Yesterday, we decided to finally tackle some of the most “touristy” areas of Singapore and hit some of the “you can’t come to Singapore and NOT visit” sites. Fortunately, most of these sites are indoors or indoor-adjacent – this was especially helpful as it was the rainiest day so far (and we’re here in monsoon season, so rain is to be expected).

We started the day with a trip to the National Museum of Singapore, which has an extensive collection on the first floor, an experiential art / multimedia exhibit in the “glass dome” and a special exhibit in the basement. The main exhibition was incredibly informative, if a bit difficult to navigate (there are almost too many off-shoot rooms, which showcase everything from historic maps to opium-related paraphernalia to an exhibit on POWs during the Japanese occupation of Singapore during WWII. A couple fascinating items / tidbits:

• Pre-colonial Singapore (~1200-1800ish) was referred to as Singapura; only a few pre-colonial artifacts remain, including one piece of a rock that used to be at the mouth of the Singapore River; the British decided such a priceless piece of history was in the way and decided to blow it up when they made their initial fort in the area
• Under colonial rule, opium became a big business, making up a significant percentage of the local revenue; to accommodate the growth, Singapore began to experience high levels of immigration (many from China, as we learned from Alvin at the Intan); many of these Chinese immigrants worked as rickshaw runners (truly, they pulled rickshaws for 5-7 years until their bodies couldn’t handle the physical abuse any longer)
• Singapore was later occupied by the Japanese during WWII, which was a dark period of history (not that the British were kind or benevolent rulers, but at least some of the British governors appeared to be at least tolerated by the local population)
• One woman, Elizabeth Choy, was tortured and held as a POW for ~200 days; she was later recognized as a war hero by the British and the museum now has one of her shirts, which was interesting to see
• In the ’70s, Singapore rapidly urbanized and adopted many of the “modern” amenities we so appreciate today, including washing machines, rice cookers, and one item that looked suspiciously like a combination Kitchen Aid stand mixer and blender (what an invention!)

Overall, it was a great museum and a wonderful overview of Singapore’s history. I’d highly recommend it to anyone interested in visiting! Up next, we hit another museum, located about a five minute walk away – the Peranakan Museum.

Interestingly, Alvin’s overview during our private tour at The Intan was much more comprehensive; however, the museum had many of the artifacts we’d seen at Alvin’s (and, frankly, his collection WAS much more extensive!). However, the Peranakan Museum did have a similarity to the Eurasian Heritage Center in that it did feature many stories / profiles of local Peranakan individuals and their families.

The Peranakan Museum included a variety of examples of the china / dish carriers with mixed Chinese / European patterns, kabaya with European-style embroidery, and a beautiful traditional Chinese wedding bed with European accents (e.g., the beaded fringe vs. the traditional cloth fringe). Similarly, they had examples of beaded fringe on textiles and a European-style wedding dress with Chinese-traditional male wedding attire. Overall, a fantastic museum, but best seen after hearing about the culture in Alvin’s own words.

After the Peranakan Museum, we headed for the Raffles Hotel, where we hoped to have High Tea. Along the way we passed Chijmes, which is a local event space in an imposing and impressive facade.

Unfortunately, we weren’t dressed up to snuff (they don’t allow shorts or casual attire in their lobby), so instead we headed upstairs to the Long Bar to grab a drink and game-plan the rest of the day. The Raffles is known for having originated the “Singapore Sling” cocktail back in the colonial day, essentially making a cocktail that wealthy colonial women could drink in public (drinking alcohol was not lady-like), fashioned as a fruit punch of sorts.

After we enjoyed the Singapore Slings (and a second cocktail!) we realized we only had 45 minutes until the stalls at the Hong Lim hawker center closed at 3pm and decided to make a run to try a couple items at the top of our list.

Thankfully the Raffles is relatively centrally located, so grabbing a bus was easy. Once on the bus, cue the frantic chase-scene montage music. We arrived at the hawker center at 2:39pm; we sprinted upstairs as only two tipsy millennials could, attempting to divide and conquer to try the plates we desired. I ran up a flight of stairs, and immediately wasted 3 minutes to going the long way around; it turned out the stall I wanted was on a different floor, so when I saw the elevator button I smashed it. It came quickly – and then suddenly, cue the comedic pause (with appropriate elevator music) where a Singaporean grandmother and I peacefully stand in the slow-moving elevator together as it ascends a floor. Doors open; I fly out, quickly making my way through the hot, crowded room to Outram Park Fried Kway Teow Mee, which is a Michelin Bib Gourmand stand specializing in Kway Teow Mee noodles. Thankfully, I was able to get in line before the cutoff. My husband was able to get in line for the incredible wonton and char siu noodle bowl (truly one of the top 3 things we tried in Singapore) from the Ji Ji Noodle stand. Unfortunately, the third stall we hoped to visit was closed for the afternoon, so we grabbed a bowl of curry chicken (served with potatoes and noodles!) as our final dish of the afternoon.

After the hawker center, we headed for one of Singapore’s most touristy sites, the Marina Bay Sands complex (the building is a luxury mall, hotel, casino, restaurant center and panoramic Sky Park), which is also conveniently located overlooking the Gardens by the Bay. The hotel area of the Marina Bay Sands complex is clearly beautiful and luxurious; the casino / shopping center area is frankly kind of underwhelming (I prefered the ION Orchard), although it is opulent and ostentatious (there is a river with gondola rides running through it!).

In a respite from the weather, we were able to visit the Sky Park, which is your classic observation deck overlooking Singapore, the Singapore harbor and the Gardens by the Bay complex.

After Marina Bay Sands, we finally headed back to our hotel and quickly regrouped before heading to dinner. Just kidding! We actually decided to add one more stop to our time in the Singapore River area and headed to the Auld Alliance, an incredible bar offering a variety of rare whiskeys and other spirits. They are known for their special collection, which purports to include pre-WWII Japanese whisky as well as Civil War-era rye. It truly was one of the most fascinating and comprehensive menus we’ve seen.

I decided to try the “rare” whisky tasting, which included a variety of Scotch whiskies of ~35ish year average age (all of which are no longer produced today, several of which have been out of production for 20+ years). My husband loves rum, so he tried their less-known rum sampler, which included a couple of rums from Guyana and other Caribbean locales (and we learned that rum is difficult to craft tasting notes for, as some literally have “fresh paint” as a common scent, which my husband learned the hard way!).

To continue our Peranakan theme, we visited Candlenut, a relatively affordable and relaxed Michelin One-Star restaurant, located in a trendy warehouse setting. It was a culinary highlight of our trip.

On our waitress’ suggestion, we made our own “tasting menu” of sorts, including:

• Wing Bean Salad (baby red radish, lemongrass, cashew nuts, prawns, anchovies, calamansi dressing) – this was so crisp and refreshing!
• Westholme Wagyu Beef Rib Rendang (dry caramelized coconut curry with spices, turmeric leaf, serunding) – it was braised for four-hours and delicious!
• Candlenut Blue Swimmer Crab Curry (turmeric, galangal, coconut milk, kaffir lime leaf) – truly one of the best bites we’ve had in Singapore so far!
• Sambal “Four Heavenly Kings” (okra, brinjal, long beans, kang kong wok fried with sambal, dried shrimp topped with crispy whitebait petai beans) – I loved it, my husband wasn’t a fan; the dried shrimp are definitely a specific flavor and I can understand why they aren’t for everyone
• Ikan Bakar (charcoal grilled spiced local red snapper fillet, fresh red chilli sambal, charred dragon chives) – we loved the chive salad on top, although the sambal was definitely adding a fermented flavor that could be an acquired taste
• For dessert, we tried the Candlenut Chendol (young coconut shaved ice, homemade pandan jelly sago pearl, coconut custard, gula melaka)

It truly was an amazing menu; the food was fragrant, impeccably cooked, and really showcased the Peranakan theme (for example, the use of the fermented or dried shrimp, fermented flavors in the sambal, etc.). The dessert was also a standout and had an incredible array of flavors / textures / mixture of ice and heated ingredients. I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Singapore!