Little India

Tuesday 18^th August  2015.

Breakfast on 5^th floor is sooooo much better! It’s a bigger room with fewer people, there’s more space around the food and it’s also very peaceful compared with the 3^rd floor. I can’t believe the difference and I’m so pleased I decided to speak up. All the food is Halal but there’s still an egg station and toast, tea and coffee and pretty much everything we need. There doesn’t seem to be bacon anywhere on the premises so we’re not missing out there, but we’ll need some stat when we get home! 

Still on the hunt for bargain fabrics, the Tekka Cantre in Little India is on the hit list for today. Also hoping to find the markets the lady at the pool told me about. She said she walked up Arab St toward Little India, over the river and there were markets. So, off we go. Following local practice, we walk in the shade as much as possible, but it’s still pretty hot already. No sign of any markets, so we continue on to the Tekka Centre where Trevor buys a watch and I manage to find a nice white top for $10. We both got bargains!

inside the Tekka Centre

Wandered around a bit through the little side streets, ‘window’ shopping, saw a really nice bowl, it was probably 40cm across and would certainly used up a lot of my baggage allowance, but it turns out the damage to my wallet would have been greater. $380!! And that was the smallest one of the set! Thanks, but no thanks. Sadly………….

Head towards the Mustafa Centre because we remembered we didn’t check for the insect repellent I liked when we were here the other day. We find it in a little supermarket on the way to Mustafa so we stock up. Not really much need to go to Mustafa’s now but we want to go to City Square Mall on Kitchener Rd to use up our Food Republic vouchers and buy some more wine. We also got some cash to keep us going. Lunch today was Honey Glazed Chicken Hor Fun for me and Black Pepper Pork for Trevor and lime juices to drink. No alcohol here.

Black Pepper Pork

Jumped on the MRT at Farrer Park to head back ‘home’ and drop off our shopping, cool off a bit and then realise that the Textile Centre I want to visit is only a half a km away, so an easy walk. For nothing as it turns out. What was supposed to be 3 floors of fabric sellers turned out to be zero retail fabric sellers, not even many wholesalers either. Very disappointing. 

Nearly swim time but it’s hot and probably beer o’clock so on the way back to the hotel, we keep an eye out for a place that has happy hour. We spot a place called Dubaii Escapade and the pints are $9 so that’ll do us. We’re just across the road from Kamplong Glam Café, one of the places I wanted to try for dinner. The information I had was that it didn’t open till 8pm but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Back for a swim, shower and back out for dinner. Venue as above, Roti Kirai and Mee Rebus with lime juices again, no alcohol here either. Very nice meal and $10.90 all up. I can’t get over the prices in some of these places!

From where I’m sitting I can see the sun setting behind the Mosque and it’s really lovely.

Sultan Mosque

7.15pm and the call to prayers start, we heard them about 4.30 just after our beer stop. It’s very mesmerising and melodic, we wander toward it and take some photos and video. 

Head home, day done. We settle in and catch up on the news of the day (Bangkok bombings) when there’s an almost constant knocking on the door. Who could that be??! It’s the Manager, Mr Zu. Apparently we’ve had our do not disturb sign up for too long, and it’s management policy to doorknock and make sure we’re not dead! Probably good practice, they’ve had a few ‘incidents’ where they’ve had to call an ambulance or the morgue. Ewwww! 

Chinatown tomorrow.