EAPSI2011: Colonial District

Sunday July 3rd, Gitt, Patrick and I visited the Colonial District of Singapore. Our first stop was food at Lau pa Set Festival Market. This is the #2 rated hawker stand according to my guide book. Its located in the heart of the financial district and the building has a Victorian flare to it. I ended up getting a Japanese Bento box set here.

From there, we set out to see the Top 10 Sights of Colonial District according to my guidebook. The first stop was walking through the Fullerton hotel—this 6 star hotel is supposedly one of the nicest hotels in the world. Next stop was the Asian Civilisations museum. Built in 1867, the building was originally government offices, then became the Empress Place building before becoming the Asian Civiilzation museum in 2003. The museum had a special exhibit of the Terracota warriers from the 1st Emperor of China. These statues were part of the 10s of thousands of statues that the emperor had made for his burial site.

After visiting the museum, we walked past the Victorial Theater Hall, old parliament house and statue of Raffles. Unfortunately, all were under construction so I wasn’t able to get the best photoes. On the way to Raffles hotel, we also saw the City Hall and Supreme Court Building.

The Raffles hotel is an Iconic Landmark in Singapore. Named after Sir Stamford Raffles, who founded Singapore—the hotel is known for it’s extreme luxury and history. The popular cocktail, the Singapore Sling, was invented here And the likes of Hemmingway and other authros have written famous books at the bar in this hotel.

To conclude the day, we met up with some of the other EAPSI fellows for dinner in the Arab quarter. We ended up in this quaint little Egyptian restaurant where you sit on the floor and each off of small tables. I had Schwarma, which is kind of like Doner Kebab, and it was absolutely delicious!