Looking through the previous threads, noticed the 3 key elements in the previous DO's - sights, food and beer. And since I'm usually the one organizing activities (in that three respects) for my group, I'll throw in some suggestions here.
Sights
Since the event is going to held on the third weekend of Jan and the Singapore Botanic Garden conduct their monthly orchid tour on the third saturday of each month, a visit to the National Orchid Garden @ SBG might be a good thing to do. Tours (free-of-charge and conducted by volunteers) are conducted at 9, 10 and 11am on every third Saturday for english-speaking visitors and 4pm for mandarin-speaking ones. The one at 9am would be the best, as i was told, that it is usually conducted by the most experienced and knowledgeable guide. And the tour lasts about 90 minutes, you can spend the rest of the hours going through the garden on your own before retreating to Halia Restaurant for a sumptuous meal. Note that the entrance fee for the orchid garden is S$5.
Another place of interest came to mind after reading the article on "another first coming out of the recent atlantis mission to repair the hubble telesclope - drinking recycled urine at the space station". You don't have to go to space station to get a taste of that, that is if your are keen. Not even NASA. You can do it here - Newater Visitor Centre. But a better place to learn about potable water management in Singapore is this newest facility and attraction - Marina Barrage. You should be able to get a pretty good view of the Singapore Flyer and also the city's emerging new skyline.
Food
It seems like chinese seafood restaurants have been the dining option for previous DOs. Peranakan meal is the in thing right now. In fact, this year's Singapore Food Festival is going peranakan. I guess, peranakan cooking is truly one that is representative of Singapore and Malaysia. Blue Ginger seems to be the top restaurant choice right now. Ivins is slight cheaper but the food there is just as good, though it is a bit out of place in Bukit Timah area. The most viable option might be Ellenborough Market Cafe @ Swissotel Merchant Court. But Blue Ginger will be the one to go for.
Another dining option with a theme of flying is Jumbo Seafood at NSRCC resort (Changi). It is not the usual location as in East Coast or Riverwalk. And one of the big reason for going all the way out to the east is that, it is located right at the end of the SIN's runway. You might be able to see the big birds coming in for a landing. Sitting by the poolside rather than indoor would get you a better chance of "bird-watching".
Dining at the hawker centre is a must for most visitors. But looking at the events organized in the previous DO's, Newton Circus and Lau Pat Sat seem to be out. Try Chomp Chomp or East Coast Lagoon food centres.
Beer
I was about to suggest the Tiger Brewery tour. But noticed that they have changed the format a bit. It says on their website that you top of the tour with a round of beer. It used to be unlimited sampling of beer. And they only conduct the tour on weekday. So might present a bit of a scheduling difficulty here. But in any case, that is an option. And to round of the evening, you can head over to the nearby Raffles Marina for a taste of local delights in an almost-Sausalito setting.
Oh, speaking of tiger beer, fancy a tiger beer sorbet to clean your palate in between meals? Try this place - Island Creamery. According to this recent blog, you can find a number of "local" flavours.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TowTruckDriver
Looking through the previous threads, noticed the 3 key elements in the previous DO's - sights, food and beer. And since I'm usually the one organizing activities (in that three respects) for my group, I'll throw in some suggestions here.
This is a really good find, what the DO is about !!
Another place of interest came to mind after reading the article on "another first coming out of the recent atlantis mission to repair the hubble telesclope - drinking recycled urine at the space station". You don't have to go to space station to get a taste of that, that is if your are keen.
Actually, you don't need to go anywhere at all -- all tap water in Singapore (perfectly potable) is "enhanced" with 1-2% NEWater.
Quote:
Blue Ginger seems to be the top restaurant choice right now.
Why so? It's touristy, overpriced and not particularly good. For Peranakan food, the place to go is the East Coast. Eg. Kim Choo offers Peranakan banquets for groups and would probably offer a lot more bang for the buck than the city center places.
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jpatokal: I'd be up for Kim Choo or http://www.gillmanseafood.com.sg/interv.htm on Thursday evening if you are in town. Of course, others who may be interested please chime in.
$550 is SQ's greedy fuel surcharge for both LAX-SIN-LAX and SIN-CMB-SIN. Adding the leg to Columbo added $190 to the surcharge. Additionally there were SQ (more greed) $45 booking fees. This will be a "once in a lifetime" experience of flying SQ 1st so the bullet was bitten. No graft was involved.
Just so that you know, the least miles that NW/DL wanted was 240,000 with some itineraries at 370,000. That was for PDX-NRT and return in the crappy 767-300ER.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TowTruckDriver
Food
It seems like chinese seafood restaurants have been the dining option for previous DOs. Peranakan meal is the in thing right now. In fact, this year's Singapore Food Festival is going peranakan. I guess, peranakan cooking is truly one that is representative of Singapore and Malaysia.
Another dining option with a theme of flying is Jumbo Seafood at NSRCC resort (Changi). It is not the usual location as in East Coast or Riverwalk. And one of the big reason for going all the way out to the east is that, it is located right at the end of the SIN's runway. You might be able to see the big birds coming in for a landing. Sitting by the poolside rather than indoor would get you a better chance of "bird-watching".
Dining at the hawker centre is a must for most visitors. But looking at the events organized in the previous DO's, Newton Circus and Lau Pat Sat seem to be out. Try Chomp Chomp or East Coast Lagoon food centres.
jpatokal has chimed in with his opinions re: the Peranakan options offered. Personally, I would not recommend anything involving the Swiss Hotel after our experience three years ago. Hotel food often is not representative of the local cuisine although that is not always true in Singapore. The other serious consideration is whether the style will please the palate of the majority of the attendees. Some of us will be fine with it but, I'm afraid that others will not.
Reviewing his recommendation, Kim Choo's menu, it appears that I may be premature in respect to concerns. So it may be a viable alternative if it is able to handle a group of 40-50.
Seafood options for Saturday evening have always been well received. Additionally, non seafood and vegetarian options are available in the restaurants chosen. The issue has been which venue to use. Last year, we originally planned to go to East Coast Jumbo but the logistics of getting back on a Saturday evening can be daunting. Your suggestion of Jumbo at the end of the Changi Runway sounds interesting (can they handle a group of 40-50?) and it is probably easier to call taxis to that location or even to find them there than at East Coast. The airport location or Clarke Quai (Riverside Point) Jumbo should fit the bill should we go with seafood again this year. Eventually, it was decided to stay along the river just for the convenience of the attendees and any after dinner activities they might choose.
Hawker Center: Friday evenings venue and late evening start is intended to allow those arriving late Friday/early Satuday to join the earlier arrivals. Thus the center needs to be near or in the CBD. Chomp Chomp is way too far away for the late arrivals to meet up with us. After reluctantly visiting Newton last year, it seems to be the better of the two for our purposes. I'm sure that all of us will avoid stall 43 and spend our $$$s at stall 7 and others.
