Singapore (day 1) - Rain, Orchard Street & Singapore Slings

We arrived in Singapore 2 hours earlier than expected, so after almost 24 hours travelling we jumped in a cab and headed to Nick and Vicki's condo. 

We had the friendliest cab driver who pointed out all the sights, and taught us all about life Singapore including the fact that you can't keep a car longer than 10 years, and it is very rare to be able to extend this. Once a car has reached 10 years of age it is either scrapped or sent to Malaysia. From our journey we also noticed that everything looked clean and shiny and there were lots of trees lining the payments. 

Nick and Vicki live in a lovely complex on outskirts of town in an area called Bukit Timah which backwards is a bit like Timbuktu. The condo itself is very light and spacious with very high ceilings. 

After a steak for dinner, (start as we mean to go on) we headed straight for bed.

The following day, our first full day in Singapore. We woke up leisurely, had a spot of Waitrose branded cereal (from Nick's parents) and headed straight for the complex gym. Don't judge us for gyming on holiday, we're on a health kick! It felt a lot cooler in the gym than outside but we soon found out it wasn't. We both did a short cycle and a 10 minute run and we couldn't cope. Sweat poring off us and we both felt horrific. We then did a couple more exercises before calling it a day and heading for the complex pool which was very refreshing after practically working out in a sauna.

At lunchtime, Vicki had work in the city so she dropped us in with an MRT pass (equivalent to a Oyster card for London tubes), a Singapore phone with her an Nick's numbers on and a couple of maps and sent us on our way. Luckily she also gave us a umbrella, because no sooner had she dropped us off did it start pouring. We quickly headed undercover to Liang Court (one of many shopping malls) and had a brief look around before realising we were starving. We stopped at a place called Tim Yak Toast (they love their toast) and Nath had Bean Paste chicken with rice and I had chicken curry with rice and we both got complementary kopi c (word for sweet coffee in Singaporian (not sure if this is a word)) which has condensed milk it in. This came to $13 for the both of us, so £6.50. And the BBC said it was the most expensive country in the world hmm...

Still the rain was yet to stop, so we being true Brits we braved it and walked along the river and all the buildings were different and so colourful.

We even caught a glimpse of the Marina Bay hotel.

It continued to rain, so we hopped on the MRT to Orchard Street, famous for copious amounts of shopping malls and to say it is insane is an understatement. Topshops on every corner, Chanel shops the size of Harrods in London and it's crazy because everytime you walk past a high end shop the size of Harrods there are always people inside them buying things. Money really is no object here (except for us). 

We then walked all the way back to where Vicki dropped us off, so our poor feet were very sore.

For dinner, Nick and Vicki treated us to the most delicious Italian meal at Latteria Mozzarella Bar, located on Duxton Road in China Town. Where they had around 10 different types of mozzarella, basically my dream. The food was incredible. 

Afterwards Nath and I headed off for our first Singapore Sling which we had in The Screening rooms rooftop baron Club Street (recommended by Vicki).

So I think it's safe to say we had a pretty packed first day and we absolutely cream crackered at the end of it.

Xoxo