Seafood Platters and Afternoon Natters

Seafood Platters and Afternoon Natters
Singapore, Singapore

Singapore, Singapore

Having spent so many months in Asia it seems crazy that we hadn’t been to Singapore especially given that one of my most adorable friends from university lives there. The main reason that we have avoided it for so long is that it really isn’t within a backpacking budget no matter how hard you try to make it a cheap stay. There is no worse feeling that staying in a rubbish backpackers, especially if it is costing the price of a lush hotel elsewhere. Luckily we managed to find a ‘reasonable’ alternative in the form of a Pod Hotel.

We stayed in our first pod hotel back in Japan, purely out of the novelty factor that this is where they originated. We learned here that the roller blind instead of a door is not the most ideal noise proofing but the novelty usually overcomes the practicality and comfort. Thankfully The Pod Boutique in Singapore came with an unlimited supply of free ear plugs as we had a neighbour who seemed to have some kind of odd obsession with moving really loud carrier bags around at all hours.

Anyhow, the main reason that we finally decided to squeeze in a trip to Singapore was to see my beloved friend Jeanie. We parted company back in 2002 when we finished law school and moved out of our student halls. I never believed that it would take 13 years to see her again and definitely never believed that this time round we would have a husband each and little Jeanie would have two gorgeous little girls.

With just a day to see each other Jeanie and her lovely husband Ian picked us up from our pod and gave us the most fantastic tour of Singapore. They absolutely spoiled us rotten and didn’t let us pay for a thing. We started with a lunch of world famous Singaporean Chilli Crab, we had a river boat ride to see the Merlion, we visited the even more famous Raffles Long Bar and had the best Singapore Sling ever in the place it originated whilst eating an endless supply of monkey nuts just so we could throw the shells on the floor. We took a few hours out of exploring and relaxed in Jeanie and Ian’s house whilst the kids had a rest and we finished the day with yet another amazing meal in a restaurant that we would never have even looked twice at on our own. Being on the road and living like backpackers we pretty much never get taken anywhere or spoilt so we really cannot thank you enough Jeanie and Ian for being so kind and generous and giving us the most awesome day and night in Singapore. I so hope that we can come back again and spend more time with you both and your adorable girls!

Our next day in Singapore we had made plans to meet up with another fiend, Bridget from our Pom Pom island experience, who actually lives in Johor Bahru, which is Malaysia but right on the Singapore border. We thought that we had done really well making plans to meet Bridget outside the Metro station near our hotel. We arrived a bit early and waited, and waited and waited. We assumed that maybe she had got delayed and with no SIM card we had no phone number or 3G to find out. Eventually I decided to wonder into the Metro just to check there were no other exits and low and behold I found a rabbit warren of exits, uh oh. Thankfully the first exit I tried had a rather confused and miffed Bridget in the process of drafting a message to say she couldn’t wait any longer, phew. Laughing all the way through the Metro rabbit warren we picked up Tim and headed for some lunch. We had some great laughs reminiscing about our time on Pom Pom and before we knew it it was time to say goodbye.

Now our final afternoon it just happened that we stumbled upon a cat café that was around the corner from our hotel. I absolutely had not been scouring the internet for the best cat café in town and had happened to walk Tim past it on purpose, he he he!! So regardless of how we got there, we ended up in the Meomi Cat Café, having probably visited about 15 cat cafes around the world I feel that I am something of an expert of what makes a good cat café and for me Meomi was possibly the best I have found so far. The cats were beyond adorable, it was clean (well what isn’t in Singapore), the drink (which is a side line of the cafes) was delicious. We arrived just in time for lunch and I am not sure that we have ever seen such an orderly cat lunch demonstration. I don’t like to pick favourite cats as I really do love them all but two cats here were particularly special. Curly with her funny little curly ears and Mario a munchkin cat with legs half the size they should be. An hour really isn’t enough in a cat café this good but begrudgingly I left and headed to face the unenviable task of packing in a pod hotel.

Our final morning we just had time to head to Sentosa Island to absorb our last rays of Singaporean sun before heading to catch our flight to New Zealand. What a funny little place Sentosa Island is, Universal Studios, fake beaches being made before our eyes and even an indoor pretend walking street food hall. With a warm glow and a belly full of Roti Canai it was time to leave.

What a great few days it had been and what a way to end our Asian adventures.

Next Stop Auckland.