To the busmobile! This was my mode of transport to meet up
with my beautiful model friend. Shortly
after we met up it began raining and we searched for the nearest hawker centre.
After a solid half hour of walking, Barbara (the google maps woman) steered us
to the wrong place. We eventually found
a place to grab a coffee/redbull. Good timing too, because the cats and dogs
were coming down hard. This rain started
and continued for the rest of the day, in spurts of heavy rain, thundershowers
and mild drizzle.
A few blocks away we entered little India. It becomes
evident very quickly that you aren’t in Kansas anymore. The buildings take on
different shape (less sky scrapers), the streets are bustling, the clothing is
both traditional and modern, and more people look at you strangely. There are
shops lined up all along the sides of the streets.
After a short period of exploring we found a hawker
centre. This was the busiest one I have
seen yet. The timing was a little different as well, being 5 o'clock on a
Saturday. I took Alex on my standard tour of the hawker market, scoping out the
lines and the cuisine. The fresh fruit
juices, to which I ordered a sugar cane juice with lime, to scoping out the
fresh meat, seafood, vegetables and fruit. We spent close to half an hour
walking around before scoping a food vendor. The menu for this evening was
Chicken Biryani. This is a traditional southern India cuisine, spices, chicken,
vegetables and basmati rice (as many of you know is lower GI than regular white
rice). I was so hungry; I almost forgot to take a picture. Here it is:
While sitting down to eat and discussing dehydration (my
present feeling, I was so sweaty) and sore throat/cold (Alex) a wonderful
Indian woman enlightened us. She shared that coconut would be great for both of
us. It helps your body recover from dehydration and with a little mint it can
be helpful for your immune system. Upon further conversation she shared where
else to go eat, some must try foods and some shopping advice (a must stop is
the Mustafa Centre).
I pulled up the Mustafa centre on Barbara and headed in that
direction. The street levels stores are packed with gold. Every second store
had gold and lots of it. The other stores have watches and clothes for very
cheap. I am thinking about taking them up on the 3 watches for $10 deal.
Obviously the quality isn’t there, but hey 2 for 10 why not. I may also pick up
some shorts at some of these places as I only have one pair of casual shorts
here and then gym shorts and board shorts. The quality of all of this is
certainly sub par. At one store I did
pick up some red bull. It was 3 for 1 dollar.
And then onto Mustafa centre, this place puts Wal-Mart to
shame. The building is about the size of Chinook centre but 6 floors. They sell
everything there, from 2 kg of almonds for $8, to luggage, to clothing, DVDs,
sunglasses, you name it and you can find it.
13 types of dark chocolate almonds. After easily an hour of wandering
Alex and I were lost. Another 20 minutes of searching we figured out how to get
to the street.
The time now ticked onto 8 o clock and it was still
raining. Alex and I parted ways for the
evening and I dodged raindrops the remainder of the way home to the train
station. A fun afternoon and evening to say the least. I managed to experience
much of Singapore and another culture I had yet to see. I think I will head
back there again sometime, if anything for the food. It was amazing.
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