A Singapore Sling

Our first experience of Singapore had been Changi airport, en route to Bali last month. It's essentially a giant shopping mall with an airport conveniently attached.

This time, we stayed for a day and would probably make Changi a finalist for any award given to an airport that most appropriately reflects the culture of its location. On a 24-hour whizz through only a fraction of Singapore, we experienced shopping mall after shopping mall – and we didn't even visit Orchard Road, the shopping epicentre. We even managed to accidentally come across the registration desk for the APEC leaders meeting that was going on at the same time, and it, too, was in a shopping centre!

But we also dipped out of these nice shopping centres to experience a Singapore Sling in the Long Bar at Raffles Hotel. It's certainly the most expensive cocktail I've ever drank, and quite possibly my first venture into cocktail tourism – one bartender was in charge of the Slings and he was making something like 150 to 200 of these an hour (they could sell them that fast). At $26 per drink, that's about $4,000 an hour! It was, at least, the best Singapore Sling I've ever had, much frutier and smoother than the one that was served on Singapore Airlines. And the contrast in atmosphere at the Long Bar is perfect – upper-class colonial décor littered with obligatory peanut shells from the free bar nuts.

We'll be back again just before Christmas - luckily, there may not be a better place in the world for last-minute shopping. Of course, in mid-November, the streets of Singapore are already wishing us a "Glitzy Christmas" - possibly beating the US as the earliest to whip out the decorations!

Photos:
Top - With the APEC leaders in town, this US-themed restaurant was hoping the President would stop on by for a burger and fries.
Bottom - The Sling bartender making 16 Singapore Slings at once!