 |
| Evening sunset in KL, taken from Ali's brother's condo |
After a send-off breakfast at Ali’s family’s house that included all sorts of yummy traditional Malay food (rice, fish, chicken, boiled eggs, cucumber, veggies), we flew to Singapore. We arrived at what is called the “Budget” Terminal. Too funny. Singapore's Changi Airport, one of the largest and busiest in the world, has three terminals plus a budget terminal. For riffraff like us. Riffraff as opposed to Raffles. Raffles would be the high end historic hotel for which Singapore is famous. Think Somerset Maughm, Ernest Hemingway, cream-coloured linen suits, cigars and gin...ok I might be making up that last bit. Anyway, Ali thought we should confirm our flights at the Singapore Airlines counter after arriving, given how much Air Canada has messed things up to date. Turns out we need to take a shuttle to Terminal 2, and then the Skytrain to Terminal 3. All I can think of is the pool at the VIP hotel that we are all dying to jump into and how hungry we are now getting, given we have been up since 6am (5am in my case – don't ask) and it's now 1pm. Ok, so I am a bit hypoglycemic myself. We get to Terminal 2 after wedging ourselves on the shuttle and I see restaurants. You're thinking....restaurants in an airport? Really? A good option? Really. This is Singapore, remember. Nothing but the best in food choices and food quality...oh, and you could probably eat that food off the floors to boot. We spot a sushi restaurant – what a tonic that would be after all the rice and chicken and cooked fish we have consumed over the past three and a half weeks. We decide sushi warrants skipping the last leg of our terminal hopping tour of Changi Airport. Air Canada will probably mess our seats in the end anyway.
 |
| Sarah and the just-finished-in-time tiger... |
 |
| Street seller outside Ali's Mum's house |
The sushi restaurant is stunning, with beautiful colourful booths and freshly made veggie sushi and edamame dancing by on a conveyer belt. Anywhere else, you might worry about the quality of fish sushi, but not here, in the land of all things top quality. You can order your sushi either by menu (how passé) or via computer. Oh, and while waiting for your sushi, you can play a few skill-testing rounds of "What makes up sushi dish X" and possibly win a coupon for free sushi – highly entertaining for the kids. Or, just as entertaining, you can always place Kipper on the conveyer belt and laugh hysterically as he goes around the restaurant while Ali shouts that we must stop that nonsense immediately. (Kipper is Hannah's rather large stuffed alligator). Kipper has become a member of our family and I am pretty sure has enjoyed Malaysia as much as we have. (As an aside here, it was highly entertaining to see security officials stare googly-eyed at the computer screen of the xrays at boarding – you see, the outline of Kipper xrays beautifully). We order softshell crab which is incredible; delicious soft Japanese tofu with mushrooms; sliced raw salmon with fish roe and japanese rice; some chicken thing for Jordan; and, oddly enough, Taz orders a curry. It's all a hit.We finally grab a taxi to our hotel, complete with the prerequisite chatty Indian Singaporean driver. The staff at the VIP remember us and we get the same room – 1 queen and 3 singles – and a lovely welcome. Bags literally dumped at the doorway, it takes the kids two seconds to get in their swimsuits and race down to the pool. We are all in, even Ali, within five minutes. Sigh. Do we really have to leave this part of the world?
The evening's intended plans, as recommended by someone, were to hit Singapore Zoo’s night safari. But what with zoos being zoos, the fact that it is a 45-60 minute drive from where we are, that the programmed tour (ack...I hate programmed tours) runs 7:30 to 10:30pm and that the whole production is quite costly, I dictatorially announce we are not going. Plan B is to wander aimlessly amid Singaporean nightlife, gawking at stores and having a nice dinner at some outdoor resto. We taxi it (that would be "teksi" in Malaysia) to Orchard Road getting off right smack dab in the middle of it all. Who needs the zoo? There is enough of a human zoo here, all highly entertaining and all free! We go in and out of stores and up and down a few escalators – distracting Taz so we can get some birthday goodies for him – and then wander along some side street to where there are clusters of outdoor restaurants. Somewhat like Grand Allée in Quebec. The kids choose a place called, ironically, Bobby’s Place and it's just perfect with tons of options. The kids are treated to Shirley Temples (Taz gets a second one comped, since it's his birthday) and our food is delicious. Hannah has some beef noodle thing called Beef Hor Fun, Jordan has satay, Taz has ribs, I have some Singaporean egg-lamb thing that reminds me of murtabak, and Ali orders that fancy new Japanese beef, wagyu, in a burger done rare...and a strawberry daquiari. I order a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. How civilized it all is. We wander the streets yet again, with Hannah staring up at the computerized light show all over the high rise shopping complexes (some of them look like office windows turning off their lights, but they are multi-coloured and simply all a show). And finally, somewhat regrettably, we grab a taxi back. It's close to 11pm. Everyone crashes. Well, everyone else crashes; I wrap birthday presents. Yes, it’s Taz’s birthday on our flight home. As I said to him, the good news is that your birthday is 36 hours long; the bad news is that it is all on a plane!
 |
| Bobby's place |
 |
| Chinese shophouse architecture above restaurants |
 |
| Shirley Temples on the last night |
 |
| Taz' birthday dessert at "Bobby's Place" |
And so...
We leave Singapore and Malaysia, waving goodbye out the airplane window with rather sad faces. Our wonderful trip is over and, although we look forward to our own beds and being back in our lovely home, we already miss the spicy sweet wonders of it all. Thank you Malaysia and Singapore. Thank you Ali's family. And thank you Allie, Anton, River and Kaelen. Thank you everyone and everything for opening your doors and your hearts to this crazy Rojak family. We will never ever forget this trip. The jungles, the islands, the caves, the batik, the crazy drivers, the smiling locals, the heat and the phenomenal food are all etched permanently in our memories.
Terima kasih...and jumpa lagi.
 |
| Taz's dry ice extravaganza for his birthday from Singapore Airlines who treated him like a king |
 |
| Taz's birthday celebration in Hongkong airport |
No comments:
Post a Comment