This morning Sally and I took Jessie out for her morning walk at 730 before it got too warm for her. I really enjoyed this as I got to see places and interact with other dog walkers which you would get the opportunity to. Do. If you were just on holiday. The harbour is beautiful, modern and clean, and everyone here takes such pride and care in their dogs, there is many more pedigree breeds here too. They spread pesticide here once a week,’fogging ‘ which although gets rid of the mosquitoes seems a shame for the wildlife. They were fogging in Jessie’s usual route so we attempted a different way but she was having none of it and kept sitting down. Initially bribery with biscuits helped but we didn’t get as far as labrador Park!
We are being totally ruined by the Harris’s. Fresh fruit salad with yogurt and granola….after struggling to find anything like this for the last 2 weeks it was heaven!! After breakfast we headed to a fresh market, love this out here that you can go and pick all your food fresh and not in packets at the supermarket. All the fish stalls were great, they even save the fish heads for their speciality fish head curry which is apparently nicer than it sounds! Here we had a coffee and some brunch snacks of carrot cake, which is more of a turnip omlette and another Singapore special, popiah.
The next stop was China town, just a short bus ride away, all public transport here runs off prepaid cards which seems to work well and means the bus driver doesn’t have to handle money. Before we arrived at China town we went into a couple of arcades, Sally was trying to find a mahjong shop but the app wasn’t so accurate so we didn’t manage to find it! Such a nice city to walk around though, so clean, people seem pleasant, lots of respect for the city. Even the tower blocks have gardens in the sides and balconies so it has such a green feel to it even if its a big city.
China town had a really vibrant feel to it, its unfortunate we are on the last day of Chinese New year, can’t even imagine the buzz the place must have in the peak of it! We bought a couple of sets of chop sticks, one of the pig-it’s now the year of the pig, and one set of the horse, which is both of our birth year. They also have some. Beautiful painted bowls made from Coconuts, I would like to pick some of these up towards the end of the trip, when I make space in the bags, I’m Sure they will have them in Thailand too!
After China Town we visited a Buddhist temple, which housed a Buddhas tooth, retrieved after he was cremated. The building was stunning both inside and out, inside gold Buddhas lined the walls of the temple just like the temple in vietnam. Each Buddha is slightly different and is guardian of a different thing, like the 12 animals which the years are named after. Buddhists pray to their guardian and also donate money.
We know very little about Buddhism but what from what I’ve heard it’s seems good morals to live by, although the tooth on the 4thfloor, deemed to be Buddhas canine, was questionable. Remarkably similar in size and appearance to a horses tooth. The shrine in which this tooth was enclosed in was spectacular. I also like the fact that Buddhists are vegetarian, I think this may be because they believe in reincarnation. The cafe in the basement was selling really tasty looking vegetarian meals for a small donation. As we had already eaten we had black chinese tea…. Not everyone’s taste but I did t mind it too much, it was just too hot to drink.
We headed back for lunch, Sally was ticking all the boxes, a Greek salad with extra halloumi, such a refreshing change to veg and rice. We devoured it!! Before heading out for the evening we spent a few hours relaxing, I went for a swim and David hit the gym because there were no tennis courts free for him and Paul which was a bit of a shame! I managed 41 lengths before hitting the jacuzzi, and literally as I got comfortable in there David came out of the gym and accused me of spending all my time in there which was definitely not the case but I will just let him believe it!
That night we went to a rooftop bar called Mr storky’s, the entire city was lit up with the sunset and gave us a good vantage point for Paul and Sally to point out more sights. Instead of beer Sally and I went all out and hit the cocktails…. Well there was a lot of celebrating to catch up on, their new life in Singapore and our wedding… So we had 2 cocktails, afterall we can’t visit Singapore and not sample a Singapore sling!
The next stop was little India for a curry, we went to. A curry house called banana leaf, I was quite easily. Persuaded to share a fish head curry and it didn’t disappoint, David chose one with some cheese in it, he loved it too. After a few beers and lots of curry we were feeling super full, I was actually worried I was going to burst my new tailored jump suit that I got in hoi an. We both need to get back to the gym, 6 weeks of beer rice and curry is taking its toll!!
Our final stop of the evening was the region of kampong glam, just a short (and welcomed) walk away from little India. This area was quite quirky with quaint little shops and a pretty mosque,
There were small, side streets with independent restaurants and bars. We sat outside a Mexican close to a guitarist playing some tunes for a final cocktail, before bed!
Once we got back David and I took Jessie for a quick toilet walk, she wanted to paddling in the fountains now that it was cooler.
Tomorrow we head to koh tao.
South East Asia 2019 