Singapore River Promenade; Raffles Bar

If you read my post about my visit to the S.E.A. Aquarium and my cruise on the Singapore River this morning, you’ll know that events conspired to lead me to have a late lunch. Consequently, I had a short afternoon.

But short does not mean nonexistent. I did manage to do a couple of things, just not entirely according to plan.

“According to plan” makes it sound like I developed some grand, detailed itinerary well in advance. That was not the case.

I developed the plan only at lunch, and it included solely one sight. After that, the plan called for playing it by ear depending on the time and weather when I finished visiting that first sight.

When I developed this “plan,” it wasn’t raining, but the sky still looked threatening, and as it’s been since I arrived in Singapore, it was still muggy with extreme prejudice. So I thought an indoor sight would beat an outdoor one.

I consulted my walking tour app and guidebook and found they both recommended the National Gallery of Singapore. And it was only a ten-minute walk from where I had lunch. I’m not a big art gallery fan, but it fit the criteria.

Today is Monday in Singapore. A lot of galleries and museums close on Mondays in many cities around the world. So, before committing to the plan, I checked both Google Maps and the gallery’s website to make sure it was open today. They both confirmed it was.

I walked to the National Gallery and went to the ticket desk. The person there told me they were about to have their fire drill. So, if I went in, I’d be required to evacuate in a few minutes and wouldn’t be allowed back in for an hour. I decided to develop a new plan on the fly.

Singapore River Promenade

On the Singapore River cruise I took this morning, the commentary mentioned that there are river promenades running the length of the river in the city, on either side of the river. It pointed out one section of about three or four blocks on one bank where low-rise buildings were back a bit from the river (with highrises backing them).

Those buildings all have restaurants on the ground floor. And the buildings are set back enough from the river that a nice brick-paved portion of the river promenade runs in front of them, and there is enough space left over for a row of trees and a number of restaurant tables between the trees and the river’s edge.

It looked lovely from the boat. And the commentary mentioned that the trees provided shade, which helps on hot days. (I think that’s every day here.) The sky was much less threatening then, so my new plan was to walk along that section of the river promenade.

It is visually even more charming walking along it than it looked from on the river during the boat cruise. The red brick river promenade was quaint. The trees provided a touch of nature and a bit of a cooling effect. The restaurants were all small and appealing. There are probably at least two or three dozen dining and drinking establishments along what’s likely the equivalent of a three-or-four-block stretch.

I said that it was visually even more charming. However, a non-visual aspect greatly detracted from the enjoyment of my time. I was there about halfway between lunch and dinner. So few of the restaurants had any customers. And those that had any customers had only a few.

Many of the restaurants had staff out front encouraging any passersby to patronize the restaurant. At that time of day, there weren’t many people walking along the riverfront. For the most part, it was just me. I saw only a few other people treading on that stretch of the river promenade.

Needless to say, the restaurants were hungry for customers. I swear that, without exaggeration, at least a dozen restaurant touts asked me if I wanted something to eat. When I said no, they pointed to the “happy hour” signs that most restaurants had on sandwich boards out front of their establishments and asked me if I wanted a drink. “Happy hour!” they exclaimed.

After the first few, it got to be annoying. And as I said, it happened at least a dozen times.

When I got past that section of the river promenade, I got to a bridge and crossed over it to the side my hotel is on. I then walked upstream a piece on the promenade on that side of the river. That side is less animated and shady and, therefore, less enjoyable. I did, however, stop for a bit in front of the statue of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles on the promenade. The engraving on the statue’s pedestal reads:

“On this historic site Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles first landed in Singapore on 28th January 1819 and with genius and perception changed the destiny of Singapore from an obscure fishing village to a great seaport and modern metropolis.“

“With genius and perception.” Seeing the Raffles statue inspired me to do great things. What it inspired me to do was to use a trick that a friend and regular reader passed along to me both in an email and in a reply to an earlier post.

Raffles Long Bar

If you read that earlier post, you know that my guidebook and a sign out front told me that only guests can enter Raffles Hotel. So, that day, I admired it solely from outside.

The trick my friend told me was that when they were in Singapore, they made the pilgrimage to Raffles, and by buying a drink in the historical Long Bar at Raffles, they were able to go inside to do that.

So that’s what I did. However, I still couldn’t go into the “resplendent” lobby. (Resplendent is the word my guidebook used.) The entrance to Raffles Long Bar is out towards the back and it has its own entrance. The formally dressed Sikh doorman directed me along a path through the hotel’s grounds, past some beautiful patios, and to that entrance.

(When this journal gets millions of readers and I slap advertising on it that makes me rich, I’m going to go back to Singapore and stay in the Raffles hotel just so I can see the allegedly resplendent lobby. I fear that will likely have to wait for a future life. This journal currently typically gets ones of readers on days when I’m not travelling, and not many more on days when I am. And, with my luck, in that future life, I’ll come back as a peanut that gets eaten after its shell is discarded on the Long Bar floor, without ever seeing the lobby.)

The Raffles Long Bar is quite a cozy place with lots of warm-coloured wood and pieces of cloth that act as fans, gently swaying and forth from the ceiling.

There is a tradition in the Raffles Long Bar that I’d heard of well before coming on this trip. On every table, sits a jute bag full of peanuts in the shell. The custom is to throw the spent shells on the floor. Peanut shells generously littered around every table confirmed that the tradition is still respected. I played my part in keeping it going by adding considerably to the pile beneath and around my table.

Ah, tradition. Tradition!

Sorry. I felt my inner Tevye coming out. Maybe it was the drink I had that brought Tevye out.

What drink did I have? If you can’t guess, you’re not following along. Remember, tradition! I’m in Singapore. At the Raffles Long Bar. The bar where they invented the Singapore Sling. I’d never had a Singapore Sling before. Now, I’ve had one called “The Original Singapore Sling.”

I had no idea what was in a Singapore Sling until today. Now I do. “Widges London Dry Gin, Bénédictine, Luxardo Cherry Sangue Morlacco, Ferrand Dry Curaçao Raffles Signature Grenadine, Pineapple Juice, Fresh Lime Juice, and Spice Plantation Bitters.” (I took a photograph of that in the menu at Raffles Long Bar.)

It was very tasty and went down well.

I’m not a particularly heavy drinker, so that may have something to do with it, but I thought it was quite powerful.

Tradition. Traaadiiition!

Oh, and it was probably the most overpriced drink I’ve ever had, S$41 for not a terribly large glass. The waiter asked me if I wanted another. I decided not. Besides, I wanted to get back to my hotel before the end of the free cocktails and hors d’oeuvres that the hotel I’m staying in offers me from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.