Wednesday, 23 December 2015

Singapore is a .... Fine City - Raffles Hotel and High Tea in the Tiffin Room

High tea at the Tiffin Room at Raffles Hotel. 
We caught the MRT from Chinatown down to city hall and then strolled on to Raffles hotel were ee were escorted by the Raj to the amazing Tiffin room. 
All white and silver service, Harp playing in the background. 
again as everywhere in Singapore there were the beautiful Christmas decorations. Stunning service throughout the meal, but then again this is Raffles  Amazing food - sandwiches, little cakes, dim sum, curry pies, fruit. Pam unfortunately hit the end so I had to bravely step up to the plate and enjoy her portions of the red velvet cupcakes, fruit cake and mince pie on top of everything else. 
This was all washed it down with copious amounts of Darjeeling tea, a Singapore sling and ended with a Vervian ice tea for me and lemon sky tea for Pam to assist with settling the digestion. As a high tea officiondo I have to say this was superb and sublime. So very colonial.






Raffles Hotel

Tiffin Room

Christmas tree in Raffles




We then walked to the Fountain of Wealth at Suntec Centre. They have times in which you are allowed to go in and touch the fountain - everyone walks in a circle around the inner fountain with your fingers in the water.


Fountain of Wealth


Then it was back onto the MRT up to Orchid road for a quick beer at KPO - a real yuppie pub, followed by a walk along orchard road to see the incredible Christmas lights (Singapore really knows how to celebrate Christmas) and a look into the shops - I have to say we felt like a real pair of country bumpkins walking around the shops especially the ION centre, the quality and sheer costs of the goods was intimidating at best.















Singapore is a .... Fine City - Gardens on the Bay

Caught the MRT to the Gardens by the Bay. Wow!!!!! 

The attraction was awesome. Firstly we went to the flower dome. The theme was Christmas Wonderland. There were gardens from Australia, South Africa, Chile. The baobabs were amazing. 

They really know how to celebrate Christmas with amazing Christmas decorations in abundance throughout the dome. This complemented the amazingly beautiful wooden sculptures all over.







































Then it was time for a break with tea, coffee and cake at Pollen, a stunning little coffee shop in the Flower Dome.

From the Flower Dome it was onto the second dome called Cloud Forest .
This dome was based on a forest. We started at the top of the "mountain" and walked our way down. 
There were walkways that swing out from the mountain and hang over the ground below. Beautiful orchids, stunning sculptures, waterfalls.










Carnivorous plants created with LEGO

Carnivorous plants created with LEGO

Carnivorous plants created with LEGO

Waterfall from the cloud mountain




Walkways on the mountain


Walkways on the mountain

Walkways on the mountain

Walkways on the mountain
Walkways on the mountain


Stalactite and Stalagmite display


The weather was bad so could not go on the skywalk, so it was back to the hotel at 18:00 and another swim before heading out for dinner. 
Again we went into China town to the China town seafood restaurant for chili crab and beer.
And now experienced the first of many huge monsoon rain storms whilst we were there.