The Fairmont Hotel has won my heart with crispy cold air con and an UBER comfy bed. Service! A Pillow menu! Stunning views! Ice buckets just a phone call away! The reason I chose it is because it is very central – there’s a shopping mall, food court and Michelin starred restaurants all within one air conditioned complex.
Air conditioning is important here.
Having said that, himself and I went for a stroll this morning just across the road to the iconic Raffles Hotel and the heat wasn’t too bad. We wandered around the lush gardens, pretending we were rich, and found ourselves at the Long Bar just after 11.00am and time for a cocktail, I would have thought .
We were briskly ushered into the cool bar, all 1920’s style tropical glamour and I felt like a queen. A QUEEN, I tell you. I ordered the obligatory Singapore sling and himself had half a yard of beer.
As we had enjoyed an ‘Asian Market’ buffet breakfast not an hour ago, the stomachs were prepped and ready to go!
The Long Bar is THE PLACE to try the iconic Singapore sling, a cocktail invented in 1915 by bar tender Ngian Tong Boon for laydees who enjoyed booze but couldn’t be seen to be enjoying booze – hence the fruity pink colour.
PS It’s full of booze.
The place filled up within 15 minutes of us arriving, and when we left an hour later, there was a queue out the door, filled with people ready to glug down their first Singapore sling .
Which was delicious by the way. Cool and refreshing and spiced. It’s a peak tourist experience. The bar was filled with accents from Australia, Scotland, France and the USA.
After this fine refreshment, it was time to go and seek out some Hiananese Chicken Rice; another fabled Singapore legend. We stumbled walked across the road to the Raffles City mall and up to the food court to the chicken rice place and got 2 serves of delicious steamed chicken with salty rice and broth for a mere $6.50 per person. A refreshing change from last nights’ cocktail and snack budget blow out.
2 Plates of chicken rice $13.00 vs One Fancy Cocktail $33.00
Singapore is money, money, money – designed for luxury, and like Milan, pretty bloody judgemental if you aren’t being fashionable enough, frankly. I’ve had to up my game and I’m not even coming close to passing muster. I tried to buy a pair of closed shoes for our fancy Dinnies on the weekend, but all the stores seemingly only go up to a size 38, and my size 41 hoofers are not standing a chance. The pair of shoes I really liked were $590 SGD so its probably for the best.
(Black slippers encrusted with large fake diamonds)
It is very easy to spend money here and with the Aussie dollar being around 87cents to every Singapore dollar, well, we just have to LIVE LAUGH LOVE and try not to worry. Spendy spendy spend spend spend. However a laydee only turns 50 once, which is why we are here in this glorious place that encourages, nay, expects, luxury.
And when you come back to a freshly cleaned hotel room, after supping on expensive cocktails and delicious cheap eats, life seems pretty good.
Dinnies was at Mikuni Japanese restaurant with very authentic tasting Agadashi tofu and vegetable tempura.
Laydee Chardonnay 
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