Hong Lim Park

It’s our final full day of travel. We knew it would come around eventually, but man - it still surprised us by how quickly it arrived.

We had anticipated a day filled with thunderstorms and not much walking, but thanks to sunny (but still hazy) skies we were able to continue our quest to explore Singapore’s CBD.

We started off with coffee, of course. The coffee scene here is intense, and it’s hard to imagine you’re not in some hipster cafe in Fitzroy. Chye Seng Hiat Hardware was our choice for this mornings brew (thanks to some high rating Google reviews), and 3 coffees and a pastry later we walked on.

We dropped past a local shopping mall, but the shop we had wanted to look at didn’t open for another hour...when you’ve got limited time even an hour feels like too much to bear! UNICLO and Decathlon stores got our attention (and maybe our cash) in stead, and after abusing some free wifi outside Starbucks we headed towards a thrift shop I had wanted to check out. Turns out an op shop in Asia is just as hectic (if not more so) than an op shop back home - and I managed to find a spare corner where I could hurriedly try on a couple of “must have” items. They both made me look slightly ridiculous so we pressed on.

By this point it was after lunchtime and sugar levels were below par - an emergency coffee and cake pit stop was facilitated by our friendly local Starbucks!
We then walked across to St. Andrews cathedral, and sat inside for a few peaceful minutes while parishioners hurried around in the corridors for the afternoon service. The building was a beautiful white washed structure that stuck out very prominently in that part of the city. Lucky for us it was right next door to City Hall train station - we hopped on the next train and headed towards Chinatown!

By this stage the sun was in full force and we were struggling to keep our sweat levels under control, so we decided to find a lunch spot ASAP. We wandered through Chinatowns Street Food area, which was lined with many others souvenir shops (including a TinTin shop!) but was also crawling with tourists. Plus the added sting of 17% surcharges and tax with your food. I had found a dumpling place nearby on Google, so 10 minutes of walking in circles later we came across one of the older Hawker Centres which held clothing/jewellery/trinket stalls on one level and dozens and dozens of food stalls on the next. You wouldn’t be disappointed here regardless of what you were craving - but since ‘Pig organ soup’ really isn’t our deal we headed for stall #02/135, where I ordered a plate of pan fried dumplings from the friendly owner. The queue built up quickly behind me, and watching the owner work the stoves plus do service, while his wife and son speedily made dumplings before us, made me even more hungry! Within 10 minutes we were carrying out crowned plate of potstickers to a table...and within 3 minutes they were gone. So we got some more, naturally.

We had tossed around ideas of what we could do for the rest of the day - did we want to end up at a rooftop bar tonight and if so would they accept us in our sweaty state? Should we go to another museum? We fell back on a safe and air-conditioned option; going to be movies. We headed to Raffles Mall, purchased tickets for the new Brad Pitt drama/fantasy ‘Ad Astra’, grabbed some unnecessary popcorn and headed in. 2 hours later and not far from a state of regurgitation and hypothermia, we emerged from the cinema ready to head back to the apartment.

We decided to walk home, mainly to aid the digestion of the popcorn, but so we could do a full lap of Little India. As Deepavali is fast approaching the streets were lit up with colourful overhead signs and there were people everywhere which all contributed to an exciting atmosphere. Apart from taking numerous photos we didn’t dare stop as we were wary of the black wall of clouds heading our way. We made it back to the apartment and as we are on the 4th floor we could look across the north side of the city and watch the storm....wander off into the distance.

We continued to digest for an hour and despite our bodies telling us NO, we headed out to Adam’s Corner place for dinner. They’ve fed us so well, and the food has been so consistent and so cheap that it was a no brainer. Yes, it wasn’t the more upmarket scene that we had envisioned for our last dinner, but we were happy to be surrounded by chaos and friendly faces. One masala dosa, a plateful of stir fried greens and another of satay meat skewers, plus two iced teas to wash it down, we were full.

We cannot believe that we’re heading back to you all tomorrow - we’ve filled our days as much as we could and yet it doesn’t feel like we’ve been away all that long.Read more