Singapore Trip, Part 2

We left bright and early to have breakfast at a food court in Yew Tee MRT station. The choices there, to me, were pretty limited. Most were typical China food, some were Malay, some were Indian. The food there didn't taste as nice as it seemed to be, and I was pretty disappointed with the bowl of tom yam noodle I ordered. The noodle sucked, but the soup was still acceptable.

After that, I left for Toa Payoh. I was extremely excited about going there - I was about to meet Jacky, my friend who studied in Singapore! It had been a while I didn't see him, and I was simply keyed up by the notion of seeing him again. So we went to Toa Payoh, split, and I went to Popular while waiting for him.

There was a Popular bookstore there. I went scoured for A-Level books, and managed to find some and realised the books there were cheap. $3.80 to $15 at most for a reference book! In Malaysia, you can hardly find a reference book that costs less than RM10, and most will cost you RM20 or above. Forget about reference books - even the storybooks are cheap! S13.03 for an English book! If you buy one in Malaysia it'll cost RM32.90!!! WTF if I stay in Singapore and earn sing dollar, I conjecture I'll spend one fourth of my salary on books! They are so cheap!!

Anyway, I met Jacky later. We continued to banter for a long time, ambled along the streets and in the mall, and had a lunch that cost a lot. He regaled me about his story in Singapore, and I was all ears. You could say I was totally absorbed - being exposed and learnt about different culture or another country's affair is always enlightening, enriching and absorbing. I wouldn't divulge anything here though.

After that, I bid bon voyage and parted with him. My family and I went to Bugis next. I had never been there before, and frankly I thought Bugis was a boring town - ya, slap me, but I really didn't know - and it turned out I was wrong! Bugis was a famous town, and it was famous for its shopping and is called a shopping paradise, probably come second to Orchard Road. We wandered there and had window shopping. We couldn't afford to buy anything. Goods sold there are for people of higher class or foreigners with bigger currency. Malaysians can hardly afford even a Western meal there.

We left shortly later as we were not familiar with that place. We went to my uncle's house and met him who had finally woken from his slumber. We chatted a lot, all of us, and had some talks on politics in Malaysia and education in Singapore. And other facts.

Then my uncle invited us for dinner in a Japanese restaurant (the irony is that the people there are China Chinese), The food was awesome! We were first treated with an uncooked or half cooked salmon. Frankly, I did not like it. The texture was weird, and the moisture in the fish was weird at best and disgusting at worst. Next we had grilled salmon, grilled chicken, fried deer meat, and bean sprouts. We were also served fried rice cooked in Japanese style and white rice. After the meal, we had dessert. One scoop of ice-cream, about the size of a golf ball, or maybe slightly bigger, cost $3. I'll just be frank: this is downright ridiculous. It's synonymous with robbing!

Anyway, we ended that day after that meal. We went home, bathed, drank a cup of tea, and fell into a deep sleep where our body ceased all movements and dreams began trickling in.