Singapore: day one

 We always knew that Singapore would be a bit of a rush, because we only have two and a half days here, but we planned to fit a lot in and we certainly did. We all slept in because we’re still on India time, about two and a half hours behind, so by the time we went to the buffet breakfast it was already 9:30. Still, the St Regis in Goa holds the title of best breakfast because this one was only average, also a little chaotic with the business folk and families all rushing past one another to get their tasty morning treats. We had a quick swim in the big pool before showering and getting on our way for the day.

First stop was the ArtScience museum, which we thought was a museum but is actually just an event space. There were two exhibitions on, but the studio Ghibli one was sold out so we saw the Future Worlds light show exhibit instead. It was a projection show, where each room showed different floral or aquatic landscapes on walls all around us. At first, Ethan wasn’t sure, but then he found the slide that was lit up with flowers, and then the aquarium where you could colour in your own fish and have it projected up onto the walls, and this is where he lost his shit. He absolutely ate it up! We played in the projected yet responsive room, where you could move magnetic obstacles for little lemmings to jump over and fall down and whatnot just for funsies. And then he could colour his own plane (and Darcy drew his own phoenix rising from the ashes) and we controlled them with an iPad over the huge wall projection. It was quite the technical marvel. The final room was a coordinated fairy light walkthrough experience where the lights dazzled and exploded in unison to the soundtrack. It was quite something to see. Very much worth the entry fee.

We then went across to the marina bay sands mall for some food and then over to the bay gardens. We bought the tickets to the sky walk, but that’s all as other exhibits were closed and a storm was rolling in. We were up quite high, perfect for photos, but a little nervous for Darcy. The walk is short and photogenic and then we were down again under the canopies of trees to catch a taxi back to our hotel.

We had a quick rest and then took a taxi to bar 1939, a rooftop where we each had a few drinks and took in what we’d seen in the day so far. We then took a walk to Xiao Ya Tou in Chinatown on the recommendation of Yossi who had spent time in Singapore for & Juliet. The food was amazing - Darcy thought the standout was the duck, I thought it was the lobster, and Ethan thought it was the pork dumpling. The crab fried rice was also universally loved so I guess the whole thing was great. We then walked through the markets of Chinatown and Darcy directed us to Dorothy’s: the stonewall of Singapore. He said he wanted to just go up and have a look, but while he did I noticed the sign that said ‘Under 12’s to be accompanied by and adult’ so I took Ethan upstairs. ‘Can he come in?’… ‘sure!’. We asked; ‘do many people bring kids here?… ‘no’ lol. We sat on the balcony and had a beer while Ethan had an apple juice and enjoyed his first experience IN a gay bar! We stayed for all of 15min, had a quick dance to ‘Girl on Fire’ by Alicia Keys, and then got a taxi back to the hotel for a late bedtime. We had a really jam packed day, but so cool so far!