Hall-Reppens in Singapore: Celebrating May Day in Singapore

The first of May, or May Day, is a National Holiday in Singapore, similar to Labor Day in The United states. Just as in the States, many people have the day off, but the shops and restaurants are quite busy due to the holiday.

Ken Ong, Rich's co-worker, the son of his boss, and one of our neighbors in our apartment complex, offered to take Rich, Erin and me to lunch that day. Ken has a car, so we met him at the front entrance and he drove us to the restaurant. The restaurant is in the mall that is also one of the entrances to the Clarke Quay MRT (or subway) station. I walk to that station all the time. Parking at the mall is located on the upper levels, with the shops occupying the lower levels. This is a frequent configuration at Singapore Shopping Malls. By the time we parked and got an elevator to take us to the restaurant on the 2nd level, we could have walked there easily. Erin was glad we didn't though, as the heat was stifling for her.

Ken took us to a restaurant called "Rendezvous". It serves Indonesian food, and Ken's dad has taken him there since he was a small boy. Because Erin doesn't eat chicken or ham, and Rich and I eat just about anything, we sent Erin up with Ken to pick out food. It seems like a cafeteria setting, where you go up to the counter to tell them what you want to eat, and then they bring bowls of the different foods to the table. It's kind of like what Americans would call "Family Style", because each serving bowl is meant to be shared. We had rice, and spicy prawns, and lamb and beef in a type of tomato sauce. Everything was quite tasty, although the prawns were too spicy for me and Erin.

At the end of lunch, Ken insisted on getting desserts for us to try. One was a shaved ice kind of thing, which was pretty tasteless to me. There was another thing that he compared to apple pie a la mode, which Rich enjoyed greatly. I had a drink that was kind of like a milk shake, but it had little green things that were almost like little gummy worms. It also had red beans of some type. I tried several of the beans, but they tasted like red beans, and didn't match the rest of the drink at all, so they stayed in my glass!

It was a very nice lunch, and a very kind way for Ken to welcome Erin to Singapore. After lunch, we were all suffering from a food hangover, though. We had planned to go to Istana Park, which is the home of the Prime Minister, to see a concert by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. The Prime Minister only opens his home to the citizens several times a year, so it's a big occasion, just as going to the White House grounds would be. We jumped on a bus, and headed over there at about 3 PM, for a 4 PM concert. Unfortunately, we first took our bus too far, and had to backtrack. Then, when we got to the grounds, there was a huge queue to show your identification and go through security. We had not been prepared for that. We waited for a while, but when it became clear that we were missing thre concert, we headed home.

Our day was not a complete loss, though. After dinner, we took a bus Downtown, and went to the Marina Bay Sands. Twice every evening, they have a light and water show, similar to Fantasmic at Disney World. It was quite hot and muggy as we watched the show, but it was well worth it!!