Singapore: Day 10

As we began to finish our vacation, we thought that we should see some sites in Singapore (especially the famous Tian Tian chicken rice stand that Anthony Bourdain went to).  The clock was ticking!  We hopped on the metro and headed to Chinatown.  Let me tell you, it was hot and humid and I don't do hot and humid.  By the end of the day I was cranky and wanted to shower and have a complimentary beer in the hotel room.   

Chinatown at 10am.  There were tourists
everywhere.  One of the stands had three or four
men huddled around a round table with about five
empty 22oz beer bottles.  At 10am!  I like beer on
vacations, but at least I try to wait until noon before
I crack one open. 

I almost stepped on this little guy.  He was lounging against
one of the souvenir stands completely sound asleep.  All of
the passersby didn't bother him at all.   Most of the cats that
we saw abroad were strays and super skinny.  This cat had a
collar and was quite plump.

Mmmm dangling chicken.  That'll pique your appetite.

It's no secret that Nick and I love Anthony Bourdain in all his snarky a**holeness.  He really does talk like his narrations in real life, which made me like him even more.  On his trip to Singapore, he had been taken to the best chicken rice hawker stand in the city.  Of course we had to go there.  Tian Tian is famous and rightly so.  The chicken was so moist and the rice delicious.  The best part about Singaporean chicken rice is that the chicken is boneless.  When we had ordered some in Malaysia, there were bones in it still.

These were like hot pockets stuffed with eggs and oysters. They
were pretty yummy, but quite greasy.

I got Nick a coconut water since they're supposed to have
natural electrolytes and he wasn't feeling well the night before.

Nothing like a giant plate offal for breakfast.

Oyster omelet with fried fish cakes.

Melissa got curry-filled pockets.

My grandma makes this delicious soup with lotus root.  It was
so hot that I was rubbing ice on my arms, but I really wanted this
soup because it reminded me of home.  Apparently, Nick and
Melissa don't like the stuff, but the Fongs were impressed that
I actually like the Chinese herbs. 

Hinduism statue

Yup, there are snakes and centipedes in these jars.  I hope they
were just for show.

Now this is my kind of refrigerator. 

On our way back towards the center of the city, we stopped
at a freshly made jerky store.  There was a man in the back
making all the jerky that they package.  I can't imagine how hot
it is back there, but I was sure enjoying their air conditioning
and didn't want to leave.

After having our hearty breakfast, we headed back to the Marina Sands/Downtown area to go on the Singapore Flyer.  I am extremely afraid of heights, but was coaxed into doing it because the pods were air conditioned. So now I've been on the ferris wheel in Seville, Spain and just need to go on the London Eye.  What was interesting about the Singapore Flyer location is that there was a National tug-of-war competition going on.  I had no idea that there was such a thing!  It was pretty interesting to watch.  Lots of man grunting. 

This is what the pods look like up close.  You can actually reserve
a pod to have dinner in.  

Dinner pod

In the pod.  Mr. Fong doesn't like heights either so he stayed
on the ground and watched the tug-of-war competition.

Nick took most of these pictures because I didn't want to get off the bench in the middle of the pod. The ride takes about 30 minutes to make a full rotation.  My favorite part was the gift shop.  

I love how all of the architecture is very modern.  Even the
older looking buildings look pretty modern to me. 

Starting line of the F1 track.

The Marina Sands

Heave-Ho!

Part of the F1 track from the Singapore Flyer area.

Connected to the Singapore Flyer was a little food court and mall.  Nick and Dennis had seen go karts on the F1 track while we were high up in the pod and had gone to look to see if they could go kart.  The rest of us sat in the food court and ate.  

Coy pond by the food court where you could buy fish food
for a dollar.

Shaved ice.  It comes with strange jelly stuff in the middle.

Old-school way of making boiled eggs.  There
is boiling water in that cup with two eggs.

The eggs came out rather raw, but Mr. Fong seemed to enjoy
it anyway with some white pepper and soy sauce.

I stopped in a 7-11 while wandering around and
found this vending machine.  A mashed potato
dispenser?  Do people really eat mashed potatoes
out of that thing?

So true because I always have to go to the
bathroom.

F1 track...again

Unfortunately, the go karting wasn't available because they were professional go karters practicing and tuning up their karts so we headed over to the famous Singapore Merlion.  I'm not really sure why this statue of a merlion is a national treasure since it just spits water and really isn't that big.  To top it off, it was under construction so it looked even less fantastic. 

I may look happy here, but I really am grumpy as can be. My
cousin had invited us over for some wine tasting, but we were
not able to make it due to touring.  On top of that, there was no
internet service at any of the coffee shops for me to email him
to let him know that we weren't coming.  We finally were able to
steal some internet from The Coffee Bean and get an email to him.
I could tell that Mr. Fong wanted to stay to have a second beer,
but the bar wasn't air conditioned and they wouldn't let Nick, Melissa,
and Dennis come in with their coffee because they were not patrons
of the bar.  

On our way back to the hotel we had to cross a major street to
get to the metro station.  We were literally on the F1 track and
were all trying to get our cameras out quickly in the middle of
the cross walk.

Once we got back to the hotel, I promptly took a shower and then headed to Melissa and Dennis' room with Nick where I was able to have ice cold complimentary beer and relax in my non-sticky skin.  For ease, we went back to the food court that we went to on our first morning in Singapore.  

Interesting art in the food court.

Naan to go with Nick's curry.

Dennis' curry laksa.

You'd think by now that I'd be tired of soup noodles and
dumplings, but these were DELICIOUS. 

More chili crab!

These buns weren't as good as the ones from the place in KL,
but they were definitely tasty.

Fried fish

Dennis bought himself a chili crab.

When I go to Asia I like to buy shoes.  South East Asia is no exception.  On our way back from dinner, Nick and I stopped at a shoe store that was calling my name.  I bought four pairs in a span of 10 minutes and all were super cheap!

All of the shoes acquired from the trip.

Nick picked out these cute ones for one of my coworkers.
I would have gotten some too but they didn't have my size.