1/19/13 - High Tea @ The Fullerton

I was reading the Singapore Straits Times on Thursday and the headline to a small article in the corner of the page caught my eye "Rains Expected for the Weekend Due to Monsoon."  We've been here over 6 months and have never seen a weather forecast, so this surprised me.  Usually the best way to figure out what the weather is going to be like is to stick your head out the window.  Even then it doesn't really matter.... at some point during the day its going to be sunny, then cloudy, then rainy and then more likely than not, sunny again.  Friday came and went with minimal precipitation, but on our way home from dinner it started misting.  Considering the only rain we had seen so far in our time here had been drops the size of small marbles and was accompanied by thunder that could wake the dead, perhaps this was the arrival of the forecasted monsoon?


When I woke up on Saturday morning, something seemed a bit off.  I couldn't put quite put my finger on it, but was startled to see it was 9 AM.  This should be nothing unusual, that used to be the earliest we would wake up in the States on the weekend.  However, with the sun coming up around 7 and our resident two-legged alarm clocks outside, this was quite rare.  I stumbled out to the living room and was heading to the kitchen to make coffee when it hit me.  It was still fairly dark outside and a steady rain was falling.  By the looks of the water on the ground, it had been coming down for quite some time.  We had planned on doing some more exploring around the city today, but apparently Mother Nature had other plans.

The question now became, what should we do?  Drawing inspiration from another soggy city and the fact that Singapore is often known as the "London of the Tropics" we decided it was time to take part in that grande tradition of afternoon tea.  After the requisite "pip pip, cheerio" jokes ran through my head, I jumped online and found out the list of places to go was essentially endless.  Since this would be our first experience, we threw reason to the curb and decided to go all out..... to the Fullerton Hotel and a trip back to the turn of the century - the previous turn of the century.

The Fullerton is in the old Post Office for the city that was built in the early 1900's.  Every day they have an afternoon tea in their indoor courtyard.  Its a little on the spendier side ($43 per person) but that is sadly starting to seem reasonable after being here for awhile.  Plus, we had heard rumors that they will keep refilling your snack and dessert tray over and over again.  This rumor turned out to be true - I turned our waiter down multiple times, but he kept convincing me to take more.  To be totally honest, he didn't have to twist my arm that hard.  The cucumber sandwiches, duck and mango bites, creme brulee, macaroons and other desserts were outstanding.  We even tried some blue tea that was "lightly fermented" for our third pot.  The tea descriptions were great, equally as detailed as wine bottles, although none of the tea said "hints of pencil lead" which is probably a good thing.

It was still rainy and soggy when we strolled (rolled) out of the building back to the MRT and back into the 21st century.  Not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon.... I think we have a new rainy day tradition.  Now on to the next rainy day tradition - nap time.