FAB Singapore Day 2 | Exploring Orchard

FAB is our travel blog series where we cover everything food and beyond during our travels

During our second day in Singapore, we explored the surrounds of our hotel and spent most of the day.. walking* and eating.

*trying to acclimatise to the humidity and not sweat.

16 hours in the supermarket

Paige had a couple work related things she had to do, so I spent the morning walking and familiarising myself with the local area. This included trying to find out the best way to get into the shopping malls, minimising any exposure to the humid Singaporean weather (not a fan).

What I found interesting in Singapore was the requirement to check-out of places after leaving them. This was different to how contract tracing apps were being used in Australia - as we were only required to check-in.

Perhaps it does make it easier for contract tracers and testing, if exact entry and exit times were available. Regardless, this made for some hilariously long "visits" at Fairprice (a Singaporean supermarket chain) and the bak kut teh place we went to at Jewel Changi, Song Fa.

The watch collab that broke the internet

After successfully navigating to Ion Orchard, I noticed that the Swatch Store was already open. Being a watch nerd, I had to swing by for obvious reasons.

Swatch Group own Swatch and Omega (like how Alphabet own Google and a bunch of other companies, or how LVMH own LV and a plethora of luxury brands).

In late March 2022, just days before Watches and Wonders (a watch trade show held in Geneva where a number of watch makers reveal their latest and greatest) Omega teased a collaboration with Swatch. Leaks would eventually emerge. The collaboration ended up being a Swatch MoonSwatch - a plastic take on Omega's historic MoonWatch which was worn on the first American spacewalk on the moon, offered at a fraction of the price.

In Layman's terms, the collaboration can be described as if Lamborghini were to collaborate with Audi, offering a Lamborghini supercar for the price of of a regularly priced vehicle.

This collaboration ended up shaking the watch industry and broke the internet. On release day, crowds of hundreds, gathered, pushed and shoved outside of select Swatch boutiques only to be disappointed at low stock numbers.

In Australia, we have two Swatch boutiques - Melbourne and Sydney (temporarily shut). So, coming all the way to Singapore, it was only natural I ask the store attendant if they had stock. To my expectation, they didn't have any.

As of time of writing, watch lovers are still fighting to source this $380 plastic watch which is only available in store. At launch and even now, it isn't uncommon to find these plastic watches trading for many times retail price, with some people even paying thousands (yes, thousands).

With the slight watch tangent over, I quickly realised most places wouldn't open til 11 am. After a couple thousand steps and some pain from breaking in my pair of Kmart "Birks", I returned back to the hotel. I managed to snap photos of Yolanda and Yoshi - Yotel's delivery robots that deliver ammenities to guests.

Isetan

Our hotel was essentially walking distance to Isetan - a Japanese department store. The basement of Isetan features a large Japanese market, which made it feel like we were back in Japan. Just look at all the sashimi grade fish and sushi!

Unsurprisingly, after our excursion to Isetan's Foodmarket, we naturally craved sushi. Luckily, there was a Sushiro branch (Japanese conveyor belt sushi) in the same building.

Lunch at Sushiro and getting used to 17% in fees

Sushiro is a Japanese kaiten sushi (conveyor belt sushi) chain that made its way to Singapore in 2019. Sushiro is our go to for conveyor belt sushi when we're in Japan.

We ordered around 23 plates between two. This ended up being one of our most expensive meals all trip - spending around $55 per person for lunch.

17% of the bill was made up fees - 10% being a service charge and 7% being GST. Both are fees you need to account for when dining at certain establishments (keep an eye out for the "++" which means you need to pay for the service charge and GST on top of the displayed price).

There's a huge spread of sushi available.

To finish up, be sure to get the insanely delicious Hattendo pudding gula melaka, which is exclusive to Sushiro.

An afternoon snack at Jollibee

We ended up walking to Kinokuniya in Takashimaya, did a bunch of window shopping and bathed in the fresh aircon that shopping malls had to offer.

It wasn't too long until we were ready for a snack!

We swung by Lucky Plaza. Being further attracted to more watch eye candy, I spotted some cool vintage Rolex pieces (unsure if they're display models or real models). Eagle eyed viewers will notice that these have two hour hands. These are "GMT" watches which allow users to track two different time zones. This watch, the Rolex Explorer II was originally launched in the 1970s and was intended for cave explorers to distinguish between AM and PM, by using the bigger hour hand as their main hour hand. This "bigger hour hand" is known as the "GMT hand".

With that being the last of the watch talk for today, we climbed up to level 6 where we snacked on Jollibee.

Jollibee is a Filipino fast food restaurant that is best known for their "chickenjoy" fried chicken with their gravy and Filipino sweet-style interpretation of spaghetti. It remains the most popular fast-food chain in the Philippines.

The chicken reminded us of a slightly less salty version of KFC, while the spaghetti reminds me of childhood - having a slightly Cantonese / cha chaan teng tasting baked spaghetti my Mum would make.

We washed everything down with my new favourite drink to have with fast food - an iced Milo. After our afternoon snack, we retreated back into our room for the next couple of hours and eventually emerged to get dinner.

Dinner at Food Republic, Shaw House

To wrap up yet another day of eating, we visited Food Republic - a Singaporean food court chain which has both local hawker fare and mini restaurants. You'll find nearly a dozen Food Republics scattered throughout Singapore. The closest one to us, Food Republic Shaw house, was a quick walk from our hotel.

I had a two cravings. Specifically, wonton soup with char siew and salted fish fried rice. It wasn't long til I satisfied them both.

A side of greens for health.

Paige opted for some Indo food. The lady working at Warung Padang was exceptionally friendly and gave off motherly vibes ❤️.

We washed everything down with a Milo dinosaur, while Paige opted for bandung. Once again, we retreated back to our hotel and called it a day.