Singapore 12October2025: Passing on the 250 Acre Gardens by the Bay and the Garden Rhapsody Light and Musical Show
I am not enthused by the evening activity of visiting the 250-acre Gardens by the Bay with The Cloud Forest, Supertree Observatory, Flower Dome and OCBC Skyway followed by the garden Rhapsody Light and Musical Show as it is reminiscent of a North American amusement park. Being the real adventuresome tourist looking for the “authentic Singapore” I walk twenty minutes from the Singapore Shangri-La to the massive multi-floored Icon Shopping Mall, the site of the former Thai Embassy. And I am on a quest to the find the Holy Grail of “real Singaporean street food” here at Icon which was recommended by the tour guide Andrew “if you had the time to do so”.
We are off on the Orient Express tomorrow, and I am told there is no room for a full suitcase or even a carry on. So I buy a nifty small canvas bag for 55 Singaporean dollars, some extra t Shirts and pants at an enormous Uni-Glo and a 29 Singaporean dollar deodorant at Bath and Beyond. Just try and find deodorant in Singapore! I mistakenly packed a travel shower gel for a travel sized deodorant and in this humidity, deodorant recommended! Extra clothes required as you sweat through everything in this humidity!
In Singapore my travel physician had mentioned “street food” is entirely safe in Singapore. I see no vendors on the street hawking questionably prepared and stored food. It seems street food is often available in shopping mall food courts. These are not the North American food courts jammed with chain restaurant food but rather a huge selection of authentic Singaporean foods in small and immaculately clean kitchens. I head down to the ground floor and am in a maze of small takeout kitchens offering a tantalizing array of excellent and inexpensive Asian food. Absolutely delicious fish ball soup! No Caucasians here. Have I stumbled on a secret dining conclave in Singapore? Eating with the real Singaporeans? Perhaps I will one day tell you about eating with the real Italians at a McDonalds in Rome!
The heck with a light show!
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