Day 18 - Singapore

Day 18 - Monday, 10/24/11

This is our last day in Singapore. We can't believe it! It's been an incredible week of sightseeing and non-stop eating. Y'all know how much we LOVE to eat! Today was no exception, in fact, as you will find out...today, thanks to Craig, turned out to be the most amazing one of all...

Today, we walked over to meet Craig at the high-rise and we walked over to the hub for breakfast again sampling different foods of Singapore. Craig had a noodle dish that was very similar to our mein tong...where we make our own noodles and cook it in chicken broth. It was delicious! Somsri opted for roast duck (for breakfast?), I had won ton noodle soup, which wasn't as good as Craig's, and Ray had another noodle dish with brown gravy.

After breakfast the four us, hopped on a taxi and went to the zoo...Charli, wish you could have been with us, you would have loved this zoo. What a beautiful zoo, the animal enclosures were so natural that in most cases the animals were not even enclosed by glass. but by moats. The overall effect was that the animals seemed so close and they looked so healthy. Somsri fed the giraffe some carrots ($S5), but she literally was able to touch the giraffe. It was amazing! You can feed a lot of animals at this zoo. We rode the tram around the zoo because it was really hot and humid and we needed a rest. We saw 3 white tigers, and pygmy hippos (which we thought were so cute), and we were trying to figure out the difference between a leopard's spots and the jaguar's spots...but we could never find the Jaguar. Anyway, what a fantastic place.

We took in an Asian elephant show, which was fun to see how smart and funny these huge animals are. The elephants sprayed the audience with water and the host had to assure everyone that the water was clean water...fortunately we were standing way at the back. 

We left the zoo about 2 pm and headed back to Orchard Road for shopping and lunch at Crystal Jade Restaurant in the Takashimaya shopping complex. Craig wanted us to try the Singapore Dimsum which is different from those found in the US. They are much smaller in size and the flavors are much more delicate. Not as oily and the wrappers are so tender, they just melt in your mouth. There was no salt or hot chili sauce on the table to mask the delicate taste. However, not much difference with the Shumai or turnip cake.

Shopping was next on the list, then we met William and he dropped Ray and me off at the hotel.

Our drive to dinner at Greenwood Seafood Bistro at 7:30 proved to be filled with angst as we weren't sure the taxi driver knew how to get us there...took us 20 minutes but all worked out well. Craig, Somsri and Ryan had just gotten there. We enjoyed dinner, but servings seemed small, Craig & Ryan had lobster, I had crab and clams pasta with a garlic and white sauce, Ray had mashed sweet potatoes char grilled ling cod, and Somsri had fish too which she gobbled up.

After dinner, Craig and Ray returned to the Long Beach Seafood Restaurant (at which we had dined on pepper crab two days prior) and bought two take-out orders (about 7 pounds, including all the sauce) of chili crab. We returned to William and Chris's condo, where, in spite of having eaten dinner only a few hours ago, ate the chili crab. too. It's wonderful: large sweet meat in a tomato, egg, lemon grass, ginger, and chili sauce.

What a delicacy...so messy and so delicious!