Our plans for today
Today was the day that my Mum had been looking forward to the most on the trip, as we had booked Afternoon Tea at Raffles Hotel – something that she had wanted to do for years, but we packed in another day full of exploring and sightseeing.
Afternoon Tea was booked for 2.45pm and so we had plenty of time to explore beforehand. We wanted to make sure we had enough time to visit without rushing – as the grounds looked very big when we passed through on the open top bus yesterday – and so this seemed an ideal time for us to do it.
We jumped on a local bus this time, with one going directly to the gardens from very close to our hotel. The journey there was nice, and we got to see a lot more of Singapore that we didn’t see yesterday, and we were at the gardens in around 30 minutes.
A late breakfast at the Botanic Gardens
We hadn’t initially planned to have breakfast but when we got off of the bus we saw what looked like a nice café, with outside seating, right by the entrance and so we decided to stop and see what they had on offer.
Both of us had iced coffee to drink, with ham and cheese croissants. Ordering was all done via a QR code on the table, although you could go in if you wanted to, and everything was brought to our table within a few minutes.
We spent half hour here people watching, and chicken watching, before heading into the Botanic Gardens to explore.
The Botanic Gardens
The Botanic Gardens in Singapore are over 200 acres in size and, in addition to a wealth of wildlife, are said to contain over 10,000 species of plants. I’m not a plant person so many plants do look the same to me, but there was a wealth of flora to see of all types and it was a nice place to explore.
If you were a big plant person and wanted to see the whole gardens you could easily spend a few hours. We decided not to spend that long, instead opting for a 90 minutes leisurely stroll from one side to the other, taking in as much as we could including all types of plants, wildlife, and some lovely ponds.
The gardens were popular with photographers and we saw lots throughout our time there, including several hundred who were all in one place with their cameras pointing at a tree. I couldn’t see what they were looking at, but I assume there must have been a rare bird in the tree or something.
Even though we arrived at the gardens at 9am it was very warm by the time we finished so I’m definitely glad that we decided to go first thing and not later in the day.
Getting ready for Afternoon Tea
There is a dress code for afternoon tea at Raffles so we made our way back to our hotel to freshen up and to get dressed. The dress code is “casual chic” with men encouraged to wear a collared shirt with appropriate trousers and shoes, and women encouraged to wear a dress or smart trousers with a blouse.
I don’t dress up often but luckily I had things back home that matched that description which I was able to pack.
We spent a couple of hours back at the hotel relaxing, making use of both the air conditioning and showers, before jumping on the bus to head back to Raffles Hotel.
Afternoon Tea at Raffles Hotel
In most cases, only hotel guests are able to enter the main building of Raffles Hotel but if you have a reservation for afternoon tea, or for dinner, then you’re able to walk in through the front door that is staffed by the famous Sikh doormen who are an icon of Raffles.
After checking in we were shown to our table which was in a side room off of the main lobby, rather than in the lobby itself. Initially we were a little disappointed by this but in the end it was nice because we had a bigger table, and it was quieter so we didn’t have to worry about rushing to leave before the end of our slot.
The Afternoon Tea experience at Raffles is expensive, but it’s a nice experience. You are able to choose a range of fresh teas and coffees, along with additional drinks like Champagne, wine, and soft drinks if you don’t mind paying extra. To eat you have a big selection of sandwiches, cakes, and scones which were presented really well.
A lot of the sandwiches contained fish, which I’m not a fan of, so Mum ate more sandwiches and I ate more cakes but there was enough of everything that we didn’t feel that we missed out on anything.
As we were coming to the end of our time there one of the staff members came across with a small cake that had a candle on it and said “I understand it was your birthday a few days ago, and so we wanted to give you this cake to celebrate”, which was really nice of them.
I don’t know how they knew it was my birthday recently – in fact, it was the other day when we visited the DMZ – but maybe we had to enter our dates of birth when we made the reservation due to pre-selecting that we wanted to have champagne with the experience.
Our first visit to the Long Bar
The other thing that Raffles is famously known for is Long Bar, home of the Singapore Sling, and so we decided to visit it after finishing our Afternoon Tea.
There was a bit of a queue, which put some people off, but it didn’t take too long to get inside where we were shown to a table upstairs and presented with a drinks menu.
While there are lots of options available including wine, beer, soft drinks, and cocktails probably half of the people in the Long Bar were drinking Singapore Sling, a gin-based cocktail, as this is where it was invented and they’ve done a very good job of marketing the hotel in such a way that there is always a queue of people out the door wanting to set foot in the Long Bar to try one.
I’m not really a gin drinker but I did try a couple of Singapore Sling and I really enjoyed them. You could taste the alcohol, but the combination of other ingredients meant that there wasn’t a strong gin taste which suited me.
Another thing that the Long Bar is famous for is the peanuts in shells which they serve to all guests. It’s tradition to throw the shells on the floor after eating the nut which is something that takes some getting used to, but it’s all part of the tradition.
A light show at Marina Bay
We didn’t want to spend all evening in our smart clothes so we jumped on the MRT back to the hotel where we made a quick pit stop to change our clothes, before heading back to the city.
Our plan for this evening was to watch Spectra, the light and fountain show next to the Marina Bay Sands, but since we had a couple of drinks we wanted to make sure that we had some food first. There wasn’t much time for a big sit down meal and so we caught the bus into Chinatown and went to a cheap Hong Kong style restaurant for a quick bite to eat.
Unfortunately the food wasn’t that great, but it filled a gap which is what we needed, and it was quick which meant that we would have plenty of time to get to the light show before it started.
The light show, which was accompanied by music and fountains, was incredible and had the perfect backdrop of the skyline of downtown Singapore. It was also really popular, so I’m glad we got there early enough to get a good spot. Most people headed straight for the closest spot but we grabbed a spot on the balcony of the upper level which, while further away, was higher and so provided an even better view of the fountains. It was also less cramped.
The show lasted around 15 minutes and was definitely worth travelling out to Marina Bay for.
It was getting late by this point so we headed back to the hotel again and we got back at around 10pm where I’m relaxing now in the air conditioning. Air con is something I’m not used to, as it’s not common in the UK, but it’s something that I’m definitely appreciating in Singapore!