A big hello from the savage jungles of Singapore. This is your fearless adventure-correspondent Claude reporting to you for his first blog. Well then, me and my trusty expedition partner of almost 30 years (Gunta) have survived our first night in the wild wilderness that is the Intercontinental Hotel Singapore.
The unique jungle sounds of cash registers opening and closing and that pungent smell of wealth kept us up most of the night. Regardless we mustered the courage in the morning to leave the safe confines of our Club Suite room on level 15 and scaled down to the Club Lounge for some much-needed nourishment. We settled on the eggs benedict which wasn’t nearly as gamey as I expected. It’s heartening to know that these people eat all parts of the prey that they catch. Our enthusiasm was heightened by a skim latte that had been made over an Italian built campfire.
With this newly-found energy we set out to explore the area around our base camp. The first thing you notice as you step outside is the wave of humidity in the jungle air. It is almost suffocating. We are staying in a busy location the natives call Bugis Junction which we believe translates into the English name Bugis Junction. We use a compass and a crude hand-drawn map (we forgot the iPhone back in the room) to track down Bugis Street. Locals recount how in the 1950’s this area was occupied by transvestites parading around to try and pick-up foreign servicemen. These tribes used to have some curious customs. It is now recognised as the largest street shopping district in Singapore with over 800 stores.
We cautiously walk around these busy markets trying to avoid making eye contact with any of the locals. They seem busy selling their produce ranging from clothing to homewares and freshly grown foods. I am uncertain of the bartering system adopted by these people so I always travel with some colourful beads and a small mirror (a universal currency to us adventurers). We stumble upon a large basic food centre which I believe is called a hawker’s market. We witness locals feasting on a myriad of obscure foods. The longest queue was for the man that specialised in making fish head soup. Awkwardly, we choose to retreat back to the safety and comfort of our base camp.
On arrival at the Intercontinental Club Lounge we find the locals partaking in a customary tribal feeding ceremony. Excited, we expect to see a whole pig buried in hot coals roasting slowly. Unfortunately, we are disappointed to find people eating various morsels of food from a three level plating system. We establish that this custom dates back to colonial days and is referred to as high tea. Reluctantly we join the others and endure these sweet and savoury bites. I am sure one of them contained Monkey meat but I cannot confirm this.
Well I must wind up my first correspondence form this adventure as tonight Gunta and I plan to conquer the summit of the tri-peaks that are the Marina Bay Sands. These three monoliths that rise from the shore of the bay and are joined at the top with a large surfboard shaped structure. One end of the surfboard has one of the highest pools of water in the world, while the other has a fancy eating place called Ce La Vi where we plan to eat tonight. I am sure that this is the area where they filmed the movie Kong Skull Island.
Over and out
ClaudeSays – Tongue in Cheek