Visiting National Gallery Singapore and Raffles Hotel

[Introduction]

I visited Singapore for the first time in three and a half years. Actually, I used to live in Singapore for one and a half year to attend a business school. A reunion was held in Singapore, so that’s why I came back there. This times, I spent about a week going around Singapore to take as many photos as possible. In this article, I will write about National Gallery Singapore and Raffles Hotel as part of Day 2.

[Visit Places (series of articles)]
* Day 1 (1) Fly to Singapore with Singapore Airlines
* Day 1 (2) Merlion Park
* Day 1 (3) Merlion Park (night view)
* Day 2 (1) National Gallery Singapore and Raffles Hotel [This article]
* Day 2 (2) ArtScience Museum and Singapore Flyer
* Day 2 (3) Marina Bay Sands
* Day 2 (4) Marina Bay Sands (night view)
* Day 3 (1) Singapore Botanic Garden
* Day 3 (2) Orchard Road
* Day 3 (3) Gardens by the Bay
* Day 3 (4) Gardens by the Bay (night view)
* Day 4 (1) Little India
* Day 4 (2) Chinatown
* Day 4 (3) Arab Street
* Day 5 (1) Singapore Zoo
* Day 5 (2) River Safari
* Day 5 (3) Clarke Quay (night view)
* Day 6 (1) National Museum of Singapore and Peranakan Museum etc.
* Day 6 (2) The Fullerton Hotel Singapore (night view)
* Day 7 (1) Sentosa Island: S.E.A. Aquarium etc.
* Day 7 (2) Sentosa Island: Merlion and Siloso Beach etc.
* Day 7 (3) Orchard Road (night view)
* Day 8 (1) Fly back home with Singapore Airlines

[Travel Date]
2016.08.23-30

[Main Part]

Kaya toast for breakfast (@Ya Kun Kaya Toast )

The second day of my Singapore trip started. First of all, I will have a breakfast. There are varieties of typical breakfast menu in Singapore and I personally love kaya toast among them. Kaya toast is a toast that contains kaya jam (- made of egg, coconut milk, pandan leaf and sugar) and butter. In the end, I had kaya toast three times in my Singapore trip.

Today, I visited Ya Kun Kaya Toast to have kaya toast.

A typical set menu – kaya toast with half-boiled egg and kopi (Malay word which means coffee).

Ya Kun Kaya Toast is a coffee shop that mainly serves kaya toast. There are more than 50 shops in Singapore and several overseas shops around Asia.

After breakfast, I took MRT and moved from Bugis to City Hall. I will go around City Hall in the morning and in the early afternoon.

National Gallery Singapore

To begin with, I visited National Gallery Singapore.

National Gallery Singapore is a museum opened in December 2015. The former supreme court and the former city hall were renovated and turned to the museum. The museum has two wings – “City Hall Wing” and “Supreme Court Wing”. “City Hall Wing” exhibits Singaporean art works as “DBS Singapore Gallery” while “Supreme Court Wing” exhibits other Asian art works as “UOB Southeast Asia Gallery”.

I went around “City Hall Wing”, first.

There was open ceiling space between “City Hall Wing” and “Supreme Court Wing” and both wings were connected with linked corridor.

Here are photos taken at “Supreme Court Wing”.

When I lived in Singapore before, National Gallery Singapore was not opened yet, so it was my first visit to National Gallery Singapore. There are several popular museums in Singapore such as National Museum of Singapore and Peranakan Museum, and I think National Gallery Singapore should also be added as such groups 🙂

Around City Hall

After I left National Gallery Singapore, I continued to go around City Hall area. Here is a digest of photos.

This is Capitol Piazza.

Capitol Piazza is a shopping mall, which was opened in July 2015 and is liked to City Hall MRT station. It is part of Capitol Singapore, a commercial complex that consists of hotel, residence, theater and shopping mall. When I lived in Singapore before, it was not developed yet just like National Gallery Singapore, so I feel Singapore has built so many facilities within a few years.

In the mall.

As there was a food court in the mall, I had a lunch here.

I chose “Hok Kee” and ordered Braised Beef Brisket Noodles.

This is Chijmes.

Chijmes, which was originally built as a monastery in 1854, is a complex that has restaurants, bars and shops. There are several Japanese restaurants in Chijmes, but I personally recommend “Lei Garden”, a Chinese (Cantonese) restaurant.

In front of Chijmes, there is Carlton Hotel Singapore.

And this is The Civilian War Memorial.

Raffles Hotel

The last place I visited around City Hall area was Raffles Hotel. Raffles Hotel Singapore is a traditional colonial hotel founded by the Sarkies Brothers in 1887. The Sarkies Brothers also developed another colonial hotel, Eastern & Oriental Hotel in Penang, Malaysia and I visited it last September (- see the related article).

Exterior of the hotel.

From the center.

What a beautiful white building it is!

As you may know, Singapore Sling was created at Ling Bar in Raffles Hotel.

Courtyard, an outdoor restaurant.

I decided to visit Long Bat, though I didn’t plan to do it.

Drinking Singapore Sling at Long Bar

Singapore Sling was created in 1915 by Ngiam Tong Boon, who was a bartender at Long Bar. Since then, Singapore Sling has been the popular menu at Long Bar. To be honest, though it was a little bit expansive (S$31), I ordered Singapore Sling.

In Ling Bar. The bar opens from 11 a.m. and there were many people even in the daytime.

Here is peanut, which was for free (- you can toss its shells onto the floor).

Here comes the Original Singapore Sling.

Then, I moved to Marina Bay Sands area and I will write about it in the next article.

[Closing]

That’s it for the article about National Gallery Singapore and Raffles Hotel as part of Day 2. As far as I quickly checked the rate of Raffles Hotel, it will cost at least S$760 per night, which is expensive for me. It is true, however, that there are many areas where only hotel guests are allowed to enter (eg, hotel lobby), so I just walked around part of Raffles Hotel this time. In the future, I would like to stay Raffles Hotel as once-in-a-lifetime experience 🙂

In the next article, I will write about ArtScience Museum and Singapore Flyer.

[Map]