the other is Long Beach Seafood – they both have
essentially the same menu and about the same recognition and reviews), and we
had a nice little feast. First was bean and tofu (much better than I expected),
prawn curry and ginger fish. And finally, the main course, with two
black-pepper crabs, the large crustaceans pasted with black-pepper sauce.
Despite it seemingly being an easy to make dish, nowhere on earth is it as good
as it is in Singapore. Nowhere on earth can you get that food, in that setting.
There was no better way to end my day in Singapore than with a black pepper
crab. Of course, as I went back to Changi airport and used their peerless
wi-fi, I remembered that there was no better way to enter into the 1st
World part of the trip (Singapore, Australia, Japan) than Changi Airport and
Singapore Airlines.
