Our First day in Singapore....

22.04.09

On our first morning Leone kindly gave us a tour of the apartment and the facilities. We have a lovely view from the balcony which looks towards the CBD in front of us, and a long avenue of trees and greenery, following the MRT line which is the railway service, to the right of the apartment. If you look directly down over the balcony the pool is in sight.

We took the dogs for a little wander around the pool area, which has little sections for barbeques and patio furniture. There is a gym and a sauna, as well as a tennis court. We met Moira on our walk around the pool, who lives there with her husband Willy, who works with the oil industry which is a major employer in the area. They are from Scotland, as are a lot of ex-pats, living in Singapore.

Right next to the apartment block is a shopping mall, so Leone took us over to have a look around, and showed us the food court where we had our lunch. This is like any other food court, loud and packed with people, with the vendors around the edges and the tables in the middle. The difference was the selection of food on offer! There was every type of Asian food you could think of, including Pig Organ Soup! For desert you could have ice cream topped with sweet corn. There were a number of unfortunate looking birds hung up, ranging from anaemic looking chickens to livid red ducks. Luckily there was a Vegetarian stall full of lovely things to try. We sampled Sweet and sour ‘chicken’ noodles, organic fragrant rice, to name a few. It didn’t have the relaxed atmosphere of a restaurant, and you had to talk loud to get yourself heard, but it was very delicious and very cheap.

Just outside the mall are some more shops and the transport stops for the buses and MRT. Everything was very accessible. Leone took us to a little Indian stall where we had Roti Prata, wafer-thin flat bread, fried and served with curry. We washed this down with a glass of sweet Indian coffee.

Back at the apartment we unpacked and settled into our new home for the next few days.
We didn’t suffer too much from jet lag, just felt a bit jaded, nothing that an early night wouldn’t put right.

When John came home from work, we went to the mall for dinner. We were introduced to a Japanese restaurant, and had our first taste of Sushi. It was good to have Leone and John show us what to do, and what to order. We had the veggie options which were plentiful, and we are now sushi converts. Absolutely delicious.

So many new experiences in one day. Neither of us have ever experienced any part of Asia, apart from a Chinese or Indian take away, so everything around us has been an education.