Day 155 - Toys, Bars & Raffles

I woke today to see that the red bumps on my elbow had spread to cover my upper arms, part of my back, the back of my legs, and part of my forearms and neck. They're not particularly itchy (until I think about them, now I've written that they're becoming pesky). The mancunian girls were getting a little concerned, and made me promise to go and se a Doctor or at least a pharmacy and see what was going on. I did some research about this and fully intended to get it checked out, but instead ended up wandering about the streets to check out Bugis Village, which has cheap clothes markets where I bought a shirt for this evening, and also getting generally quite lost. I found a little chinese eating house/food court for lunch- I should point out here what I mean. All over this city there are little eating houses, mostly on street corners, surrounded by plastic tables and chairs. Usually the stalls consist of between 3 and 10 little food stalls selling various types of food, all of one common origin, eg. Chinese or Indian. You can order from any one of the stalls, paying on recipt of your food. Invariably these are the cheapest places to eat, with dishes costing between S$1 and S$6, or from 40p to about £2.50. However, this economy does not extend to drinks - today I had a plate of fragrant chicken & rice and a beer - the latter costing three times as much as the former.

I kept walking to my destination, the MINT toy museum opposite Raffles Hotel. This was really cool, housing an enormous collection of toys, grouped into the following categories, with a floor dedicated to each - Outer Space, Characters, Childhood Favourites and Collectibles. They had loads of movie memorabilia in all sections, and it's definitely worth a visit. After this I headed home to get ready for our sophisticated evening out - firstly drinks in a bar at the top of the Stamford Swissotel, then in the Long Bar of the Raffles Hotel. I had arranged to meet the girls in either New Asia Bar or the other one on the 70th floor. There was a S$15 cover charge which included one drink, although apparently this didn't apply between 8 and 9 as the girls didn't pay entry. I arrived at 7:50, bugger. The drinks were pretty good, only S$10/£3.50 for a Happy Hour Caipirinha, which was definitely worth it for a drink in such opulent and lofty surroundings. We stayed for another before going over to Raffles, which was, in a word, disappointing. It had the same fans as Positively 4th Street on Hampstead Road in Camden, as I had been assured by Big Rob. We were greeted on the stairs by a passing tour party - not a good omen. The floor was covered in peanut shells from the free monkey nuts on each table, giving it an unswept saloon look. We made our excuses to the attentive barman and ran away, scared by the S$20 Singapore Slings if nothing else. We ended up retreating to Little India for a pretty delicious meal, an unexpected Chicken Masala & Dum Biryani, washed down with a big bottle of some strong Indian beer. Once again, we were in bed by about 1 - these girls have no stamina, or no money and are being sensible, one or the other.