20081214: Singapore Day 2

A good nights rest means having the luxury of 9 hours sleep in a serene and cool environment with a firm bed.
Upon waking up, hunger pangs set in. Brunch was on our minds.
The nearest spot was the Tanjong Pagar Hawker Centre, just across the road from the Hotel.
This is situated above the Market.
To our amazement, the food prices in this little republic hasn't varied as much as our Malaysian hawkers. (Could it be due to greedy landlords, where more than half the price of the food goes to unnecessary profiteering rentals?)
I could recollect that back during my A-level days, 2 decades back. prices were quite similar.
Drinks are still at about 80 cents to a dollar.


Our vermicelli soup noodles with FRESH fish slices (Yee Peen) were only $3.50 / bowl. Fruit juices were just $1.50.
Food ranged from a typical $2 to $5.

Somehow our Malaysian rate of inflation had gone through the roof!

Today's agenda is to achieve 2 rendezvous locations. In the afternoon to my spouse's cousin's abode in Pasir Ris and in the evening to my old friend's maisonette in Bukit Panjang. When arrived at the terminal, it was raining. Thanks to our purchase of an umbrella from the NTUC, just opposite our hotel, we didn't get wet. I was clad in my warm balaclava, thus no problems for me too. We boarded the connecting Bus # 111 to alight at Pasir Ris St 4, where we were met by Jessica's cousin at the bus stop.
As we approached the lift lobby, some notices struck our awareness. This is all due to the government's initiative of providing clear public announcements, where pertinent information related to wanted criminals are properly disseminated to all facets of the nation.


Another notable improvement in the society's safety level is the retrofitting of brand new lift doors with visible tempered glass, as a safety precaution against unforeseen elements such as petty thieves, or having people stuck in lifts. What a brainchild! Simple yet effective. Yet to see this implemented in Malaysia.
Once again, being guests, we were feted with a full course afternoon tea (sort of a late lunch at 4pm). Some delectable home cooked delights were savoured as folllows:








As evening drew near, we left the premises at 530pm to reach the Pasir Ris terminal to transcend the island over to Bukit Panjang enclave.
This was all across the island on the mideast. The MRT ride took us directly to Jurong East where we changed over to Choa Chu Kang. From there, we took our inaugural journey on the LRT directly to BANGKIT station.
We were met by my 2 decade old friend, who's still in Citibank Singapore. Thank goodness, he's still employed during such dire economic situations.


We met up with his spouse, mum and his baby daughter. They had choreographed a spread of delectable dishes. The curry looked enticing, and was not overly spicy, much to my spouse's delight.
As the evening drew to a close, we had to respect the host's schedule by not overstaying our welcome. Fortunately we had some excellent parting advice. Use the BUS service directly downtown to reconnect to Tg Pagar. What excellent advice. The bus ran down the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) without any traffic jams, as the proper bus lanes are adhered to, and DOES NOT cause congestions unlike in Kuala Lumpur, whereby the tight bus lanes were implemented as an AFTERTHOUGHT, without proper urban planning! Am I criticizing too much here?

The bus took through Orchard Road again where we caught another glimpse of Xmas lights, this time in front of the Paragon Shopping Centre.
We alighted at City Hall, where we visited the Raffles Hotel Boutique. Even though it was jam packed with people at 10pm, we only discovered that they were actually closed for business as they were conducting their stock check.
Alas, we just did some window shopping before proceeding over to the City Hall MRT which then took us back to Tanjong Pagar after a full day's Singapore's Trans-Island Escapade.

Good night!