Today was to be a day on our own in Singapore. We had three hard and fast agenda items, (fish reflexology, Raffles Long Bar followed by dinner at the stalls in the Maxwell Centre) and the rest was to be serendipity.
Singapore is so safe and so easy to get around and by now we were comfortable with the layout of the city. Sentosa is an island right across from where our ship is docked and although there is a footpath bridge we elected to take the monorail. We didn't realize the size of Sentosa and naively thought we could walk to our destination once over there- we were dead wrong. We found ourselves in Universal Studios and so for about 20 minutes we just walked around, mouths agape again, by this city and its resources.
We eventually got back on the monorail, then onto a tram and toured the area! We passed a beach area and there are many different things to do here, such as indoor skydiving, luging and many more things!
For those of you who have never heard of fish reflexology this is surely one of the most bizarre things to do, but one of the funniest and also one of the things we most enjoyed. There is a species of Turkish fish (two sizes: small and larger more aggressive) who are in a pool of water, into which you put your feet. Hundreds of these little fish swim up to your feet and begin to nibble all your dead skin off! Two of our ship friends had done it on Sunday at Sentosa Spa, and highly recommended it. They also said we would laugh so hard we would cry. For $52 each we had the fish treatment, followed by 20 minutes of foot reflexology, followed by a back and neck massage. We washed our feet and sat on the edge of the pool and stuck our feet into the pool. My mom and I elected to try the larger fish. At first you just can't stop laughing because it is so ticklish and so ridiculous to have these creatures eating your flesh. My mom was quite frankly hooting and hollering with laughter so hard that the technicians were laughing. She said they felt like emory boards on her feet. Surprisingly you get used to it pretty soon, and then you just marvel at the hunger of these creatures.
After 50 minutes we are all so mellow and relaxed. We've been abusing our feet lately with all the walking so this was well deserved and helped us to go on with our day. We all wondered if this is legal in Canada and the U.S. If not why not? We took a cab back to the mainland of Singapore and saw even more interesting buildings!
We decided to go to Little India first. Each of these markets looks so different. This helped us get our frame of mind into India, where we will spend 4 days very shortly. The colors of the flower wreaths for the temples, the fruit, the goods all foretold the colors that are India, which you desire and hunger for as soon as you see them. They are hot and vibrant oranges, pinks, reds, blues. All the clothing and purses have little reflecting surfaces attached to magnify them even more.
I took a walk around the area and found this very colorful building!
A quick stroll through the markets and we headed for a vegetarian street restaurant. I don't really do spicy food, actually I don't do it at all! Well that mentally doesn't really work here in Asia, so I have been learning to like spice! I don't think I ever had Indian food so I was glad to discover that I really liked it. We had daal, dosa with masala, rices, all scooped up with naan and washed down with really really strong tea. In Singapore one of the items lacking are napkins at restaurants. We got little tissues, which seems to be the common way people clean up.
I spotted our friend Carol across the street and she blew in for a quick visit and then we were all off and told her we would see her at Raffles. We jumped into a cab and met up with Jess again, and went into another department store where we played with and redid our makeup since our faces have been melting off today! Our real mission was to go to Bugis Market across the street.
I am sure I will be completely sick of markets by the end of this trip, as the amount of trinkets and trash is really unbelievable and you just cannot imagine who is going to buy it all. But as I have said, each of them has their own flavour and you do learn a lot about the country you are visiting by exploring the markets. Singapore is a young city with a lot of young, small, slender Asian women who love fashion. The second floor of this market was meant for teens and 20's of this size and age. It was still fun to just stroll through it. We have been told and have seen for ourselves that Asians shop and eat, then eat and shop, and that is how they socialize. While the luxury brands are desirable, they are not affordable for this group, and a unique street fashion style can be achieved by buying in these fashionable markets where things are really pretty cheap. We left at 4:30 and walked up to Raffles. Hot and sweaty, and a bit of the street look clinging to us, we hustled into the ladies room to try and clean up.
Raffles Bar has been known for this drink which I have never had before and I will tell you - now that we have done it, we will never do it again. I am really glad for the hotel that they have such a revenue generating item - $25 PER DRINK plus a 10% service fee plus 7% GST. About 10 us had gathered here, with the famous fans swaying in the ceiling, and the shelled peanuts on the table (you throw the shells on the floor). There was also a pigeon eating the peanuts out of one bowl. That was really high class. Karen thought she was being more frugal to have a second drink as a glass of wine - but it was $28!!!!!! There are many varieties of the famous drink for the seasons, but they are pre-mixed and you can see they are churning them out by the dozens. Other than the price, we had a great little hour soaking in the history. This luxury hotel has gorgeous shops all through it, but I am sure the prices match the price of the drinks.
Laurie and Ned who live in B.C. were the leaders for the evening. Ned used to live in Singapore many years ago and Laurie for about a year. They are rabid fans of this city state and told us the best eating place was the stalls in Maxwell Centre. Basically all the ethnicities are here side by side, cooking up their specialities and you self serve for the cheapest price ever. Jess and I walked around through the aisles of stalls, and found the best things for dinner - Thanks to Jess! I ate dinner for $5 total! We had the famous Chinese Hainan chicken and rice and fresh sweet potato and red bean dumplings. Then for dessert we got Almond Bean Curd! It is sort of like a flan texture and it was so good! It was street eating and alot of fun!
Enjoying our Almond Bean Curd!!! It was delicious!
Back in some cabs to the ship for the 9 pm. all aboard. I had to say good bye to Jess but hopefully I can come back (maybe this summer??) The girls shopped for the final 30 minutes -- yes we are all shopaholics right now, but the deals are quite amazing especially when the vendors know the ship is sailing.
The pace of our itinerary has really picked up. Ahead is one sea day, then Phuket, Thailand, 2 sea days, then Colombo, Sri Lanka, then 4 straight days in India. And the heat is ahead. It is reputed to be 104 degrees in India!
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