Many years ago I saw a travel poster for the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, it was a cool retro poster from the 1930’s hinting towards the chic and exotic nature of Singapore and the place to be to enjoy it was the hotel. For many years this was the image I had for Singapore and hoped one day to visit this place.
Many years later through working in finance and working with folks from all over the world, I started to learn more about Singapore and that it was not just all about the Raffles Hotel. It was also one of the cleanest cities (countries) in the world, it bans chewing gum, it has an obsession with shopping, it is one of the main Asian centre’s of finance and it has a reputation for great food.
It is also famous for the cocktail, Singapore Sling. Now as tourists in this city I was going to visit the Raffles Hotel, and as luck would have it the best place to experience this cocktail is at the Long Bar within the refurbished hotel where it is said the drink was created by a local bartender.
With this in mind I was quite chuffed as the hotel is a classic example of Colonial Architecture and it also had been an image and icon from that poster that had been with me for years. We arrived to the splendid hotel and it was everything the poster had led me to believe, it really had that chic and colonial feel it was great!
So after wandering around for a while we went to take in the atmosphere some more and wandered to the Long Bar as two Singapore Slings were in order.
Being on a budget we thought we had better check just in case, we knew it would be a tourist trap but we were flabbergasted when we got a reply……$20, that’s right TWENTY SIX DOLLARS a piece, and to confirm that US Dollars, I have never even paid that sort of money for a drink in NYC!! That’s a whole days budget in two drinks! We thank the barman politely and went on our way and all we got was this picture
As it turns out the Raffles Hotel is THE place to have a Sling but it’s a new era and thanks to our good friend Eddie we were able to sample and enjoy a Sling in 21st Century Style atop the Marina Bay Sands Hotel overlooking Singapore by Night…..Class!!
