1ALTITUDE

Wow guys!!!! Four days in and we have found one friend and applied for an apartment! #crushingit 4 real.

Yesterday was super exciting because we submitted an application for an apartment we saw that we LOVED. Our real estate agent was recommended to us by Tim’s company and she was absolutely lovely. Drove us all around, gave us so much information, helped us with all of our questions, and when she heard there was another showing on the apartment that we were leaning towards, she picked us up immediately to drive us over so we could have a second look and see if we wanted to beat the other viewers. We did and applied on the spot! SO EXCITING WAIT TILL YOU SEE IT!

To celebrate we went out on our first “real” singy date!

In true babel fashion, Tim spent the last two months researching restaurants and starred them all using Google Maps (basically the feature that defines our life.) If you’re unfamil, Google Maps lets you “star” places on the map so when you open your Google Maps app you can see your stars and keep track of places you want to go/see etc. We landed in Singy with like 150 stars already on the map. It’s perfect (!) because when we’re walking around and get hungry we can open the map and see what stars are near where we currently are.

Dinner was at Tom Yum Kungfu in Clarke Quay. It’s on Circular Road – a cool strip right near the Singapore River filled with bars, restaurants, and weird gogo bars with girls dressed in matching nurse costumes standing on the street handing out flyers for the bar behind them (bizarro!).

We sat outside and ordered the “Steamboat” because everyone else was eating it too. It’s a cross between Korean BBQ and hot pot. Imagine a sombrero made out of metal hovering over a fire. The brim of the sombrero is filled with soup broth that comes to a boil and the top of the sombrero gets scorching hot. A platter of raw fish, meat, and veggies comes out with tongs and you get to cook them on the dry top of the sombrero or drop them in the boiling soup in the lid to cook if you prefer. Our platter had bbq chicken, beef, pork belly, cuttlefish, octopus, another type of beef and something else that we couldn’t figure out. For veg we had spinach, bok choy, cabbage, corn, noodles, and tofu. You’re given a bowl to scoop the soup into and enjoy as well. We ordered a pineapple fried rice an two beers (Tiger and Chang) on the side.

Once finished we paid and headed around the corner for our celebratory cocktail. We had made plans to meet up with one of our friends already on the ground here in Singy for a drink at 1 Altitude bar at 9pm. Lina is best friends with one of my closest family friends, Naomi. Naomi’s parents and my parents knew each other when THEY lived in Asia and stayed close friends upon their moves back to the states. Naomi grew up in Virginia but we were constantly traveling back and forth to visit. Lina was her best friend so I met her a few times as a young child but reconnected a few years ago when we realized we both were in NYC. In November, Lina posted a pic on Facebook of her with three suitcases moving to Singapore so I immediately reached out to let her know we would be close behind her! The world is so small!

1 Altitude pegs itself as a Cafe, bar & gallery split over 3 levels, with rooftop area offering 360-degree view of cityscape. It more than delivered all of that! You take the elevator/lift up to the 62nd floor of 1 Raffles Place and then take a separate lift up to the 63rd floor for the rooftop. It is the highest point in Singapore and apparently the highest al fresco bar in the world. Everything is open to you. You can truly see every corner of Singapore and beyond! Way cool. Despite being so high, you really do feel quite safe. There is a glass partition up around the edges of the bar but they only reach to chest/shoulder level. You’re not boxed in by any means. There is a cover charge to go up to the bar and you can choose which level cover you want to pay. We chose $45 per person for entry including 2 drinks each. Expensive but totally worth it. The only thing I’d change for next time is opting for a beer/straight mixed drink instead of a cocktail as the cocktails we tried were extremely sweet and not too strong.

We went home hot and happy with amazing pictures of our new home. For everyone planning to come visit, get ready because we will definitely be stopping at 1 Altitude for a “Welcome to Singapore” drink!!!