My 2022 and 2023 September Asia trips both ended with me taking the Longest Flight in the world. Both included a short layover in Singapore - it was enough time to visit The Jewel, which is beautiful, but i'm still unclear why it exists. In 2023, I had a bit more time, so was able to walk the main drag of the city riverfront and views. This year, because the better timed SIN-EWR flight didn't have mileage seats avaialble, and the one flying tomorrow to JFK did, I'm getting 20 hours in Singapore. Probably this sounds like a lot of time, but when sleep time is in the middle of it, and your supposed 3:20pm arrival time slips by 45 minutes due to storms that ran through Singapore at just the wrong time, it ends up not being as much time as you would like.
The flight was 45 minutes delayed, but Changi's super efficient immigration (just scanners) and quick baggage system allowed me to still reach my hotel, teh 21 Carpenter (a Marriott Design property - free night!) right in the heart of the city by 5pm. After spending about five minutes unpacking, I left for my only real bit of tourism, visiting the National Gallery of Singapore - a place I hadn't been to previously, and also conveniently located an eight minute walk away from the hotel. The walk also crosses the river, and gives great views of the main financial district one one side, and the glowing Marina Bay Sands and Marina Bay architecture on the other side. Singapore truly is gorgeous.
The museum itself is large, split into two halves with an open atrium in the middle - it is a great, great building, but the layout for the museum aspect got really confusing, made more challenging with two of the exhibits (of about eight total) being closed for a re-installment opening in May, and another requiring a special ticket. The ones though that were open were all quite nice - first a large exhibit featuring the paintings and drawings of a famous Chinese female artist. The second floor had three interconnected exhibits of art featuring Singapore - from early artwork from Colonial times, to various native groups to a large modern art section at the end. On the whole, I always prefer art museums that focus on loacl artists and not recycle the old European styles over and over again.
The time at the National Gallery was nice, and I was hoping to go for a bit of a stroll around the waterfront, but this is where the 45 minute delay caught up to me. Instead, I didn't really have time before trying to get a few last craft brews at Voyager, which is a craft brewhouse which had some good options but was quite expensive - not sure if this is a Voyager specific thing, or a Singapore thing, but I didn't have time to have any more than like two half-pints anyway, two execellent IPAs.
Dinner was at Candlenut, the first michelin star peranakan restaurant (nyonya type food), where they have alacarte and what they call their "ah-ma-kase" which is an 14 course tasting menu - though served in a more communal way. Basically it starts a bit normal, with four little bites as amouse bouches, then a soup and then seven things come at once, portioned for how many people are in the part (in this case, just me). The dishes were all quite good, but their alacarte menu also read fantastic, and looking at some of them too. On the whole, though, Candlenut was excellent and one of the more affordable fancy spots in Singapore.
From there I had listed out a couple nigth spots, first starting with cocktails and Backdrop, a speakeasy located in a mall near Orchard Road (which is also more or less where Candlenut was). There took a bit of time to get in, but once I did I was presented with some incredible cocktails - from a broccoli and cucumber cocktail, to brilliant plays on classics. It also led me to believe with some certainty that the problem with Voyager was about Voyager itself, as the cocktails here were New York prices but barely more than the beer there.
Anyway, Backdrop was a pretty special cocktail spot, and quite crowded even as it got fairly late on a Sunday (I remain disallussioned about staying in a location on a Sunday Night), and was just a perfect way to end my cocktails tour of Asia. Not sure out of all the new ones, which were my favorites - Bar Not Found in Chiang Mai is certainly high, high up, but same can be said for Black Wolf in Danang, and even this.
The final stop for the night was also conveniently about five minutes from the hotel, on a little stretch in Boat Quay which has late night food and drinkeries, including one place that seemed tailore made for me - a place that served Singaporean food classics and craft beer. Literally that is basically their name. From their otudoor seating, yuo get a perfect view of the Marina Bay Sands and other buildings, sipping away a good mix of craft options from Singapore and beyond, and having some lovely lamb satay. I was able to pack a decent amount in my one day in Sinagpore, and all it made me think is that at some point on one of these trips, I should spend a bit more time here.
