Sinagapore Sling: Two days stuffing our faces in the cleanest city on earth

After leaving sunny Indonesia, or more specifically after forking over $30 for the privilege of leaving Indonesia (it was called the “airport tax,” I thought the only place you had to pay to leave was New Jersey) we arrived in Singapore. Singapore is what all cities would be like if the robots in “The Matrix” had won. Super futuristic, efficient and clean. We rode the metro into the city and then lugged our stupid heavy bags around for a while before checking into our first “dorm room” of the trip. Deiter’s, it turns out are not dorm people. Don’t get me wrong the place was fine and frankly the best we could afford in Singapore, but it was packed with young bucks and weird old Asian men who may end up in the bunk above you while you’re sleeping. After dropping our stuff we made our way to the “Maxwell market” hawker center (hawker center = food stalls). For those who don’t know Singapore is a global food Mecca for a few key reasons. First it’s a classic immigrant city so you get all of the delicious benefits of clashing food cultures. Also, food somehow remains insanely cheap in an otherwise expensive city. Finally, they are religious about cleanliness so you don’t have to worry that stray cats are working in the back as dishwashers licking the plates clean. Maxwell is an open air market with neat rows of food stalls and shared tables in the middle of the aisles. We cruised up and down the rows and found a mix of Thai, Chinese, Indian, Arab and pan-Asian delights. It’s a treat for the senses as the crowd buzzes while you try to locate where that delicious smell is coming from, passing vibrantly colored sliced fruit stalls and rows of hanging smoked ducks. We settled on the stall with the longest line and were assisted with all the ins and outs of ordering by a helpful older lady (basically you point to what you want and end up with a bunch of tapas style portions. After placing our order we found a seat and 2 cold Tiger beers before digging into a mix of pork, shark, fish, veggies and rice. It was fantastic, filling and a bargain at around $9 for the two of us. Worn out from travel we took advantage of the opportunity to get some cheap red wine at the grocery store by our hostel and headed home to watch a few episodes of “The Walking Dead” on our computer and get some rest. The next day was a Deiter walk-a-thon to benefit skinnier Deiters and we worked our way around the city through the Arab, Indian and Chinese “quarters” snacking and taking in the sights. In addition to food Singapore is known for shopping and we walked through some malls to take in the sights and the air conditioning. They had some malls with mixed shops that you would recognize at home and then others that were entirely dedicated to one product class. For example we found a 6 story mall that sold only electronics. It was wild. Another cool/weird thing was noticing that even on a humid 85 degree day on the other side of the globe “it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” with trees and light displays scattered around the city. We wound our way down around the Marina which features a floating soccer field and many luxury hotels including the “Marina Bay Towers” which are three skyscrapers linked on the top by a giant ship which has a bar/club and an infinity pool. (just google it). In the afternoon we wound our way back to Maxwell Market to sample some different stalls ending up with ridiculously good “oyster cakes” (the stall has made oyster cakes and only oyster cakes for the last 40 years) chicken rice which is Singapore’s signature dish (we thought it was kinda blah) and some delicious crispy duck. Fat and happy we dragged our food baby’s back to the hostel where we prepped and packed for our trip to the Philippines. For our budget 2 days in Singapore was perfect. It’s a cool city with a unique vibe and provided us with a dose of modern comfort before we jumped back into the wilderness. Next stop, Boracay beach in the Philippines.

Dinner at Maxwell Market

 

A Tish-mas Tree

The Mariana Bay Towers with the boat on top 

Duck and stuff at the food stall

Maxwell market

A food stall

Now with me and Tish- and Johnny Photobomb on the left

More duck- check out the beaks on the right

Mmmmmmm Chicken Spines

More meats

Two big dumplings

Seasons greetings

Super futuristic solar fan

Delicious beef Jerkey-ish stuff

Dumplings and beer

Chicken rice- you can't say they misled you


 

Some fruit to cleanse your palate