Monday, November 23, 2009

Singapore = Humid-a-pore

Singapore's Merlion greeted me upon my arrival. Created by the Singapore Tourism Board, it embodies Singapore's ancient fishing town name, sea-town, and Singapore's new name, "lion city."

After 27 hours of travel, I exited the plane and was enveloped by the city's nearly unbearable humidity. I knew from that moment, I would need to shuffle from one air conditioned building to another in order not to melt into a puddle of sweat. To reacclimate my body with the tropical weather, I walked very slowly.

On my first day, I walked very slowly to several shopping malls. Unfortunately, the Christmas decorations lining the street did not make the heat feel any less hot.

A shopper can easily find three of more identical fashion houses within one or two blocks from one another.

For lunch, I wandered down to ION Orchard Shopping Centre's food court.

Food courts are popular in Singapore. They had over 25 different stalls to pick from in ION Orchard. I choose Fried Kway Teow. It is a popular dish in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, consisting of flat rice noodles, crispy roasted pork and squid or oysters.

Fried or Chow Kway Teow. S$4.50 = $3.25US.

Fatty Weng Fried Oyster: ION Orchard Turn, #B4-04M, Singapore

For a later snack, I picked up a popcorn chicken pastry. The bread was very soft, very much like the texture of a fresh loaf of white bread. The popcorn chicken was not very crispy and the orange drizzle turned out to be cheese. It made for the unique flavor combination, but dare I say, too much for one bite.

Popcorn Chicken

Bread Society: ION Orchard Turn, #B2-19, Singapore

My early morning arrival would not be complete without the mention of Matt. He picked me up outside of Customs with open arms and a bunch of fresh flowers. For our stay in Singapore, we were housed at the Orchard Hotel. We recommend their Signature Club Deluxe with access to their Executive Club.




Briefly, he got stuck in the bathroom door.

No comments: