FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX: 23,500 Steps

Saturday 22 February 2020

23,500 Steps

The iconic Raffles Hotel

Today we lived up to our whatsapp group name of "Walkin' Women"...mostly.

By now, we were buffet breakfast pros. We went about gathering our preferred foods with purpose. We had important business to attend to. Suntec City was calling our name. Alas, we were sucked into the first shop we encountered and stayed there for some time. Darn you Uniqlo!!! By the time lunch time rolled around we had wandered as far as City Hall and took the opportunity to gawk at the famous Raffles Hotel. We parted ways with Serena who was meeting up with a friend. She later informed that only "residents" were allowed into the establishment with the only exception being a visitor to their bar. Gah...we have credits to use at the Conrad anyway. Boo to you Raffles!

The rest of us seemingly walked around in circles necessitating an emergency call to the parentals for directions to have some Hainanese Chicken rice. We did make it to the restaurant and it was worth the effort! We were so hungry and the food was so good that no one remembered to take a photo of the chicken. More shopping tied us over to our next food encounter, high tea at the famous National Kitchen by Violet Oon at the National Gallery. For the uninitiated, the blurb about Violet Oon on wikipedia states "Violet Oon is a Singaporean chef, restaurateur, and food writer known for her food columns, cookbooks, and restaurants specializing in Peranakan cuisine." Heather says "I enjoyed the fusion of flavours that seemed regional". Serena thought "the setting is quite decadent". Elaine "liked it". Belinda enjoyed it but prefers a more traditional high tea.

Hainanese chicken rice without a picture of the chicken

The opulent setting of National Kitchen by Violet Oon

Beautifully presented high tea

The "sweet" tray

This is the way to be ladies of leisure!

Tea in proper tea cups

We had to motor along. Gardens By the Bay was next on the agenda. Tired legs saw us ditching the planned walk to the Gardens. This was our momentary moment of shame. We had 3 "conservatories" and a Supergrove to tour, including the light show at 7:45pm. Something had to give. Even the lady selling tickets told us to hurry up! Sheesh! In chronological order, we visited the Flower Dome, Cloud Forest, Floral Fantasy and finally the Supergrove. In between, we had gift shops to peruse. Thank goodness for the included shuttle rides with the "bundle" tickets! By the time, we hit the light and laser show at 7:45pm, we were more than ready to sit/lie to the relaxing sounds of opera music while watching the lights and lasers.

But our walking was not over. We needed one last oomph of energy to make it to Satay by the bay. We partook in over 60 sticks of satay chicken, beef and squid. The squid was a winner! We were grateful for the constant sea breeze. It made the ambient temperature pleasant whilst also blowing away the satay smoke. We went home smoke smelling like satay...