Fish head curry is better than it sounds. I had a giant pot of it at 3838 Eating Place.
Category Archives: Travel
The Back Side of Water
Kind of Like Misting
I missed the misting.
Among the Supertrees
Gardens by the Bay are the botanic gardens of the future, it says here in my guide book. They’re a fantasyland of space-age biodomes, high-tech Supertrees and whimsical sculptures. They’re as thrilling to architecture buffs as they are to nature lovers.
Well, they are very nice.
The conservatories are the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest Dome, which are very impressive but a bit pricey at $28 for dual entry (about US$19).
Still, where else can you see pitcher plants in both regular and Lego varieties? (Lego pitcher plants are, of course, indigenous to Legoland.)
The Supertrees are basically exhaust vents that have been made to look nice. They stuck plants all over them and charge $8 (US$6) to let you walk around in the canopy. Very nice view in all directions.
Singapore Shipping Containers!
Fat Bird
I fancy that I’m seeing a certain similarity of style between this sculpture and the fat man on a fat horse that I saw in Monte Carlo 15 years ago. Can’t quite put my finger on it.
Walking Tour
Yesterday I went on a walking tour. This was run by an American who lives in Singapore part of the year. At least half the people on the tour were Australian and were really gregarious and…well…Australian. Do all Australians know each other or do they just act that way?
Actual quote from an Australian person while drinking a Tiger beer at lunch: “Either there’s no actual alcohol in this or I’m still drunk from last night.”
The tour started with breakfast at The Toast Box. Singaporeans seem to have a fondness for toast, which seems like just about the least interesting food item one could have a fondness for. Companies like Toast Box, Toast Fun, and Ya Kun Kaya Toast have built businesses around this. The secret is the kaya spread, which makes the toast much sweeter than it would otherwise be. You eat it with extremely runny soft-boiled eggs (which you basically drink) and Singapore-style coffee or tea.
Actual quote from an Australian person at a 7-11 in the train station: “Where’s the fecking beeah?”
The high point of the tour was monkeys — specifically, long-tailed macaques in the rain forest.
Afterward, I went back to my room and took a nap. The Australians all went out for beer.
Chillaxing
Apparel
The following items are available for sale locally.
On a Little Street in Singapore
Singapore’s version of the Champs-Élysées, Ginza, and Rodeo Drive is Orchard Road. On Monday, my first day here, I wandered down Orchard from the ION Orchard mall for quite a ways, wondering what was supposed to be so special about this street. It was nice enough, but there wasn’t much on it.
It was only today that I realized that I was on Orchard Boulevard, which runs roughly parallel to Orchard Road. Orchard Road itself is lined with flagship stores of top brands. A lot of this is wasted on me — until recently I thought that Ferragamo was a type of chili pepper — but I can enjoy looking at the ritziness of it all.
On the way back, I found a place that was the other end of the scale — a pscrillion little shops shoved into the area of one city block. I spent about an hour wandering through all the passageways. I ended up with a couple of t-shirts and a durian. This last is a spiky fruit that has a reputation for both a horrible smell and a delicious taste, but it doesn’t seem to have either. Neither the smell nor the taste were especially noteworthy.
For dinner I had some basil chicken and a coconut, then came straight back to the hotel room to update my several blog fans on the day’s activities.