We’re now near the end of our two-week adventure, last destination before we fly home was Singapore. We crammed in quite a bit since we only get to spend two days there, but I would love to explore Singapore further next time! Friendly people, easy and convenient MRT, great food and shopping, and overall, extremely clean!

We walked down Orchard street and ended up in the botanical garden. This is a huge park, and free too! We spent a few hours in here just walking around and reminiscing all the highlights of our trip.

|Below| this picture was taken just before the rain, look at how green everything was! Oh and we were lucky enough to spot a monitor lizard passing by!

Tip #1, take the MRT if you can, as cab drivers will charge 50% more during late night and peak hours.

Tip #2, don’t eat the included breakfast at your hotel, there are food vendors everywhere and the options are endless.

For lunch, we ate at a food court, good and very inexpensive. There are hawker stalls and kopi tiam (coffee shops that serve meals and coffee) everywhere, and you don’t need to worry about the cleanliness, as the government regulations are strict.

As much as I wanted to try Laksa and Bak Kut Teh, it was way too hot and humid to drink hot soup.  I am ashamed to say that I have definitely lost my training (from 13 years in Taiwan) of eating hot pot on a hot summer day.

We picked from a variety of rice plates with roasted meats and a gazillion types of noodle dishes, ended up ordering all noodle dishes – Dry minced meat noodles with fish balls, dumplings and wonton noodles, and lor mee.

Singapore is a big melting pot, and the cuisine reflects as such. You can see Chinese, Malaysian, Indonesian, Indian, as well as Western influences in the food. Lots of spices but simple, very flavorful without being over the top. I posted this link before, but check out the 40 Singapore Food We Can’t Live Without.

We spent an afternoon hanging out by the Marina, where the famous Merlion statue is at, but the surrounding area was unfortunately under construction so we could only admire it from across the bay.

Here is the famous double helix bridge.

A view of the Marina from the bridge.

A quick snack (and a childhood favorite), stuffed pancakes. This was from Mr Bean, a popular chain for soya milk drinks and snacks.

Then it poured, it REALLY poured. We braved the rain and walked to Archipelago Brewery. Drinking beer with completely drenched clothes was a new experience for me. Their beer was pretty great, didn’t order food and you’re about to see why.

I saved room for chili crab, of course! Dinner was at Long Beach in Dempsey. There isn’t a close by MRT station so we had to take a cab. Hailing a cab in the pouring rain was extremely difficult, and we had to order a couple cabs to pick us up after dinner as it was near impossible to get one there too. Long Beach is famous for their seafood, and of course the national dish – chili crab. Both tourists and locals come to eat at this restaurant so you know it’s going to be great. Expect a wait if you don’t have reservation.

|Below| First time eating razor clams, SO delicious! Especially that shallot and garlic topping…Mmmmmm! On the right, crispy fried shrimps.

 

|Below| fried tofu, and fried baby octopuses.

Black pepper crab, Long Beach’s signature dish. I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture of the chili crab dish! Imagine a whole crab covered with a sweet tomato chili sauce, eat the crab and dip the sauce with some sweet buns that were steamed and then fried.

The next morning, I loaded up on some Singaporean coffee, sweet soy milk, some pork buns, and off to the airport we went. It’s been an incredible trip (or trips if you remember the back-to-back Hawaii and Italy trips), but I was more than ready to come home and get back to reality. That’s all folks, this officially concludes my summer 2012 traveling posts and I hope you enjoyed the pictures along the way. Stay tuned because I’m going to NYC soon!