SINGAPORE SLINGIN'

We didn't know much about Singapore before we arrived, other than you can get caned for chewing gum, you can get hanged for doing drugs, and for spray painting cars, well, you may remember the American wanna-be graffiti artist Michael Fay. So, we armed ourselves with a brand new pack of Bubblicious (just to tempt the gods) hopped a bus for five hours, and went to see what kind of trouble we could get into.

Singapore is nothing, if not expensive. We made the mistake of booking a cheap room on Agoda.com, the cheap SE Asian traveler's best friend. The online reviews for the "hotel" were questionable, but we figured those people were just high maintenance. We were wrong. Upon arrival we discovered we would be staying in a "by the hour" hotel...that hadn't been cleaned for at least a decade, and that we'd unfortunately already paid for. (Note: When in Singapore, DO NOT stay at the Aliwal Park Hotel). We put down towels on the floor so we didn't have to touch anything, we slept in our clothes, and we found a clean hostel the next night.

So, other than accidentally sleeping in a brothel, there are three things you must do in Singapore:

1) Have a Singapore Sling at the Raffles Hotel

2) Go to the ATM to pay for #1

3) Have some incredible street food

Seeing as how we'd already covered the pre-requisite brothel incident, we were off to have a Singapore Sling at the incredibly beautiful, colonial era Raffles Hotel. After all, the drink was invented here, plus Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad, and other well-known writers stayed here, so we had to see it for ourselves. We plopped down at the bar, ordered a drink, and got really excited when it arrived!

It was a lovely drink, until we got the bill....26 Singapore Dollars ($18 US) for ONE drink. Wow, glad we didn't order two!

Kip was underwhelmed. For him, the only saving grace was that he got a free appetizer (peanuts), plus he'd found perhaps the only place in Singapore where you could litter without worry of arrest and being caned--the Raffles bar allows patrons to toss empty peanut shells on the bar's floor. 

Having experienced the infamous Singapore Sling, we were off to take care of number three on the list. What Singapore does have is incredible street food. Ask Anthony Bourdain, who's show "No Reservations" has filmed here multiple times. Or ask us! 

We were lucky enough to find a seat at this very crowded "restaurant." Liz was a little apprehensive at the open propane powering every table's stove and cook pot, but this many Singaporeans couldn't be wrong, so we sat down and had some incredible Tom Yam soup, along with an amazing array of things you grill yourself on tinfoil--prawns, salmon, white-fish, chicken, fish balls, eggs, bok choi, and bacon-wrapped sprouts (obviously, since bacon was involved, Liz couldn't get enough of these). 

When we had thoroughly gorged ourselves to well past our stomach capacity, we got some ice cream and waddled home (there were no wheelbarrows available).