Leave it to Surabhi to always do things to the full out extent. Day 2 proved wonderful. We started off with a delicious brunch at one of her favorite neighborhood spots. I don't normally take pictures of food, but then I normally don't blog, either. So below is a photo of my food. French toast stuffed with spiced chicken and spinach, topped with fried bananas, kiwi perhaps?, other fruit I cannot identify, other fruit I can identify, and syrup made possibly from peaches or who knows, mangoes. Hardly the point. The point was it was delicious and magical. And pictured below.
From there, we headed off for a two-hour bike ride along the coast. I'll take this moment to note that the signage here amuses me to no end. Grass in public areas will be sectioned off with signs stating "Nurturing the grass, so do not walk on it," and street signs will say "Watch for hidden street 20km ahead on left." Very to the point. Very informative. No code to decipher, government or privately provided. Such was the sign below for paying for our bike rentals.
The morning/early afternoon was hot and humid, but beautifully complimented by the coastal breeze filtered through all the lush greenery. It doesn't hurt that, again, Singapore is the cleanest place in the world. So nothing smells ever.
After finishing our bike ride, we stopped off at a popular Belgian restaurant on the coast for a juice. Surabhi had an iced latte (close enough to juice), and I had some pink situation involving strawberry puree and coconut milk. It was so unbelievably vacay of us, I was delighted to no end.
Also there was herring on the menu. Just putting that out there.
From there we headed back to get ready for the evening. It was Singapore's 49th birthday, and the city was buzzing with excitement for the parade and festivities...very much like DC during the 4th of July. After getting ready, we rushed off to get more food. Because food is the most important part of everything. We went to Lau Pa Sat, which is a popular public food court in the business district. Interesting tidbit. At some point in the development of Singapore, the powers that be realized people were leaving work early to get dinner at home. So They set up these food courts all over Singapore so that people could get cheap, home-cooked food conveniently without having to leave work for too long. And the food is delicious.
I had the chicken and rice, which is a really standard dish here. It's.... chicken. and rice. You throw some chili garlic sauce on it if you must (I def did must), and that is all. And it is surprisingly good. Probably because the chicken is fresh and actually tastes like something.
OK. From there, shit got exciting. We went up a skyscraper to this swanky restaurant/lounge as guests of someone who can give such hospitality. The skyscraper is the UOA building here, and belongs to an influential family trust here. I'm not entirely sure what all that means, but it sounds interesting, so I thought I'd note it in case it means something to me later. From a table along the edge of the outside deck, we had a spectacular view of the marina, where the 49th birthday celebrations were taking place.
I took photos from this location. So many photos. Too many. Here are a few. Unedited. Since I got overwhelmed with how many fucking photos I took.
The parade was way down below, and tons of people showed up throughout the city to watch the parade directly or on huge screens set up.
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| All of The People - pre-sunset |
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| All of The People - post-sunset. I think they were given glowsticks or something. |
The whole affair was very involved and wonderful. Thousands of people, as noted above, plus fighter jets flying in formation above, the navy's speedboats jetting around below,
brightly colored fogs splashing the skyscape,
and of course, fireworks. 15min of stunning fireworks, followed by a 15min break, and another 10min of fireworks (we think someone must have forgotten to pull a lever somewhere, allowing for the 15min delay).
After the fireworks, we lounged and enjoyed the view for another bit before heading off to a nearby rooftop bar on the water called Kinki's. It was one of the very few places that plays hip-hop, and so we spent late into the night/early morning dancing up a sweat in the open air and enjoying ourselves.
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| This is not Kinki's, but the lounge from which we watched the celebration. I can't for the life of me remember what it was called, if I ever knew in the first place. |
And somehow, I am done logging this fucking day. I'm going to need to figure out blogging properly. This is so annoying. I'm sure I'll be glad I did it once I'm back home, but ugh. I'm not enjoying the writing at all. And I'm exhausted from actually doing the things about which I'm supposed to be blogging. Also blog is such a stupid word. I don't like it anymore.
I'll blog tomorrow about today. And then I'll fly to Cambodia and find peace or something.
Xo,
S
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