The Raffles Hotel is Where I Went in Singapore

We docked in Singapore at an enormous container port, from which Cunard ran a shuttle to (where else) a shopping mall.      I caught the subway there straight to the world famous Raffles Hotel, where the equally famous Singapore Sling was invented at its bar, the Long Bar, made famous by writer W. Somerset Maugham (among others).      The hotel has a rich and colorful history, dating from 1887, hosting such luminaries as Charlie Chaplin, Noel Coward, Liz Taylor, Queen Elizabeth II, and more recently, Beyonce!   In 1902, the Singapore's last wild tiger was shot to death (and made extinct) under the pool table in the Long Bar, 1910 or so is when the sling was first concocted, Asians were first admitted as guests in the 1930s, the hotel was occupied by the Japanese during WW II.   Upon the liberation of Singapore, 300 Japanese soldiers committed suicide by hand grenades in the hotel, after which it was used as a prisoner of war camp.   It's now restored to its former glory, a full city block of colonial buildings, , tropical courtyards, polished marble and polished silver.     Read expensive, and in the Long Bar at least, some of the most unfriendly ((mean?) waitstaff ever.   Granted you get spoiled by the great service on the ship, but these guys in the bar were something else!    I won't bother with the details, but the beer was $18.   I witnessed a confrontation between two ladies from the ship and their waiter.    On the way back to the ship, one of them realized she'd left her sunglasses,  I said don't bother going back,  I was sure the waiter had smashed them to bits!