Flights, Hong Kong, Singapore - Pre India 2

Flying Singapore Air Rocks. While all international flights I have been on give good treatment, with slippers/blanket/pillow, Singapore Air does a nice job with the food selection. I had seafood including shrimp and scallops for 2/3 meals.

The Hong Kong layover was only noteworthy because I enjoyed the Singapore Air food so much that I did not stop to buy a meal.

Upon being turned loose on the city of Singapore I attempted to share a taxi into the city with a greybeard wearing a t-shirt with cyrillic slogans. To my suprise, not only did he agree to share a cab, he told me he would drop me off wherever I wanted in the city, because his office/apartment was on the other side of Singapore. After a bit of talk I found 1) he was German 2) he traveled 300 days a year 3) for a civil engineering firm 4) had flats in 4 different cities and 5) was a hasher.

Consequently, he dropped me off in front of an expat bar (The Sportsmen), home to hashers, including the bartender, "Handjob", who put me in touch with "Virginia Slim(e)". After finding there was a hash that evening and drinking two pints of Kilkenny with a Scottish Kayaker retired to China (its cheap), I set off to see Singapore before the hash.

I made it as far as Chinatown, where I found a mosque and a temple nearly on top of each other. These were not my goal. Nor was I going to the beach, as a muslim IT worker recommended ("Singapore is a boring city"). No, I was headed to the Imperial Herbal Restaurant,  Metropole Hotel - 3rd Floor,  41 Seah St.
Why, you may ask was I headed to IHR? Was I hungary? Did I want to taste Chinese food before sampling the rumored "best chinese food ever" in India? All this and more! IHR is known for diagnosing your ailments and cooking a scrumptious herbal meal to heal you.

Armed with an address and a building I set off through Chinatown for IHR. After about 20 minutes of walking, I found it. I went up to the entrance, and attempted to open the door, only to find it locked ... in the middle of the day. Looking around, I found they were closed from ~2-5. Sighing an ailment-full sigh, I realized that I had to make a choice between the restaurant and the hash.

An hour later I had stowed my travel bag in someone's trunk and was running on a hash run through the jungle in my sandals. The jungle hash was short (3km), but there was plenty of beer (Tiger - Singapore Beer) at the end. The hashers were constrained due to the lack of available land and general avoidance of shenanigans in Singapore. However, the run was good, and the beer flowing, and at the end showed up a Virginia Tech alumnus, Virginia Slim.

Slim brought the only thing he had left from his Bleaksburg days, a pair of Hokie Shotglasses. 2 Shots of Johnny Walker Black later, the hash's $8 seven course Chinese dinner was wonderful. Slim realized that just a couple of shots and dinner was not enough for the Singapore Hokie reunion of the decade (how many can there be?).

So we went to a bar, where Slim, his last 25 years in Asia, spoke local languages with other patrons. The patrons encouraged him to show me the more interesting side of Singapore. A couple of shots of Slime's reserve at the bar and we left for the Orchard Towers.

Orchard Towers is the nightlife of Singapore. The first bar we went into had a band that was Singapore's answer to Led Zeppelin and around since the 70's. They were playing Steve Miller Band and Styx covers while we were there. Across the street, we went to a basement place with a screaming Asian band, where Slime was greeted like an old friend. The madam was more than friendly and recommended some lovely Indonesian girls. However, the S$200 price tag was a bit rich for my blood, so we continued on to the other meat markets in the building.

Never before had I seen a meat market quite like this. Then again, I hadn't been around so many working women in a club, rather than a red-light district. 3 clubs, 3 deafening bands, and way too many approachable Asian girls later, I took a cab to the airport, with a souvenir Virginia Tech shotglass.