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Today is the first day of the new chinese year, so most things are closed. Despite having been out and up until almost 1am I still woke up around 6:30am. Around 7:30am
the local temple started their trumpeting and drumming again. I will have to try and see if I can record that tomorrow morning for the site, but I guess its a good wake up alarm.
I packed up and headed to the MRT to try breakfast in "Little India".
Once I arrived at that train station I used my nose to try and track down breakfast -- I was pretty sure there would be hawker stands about. Sure enough there was a rather
nondescript concrete parking structure near the MRT station that "smelled good". I walked up the stairs into it and found that at least the front section was a full on fish and meat
market. The odor was coming from further back, but here's some picture of the market section of "raw meats"
I kept following my nose and quickly found the 'hawker stands' and tables where everyone was eating. There was a wonderful spiced curry smell
coming from there which made finding it easy if one just followed the nose -- finding it by "visual queue" would have been much much harder for me!
I was also probably the only white person there! They were serving mostly muslim food, which was fine with me! It smelled great and looked wonderful.
I saw both the samosa-like egg item I'd had near the hotel a few days earlier as well as the crepe like item I'd had the first night I arrived, but I decided to
branch out and try other things. I eventually settled on a rice and chicken dish which also came with a small bowl of a spiced vegetable soup (I think it was a
"bitter melon" soup, but not 100% sure. I queued up behind about 6 other people (a good sign in my book) and then was able to get a seat at table to make
my way through this dish. The rice was slightly spicy with a wonderful favor and some type of 'nuttiness' as well. All very aromatic and flavorful.
the meal was good but both spicy and salty, so I really needed a drink . I decided to 'risk it all' and ordered a mango lassi from this stand.
It was very good!
I was still a little hungry so I stood in a real long line for some fresh bread -- it wasn't naan, but it was similar and must have been one of the best stands there as line
was really really long.
Here's a video of them making it:
Walked around Little India but was already full, well mostly full. I did find one "dessert" place and ended up getting some type of dessert square.
I'm thinking ground dates and something? Not sure, but it tasted good!
Headed back to the hotel and took a long nap
as the 1am "all nighter" caught up with me and I needed some sleep.
Later, I woke up when housekeeping came by so I took a walk in a different direction, but most shops were still closed. I did, however ,find a laundromat so
I returned to the hotel and got my dirty laundry to do a load. Because of course I only do laundromat laundry in Singapore!
Headed back to the hotel about an hour later when all was dry and entered this info in. It's late afternoon, almost 3pm, so I will head out for another snack soon.
I kept passing this place, so I decided that despite my pre-trip decision to not try this I changed my mind and decided to give Durian a try.
This is a super smelly fruit whose odor is very off putting for many people. However, some people really like the flavor while others just gag.
Turns out I can tolerate it, though it does smell and the portion of the fruit you eat is a bit custard like in texture. Not my favorite, but also not "a big deal"
from my point of view. It was okay, probably not worth going to any future effort to eat more of though. Here are some photos of the lady who was selling
them, how she cut it open, how it was served (including a plastic glove to wear so that you don't get smelly durian on your hands) and, of course, me eating some.
After finishing off my durian "treat", and washing my hands and face off so that I didn't have any smelly durian left, I headed another block of two
into Chinatown and find a place that had re-opened for lunch after last nights chinese new years festivals. I wanted something light, so I ordered Tea
and 10 pork dumplings.
After lunch I jumped on the MRT and headed off to try and check out a Butterfly and Insect exhibit that I saw on the internet as being on
Sentosa Island just off the Harbor Point MRT. I was told that Sentosa island was walkable -- intact you can walk a boardwalk onto the island, or take a
gondola car, or take some type of cable car/subway extension. Sadly what NO ONE told me was that this place was basically Disneyland. Ugh!
By the time I figured this out it was too late, I was already about 20 minutes into my walk and already across the Boardwalk, so I figured that I'd just
walk a little and find the Butterfly thing and then exit. ha! I spent an hour walking through huge crowds and loudness... Needless to say this was
NOT my thing. However, I did finally find the butterfly exhibit and paid the entry fee. I was glad I got to see it, but then it took another hour of
waiting on very crowded buses to get back to a casino hotel and then a lot of asking directions to find my way back to the boardwalk to exit.
All in all this was "a 3 hour tour" -- didn't fully escape until about 6:45pm!
Anyway, here are some highlights of the ButteryFly attraction:
After exiting this exhibit I spent over an hour waiting on a bus and navigating back out of this place. Ugh! It was not fun!
Once I got back to the mall building with the MRT station in it I was hot and tired so I stopped by a dessert place for a much needed treat!
It had ice cream, mint leaf, kiwi, blueberry, watermelon, peach and/or mango, and what I think were little tapioca pearls. But whatever it
was it was great!
After recovering by taking this "medication" I jumped on the MRT and got back to Chinatown MRT station.
As I exited I found an open restaurant and decided to have Chili Pepper Crab for dinner along with some tea.
It was quite messy, as the black pepper crab had been, and very time consuming to eat -- took me 45 minutes. But it was
good -- just messy!
Whew! After this I got back to the hotel, upload all of this and am now ready to goto sleep!
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