I got up early and flipped through Adam and Jill’s Singapore guidebook. Jill’s birthday today, so she and Adam were off to a spa on Sentosa Island. I had some toast with them before they left – and headed out myself shortly after.
The condo is in a great part of the city, so I had a wide range of places to visit. Figured I’d start with Little India. Took a walk down to Clarke Quay, first, and had a look there. Other than the Singapore river, there wasn’t an abundance to see. It’s more of a place to go at night, I think. Adam said there were a couple of markets good for people watching on the way to Little India, but I forgot to find out which way to walk.
Before reaching any markets, I came across Fort Canning Park, which was basically a big hill in the centre of the city. Had a wander through there, but other than some giant leaves, there wasn’t much going on. Tried to get out at a few different places, but ended up in the gated parking lot of a restaurant, so I had to turn around and walk back up the hill. No fun. A Buddhist monk approached me and tried to give me a small trinket. He wanted 10 Singapore dollars for it, which is about 10 Singapore dollars too much.
I ended up stumbling across the Bugis market, which was filled with more of the same stuff I’d seen in China, but at much higher prices. Just before I got there it started to rain, so I decided to have a really good wander through, while I waited for the rain to stop. Welcome to Singapore – the rain stops when it’s good and ready. I dashed across the street to a mall, to see if there was anything interesting there. They had a Muji store, which I had heard about. It was a bit like Caban, back when Caban existed.
The rain finally stopped, so I made my way to Little India. I had decided to do one of the walks detailed in the Singapore guidebook, but first I wanted to get some food as it was nearly 3pm. Adam had mentioned a place called Banana Leaf Apolo, where they serve your meal on an actual banana leaf. The food was great (and I ordered a lot of it), but not really any better than Indian in Canada.
Little India was an interesting experience. Loads and loads of Indians everywhere, and aside from the lack of smell, I imagine it was pretty similar to the actual India. The sidewalks were very crowded with people and various stalls, so you were pretty much forced onto the road. Hasn’t taken me too long to get used to the left-side driving people this time around. Took in a few temples and shrines, and made the mistake of going into the Mustafa Market which was a little like Wal-Mart, if Wal-Mart was so busy that you had to press up against someone if you wanted to pass them in the aisle. I also stopped by the Thieves Market, which was basically a bunch of people selling complete junk. I imagine if you go often enough you’ll find a diamond in the rough, but it mostly looked like junk to me.
Headed back to the condo after Little India, and skipped out on dinner since I had a huge and rather late lunch. Spent the evening reading one of Adam’s books (“First They Killed My Father”) and a few of his guidebooks.
