Hen’s Night with Chics, Theme: Russia

With one week to go for Joy’s D Day, we planned a bachelorette party for her, trying to incorporate some Russian element with every activity we did (She’s marrying a Russian!). Joy had no clue about it: was a surpriseee!

Aicha, Joy and I headed to the “2 degree Ice Art Exhibition”, located in proximity to the Bayfront MRT on a warm Saturday evening. Aicha explained to Joy the reason why we chose this: to make Joy get acquainted with the cold climate in Russia (No, she isn’t moving there so soon..). Fastening the long fluffy rented jackets, we entered the exhibition experiencing the sudden transition in temperature from 35˚C to what felt way below -5˚C. The exhibition had a display of monuments from all over the world sculpted in ice, with colourful background lights. Starting with a statue “Father of Singapore: Raffles”, there were various ice carved tourist attractions of Singapore like Merlion, Singapore flyer, Raffles hotel etc. There were a few famous ones from rest of the world like, Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, I must say I was surprised not to find Taj Mahal!

It was around 15 mins by the time we spotted the ice slide, Aicha refused to join us. Joy and I went up climbing stairs, with slippery surface and all crushed ice into my shoes, my legs were literally frozen and started to ache. Aicha and Joy have weathered such extreme temperatures, and wasn’t a big deal at all. Having experienced only tropical climates of late, I was shivering throughout and could even feel my teeth getting sensitive in the frigid air. It was a situation similar to Bikram Hot Yoga (42˚C) that I did last week, both having polar temperatures: I simply wanted to run away from the room to normal temperature.

 

Joy quickly did one normal slide along the sides, Aicha captured it on phone, and immediately we just rushed out: it was so difficult to run with my legs almost numb! We enquired from outside what the inside temperature was: it was -15˚C; misnomered to “2 degree ice art exhibition”! We just munched some snacks to warm ourselves up, by the time Joy’s friend Bilge joined us. We made a second (last permitted) entry into the exhibition and re-visited the initial part quickly, taking a lot of selfies; which was the only fun part. This time I joined Joy for the bumpy ice slide, we had to sit in the tire and slide down: this area predominantly had kids aged 8-10 years, so we moved ahead. By this time again it was icey cold, with the time-space continuum, it was hard to guess which parameter was more crucial.

We came out with all frosted peripheral ends reddened, for one time relieved to feel and breathe in the warm humid Singapore weather. We went to the Ice bar adjacent for having a shot of the almost Russian national drink: Vodka. With around the same temperature inside, the girls ordered Vodka shots, whereas I tried the beer in ice-mugs. Vodka shots were ofcourse quickly gulped, but I still needed their help to finish my chilly bitter beer. Following which, we proceeded to ice wall where the ice mugs had to be smashed at to be crushed into pieces: sole reason for me having beer!

It was great to have Aicha organize this, she being a vegetarian chose a Russian restaurant which had considerable veg options as well. The restaurant looked elegant with an affable modish waiter (Indian!) serving us, who specially customized menu for us on request. We started off with potato and mushroom stuffed Veraniky, with Russian bread on the side. Each of us ordered a drink, raising a toast to the end of Joy’s bachelorhood. I followed Aicha’s suggestions, she being a wine connoisseur, whereas Bilge and Joy ordered cocktails. We realized it was such a multi-national group: one German, Turkish, Taiwanese and Indian each with no Singaporean! Random conversations filled in the dinner: Intercultural differences, Industry vs academia, marriage, some jokes too! Everyone else except me got their maincourse orders soon enough, and the waiter was sweet enough to serve me as well some eggplant wraps for that time so that I wasn’t left alone; that was enough for the girls to start teasing me.

The waiter let us taste different wines before we could choose which one to go for next; red wine it was. By that time, I already started feeling funny in my head, so Aicha and Bilge strictly did not let me have much of the red wine before I finished a glass of water. Being a bit tipsy, I was too dazed to notice that Bilge actually took away the glass from me, and made me finish my dinner and had some bread. The waiter, who had a sound knowledge on wines, and did recognize Aicha to be a wine fanatic showed her around the various wine bottles they had preserved since 1900’s, a couple of which were known to have been on the Titanic. In sometime, a live band started playing and singing some music, but we already had to leave.

We then spent sometime in a bar at Clarke quay, drinking and talking on random topics. I felt slightly unwell, and had to make a move first. Others went clubbing until early morning and had a lot of fun; apparently here too the waiter played a significant role. It was such a memorable evening spent with company where everyone hit off well and comfortable; different ideas, opinions, conversations, sense of humour: it was refreshing! We all wish the bride a Joyful and fun-filled marriage and togetherness with her husband!