Singapore Day 2

Still bloody humid

Leaving the apartment I caught a taxi to Raffles Hotel. It is celebrating its 120 years in operation. Great group of buildings; you can really feel what it would have been like in colonial times.

I was not allowed into the main part of the hotel because I was not dressed properly!! I am sure it was because I came by taxi and did not have any luggage so the concierge just gave me the flick.

I wanted to look up a pub called Father Flanagan's’s which was close by so took off on foot to find it. I had the street address and the street was only one block away. Then there was a problem? None of the buildings are numbered at street level. So I tossed a coin and took off looking for building numbers. I finally found one but the problem was to find another one to see which way they ran.

I walked about three blocks in total before I found a second building number and of course I was heading in the wrong direction. I found a street market so I went in to take a look. It was just a typical street market with all the cheap tourist items to buy, T-shirts, souvenirs, mobile phones, jewellery etc.

Leaving there I jumped on a bus heading in the same direction as I needed to go but of course with my luck so far, it turned left three blocks later and I was back at Raffles Hotel! I got off the bus and continued in the right direction but still could not find the pub so I kept walking to the next area I wanted to go to Clark Quay. (Later I found that the pub has closed down)

Clark Quay is located on a canal with rows of restaurants and cafes

It also has a Reverse Bungee Ride set up on the waterfront

It is quite a nice area and there were lots of people there as it was coming on lunch time. A lot of the office people who work nearby also filed into the restaurants as well. I found a pub called Penny Black which is (of course) an Irish pub and stopped for a cool drink. From there just around the corner was another Irish pub called Molly Malone's. I got talking to a local man who has a son doing uni at Uni of NSW at Kensington in Sydney. We talked about Sydney for a while as he has been there many times and then I bored him for a while about my travel plans for this trip.
Leaving Molly Malone's I walked to the nearest MRT station and caught a train to head towards my next destination a pub called Dirty Nelly’s. It is in the Marina area and I needed to change trains to connect for the right rail line. On departing the MRT I was able to walk through a series of underground shopping malls to get to the right building. Here I had a bit of lunch before heading back into the Orchard Road area.

I was heading for The Dubliner, which is in a building built in the late 1800’s. After a few sparkling waters I then headed for my final destination of the day Shamus O’Donnell’s which is in an area of Singapore near the Tanjong Pagar MRT Station, the area has older buildings and narrow streets. It is definitely not an area of new development.

I had to leave this pub till last as it does not open until 4.30pm daily. Here I met Pat who is the first Irishman I met running one of the 6 Irish pubs in Singapore. The other pubs are mainly linked to each other and are typical Irish chain pubs with all the same Irish pieces on the walls and in glass cabinets. In fact some of the pubs were actually made in Ireland using the building in Singapore’s dimensions and the pulled apart, shipped to Singapore and rebuilt.

Pat runs a good old fashioned Irish Pub and I enjoyed his company whilst I was there. The pub is a generous supporter of the Singapore ‘Riding for the Disabled’. They have even imported horses from Europe for the charity and sponsor the horse’s food and up keep.
I stayed there for about an hour and then headed back to home. Two changes of trains got me back to the Orchard Road area and I went to one of the large hotels to grab a taxi from their entry way. I just got to the apartment after Branka and Oli who with Kyle had been out for the day showing Richard and Petsy around a large bird sanctuary in Singapore.
After dinner I downloaded some photo’s and then had a reasonably early night as I have to be up at 5am to get a taxi to the airport. My plane leaves at 8am for Hong Kong where I have a two hour transit before boarding the plane to London. It will be approximately 25 hours from getting up to arriving in London so it should be a interesting day.

Collecting:

Today was a day touring Singapore and visiting Irish pubs as I went and it was quite a successful day.

At a supermarket I found a Budweiser 2008 Beijing Olympics sponsor can and another flavour of the Pringles 40% extra tubes.

At a 7/11 I found two Pringles packets I had not seen these shape packets before but Branka informed me that the children at her school bring them for snacks at lunch time.


Listed by pub are my Guinness finds.

Penny Black – Guinness 9Ball Tour pen

Molly Malone's – Guinness 9 Ball Tour Poster, Pen, Cuff links, Cap and a Guinness Half Pint Glass. Also more Guinness No. Coasters.

Dirty Nelly’s – A Guinness Lanyard and some Guinness No. Coasters.

The Dubliner – Guinness 9 Ball Cuff Links.

Shamus O’Donnell's – A sleave of Guinness No. Coasters, 2 compact Guinness clocks, Business Cards and a Guinness Xmas Tree pack (A Guinness Glass, A Pine Tree Seed and a small Plant Pot.) You are supposed to plant the seed in the pot and then feed it Guinness for watering and it will grow into a Christmas Tree.