November 2, 2006 Singapore Day 2

First of all, our hotel (Sheraton) was a disappointment compared to all the other hotels we stayed in. Can't really complain since we only paid $45 for the room (on points), but if we had paid full rack rate, I would be really disappointed considering it's a Sheraton! The rooms are old and smelly. The pool was a disappointment because it seemed dirty and run down. But the bed was VERY comfortable. I think maybe the most comfortable one during this trip so far.

So since we only had one day in Singapore, we had to make the best out of it (as in eat as much good food as we can!). James, Wes and I took a cab from our hotel at about 9:30 to meet Anth, Bex, Dar, and Dar’s uncle at a Prata place for breakfast. (Chris stayed in the hotel.)

It’s an Indian place that basically serves prata/roti with filling like onions, cheese, mushooms, etc. Kinda like crepes. Very yummy!! They serve it with a curry sauce for you to dip in. Why don’t we have this in Vancouver?

And Dar’s uncle brought along this awesome dish for us to try (I forget what it’s called). It’s basically little, round, bland, white flour cakes (kinda like turnip cake texture without the turnip). But what makes the dish is the sauce they put over it. I think it’s made of pickled veggies, chili and lots of oil. It was sooo good! Again, why don’t we have this in Vancouver?

After breakfast, we went to the newest and biggest mall in Singapore called Vivo City. It's a very nice mall, and I think we bought the most at this mall so far during this trip! Bex bought some clothes and shoes, I bought a pair of shoes. I'm not sure why but shopping here seems to be cheaper than Vancouver?? I think we might be more in a shopping mood because we actually have luggage room now to take stuff home since it's the last leg of our trip, or maybe it's just nice to be shopping in a nice mall instead of a crowded flea market! The boys also went around the mall testing out massage chairs, and finally landed in OSIM. OSIM is store that sells all kinds of massage products. We basically hung out there for about 1.5 hours and got sucked into buying a whole bunch of stuff that we didn't need!

After Vivo, we took the MTR to a mall called Far East Plaza to have some Hainan chicken but the girls got distracted along the way! Stuff in this mall is cheap!! And shoes, shoes everywhere! Chris and James were there before us and, of course, she was already busy trying shoes on. The boys ended up going to eat first while the girls kept shopping. They finally got us to take a moment to eat lunch at around 5ish, but we had to order more because James ate all our chicken! (James hasn't had Hainan chicken in years and it's his fav so he's forgiven.)

The boys didn't want to stick around to hold our shopping bags so we went our separate ways after. The girls kept shopping and they went back to chill out at our hotel.

Dinner was at 7, and the girls took a cab to meet everyone at the restaurant. (I have to say we really didn't want to leave since we had only been through one floor of the mall!) Dar's family wanted to take us out to dinner and chili crab was requested. So they chose a place called Jumbo. This seafood restaurant is in an area by the waterfront with lots of other restaurants around. It's a huge place and it was very busy - good sign! The 1st floor of the restaurant is open air, but good thing they got a table on the 2nd floor with AC (it's hot here!). Dar's grandfather, two uncles, aunt, and cousin Ian were all there. They ordered great food! It's great having locals to take you around, especially when it comes to ordering food because they always know what to get! We had satay skewers, black pepper crab, chili crab, and lots of other yummy stuff. I love Singaporean food! The crabs here have HUGE claws! Needless to say, we all left very full and satisfied.

We had planned to go to the night safari after dinner, but it was too late to go so we ended up hanging out at Ian's (Darren's cousin) place. He just moved into his place 2 months ago, and had his projector all set up. He's also an amateur photographer so he had all this cool equipment and his own studio! Wes was all over it and salivating over all his equipment. Here's some pictures we took in his studio:

We wanted to go somewhere for dessert but it was already after midnight so I don't think a lot of places were still open. We ended up at a hawker place and had ice slush desserts. Not bad. These hawker places look more like mall food courts than anything. All of them seem pretty clean, not like the stuff we were eating at on the streets of Bangkok.

It was 2am by the time we got back to the hotel. BOOO! Going home tomorrow!! =((