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| Other countries sue_and_nathan visited in yearaway |
| Australia (4) |
| Cambodia (2) |
| Czech Republic (1) |
| India (6) |
| Indonesia (2) |
| Japan (1) |
| Malaysia (6) |
| New Zealand (2) |
| Singapore (1) |
| Thailand (7) |
| United Kingdom (2) |
| Vietnam (4) |
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| Raffles Hotel (http://www.raffleshotel.com)at 1, Beach Road, Singapore is probably the worlds most famous and luxurious hotel and we were about to be lucky enough to stay there for 2 nights. We approached this famous institution with the kind of excited energy reserved for Christmas mornings when you're a kid. It was originally opened in 1887 by the Sarkies brothers who also owned the Eastern and Oriental Hotel in Penang, Malaysia. It was originally the sort of place where society people stayed for a couple of months at a time and which held a dance into the wee small hours every night of the week. Our first glimpse of the white-columned main building was quite breathtaking - the decor in the lobby just oozed luxury. We were welcomed by the Deputy Manager who led us to the Palm Court Suite where our personal room valet welcomed us and showed us round our room, complete with a complimentary bottle of Champagne on ice. Our welcome drink was a Singapore Sling, no less, which we sipped in the comfort of our amazing suite. After a major refit in 1989, which took 2 years, the hotel was reopened complete with a new shopping arcade at the back of the hotel (full of shops like Louis Vuitton and Prada!) and more restaurants and bars than before. So, after a dip in the pool we decided to have a look around there - window shopping rather than the real thing though! On our first evening we had dinner at an amazing fusion restaurant in the hotel called Doc Cheng's. Dr Cheng was a local GP who preferred to hang out in the Bar and Billiard's Room in Raffles rather than at his surgery and his patients often came here to find him and have their consultations at the bar. He even apparentely set a broken arm in there and often prescribed a stiff gin and a long chat rather than pills! The fusion food was wonderful and the atmosphere made our first evening at Raffles just great. The buffet breakfast taken in the Tiffin Room was wonderful. There were the usual fruits, cereals and fried stuff, but in addition they had beef tenderloin and quality smoked salmon! The Tiffin Room, in particular, felt very colonial with high ceilings, white walls, dark wooden furniture, crisp white tables cloths and a varnished floor which you could eat your tiffin off! It is no wonder that this room serves the most famous afternoon tea in South East Asia. We wanted to spend our last night somewhere special so we decided to get our valet to book us a table in their most exclusive restaurant - the Raffles Grill. But, as with all exclusive places there is a strict dress code of smart/elegant. This posed a bit of a problem for Nathan cos' he had failed to pack his DJ in the rucksack! All he had was a pair of combat pants, blue shirt and trusty walking boots, hardly smart/elegant, more rugged/ruffled. So, our valet set to work trying to find a pair of trousers, black, 30 waist, shoes, black, size 8 and a black dinner jacket. A couple of hours later we have resigned ourselves to finding a more casual eating spot when a ring on our doorbell and voila - everything even fitted perfectly. Okay, so he wasn't going to win any fashion contests, but we were going! The Long Bar, birth place of the Singapore Sling, was our first port of call this evening for another one of the famous drinks. We were surrounded by people sipping Slings and throwing the shells of monkeynuts on the floor. The barman told us that they get through about 600 Singapore Slings a day and a small mountain of monkeynuts. On to the Writer's Bar where we had another quick tipple and then through to the Raffle's Grill. Huge chandeliers illuminated this extremely grand restaurant. The waiter first came over to our table to suggest an aperitif, 'Champagne perhaps, or maybe a Kir Royale, Sir?' We opted for the latter. 'House Champagne, Sir?' the waiter said. Nathan, hardly looking up simply nodded, and carried on talking to me. The Champagne then appeared from behind the Waiter's back - a dark green bottle with a shield shaped label. Nathan's face was a picture - his eyes nearly popped out of his head - Dom Perignon 1993 - not the usual house Champagne we've been used to (Asti Spumante 2001!) Realising that our budget was well and truly shot for the night we went on to devour the most sumptious meal we have ever eaten. We tried quality caviar for the first time, truffles with suckling pig (maybe the very same pig who had snuffled those very same truffles, who knows?!)and raw yellow-fin tuna, all rounded off with Grand Marnier Souffle. We don't believe that there could be a better restaurant anywhere, as this meal was just amazing and the perfectly attired waiters were the most courteous either of us have ever come across (I mean, they even laughed at my jokes!). Not satisfied with being totally stuffed, and possibly a touch drunk, we proceeded to the Bar and Billiards Room to conclude our day with a Million Dollar Cocktail and some live jazz (although I asked for a Billionaires Cocktail to start with - seems I was getting a little carried away with the high-life by then!) On our last morning we asked the concierge to arrange a hotel in Johor Bahru, our next destination. He contacted us later with a recommendation, 'I've reserved you the Imperial Suite, if that is okay Sir?' 'Mmmm...well..'. We then spent the next few minutes explaining to him that we're not usually used to places like Raffles and for most of this trip have been satisfied with a clean bed, carpets without dubious stains on them and a TV that actually received a signal. | ||||||||||||
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| 30 Jun 2001 : Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia | 9 Jul 2001 : Sukau, Sabah - Malaysia | |||||||||||
| On the road in Malaysia | Into the heart of Borneo | |||||||||||