The last time I made my way to Singapore was on less than optimal terms so I figured I would come back and not only do justice to Asia’s most spic n’ span nation, but give a second shot to the city island I sort of skipped over and through. Excellent choice. WHOA! I landed smack dab in the middle of Partyzone Central with the new Singapore PiA crew and just in time for Ana’s big 22 bash!! Epic night like none other starting with cake and room partying, off to Holland Village, Singapore’s foreigner nightlife district, where we dove headfirst into guac and chips at Cha Cha Cha and then on for beersteins at a neighboring bar. After a previous all night bus to Hue, five seconds of sleep at the Hue Backpacker’s Hostel, and then two fast flights to Singapore, I collapsed royally at about 6am, well partied beyond my limits. During the day on Saturday, we flew through Singapore’s highlight sights stopping off at Little India, Chinatown, Arab Street, Raffles’ Hotel, so named after the founder of modern Singapore and equally famous for its bartender’s invention of the Singapore Sling in I believe the 1930s, and how many more sights I have no idea. Tons of walking, sweating, sight-seeing, and just lapping up the beauty of Singapura.
That night, as a farewell to PiAer John, we popped down to the riverside district clubs where we stopped in at what we all determined to be THE zombie techno mosh pit of Singapore in a club called home. As in dancing none of us could understand, yet without words everyone else seemed to know how to do, bopping to an unheard rhythm (at least not in the music playing in our ears) in an eerie dry ice hazy room with strobe lights and a DJ. Something like Halloween come very VERY early. After observing the… ritual… there, and downing our drinks courtesy of the cover, we headed on down the way to a different club called dbl 0. Exciting and energizing time had by all. Loved it and would definitely go back sans the pricey cover charge (without drinks!). The music on the top top deck was great, like a trip back home in Singapore. Everything from Fifty Cent to Cold Play and 80s chic to the music of the early millennium, musical sampling like none other. Around 4 we headed back home, John and I craving some early morning/ late night Mickey Dee’s so we stopped off at one of the millions of 24 hour Mc Donald’s throughout Asia just in time to watch the automatic menus flip from burgers and nuggets to Egg McMuffins and hashbrowns. We staked out a clean spot amidst other later-nighters chowing down on their Big Macs and fries and downed two sausage McMuffins a piece. Let the record show that the ONLY time I have allowed myself to indulge in Western fast food grease heaven has been in Singapore and at this particular Mc Donald’s. I don’t know about you, but I consider that a feat after nearly 5 months in Asia.
After our grease-filled coma, we trudged our way home, me waking up many hours and moons later to head to Singapore’s popular weekend destination, a “beach” called Sentosa. Now I put it in quotations because “beach” is probably the loosest term for Sentosa. More like a fun park with sand, Sentosa is reachable via one of Singapore’s six million malls (did I mention that every subway MRT ride to a popular destination ends in a mall? As in to reach the surface, you HAVE to walk through a mega underground mall? Ingenious. Absolutely ingenious). Via our handy ticket purchase in one of several windingly long lines, we grabbed seats on the monorail that took us to the illustrious Sentosa. When we got off at the ticketing window, we should have known that Sentosa was not your normal beach. I mean sure, there was sand (trucked in some years ago expressly for the purpose of designing Sentosa) and water (dotted by the freight ships that bobbed on the water) and beach food (if by that you mean the swanky Café del Mar blaring gyrating tunes all day long to compete with the techno beats throbbing from the café next door). A bit overwhelmed and mildly frightened by this “beach” experience, we plopped down on the self-entitled hippiest beach around (don’t ask me the name now) and listening to Puffy play in the background, gobbled down some expensive lunch hungrily and laid out on the sand next to the three foot pool with water slide and the women in bikinis shooting down it. Strangest beaching day ever.
The next morning found me groggily packing and saying my good byes, my weekend in Singapore suddenly a blur of party, fun, party, beach, and farewell. Already exhausted and losing steam, I hopped my $8 Jetstar flight for Penang and was on my way to the fusion culinary capital of Southeast Asia.
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