DAY 32, 33 RAFFLES HOTEL, SINGAPORE (TRIP END)

For the last 2 days of this amazing, around-the-world trip, we stayed at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. I can’t say enough wonderful things about this hotel -- my sister and I want to live here forever. It is one of 2 extraordinarily luxurious hotels I’ve stayed in (the other one is the Hotel Bauer in Venice). Raffles is a British colonial style hotel; most of the accommodations are suites. Now, if you are one of those people who think that Raffles is old and passé, think again. They went through a 2.5-year renovation in the early 1990’s, restoring all the buildings to a posh, 1915 look, resulting in a hotel that has luxury, classical style, and old-world colonial charm, in addition to the modern stuff like wi-fi.

We stayed in a medium-level suite, which had 15-ft ceilings, a combination dining and living room, a very large separate bedroom, and a very large 2-room bathroom, all with more amenities than you can think of.

We had a butler who did everything -- if we wanted to make reservations for dinner, we called the butler. When it was time for dinner, we called the butler to escort us to the Tiffin Room (the hotel is laid out in a large square, in the middle of the center of Singapore, and it is a bit confusing to find where you want to go). In the interior, guest-only areas there are many courtyards that are lushly tropical, with deep, covered, marble floored verandas with comfortable rattan chairs and tables around all the courtyards. Which is why it is easy to get lost. (Amazingly, even though the hotel is surrounded by highly-trafficked streets, inside the hotel areas it felt like we were in a place isolated from the rest of the world.) The beds and linens are heavenly, the pillows are perfect, the furnishings are luxurious yet comfortable -- everything you could wish for. They even have a pillow menu that you can select from if the pillows do not meet your every need (6 different styles listed). In the grand lobby, they have a grandfather clock that plays the Westminster chimes every 15 minutes.

Everywhere we went, we were greeted by name (we started to wonder if we were wearing invisible name tags) and were treated like royalty. At the lunch café, we were seated at a booth in the special guests-only section and the head waiter practically held our chop sticks for us -- he was delightful and helped us order.

At the Longbar (a very famous bar where the Singapore Sling was invented), we were seated in the extra comfy guests-only section (Raffles, and this bar, is a tourist mecca and the bar was very crowded -- we wouldn’t have gotten seats otherwise). The walls were paneled with dark wood, there were many palm-frond ceiling fans softly swishing back and forth, the floor was marble and littered with peanut shells (I just couldn‘t bring myself to throw the peanut shells on the floor). We sat there enjoying our Singapore Slings (rather good but too sweet to have another) and were treated to a complimentary dish of fresh strawberries and whipped cream (a surprise amenity for guests). Each strawberry was at its peak of ripeness and flavor so each bite was an explosion of intense flavor enhanced by the cream. Oh my! Then, as we got up to leave for our dinner reservation in the Tiffin Room, we joked with a bar waiter that we were going to try to find the restaurant. Immediately, she said she would escort us to the Tiffin Room, which she did (wow!!). And at our arrival, the hostess greeted us by name (and greeted us by name at breakfast the next day!).

As we were seated for dinner, the hostess brought 2 tiny, child-size chairs for us to each put our purses on so they wouldn’t touch the floor. (How wonderful is that?) Dinner was superb -- a northern Indian buffet with a zillion choices and every item was clearly labeled to make our selection easy. The dining room manager walked us around the buffet to introduce us to the selections. I ate only little portions of several dishes and then I could eat no more even though my mouth wanted to taste more. They brought a generous basket of 3 kinds of naan and then occasionally walked by with other selected tidbits to serve. I swear that we only had to think about needing some attention from the staff and a person would quietly arrive to ask us if we needed anything. No wonder we want to live here.

By the time we walked out we were stuffed. We had earlier planned to have an after-dinner cocktail, but we just wanted to go back to our suite and relax -- sink into the heavenly bed and pillows and try to read. In the room, we found our beds turned down, and lovely mats on the floor by each bed with a pair of slippers. Mats also in the bathroom. On the bed was a charming short essay by Pablo Neruda about his experience in Singapore. We love it here!

Breakfast the next day was beyond belief -- in the Tiffin Room (which we located on our own this time) and a buffet that was as near to perfect as I can imagine. The large fruit selection was amazing (my sister said that the display looked like a jewelry store) -- each piece of fruit was at the perfect peak of flavor and texture, slices of papaya had a starter cut to make cutting off the skin easier. The array of pastries was mouthwatering -- the croissants were the way God intended croissants to be (and the orange Earl Grey marmalade was so good I just wanted to eat spoonfuls of it) -- and then there were the long baskets of slices of bread (all with the crusts cut off!), ready to pop into the nearby toaster. And so many other cheese, cold cut, salad, cereal, and meat selections that I can’t list it all. On top of that, we were given a menu to order our main breakfast dish. It was a perfect meal -- perfectly flavored food, displayed perfectly, with perfect embroidered, linen place mats and napkins with the hotel palm tree logo, in a perfect setting, with perfect service. It just doesn’t get any better than that. We savored every bite while we watched a staff person pushing a small Zamboni machine, scrubbing the tile courtyard outside. (They even scrub the outdoor floors!)

We finally waddled out of the dining room (didn’t even have to sign a check because they knew who we were and automatically charged it to our room) and wandered down to the shops to buy some jars of that marmalade, but alas, they don’t sell it. Pity.

On our second day at Raffles, we got a late start and went to the Arab section of town for a bit of shopping but didn’t find anything that either of us were absolutely in love with. How sad -- here we were with Singapore dollars to spend and nothing to spend it on. Ah well. Came back and dressed for high tea. Afternoon tea is served off the lobby on the ground floor for anyone who wants to enjoy it. Hotel guests, however, have the option of having tea in the third floor drawing room, which is on the gallery overlooking the lobby and the second floor (the middle of the building is open up to the ceiling with galleries that go all around on each floor). It is furnished with comfortable love seats and arm chairs and is quietly above the hustle and bustle.

We lucked out in that while we were sitting there, with a perfect view down to the lobby, the President of Portugal and his entourage arrived. We could tell someone important was coming because they rolled out a fancy red carpet (in addition to the regular red carpet) and a lot of staff members were standing around the lobby looking at the front door expectantly. Unfortunately, when the big event arrived, the president and all his group (a rather large number of people) all strolled in at the same time so we had no idea which person was the president. To quote my sister, “A president is nice but I was rather hoping for a king.” (Later that day, I Googled the Portugal president and his wife and after seeing the photos, realized that, indeed, we had seen them walk in and greet people.)

Now about the tea. Sumptuous, what else would you expect? The food was quite yummy, served on the Audubon series of china made by Limoges and sold by Tiffany & Co. The entire effect was one of relaxed luxury.

Sadly, after tea, we had to pack our bags for our flight home (16 hours) and get ready for a 3:00 AM (!!!!) wake-up call so we could make it to the airport by 4:00 AM. What an incredible trip we’ve had and what incredible sights we’ve been privileged to see. Not sure what the next trip destination may be -- stay tuned.