Singapore, Singapore
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
We both woke around 7-7.30 and lay around in bed enyoing the fact that we didn't have to rush to be anywhere and taking advantage of having a tv in our room watched a bit of t.v. At around 9.9.30 we decided to head downstairs for a buffet breakfast and loaded up for the day ahead. Then we caught a cab to little India. Cab’s in Singapore are so cheap!! The most we paid for a cab was $15 and that was a 30min drive to the airport!! On average we were only spending $4-5 on a taxi ride. We got to Little India and had a wander around. Myself getting a lil snap happy with the camera (again). We walked down Serangoon Road passing the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple to the Mustafa Centre. Which is like a HUGE four story air conditioned market that spreads out over an entire block and smells like a $2 shop. Seriously this place was insane. We then caught a cab back to the hotel to drop of our purchases (I had stocked up on Ritta Dark Chocolate that I found in Bali) and then cabbed it over to China Town. Here we visited the Budda Tooth Relic Temple and Museum. This place was amazingly beautiful. We spent about 20mins there and then proceeded down Pagoda Street into the heart of China Town
. We started looking at Jade bangles again as I really wanted one (just not a 210K one) but all the stalls in China Town sold only fake Jade or glass bangles claimed to be Jade. We ended up in a Jewellers where the sales lady showed us a few bangles and this time I had a proper look at the prices, $400, that’s a bit better!! We both started studying the bangles to make sure they were actual authentic Jade and the sales lady told us that each bangle came with a certificate or authenticity… (the authenticity of this cert is to be some what questioned maybe?) we hummed and harred and she took the price down to $160… we hummed and harred again as we wanted to check out other jewellers to get a gauge on the prices and the price then went down to $120… it was tempting, but we still wanted to have a look at other places till the boss came over and told us we could have it for $100. Ken and I looked at each other and thought why not. It was a gorgeous bangle. It looked like Jade, felt like Jade and when tested it sounded like Jade so we thought, well it is only $100. I really liked the look of it so that was all that mattered really. Score! I got my Chinese Jade Bangle! (To match my NZ Jade Bangle). Ken also got to practise his Chinese.
After that we found a cool quiet spot in a bar and sat down for an ice cold Tiger Beer in the shade and planned what we were to do next. By this stage it was close to 1pm so we thought we would finish our beers and then head to the Singapore Flyer for a view of the city and then Newton Circus Hawker Stalls for lunch. So we caught a cab to the Flyer only to realise it was closed for maintenance! Bugger. Ah well, that was only a $4 cab ride. We jumped into another cab and headed towards Newton Circus. Here I tried a Curry Laska which was amazing and Ken dug into a Chilli Crab. He was in foodie heaven
. After this we caught the MRT to Orchard Road and indulged in some retail therapy. After about 2-3hours of walking around we came across a Haagen Dazs ice cream café and after trying it for the first time last night I was hooked! So we went and sat at a table where we shared a coffee flavoured thickshake and three different flavours of ice cream. In the end I guess you could say we dinned on $40 worth of ice cream!! (ouch) So totally worth every penny… *insert evil laugh* After that we caught a cab back to the hotel where we chilled out for a bit before heading to Clarke Quay for a Singapore Sling each at the Crazy Elephant on the riverside. Ron meet up with us and after Happy Hour, which in reality was only $2 of our ridiculously over priced cocktails, we drove to China Town for dumplings and noodles. Where the boys got to practise there Chinese some more and I got to drink hot tea out of a handle!! Hehe… dinner was amazing. After that we went to Sago Lane and had Chinese Sugar dumplings for dessert. Yum-o!
Tomorrow we were to fly to Vietnam. Not too sure on the internet connections there. So hopefully I can keep up with the blog. Stay posted.
Arohanui x
