A week in Singapore.
I’m up at 0400.
We’re booked on the first shuttle from the hotel to Narita. My niece has left luggage at the airport that we have to collect before checking into our 0900 flight to Singapore. We want to make sure we have ample time in which to collect her things and check our bags.
We needn’t worry. Everything goes smoothly, even though we have to wait for the left luggage off to open. Thankfully, we have lounge access and I enjoy a tasty soba breakfast before we’re to board.
Arriving at Changi Airport we collect our bags and then walk over to the Jewel. My niece wants to see the indoor waterfall. Unfortunately, it’s under renovation and no water flows. Fortunately, we’re able to look down into the well where the water falls, which is something one rarely gets to do.
We take a minute to figure out the transportation options into the city. There’s an airport bus but after checking Grab we discover that it’s less than 20 USD to take a cab. It’s a no-brainer and soon we’re being whisked away in the air-conditioned comfort of our own vehicle.
My cousin has booked a hotel for us. Her husband is arriving later to help their daughter move in. She can’t come due to unforseen circumstances.
Left to our own devices, our first destination is Lau Pa Sat. My niece is well-versed in Crazy Rich Asians destinations (both the book and film) and she can’t wait to check out the hawker center informing me that the actual filming location was at Newton Food Centre.
It’s less than a ten-minute walk from our hotel to the hawker center and we are soon standing before the bright lights and myriad stalls that make up Lau Pa Sat.
It’s overwhelming at first. We decide to divide and conquer. I spot a nasi lemak stall (Nasi Lemak Ayam Taliwang) right by the entrance and get in line. My niece heads off to find Hainanese chicken rice.
We find a table and set to our meals. The nasi lemak is stellar. It’s been ages since I’ve had it and I didn’t realize until my first bite how much I’d missed this dish. Looking up I see a pan-fried dumpling stall and get up to buy some. They’re ok. The chicken rice is delicious. A man walks by with a huge piece of naan sitting atop a tray of curry and we vow to find it. Even after each eating one meal we make room. It’s so worth it.
When my cousin’s husband arrives he thanks me for taking care of my niece. He tells me that since I covered everything in Japan he’s got Singapore. I warn him that I’ve made reservations at Ce la Vie, the bar atop the Marina Bay Sands (another Crazy Rich Asians location my niece wants to visit. There’s a 200 USD minimum per person. Perfect.
The next day we start the process of moving my niece in.
While she attends her initial orientation and briefing, my cousin-in-law and I hang out on campus, drinking cups of coffee in various lounges both indoors and out, making sure we’re available in case my niece needs any help. It rains off and on, sometimes pouring. It seems to help with the humidity and then it doesn’t.
In the evening I get a notice from Ce La Vie. They’re waiting for us. Our reservation is at 1745; I thought it was at 1845. Graciously, they hold it for us.
Surprisingly, it’s not that busy on the roof, probably due to the inclement weather. It also probably fed into the reason they held our table for us. Thankfully, we’re covered by an umbrella as it rains intermittently, but not enough to spoil our evening. The overcast skies paint a moody Singapore, but I like it. We eat dinner and drink our drinks as the skies deepen and darkness falls.
We walk back to the hotel along the bay, admiring the Apple Store and the skyline, lit from within and without. It’s a pretty city viewed from the bay, and I appreciate the pedestrian malls and walkways they’ve built around it, connecting the different parts of the city to each other.
The next day my niece has various activities scheduled during the day.
And so my cousin-in-law and I decide to do the touristy thing and walk to the Raffles Hotel.
I have a friend in Singapore and I joke to my cousin that I’ll have to hang my head in shame when she asks me what I’ve done since arriving. I couldn’t be acting any more like a tourist.
From the hotel we walk in a northeasterly direction, crossing the Singapore River on the Elgin Bridge and walking through Esplanade Park and War Memorial Park. We pass a museum and concert hall and I make a note to include them in possible future visits.
My cousin and I have both been to the Raffles Hotel in the past, though I was a relatively poor backpacker when I had last visited in 2000. I remember looking at the prices and not being able to justify a Singapore Sling. I ended up sitting on a wicker chair on the terrace and writing post cards for a while before heading back to my hostel. I’m surprised I hadn’t been kicked out. My friend said the same when she received the postcard.
There’s a line when we arrive at the bar but it moves quickly and we soon have a great table in a corner. We eat peanuts and drink our cocktails and beer waiting to hear from my niece about when we should meet up again.
That night we have dinner at Jumbo Seafood, another major tourist destination. We choose the one on East Coast by the Singapore Strait. My cousin remembers it when it still had more of a beach shack feel. It’s a lot more polished and modernized now. Tanker ships wait off the coast; their lights shine like a city skyline.
One of my uncles was a ship’s captain. I wish I could ask him about sailing in this part of the world and what it was like coming into Singapore back then. He’d recently passed, and it wasn’t until then that it really hit me how I’d never be able to ask him these questions; how I wish I had asked him more about his career when we met up every summer.
•
The next day is move-in day.
We follow my niece to campus, letting her take the lead. We take the bus so that she can familiarize herself with the process and the route. The stop is nearby and we don’t wait long for the bus. To reach campus it takes almost an hour.
On campus she receives the keys to her dorm and we take the elevator up to take a look. She’s in a suite with three rooms opening to a common area, kitchen, and bathroom. It’s a pretty nice set up.
We help her buy sundries for her room: pillows, sheets, shower essentials, and tour the cafeterias and campus shops. I’m hungry and order lunch. It’s relatively expensive and much less tasty than the hawker centers. It’s too bad she’s so far out from them.
My niece spends less and less time with us as she meets new people and attends mixers and socials. There are a few cocktail bars I’d been wanting to try, one of which (Native) is near the hotel. There’s no availability online but I text to see if they can squeeze my cousin and I in. We’re in luck. They can put us at the bar at 20h.
The bar is packed. We have a great bartender who helps us choose our drinks and the order in which to have them. There’s a mixup with my order but I’m happy with the drink in hand and end up ordering my other drink next. The cocktails are inventive, taking inspiration from the local flora and fauna, and delicious.
After three (or four?) we’re about ready to call it a night but I then ask the bartender make us one more. I’m curious what she might be working on and invite her to surprise us. It’s a fun night
•
On Sunday I arrange to meet up with my friend.
She suggests we meet at the Shangri-la Hotel. There’s a brunch buffet that offers a lot of Singaporean specialities along with a menu item you can choose. She’s also a member and there’s a points/reward system for frequent guests.
It’s a beautiful lobby and I spend a little time exploring the space before announcing myself to the maitre d’ of the restaurant. There are a few in the hotel; the one my friend has selected fills out a large open space just inside the entrance.
It’s been a decade at least since I’ve seen my friend and it’s fantastic to reconnect. She looks amazing. She tsks when I order ice water and I laugh. We fall into conversation as if no time has passed.
She asks why I’m here and I tell her about my niece and her semester abroad. My friend tells me to introduce her via WhatsApp. She’ll look out for her. I thank her profusely.
I head back to the hotel to meet up with my cousin. He’s flying out in the evening and my niece comes to meet up with us at a nearby bar to spend a little more time together before we’re all to go our own ways.
We’ll all end up back in Singapore in a few months. My cousin and her husband to visit my niece before heading to Cambodia, I to join them. I’ll also be returning in the Spring, my visit coinciding with my nephew’s and his girlfriend’s before they head to Vietnam for a week with my niece.
Originally, I was to fly to Brunei the same evening but my flight had been canceled and rescheduled for the next day. Taking advantage of the extra night, I’ve booked myself dinner at Labyrinth, a Michelin-starred restaurant near the marina.
I decide to walk, to enjoy the city one last time before I’m to depart.
I set off before the sunset, making my way first to the riverfront area before crossing over to the Esplanade Park and its views of the Marina Bay Sands. I’m mostly retracing our steps from a few days before when we walked to the Raffles Hotel, but I’ll be following the Waterfront Promenade to get to reach the Theatres on the Bay complex.
It’s bustling by the water as groups of people have collected by the waterfront, filling up almost all of the multi-level seating on the edge of the promenade. People play music, picnic, play games. It’s great to see so many people out enjoying their Sunday afternoons.
Crossing under Esplanade Drive bridge I pass a dance group practicing their routine in full costume. At my niece’s university I had also seen various groups practicing their choreography across from the main campus store and I wonder how many dance companies call this country home.
Reaching the theater complex it takes me a moment to find the restaurant. Outside, there’s a band performing in the clamshell. Inside, a duo is singing and I stop to listen. At a break in the music I ask one of the attendants where I find the restaurant. He points me in the right direction. I thank him and leave before the next song begins.
The host looks like an Asian Stanley Tucci crossed with Tim Gunn. I’m seated at a table in the corner and offered a wine list. There are wines from regions I didn’t know produced wines and an Iranian wine made from grapes smuggled across border to Armenia. The somm tells me there’s a documentary that’s been made telling the story of how the wine came to be called Cup of Salvation. I tell him I’ll check it out.
I can’t resist the wine pairing, which starts with the first wine made in Thailand, GrandMonte. Situated two hours outside of Bangkok in the mountains of Nakhon Ratchasima, the wines are the creation of Nikki Visootha Lohitnavy. is the first fully-qualified winemaker of Thailand.
The Iranian wine comes later. The 2021 Molana Rasheh Iran, it’s first and possibly only vintage that will be made. Only 1,200 cases were produced and I feel so blessed to be able to taste the wine.
Dinner is fun and I am slightly tipsy by the time I walk out of the restaurant. To clear my head I decide to walk home, back along the esplanade, retracing my steps. I do make an effort to take in one last sight: The Merlion, a mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish. The Merlion was sculpted by Lim Nang Seng and was oringally installed in 1972 at the mouth of the Singapore River.
It was moved in 2002 after the Esplanade Bridge blocked views from the waterfront and land reclamation set the statue back from the new mouth of the river. It now sits aside a viewing deck where (I will later learn) people stand and pose in such a way as it looks like the fountain is spewing water into their mouths.
There are few people visiting the statue at this hour, however. The crowds from the afternoon have dissipated, the people back to their homes to rest in preparation for the start of a new week. And I, back to the hotel to pack once again before moving on to my next country. 🇸🇬
