Ludwig's Odyssey: Singapore

Clean, rich, efficient, what a contrast compared to all the other countries that surround it. An expensive place though, even more expensive than Europe to rent accommodation and buy a beer, luckily cheap food can be found via the Hawker Centres or Food Courts in the Shopping Malls.

We were very fortunate for our visit here to stay with the wonderful Erin and Ollie who we’d met all the way back in Nepal some 14 months back. They had recently moved to Singapore to start new teaching jobs and invited us to stay with them. We thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them, such great company and easy going people. It was nice to enjoy the comforts of a home for a few days too. They showed us where to eat the cheap Hawker food not far from their place and we had some delicious Indian and Chinese foods. They also took us around places that the normal tourist would miss such as a great little bar selling ales, the best pints we’ve had since we left home, such a nice change from lager. We can’t thank them enough for their hospitality.

We enjoyed generally walking around Singapore, there are some funky buildings around and the juxtaposition of old and new buildings right next to each other made for interesting site seeing, the Botanic Gardens were also good and with Christmas coming up, the lights around Orchard Road (the main shopping area) where plentiful and colourful.

Of course a visit to Singapore would not be complete without a visit to Raffles Hotel and to enjoy the wonderful Singapore Sling and eat your fill of monkey nuts. A wonderfully expensive experience, taking you back a little to what it could have been like in the 1920s. Surprisingly, the dress code in the Long Bar was very casual, flip flops and shorts all ok to wear. When still in the UK planning our trip, going to Raffles was one of the top things we wanted to do and it didn’t disappoint, we enjoyed it so much, we went twice! courtesy of Uncle Paul and Julie, thanks guys!