Singapore, Day 5

Started off the day with dim sum with our friends Sze, husband C, son M and Sze’s mum, who was visiting from Kuala Lumpar. She had chosen a very traditional old school type restaurant (Red Star Restaurant) in which the elderly servers push food of carts round the tables. It was on the 7th floor of a residential building of government-provided housing, a huge place, must be great for the likes of Chinese New Year and weddings! Carts are hardly used these days, apparently. It was great fun, lovely to catch up and delicious food and all quite different for us and our first ‘full’ dim sum experience!

We then wandered round the pedestrian streets of China Town, really just to see the decorations and preparations for Chinese New Year on February 10th and enjoy the atmosphere.

Next stop was to a gallery of Vietnamese artists, which I spotted in the Singapore Arts Week (but this is a permanent gallery, ArtBlue Studios). Very beautiful pieces and there were at least three pieces which we’d have bought in a flash, were money no object!! Yong Siak street, where the gallery was, located, was also very interesting and right up our street, as they say ;-) A few little shops and galleries, cute low-rise buildings, lots of trees and greenery. We bought a couple of little souvenirs in Cat Sócrates, which we should manage to squeeze into our trolley bags - I’m sure they’ll be blipped in due course! We stopped for a drink of the little terrace of The Butcher’s Wife, which, surprisingly, had strong Brazilian connections and vibes.

Next up was Raffles Hotel, which we didn’t visit last year. We had to queue to get in and then we found out that the Long Bar isn’t in its original position in the hotel. It was definitively worth a visit and we had the obligatory Singapore Sling, sitting in the upstairs section, with all the other tourists! Bb called a waiter across to clean up the monkey peanut shells, which he presumed had been dropped under our table by the last customers. Just in time, I noticed that they were under all the tables and put there for ‘authenticity’! Anyway, we relaxed into it and appreciated being there - a Kirkcaldy lass and a Paisley lad, so far away from our hometowns. Before leaving the civic area, we had a look in Chijmes, an old convent, and converted into a food court of interesting restaurants.

Back to Bugus area in the evening and wandered around the little streets there, Kandahar Street, Arab Street, round the Sultan Mosque. So handy to have these just across from our hotel. We had Indian snacks for dinner and a little pashmina shopping.

Another great day and lucky to get the chance to see and do things a little off the tourist track.

Couple of extras added. I usually end up with some unused, so taking advantage while I have the choice of pics! If you looked earlier, you might notice that I’ve swapped an extra for the main pic.