The Singapore Sling

Last week my boyfriend was called away to work in Singapore for a week and so I decided to take advantage of the free accommodation and join him for some last minute sightseeing and shooting time!
The first day I was there it rained almost non-stop and so the only sightseeing I got to do was from the window of my apartment but the next day I was off to work with local photographer, Yew Kwang.

I've just spotted an image on his MM account and I'm sure he won't mind me hot linking it here!

There's also 4 more over at his Flickr page if you want to have a look!

As I was only in Singapore for 3 days, and it had rained the first and I was working one the second, I headed out early on the final day, armed with a camera, bottle of water and my imagination (due to the distinct lack of a map) to explore Singapore. I knew roughly in which direction to go if I wanted to hit China Town, so that's what I did.

This was the entrance to a small square with tons of Chinese restaurants and snack bars.

Lanterns were everywhere but these ones were especially pretty

Old meets new, east meets west

This was a little place called Lim Chee Guan, which is famous for its sliced pork. I had some of their signature pork, it
was gorgeous!

This is the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore, built in 1887. The detail was amazing!

After my jaunt around China town, I hopped on the MRT for a cool down (it was very hot) and headed over to the area around the harbour to have a look at all the modern (and very white) buildings they had over there.

The civilian war memorial for all those lost during the Japanese occupation of Singapore

The financial district of cities always seem to have the best skylines

This is the Merlion, Singapore's mascot and (apparently) national personification. The spray from the water was fantastic - very refreshing!

After my walk, I met up with Ras for some dinner and yet another walk, though this time we had a destination in mind! When I knew I was coming to Singapore, I got in touch with my friend Anita De Bauch who was here on her tour of S.E Asia last year for some recommendations on where to go. As well as the night safari (from which I only managed to salvage one picture; it's hard taking pictures in the dark from a moving tram when you can't use flash), Anita recommended that we head to the famous Raffles Hotel to have a Singapore Sling in the Long Bar. So, with that in mind, Ras and I set off for a walk through the city to Raffles.

A not-so-great shot of the financial district at night. Wish I'd taken a tripod!

Cute little sign which I'm pretty sure was not put there by the police, but is instead a tourist photo opportunity for people like me :)

Pretty blue bridge on our way to Raffles

This is the Marina Sands casino and hotel. 3 buildings with what looks like a boat balancing on top!

The absolutely gorgeous Raffles Hotel. Apparently it started as a 10 bedroom bungalow next to the sea. It's now really quite huge and is miles from water due to all the land reclamation that's happened in Singapore

The Singapore Sling - invented in the Long Bar itself. They had so many choices, but we went for the classic.

The bar itself was gorgeous (unfortunately I failed to take any pictures of it!). It's modelled on a 1920's Malayan plantation and has gorgeous mechanical fans on the ceiling (supposedly for cooling the room down, though I doubt they really make any difference!).

The nest time Ras gets called away on a business trip to Singapore (which is likely to happen, he's on another one in Tokyo as we speak, but I couldn't get flights t such short notice!), I'm definitely going to go with him again. Singapore has so much to offer, I feel that I barely scratched the surface!

I'll leave you with a picture of a flying squirrel. I had no idea they were so large (about the size of a domestic tom-cat). It didn't fly/glide for us though, all we got was him eating his dinner!

"Watchoolookinat?"