birthday at the raffles hotel
It's almost uncanny how everyone says falling sick is a mandatory act when returning from a trip. The symptoms that plague me at the moment include a blocked and runny nose at the same time, blocked ears, tightening of the ribcage and difficulty breathing when I awoke this morning.. It's miserable having to breathe through your mouth and force the air to weave its way through the clogged up nostril. Details shall be spared for the sanity of the readers.
On a happier note, I decided to have my birthday celebration with my sc girls at a relatively unique and unfrequented place: the raffles hotel. Was quite keen on having a high tea buffet since none of us have ever done it before. So into the web I went in search of the best high teas in Singapore. Most reviews seem to concur that the tiffin room at raffles hotel had the best high tea, so with the consent of my friends, I went ahead and reserved 3 places. It was an experience worth remembering. I daresay it was my first time seeing raffles hotel as it was. The interior was flanked by the archetypal white pillars intricately covered with carvings dating back to the colonial era. Adding to its distinctiveness is the generous growth of greenery and flowers throughout the grounds. Everything felt rich and historical. Standing on the second and third floors and looking down at the staff of the hotel bustling about, doing their best to maintain the reputation of raffles hotel is a soothing sight. The thing I like most about raffles hotel is that it adopts a relatively open concept for a top-notch hotel. Anyone can go in and have a drink, dine at their many restaurants or simply just sit at a bench under the cool shade of one of the trees and do absolutely nothing. Sure, once in a while you will attract the attention of a bemused expat or an inquisitive staff but by and large they leave you alone.
High tea, sad to say, was not how us girls quite expect it to be. Buffet always brings to our minds a wide spread of eateries that allow us to go for seconds or thirds without stopping, but I guess having expected bigger portions with larger selections, we were not quite sure what to do with a handful of dimsums and sandwiches, local desserts and fruits. But ah well. It was an experience anyway. We managed to eat till we were full. And being the youngest and the most local-looking, we get a lot of attention from the waiters, heh. One of them was especially friendly to us, who kept asking us whether we would like to have our pictures taken together, and asked again when he saw us longingly looking at the harpist. My experiences at nepal and tibet have taught me that being able to make good conversation with strangers is indeed very enriching. The world is made up of human beings and while we may look different externally, practise varied cultures and have diverse beliefs and ideologies, fundamentally we have the same hopes, desires, fears and loves. I don't know. It's strange but from being a staunch believer in not engaging others unless I have to because I believe it is insincere to do so otherwise, I have swung to the other extreme. Everyone needs a smile everyday. Everyone needs to laugh and believe in a world that is full of hope and joy. Talking to others gives that kind of hope.
Work begins tomorrow! I pray really hard that my body will recover at least by 50% so that the first day wouldn't be so intolerable, heh.
posted by solitude @ 11:26 AM
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