Day #3:
Moresploration:
So, today was about exploring the areas of China Town, Little India and Bugis. But first, I needed a battery charger for my camera since I underestimated how long my battery would last. It has done well, since it is now 6 years old, poor thing. So I was introduced to Sim Lim, which is basically several floors of electronics. My kind of mall! This place seemed to be much better than the usual mindless drones in your Orchard Road area malls. At least the guy I found was, he was helpful, comparatively fast, and bargaining took about 10 seconds. Also, he was a very nice man.
Since this morning was a late start, it was pretty much lunchtime by now, so on advice from a friend, we ate at a place called Fatty’s. The staff here were so friendly! Such a nice change, and the food was really good, though we’ve done pretty well with food so far (excluding the western food). We had duck noodles and sweet and sour chicken. They had a display setup here, and after asking for a photo of it, a very happy woman told us it was a Chinese New year Happy Salad. There are lots of happy fun time things here.
Cultural Pockets
So we started in Bugis, a whole bunch of streets setup as one big bazaar. Quite interesting, all sorts of smells. That’s one of the things I first noticed about Singapore, was all the smells. So many different smells, as I was walking down the streets for the first time, there was food, then there was cleaning products, then some other weird things, some of which could have been air fresheners, as there is apparently one that smells like stale cigarettes. But every few seconds, another completely different smell.
Then in China Town, where we went inside a temple, inside of which, they were selling things! Walking down the street, I spotted something I wanted to try eating, as I do, it was unrecognisable, grey, round, kind of mushroom like in appearance. However, the guy selling didn’t want to serve me. Dad asked some other guy who was being served if he knew what it was, but he had no idea, and wasn’t very helpful even when talking to the guy selling, ended up with a description of “fruit pancake”. Eventually I got him to sell me one. It was worth it, it tasted like some kind of fig thing, coated in powdered sugar, very tasty.
At some point we needed a drink, so we sat down and they had coconut juice, in the coconut, which is something I wanted to try. It was a not particularly sweet drink, but it tasted alright and was very refreshing. The coconuts done in this way aren’t ripened, still green.
Lastly, we headed over to Little India. Dad bought a portable radio at an electronics store, with a new strange retail experience. He had to talk to the man at the counter to get a ticket to take to the cashier, where he paid and was then given another ticket to pick up the item … back at the original counter. We wandered around some more, just looking at shops and buildings, I think I need to eat here some day. They like to sell beer in shops that sell clothing. Why don’t we have that in Australia dammit! The girls could shop, while the guys sit, wait and drink; brilliant idea!
Dinner:
We finished off today by having dinner at Clarke’s Quay, at a Spanish restaurant. Ordered a whole bunch of tapas and a some drinks, and away we went. This place is a regular for Dad and his Wife, since the food is excellent, I can see why! Then we went for a quick wander around Clarke’s Quay. I’d only previously seen it during the day before everything was open. At night, it is completely transformed into a hub of nightclubs, bars and restaurants.
So far, this is just a normal week for Dad, living the life, roaming from place to place, country to country and eating all the foods, how do I get me a life like this?
