Surprisingly Entertaining Tour

Today John received his last Christmas present from me. I had planned it to be a total surprise until we were at the scene, but being so unsure of myself (specifically when giving gifts) I felt that he needed to know before we arrived. Just in case he was not interested and I would have dragged him there for no reason. So I told him last night that we were going on the Tiger Brewery Tour and to my relief he was very excited and happy about it.

At three o'clock we went out to grab a cab. I was a bit unsure if I was going to make it, getting motion sickness fairly easily, and the cab stank of cigarette smoke so I was not very happy. After a short while I asked for some ice cold air from the AC and that helped a lot with both the smell and the sickness. We drove west and went further than we had ever been. The building lay in the middle of a huge industrial area and next to Coca Cola company (which was the most stylish building).

When entering we paid thirty six Singaporean dollars and were handed two "4 PM" tour cards to hang around our neck. Our tourguide led us to the "start of the tour"-room were we hung around waiting for the four minutes to pass before the tour actually started. With that much time on our hands we made the most out of it inside their souvenir shop called Tiger's Den. Imagine everything you can buy at a normal souvenir shop and add Tiger's logo to everything.

A few minutes past four (which was interesting since at first they had seemed so keen on keeping the time) the tour guide came back with four other people in tow. These joined our group and the tour began... with a strange video of how the company came to be. It is owned by Heineken and according to the video a man went to the tropics, wanted a beer he could drink in the tropics, needed the skills of somebody else to brew the beer since he could not and in the end he named it tiger because he was in the tropics. The video was around five minutes long, maybe shorter, and contained two scenes; one in an office and one in a digital tropical forest. The characters were ghosts, which made no sense to me since the video could just be old and there would be no use for the ghosts. At least it was entertaining in sense of ridiculousness!

The guide named Zac then brought us to the first stop where we learned what was in the beer. Malt, hops, yeast and water. There were some samples which we could smell and some basic information. We then proceeded to the brewery where we were not allowed to take any photos. It was hot and sweaty inside. Zac the guide went through a script he had rehearsed and pointed at a board (which reminded me of a power point presentation). At one point one of the women asked a question which he did not know the answer to. John did know however and taught our beer tour guide something about beer. I thought it was hilarious! The guide knew what to say from what his boss probably told him to say but had made no research himself and could not answer many of our questions.

We then saw the packaging building which I found most exciting. I found the spot where the cans were folded into a cardboard box and every single one made the same motion at the exact timing. It was very hypnotic. John got into a conversation with one of the women and I with another. We followed the guide through a small cinema, where I thought we were going to see another movie but did not, and came out into a history room... kind of. There Zac showed how to pour beer into a glass and then let the visitors try. The beer was delicious, much better than the cans and bottles we have been drinking from.

The tour ended shortly after that. We were ushered into the Tiger Tavern as the end of the tour experience. John and I were handed two free tiger beers from tap and sat down to enjoy it. Really good. The other people from the tour sat down by the bar and we joined them after finishing up the first glass. There we could order small glasses of beer as samples and we conversed with the friendly people we just met. More beers were drunk and it soon got to a point where everything just started to feel very happy. John and I were challenged by two other women to play darts - which we both won and so the other two bought us two more rounds of sample beer. Then there was more and more. Their company made the whole tour so much better! It was unexpected but so much fun!

Around seven we had to leave and the two of us decided to join these newly met people on dinner. We squeezed into their car and drove for ten minutes to a place near Beauty World MRT; an area John and I had not visited before. There they took us to a restaurant called Boon Tong Kee where we all shared plates of chicken, seafood, vegetables and pork. It was all very delicious. The chicken flavoured rice was probably the best (along with the shrimp but I think I ate all of them). They were kind enough to pay for the dinner which we were truly grateful for! Afterwards we all wanted dessert and so they led the way to a Korean dessert cafe called Non Song Yee. All six shared two dishes; one mango bingsu which was mango with ice cream, shaved ice, mashed peanuts and something that we think was yoghurt (or something else very similar). The other dish was a Korean rice cake; four balls of pressed rice in a sweet sauce with almonds. I really liked it! A bit sweet but I do like sweet stuff.

We split after that. People went of to find their ordered cabs. We hugged and said our goodbyes and thanks for the day. John and I called an Uber and headed home. I was surprised to find myself not getting motion sickness after so many beers. I think the food helped a lot! It was a good day and one I will not forget any time soon.