Day 14 - Singapore
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
A slight sleep in this morning, as 'we' had breakfast scheduled for 10:30 at the local Tiong Bahru hawkers market. There, we met up with several other ex-pats that lived locally, and all enjoyed a good catch-up on the election 'results'. I really enjoyed listening and speaking with the ex-pats, as they had all been living in Singapore for a considerable period and they discussed the politics of the country as opposed to Australia. I also swapped e-mail addresses with one of the guys who said he was interested in coming to India for the Commonwealth Games. Breakfast was a very deep-fried affair, as I sampled more Singaporean delights - a churro-type pastry; curry puff; and egg tart, all washed down wimth iced milo (which I'm becoming addicted to!)With a stomach full of food, Amy and I farewelled Owen for an afternoon of shopping in Orchard Road. Orchard Road is THE destination for shopping in Singapore, lined with mall after mall. All of the malls try to outdo each other as well, so there are about 3 LVs, 4 Guccis, etc in the one street. Our first stop was to a Youth Olympic Games tent though, as we'd been told at breakfast that the coke machine had been giving out free tickets with each purchase. I tried it but unfortunately didn't receive a ticket - my freebie was a Youth Olympic Games lanyard.
Shopping in Orchard Road (well, Singapore in general) is like having all of the world's best stores in the one place. For example, there's Witchery and Diva from Australia; Marks and Spencer and TopShop from the UK; Takashimaya from Japan. Takashimaya was my favourite - the food court was unbelievable! Amy and I had a late lunch here, with me tucking into 'fried carrot cake' again. I was looking for a pair of sunglasses and a pair of gladiators but didn't have any luck - yep, I went away empty-handed!
We returned to Amy and Owen's for a rest before heading out to Little India. It was a good initiation for the real India in October, with 1000s of Indians lining the streets. We headed into a recommended vegetarian restaurant and sampled idli (like glutinous rice cakes) and dosai (big crepe) with sauces. Both were delicious, at least I know I will
like the food when I'm in India! We ate with our hands like the Indians too, and food was served on a banana leave.
Following that we headed to a Little India institution - Mustafas. How do I explain this place ... image merging K-mart and Coles and Myer, and then repeating each section about 4 times, and multiplying the amount of goods by about 50. The store spreads over several city blocks and remains open 24 hours a day. As an example, if you wanted a razor they had a whole aisle of razors to choose from - and the razor aisle was repeated 3 times in the store!! I loved looking at the grocery sections - plenty of food from Australia and America. My favourite item they stocked was a massive tub of vaseline - I sleep with a tub of vaseline under my pillow and it's always the first thing I pack, so I was in lust!!
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