Singapore is something of a foodie paradise. We are trying to make up for lost time now that we have some freedom and childcare! We have officially become “expatted” in that we are no longer shocked when we pay S$30 for a cocktail. That’s the price of access for food and drink options from around the globe! The other thing is, it’s actually hard to get a reservation. With the safe distancing measures and eating out being a national pastime, you have to book early! Not good for people with indecision like us… there’s always dumplings and chicken rice at the hawker.
Our outing on Sunday (that’s dubbed family outing day) was again to the zoo. Not quite as crazy as it sounds. The Singapore zoo is actually made up of 4 different parks. We’ve only been to the actual zoo. Sunday, we headed to the river safari park.
I loved the premise of the river safari. It features major river systems from around the globe and highlights animals that live in these rivers. The Mississippi, the Mary River, the Mekong, the Ganges, the Yangtze and half of the park is the amazon. Very cool and we will go back again (and tour it the correct way, we somehow ended up going through it in reverse order 🤦🏼♀️. We also had some small annoyances actually getting to the zoo. Ryan and the kids tried to take a grab like normal. Because we are a “large” family we have to take a grab 6. He tried for 45 minutes and no luck. So they took the MRT and then a taxi. I had the brilliant plan to bike there. What was supposed to be a 12 mile ride ended up being about double as I kept ending up on unfinished bike routes and mountain biking trails (no good on my folding bike). I will have to be more careful in my route planning next time. So all that meant we missed our time slot at the regular zoo but luckily made it (2 hours later) for the river safari. I think we had our first glimmer why people give in and get a super expensive car.
Wood fires sourdough pizza on a plank. Really good!
I thought our beer bottles were dragons, ryan thought snake. Turns out a tuatara is a reptile that only lives in New Zealand (where the beer’s from)
Liam and I shared an ice cream with espresso. So good…
A black and white home
Friday night we all walked over to Dempsey Hill for sourdough pizza. Dempsey hill is a cute area that was formerly a nutmeg plantation and barracks for the British army. The officers homes (black and whites they’re called) are now private homes (#housegoals) with beautiful yards. The barracks are all converted into restaurants and shops. We spent a lot of time walking here during the circuit breaker so it’s nice to come back and try all these places out.
The front of the Raffles hotel
Enjoying my sling
A beer-a-rita
Covid fashion
Saturday night Ryan and I raced from tennis (we have a clinic together on Saturday’s, which we both love) to meet friends (yay!) for dinner. You are allowed to socialize in groups no larger than 5, so if we bring the kids, we are at the max. Karen and Matt are the parents of Liam’s friend, Ben. They’re originally from Houston, Texas. They’re great and it was fun to hang out with them without the kids! We met at the courtyard bar at the raffles hotel for a drink and snack (bars are not allowed to be open, but they can be if they serve food. No one can get at drink themselves from a bar and no groups larger than 5. They’re pretty strict about it. The Raffles hotel was originally a beach home of a British officer. In the late 1800s it was acquired by Armenian hoteliers and converted into the Raffles (named for the British officer who colonized Singapore in 1819). It’s a beautiful building and was just recently renovated. It was the perfect place to sit, enjoy the beautiful night and drink their signature drink, the Singapore sling (gin based fruit cocktail that was invented at the Raffles for the British wives to “sip” while their husbands were out hunting). We followed that up with a much more “low brow” dinner at a Korean-Mexican fusion restaurant that was sooo gooood. Korean and Mexican should always go together. And my Vatos ‘Rita (I call it a beer-a-Rita) hit the spot! Mine was a mango frozen margarita with a Kona beer in it. Matt got a plain margarita with a corona. Might have to try that next time… Such a fun night.
Biking selfie. I pull the mask down when I ride, but pull it up when I stop.
Rail trail. Awesome until it dead ends.
The old Bukit Timah rail station
Pics from my ride to the zoo on Sunday. They are working on building extensive bike trails all over the island. Sadly for me, they’re not all complete. A little frustrating, but I love seeing more of Singapore on my bike. I rode through a lot of new neighborhoods and saw lots of fun things to torture the kids with in mom camp. I saw 2 lizards, was rained on once and my chain fell off during the ride. All signs pointed to folding up my bike and calling a grab. But I’m too stubborn for that.
In the seal tank
Manatees! Beautiful tank.
A python in the water. Ewwww
Boat ride
Ready to go
The rest…
Jaguar
First we toured the amazon. They have a fun boat ride through the “amazon” to see the animals. Only one family per boat, 2 per row. They clean it after each use. Mostly monkeys (ho hum) but cool jaguars and ROUS’s: capybara’s.
Chinese salamander
Jia Jia
Jia Jia chilling eating some bamboo
Kai Kai
On to the Yangtze and the pandas! Kai Kai and Jia Jia. They were awesome. There was also a red panda and a super enormous and gross Chinese salamander. It makes the nasty hellbender salamander in the US look puny.
We finished up the trip with a fancy mocktail. Liam had a kid version of the Singapore sling and I had a fizz. The rest all had regular slushees. Boring.
Nutmeggers in Singapore 