Nirmala was in Singapore this weekend, visiting Tom who has been working there for 2 weeks now. The attached video shows the spectacular preparations for the Singapore National Day on 9 August. Fighter jets fly above the Singapore CBD (Central Business District) and the Marina. The older building on the video is the Fullerton Hotel, the former Post office.
We spent most of the day on Saturday in the Asian Civilisations Museum (picture of Nirmala in traditional outfit), near the CBD and right next to the spot where Thomas Stamford Raffles first set foot in Singapore. Raffles put Singapore back on the map and at the same time part of the British empire as a trading colony. The plaque on his statue speaks for itself (see photo). After the cultural immersion, we went for dinner near the Singapore river, an area now full of restaurants and probably a bit of a tourist trap, but fun nonetheless. Prices in Singapore restaurants vary greatly: typical local restaurants are quite cheap and offer different types of food, but mostly Chinese or Chinese-inspired food. The interior can be quite basic at times (neon lights, plastic furniture) but the food is tasty. Western-style restaurants are generally more expensive. Alcohol is costly everywhere and prices vary: there are happy hours in some places from e.g. 11 in the morning until 18h, but after that prices go up every two hours. We went to a place called "Brewerkz" (www.brewerkz.com), a bar with homebrewery where they make their own beers. Prices are around 6.5S$ (about 3.25€) for a beer (355ml) before 18h, but jump to almost 12S$ (about 6€!) after 20h! Yes, that is the price for one (1) beer... You get almost a crate (24 bottles) for that in Belgium...
On Sunday, we went to Arab Street, a historical Malay-muslim settlement area with a gold-domed mosque in the middle. The area has a selection of nice restaurants, so not too much beer here. Before we forget: here is the chewing gum situation in Singapore: it is illegal to sell it or t to import it in commercial quantities but it is not illegal to consume it. Littering is, however, illegal as in many places and, contrary to many places, stiff fines are enforced. Repeat offenders can get fines 1000S$ or more. Next to fines, Singapore also still has the death penalty (for the worst crimes, including drug trafficking as clearly printed on your immigration form) and caning (stokslagen) as corporal punishments, so you better behave.
