High Tea at Raffles

At the commencement of this journey everyone was allowed to choose something special for the family to do.
Daryll chose Casa Luna in Ubud
Emma chose Universal Studios in Singapore
Gabe chose Waterbom park in Bali

I chose High tea at Raffles in Singapore.............................

Realising that a booking was usually required, we asked our hostess at the Novotel to make the booking for tomorrow, all confirmed, we set off.
Nicely dressed we left at 2.30pm for a 3pm high tea, deliberating over the MRT ($1.40 each X 4) and walking vs the taxi (we guessed around $10), we took the taxi.


The courtyard at Raffles Hotel

 After roughing it for so long when we travel, it is so nice to take a taxi, arrive at the place as fresh as when you left and feel so comfortable. (unlike the usual damp all over from humidity feeling with your hair plastered around your face and red stripes running up from heat stroke on your neck)

Disembarking the taxi we realised the bill was $5.40 and was actually cheaper than the MRT would have been.

We arrive to be informed high tea is 3.30pm, not 3pm, how peculiar, we wonder how we go the wrong information!
Never mind, it is a pleasant day and we walk around the shops, selling scarves for $495 that you could buy in the local markets for $3, watches that are 3 for $10, for $660 and then the usual gucci and tiffanies stores that Daryll & I so regularly frequent - hehe!

We throw in some Home school history lessons as we walk around regarding Sir Stamford raffles and the discovery and building of Singapore. We delight the children with tales of dining in the very same bar that a tiger wandering into many years ago and created history.



High Tea in the Long Bar - Raffles Hotel



We are tempted with some beautiful essential oils and do a little credit card damage here as it turns out. We rest in the courtyard and before you know it we are seated in the beautiful long bar.

Our table is beautifully set with silver cutlery, teas and coffees and a 3 tiered delight for the children plus one for us - lovely!

The children are given a pot of hot chocolate whilst we have lovely tea.

A harpist fills the air with beautiful melodies and a heaving buffet of delicacies await us.



Emma's Hot Chocolate at Raffles



We decide to delicately sup of the little treasures that await us, however, having a strong dislike of queues, Daryll whispers to me, "here's what will happen, everyone will sit around sharing their platters, then get up to the buffet and there will be a long queue, let's get ours now and then come back to these" OK, that makes sense, we go to the hot food section, there are 4 types of dumplings, only one vegetarian, that's fine, we collect a few on a small plate and sit down - oh my goodness, how is it possible that the same food can taste soooo different in different places, this is the best dumpling we have every had!!!!

It is divine, we relax back and enjoy our afternoon tea, we are hungry as we make sure we had no lunch, we text family to say where we are and wish you were here.

The phone suddenly fills up "have a cake for us, enjoy your tea, sounds better than the sausages I am having, etc, etc"

We chuckle over the messages and continue to dine.

Pretty soon we realise we are in trouble, we send back a text to Australia that reads:

HELP...

AT RAFFLES...

We need back up....

We're in over our heads.......



Gabe's Hot Chocolate in his silver pot



We've done the three tiered tower, cranberry bread and butter pudding, vanilla pod sauce, scones with clotted cream, fresh raspberries, creme caramel, dumplings, cucumber sandwiches, dragonfruit, chocolate tarts, chocolate eclairs, chiffon cake and the waiter just advised us that due to the lack of vegetarian options the chefs are whipping up something special for us

Send in the back up immediately......

They send back useless responses like, "don't worry we'll have Jenny Craig waiting when you get back" as if that's going to help right now!

Daryll replies with an SOS call that "Lesley was last seen head first submerged in the fresh vanilla pod sauce and is needing surgical extraction from the scones and clotted cream"

It does nothing, they reply with "enjoy, eat some for us"

Don't they realise the seriousness of this situation.

As our sides begin to tear, right on cue the waiter arrives with platters of freshly made samosas and spring rolls "your special offers from the chef"

GREAT!!!!!

We push them around the plate, the kids (who by the way never eat anything) start eagerly hoeing into them.

We can't believe how quickly they are devouring them, Daryll and I look at each other and reach for one, Oh, my goodness, excuse me, I am having a religious experience, how can a spring roll taste THAT good?

I have never had one as good as this - wow!

Oh, no, we are in serious trouble now.

We taste (just a little) bit more of well..... everything and then it is time to waddle out.

We thank the staff for a truly wonderful afternoon and decide - we are definitely doing some serious walking for the next 6 hours or so! The kids agree.

FOOTNOTE: High teas was around AUD$196 for the 4 of us and upon returning home we asked the kids what was the most memorable part of the journey, they both said 'high tea at raffles'

Arriving back at the hotel, we were met with a note, apologising saying they were unable to secure a place for us at high tea and we were currently waitlisted, had we not got the time muddled up and gone early, we would have received this note (popped under our door 4 minutes after we left) and not gone. Lovely synchronicity again!



High tea in the long bar