Text 20056, 76 rader
Skriven 2009-01-24 15:28:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: trip 121
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Several of us had had enough beers and enough of the town
and took an earlier boat back, trading the opportunity to
get down and dirty or up close and personal for that of a
nap before dinner.

There's a big duty-free with fairly crummy prices (SGD
only) and a couple other shops in the terminal. Also a VIP
lounge, which piqued the curious, but nobody figured out
how to get in.

The trip back was if anything faster and bumpier.

Huge long line at passport control. Took half an hour,
as the immigration guys took a long hard look at everyone
carrying an Indonesian passport (the country has a problem,
as do all developed countries next to third-world ones,
with illegal immigration and underdocumented laborers).

Left the rest of the group at the taxi stand at Harbourfront
and cast a longing eye at the McDonalds Mega Prosperity
Burger; didn't try one, though, and just went to the hotel.

I actually didn't have dinner, instead taking advantage of
2-for-1 (1-for-1 they call it) Tigers and a bowl of free
peanuts. Then a short snooze, a short session on the Web,
and an hour or two of work, not necessarily in that order.

It was well past midnight when I roused myself to find a
taxi for the traditional greet the jet-lagged get-together,
relocated from Lau Pa Sat to Newton Food Centre. When I got
there there were a surprising twenty-odd people looking
relatively bright-eyed and bushy-tailed despite the hour and
despite their having flown 10 to 20 hr in the last 48. What
I tasted: satay that looked suspiciously dark, so I asked
Mike if they were liver; they weren't, unfortunately, but
rather some kind of unknown proteinous substance - didn't
matter, as the peanut sauce was the only relevant taste;
cereal shrimp; various iterations of shrimp noodles; and
char kway teow. These were all leftovers - I'd arrived
quite late - and all I ended up paying for was a round of
Tigers, consumed mostly by other latecomers.

Cab back to the hotel around or after 2 am.

Newton is pooh-poohed by locals as a tourist trap, and
they say that one can get better dishes for $1-2 less
other places; but the major draw is that there are
food and drink stalls open all night (same as at Lau Pa
Sat, where we used to go). Also, the food here is about
as good as at the best places in other countries. The
signally good thing about Asia is that one can always find
decent places to eat, even at 1-2-3-4 in the morning.

--mm
THE SINGAPORE SLING
cat: booze, approximate, airline
servings: 1

1 oz Plymouth Gin
1/2 oz Cherry Heering
1 oz fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz Cointreau
1 chunk of pineapple, crushed
Splash of Benedictine
Ginger ale

Shake all ingredients except the ginger ale
with ice in a shaker and strain over fresh ice in a
sling glass. Top with the ginger ale. Garnish with a
fresh cherry and a lemon butterfly. Invented at Raffles
Hotel, Singapore, by Ngiam Tong Boom in 1915.

Bill Marsano, Hemispheres magazine 5-06
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