A Weekend in Singapore

Our Indonesian visa expired which culminated in a quick trip to Singapore to renew it.  It also offered a golden opportunity to get to a chandlers to pick up a few essential items for Calypso, items which are impossible to obtain here in Jepara and probably anywhere else in Indonesia.

We arrived fairly late on Friday evening but immediately dashed to the humongous shop of Mustafa's to purchase some basic food items which are also impossible to find here.  Oh how I wish I could do a whole monthly shop there.  Mustafa's is possibly the largest grocery store I've ever seen and open 24 hours a day.  Even at that late hour, it was extremely busy, but we managed to grab quite a bit before fatigue took over. 

The next morning early we rushed off to the chandlers.  We hadn't realised that we'd planned things badly; they were only open 'til noon which severely curtailed our chances of getting around to a few different shops.  No worries, we managed to get the essentials and, once they'd closed, wandered off to other open stores trying to locate a few more items before taking a break for a Singaporean laksa lunch.

By mid afternoon we were exhausted but we still needed to summon up the energy to get back into Chinatown in the evening to see all the festivities leading up to the Chinese New Year. Crikey, I swear half the world's population was out there with us!  And red - everything was really red!

Dinner was at a typical Chinese restaurant.  Not the American type but the real McCoy.  You know the kind of menu: snake, frog, pig organ soup, pig's ears and trotters, etc, etc.  However, we played it safe and ordered something we could recognise, just praying it was what it said.  It was delicious and to top it off, Paul ordered me a glass of wine!  That doesn't sound all that exceptional unless you're aware that I haven't seen, let alone tasted, a glass of wine since New Year's Day and that was a real and rare treat then!  It was Valentine's Day after all which is also our daughter's birthday so we could toast both occasions with something other than a glass of water.  

We'll need to go again in a couple of months but next time will definitely plan it a bit better to ensure the chandlers are open when we arrive and, hopefully, take in a bit of sight-seeing into the bargain.  Singapore is a fascinating place - it was such a treat to experience a little first world culture for a change.

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