Raffles Hotel is an institution in Singapore, to be honest I’m not really sure why! I’m not big on history so tend to not look up stuff like that and only learn cool tid bits of information if other people tell me.
Either way it’s not important, we were told by everyone that had been to Singapore before that we really needed to head to Raffles Hotel and have a ‘Singapore Sling’, head to the bar or have high tea.
Raffles Hotel is a cool building, it’s one of those buildings that looks old but slightly modern at the same time. No expense was spared in the creation of this Hotel that much I am certain of.
As far as I am aware it doesn’t cost anything to have a look around, well at least not in the areas we looked at.
There are some amazing looking public toilets (Well maybe not public toilets but they were kind of out in the open) here as well if you are that way inclined. There is also a little shop which, like most gift shops of this style, was rather expensive! Although the b/f did get a large poster for about $15SGD – he thinks it was a bargain, I’m undecided as I don’t know where he plans on putting the thing 😉
We walked past the High Tea area and it did look lovely, if I was with mum or a girlfriend I may well have enquired on the price, the b/f is far to impatient to sit there and enjoy a high tea so that was written off our agenda.
We did find an outside bar where we could order a Singapore Sling – for the low low price of $36SGD (I almost choked!), oh if you wondered what that is in NZD, we are pretty much dollar for dollar with the Singapore $ at the moment… Yeah I’ll give you a moment to digest that…
Needless to say we did not bother with the cocktail, for that price we went for a short walk and right near the City Hall MRT station found a little Danish bar/cafe and I ordered a tea, the b/f ordered a beer and we shared a garlic bread – including the 10% service charge and 7% government tax we spent less than 1 cocktail would have cost us at Raffles hotel. It was nice to just sit and watch the world go by.
When on holiday do you do all the ‘must do’ things because they are ‘must do’s’ or do your own thing?
Wow! $36 for a Sling?!? We were planning on going there just for the cocktail – guess not anymore! Your posts have been very helpful for our trip so far 🙂
Yep it was a major rip off!! If you can find the bar that you throw the peanut shells on the floor it may be cheaper, i’m not sure though we never found it.
I’m glad they have helped, I have a few more to come so keep an eye out 🙂
Great post! I like to do the “must do’s” but then we also do our own thing. E.G. when we were in Milan, most people said to go to Lake Como but we spent a day doing a tour learning about the history.
Welcome 🙂 It’s nice to see a new face around here.
I totally agree with you, we like to do a combination of the ‘must do’s’ and our own thing 🙂