Because of the time change, I woke up at about 7 a.m. and decided I might as well get up and going, since this was probably the earliest I'll wake up anytime within the next several months. I was starving so I headed off in the direction of the city center and found a large market area, part of Bugis Market with five rows of tiny food counters built into the building. Some were offering food that was clearly ethnically identifable: Indian (curry's always a good hint), Malaysian (in the name), but most were foods I'd never seen before. Only Lee Hockers Fishball Soup had a line, of about 15 people, all of whom appeared to be Singaporean. I had the time, and I figured that if the natives ate there, it should at least be a very good version of the food, whether the food itself were good or not. Without any idea of what to order, I pointed at a woman's bowl of soup, noodles and fishballs that looked appealing and said that, and then I waited. For whatever reason, my version ($3 Singaporean dollars, about equal to $2.10) USD came in two separate bowls, one with the soup and fishballs, and one with noodles. I tasted them separately and they were both quite good, so I combined them and ate it like that. The fishballs were a bit strange, totally white and gelatinously solid, but they tasted fairly good, and the soup had some oil in it that added a great flavor. At the same market, I grabbed a cup of cold coconut milk with large chunks of coconut meat inside ($1.50SD) and started wandering.
I didn't have any particular destination in mind, so I just walked in the general direction of the river (or at least what I thought was that general direction) and I came upon a modern, early Art Deco style building- the Park Building- maybe. I think it was a hotel or office building. I don't know, it was cool, shut up. Continuing along, I walked through the Civic/Colonial District passing: the Raffles Hotel, one of the older, lovely colonial buildings- now halfway converted into a mall, a war memorial, an esplanade, a large field of some importance, St. Andrew's Cathedral (which I peeked into, but didn't even bother crossing the threshold because it was so uninteresting), and the City Hall. I decided to head North in the general direction of a park and see if I got there.
Cool Art Deco Building
Raffles Hotel and Arcade
Pretty Flower
Surprisingly, I did actually make it to Fort Channing, which was actually a park and reservoir on the site of an old British Fort, high on a hill, that was originally where the palace for the Kings of Singapore was located before that (in the 1400s). They had some very interesting plaques and exhibits, including some floral smells and spices to guess at. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a plaque on that exhibit so I just had to guess at: Jasmine, Curry Leaves, Basil, and a few others. The best board though, by far, was a cartoon version of the history of the Kings of Singapore with some bizarrely outrageous stories. My favorite was about one King who kept trying out new brides, but the morning after he slept with them, they'd wake up with white spots all over, so he kept trying with different women, and it kept happening until eventually one woke up normal. In the cartoon the King was shown with a look of great happiness and relief and a word bubble saying "Finally!" above his head. I guess being forced to sleep with all those women was just exhausting.Fort Channing was relatively small, but quite empty and peaceful, so I walked around the hill for about an hour before heading into the National Museum of Singapore. The building was large and spacious and modern like the airport, and was much more interesting than what was inside it. I'd meant to go shopping on Orchard Road but was feeling tired, so I headed back to the hostel at around 4.
Fort Channing Trees
Fort Channing
The Spacious National Museum
Swinging Chandeliers in the Mueseum
Directly outside the window of my room, one of the several Indian restaurants along the street had a large banner saying that Bismillah Biryani was the first search result for yahoo and google for "best biryani in Singapore," that it was recommended by a prominent food blog, and that even though it was Indian, it was truly Singaporean food. I later checked online and while it wasn't first, it did come up on the first page on both sites. Reading some of these pages, I began to understand how seriously Singaporeans take their biryani. Several sites discussed the differences between dum biryani and nasi biryani, and whether that difference should exist at all, the use of ghee to add flavor (similar to the use of lard in Mexican cooking) and the proper length and wetness of the basmanti rice.
At the time I didn't know any of this, just that there was a giant red banner beckoning me with the promise of exotic and good food. I was the only customer at the time, so the Owner/Chef chatted with me a bit while I waited for my chicken biryani. Arif was from Pasadena and had retired in Singapore. This restaurant was more of a passion for him, than a way to make money, or so he said. He brought out two poories; fried Indian bread that was hot and light and fluffy without being oily, a bit like a tostada shell, but with many more and smaller bubbles/air pockets and lighter. They were wonderful, and not just because I was so hungry. A few minutes later, he brought out the biryani: a plate of orange and white rice mostly covering two pieces of chicken in a sort of mildly spicy curry sauce, accompanied by a teacup sized bowl of flavored broth and oil. The chicken was incredibly tender- it nearly fell off the bone when I stuck my fork in, and the rice was soft and unsticky, but not dry. Tentatively I tasted the broth/oil, and was surprised by how light it was. I had expected some wave of heat and spice, but it really was more of a well flavored broth than anything else so I poured it in a spiral all over the rice and chicken and ate up happily. My meal, which I could almost, but not quite finish, cost me $7SD, with a can of Diet Coke.
Fully satisfied, I went up to my room for a while to let my stomach settle and then changed and headed out for a run. I'd seen people out running at Fort Channing earlier, but no one seemed to be running in the city. At first, when I noticed people looking at me I felt self conscious, but then I just realized it was probably because no one (Singaporean, tourist, or otherwise) had known that a person could turn so red from a little bit of exercise. It was still humid, but not terribly hot, and the city did look lovely at dusk and fading into night as the fluorescent bulbs lit up the skyline. I was staying on main roads, but not heading in any particular direction, so I was quite unperturbed by not knowing where I was. I ran through the Civic district, down to the Flyer (the largest ferris wheel in the world, beating out the London Eye), across a bridge where my running turned to walking, realized I couldn't get anywhere from there so turned around and went back across the bridge, up the way I'd come, over along the river, near the esplanade (not on it, oddly enough), and into Clarke Quay, a very touristy area with several bars and restaurants with costs much higher than anything I'd been paying. Though I don't really trust it, my pedometer said I'd gone three miles so far so I decided I'd start heading back. So I was trying to head in the correct direction, but for whatever reason my sense of direction was particularly confused so I kept getting turned around. After another mile, I was tired and really wanted to get back, so then I started seriously looking at buildings and the few stand alone city maps I could find, and I continued to get confused. I was already, despite the title here, really lost. This made me a bit uneasy, but after another half a mile, I found a few buildings I knew and made my way back and after a quick shower, straight into bed.
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