Gong Xi Fa Cai (Singapore ~ Singapore)

January 2020

Our last stop was Singapore and this was because flights from Sri Lanka to Wellington where thin on the ground and we were looking at two 10 hour stopover (Singapore and Melbourne). In hindsight we realized this was because of us trying to fly slap bang in the middle of Chinese New Year.

Haven't really been to Singapore for about 17 years and it's changed quite a bit plus gotten a lot more expensive. Pretty much all of the pavement hawker stalls have been moved into food halls (some of which are still more than a bit rustic).

Surprised and pleased to find that various Hawker stalls have made it into the Michelin guide and some have received stars. The one that we really wanted to try was of course the Michelin Star Laksa! Very tasty.

The Laksa was very nice but, call me biased, not quite up to the standard of the laksa's in Kuching from the Tat Hok Food Center near where I used to work.

Only managed to get to one other Michelin listed stall as the bulk of the stalls had shut up for a week because of Chinese New Year. The soup with noodles was way more punchy in spice level than that the laksa.

Every now and then we still find something odd when shopping for essentials (i.e. chocolate) and in this case it was individually wrapped hard boiled eggs.

Because of the heat. humidity, Chinese New Year and a bit of a stomach bug we didn't o a huge amount of sightseeing in Singapore but had a wander around the "Bays" area which has undergone significant development since we were last here.

Some quite stunning architecture with the Art/Science Museum.

A very poncy (expensive) hotel - the infinity pool on the roof is meant to be amazing.

Quite a neat footbridge.

And of course the Gardens by The Bay - complete with huge metallic trees that are illuminated at night.

The last bit of sightseeing was actually at the airport as in one of the terminals is the Jewel Changi - a combination of shopping, food and a massive garden with an indoor water feature that has to be seen to be believed.

The actual flight from Singapore to Melbourne and then onto Wellington was fine, but with 10+ hours to kill in Melbourne we grabbed a day-room at one of the airport hotels for five or so hours of sleep - well worth the $150.

Time to start planning the next trip.