OFF CAMPUS

Our hotel, Shangri La,is a short walk from J and O's temp flat and even shorter one from their new home ( into which they are moving today). As a result we have pretty much been one place or the other all the time but did, on Monday, make a pilgrimage to an old haunt Raffles Hotel.
This historic hotel is so gorgeous and romantic in it's old Singapore architecture. it is also super cher now so best in these times visited like a tourist. ( above picture is one such tourist pretending to be well seated in luxury's lobby if not lap).

Above you will see a couple of the courtyards, the first with a bust of Sir Thomas Raffles the founder of Singapore in 1819. The 2nd is a bar in a dining patio. At night ( so memory has it ) there is live music played by tuxedoed gents on a balcony above. All very 1900s.

The long bar of Raffles is famous as a watering hole for the literati of those years. There is a tale of a Bengal tiger wandering into the bar ( which is on the 2nd floor giving me a pause in belief but...) Very real is the fact of the famous Singapore Sling having come into being at this long bar. Very real also is the price ~ 29.45 and the fact that we were not in the least tempted to be slung in such a way.

The elegant room is the Raffles Grill where i learned that Crispy Pork Belly means 4 3/4 inch squares of pig fat with a barely visible streak of pork meat embedded in the middle. Now i know.