Singapore Day8

It was our last day at Singapore and I had started feeling bad about it. Not because we had not seen everything, but because the trip was coming to an end, I had office to go back to, I was going to leave such a wonderfully organised place (Where people follow lanes even on escalators) ... Anyway, decided to make the most of the last day there; and waddayaknow :) Orchard Street for shopping was on our list!! *woohoo*

Ravi had told us that we would go to a store which sold Smoked Paprika, it was a Japanese store at some mall somewhere. So we got on the MRT and got off at the station which was close by, and we needed to walk a bit. Now the cool thing about this particular line (think it is the Harbour line), is that the trains do not have a driver cabin - which essentially means you can see the tunnel in front, and the way it twists and turns !! I was super psyched and stood right at the front of the train the whole journey :) :)

Once we reached the stop which had the Japanese supermarket, the boys refused to listen to my directions; they used Google and we still ended up taking a much longer route than needed :| We went straight to the store and picked up the goods (I picked up some extra bottles to give my mom); post which we decided to take a bus to go to Orchard :)

A double decker greeted us and I ran to the top and sat right at the front to get an awesome view :) :)

Once we reached Orchard ... I had no clue where we should start and what all malls I needed to go to, and which all shops I wanted to enter and maybe consider shopping from ! There is so much to see, so many shops to enter that I was at a loss for a while :D

Ravi suggested that we start at Ion Orchard - one of the more popular malls there, so we did. I went to Sephora (as expected), and was busy Whatsapp-ing a cousin of mine with images of lipstick shades she wanted, when Sudhir called and told me to meet him and Ravi at this store called Daiso. Fine, so I left everything and went there, only to realise that the shop was selling almost everything under the sun for 2 SGD!! I helped the 2 of them add more crap to their already filled basket of nonsense. What all did it contain ? A panda that swings when kept in the sun, magnetic tape, fridge magnets that are small spheres, 2 notebooks, a piggy bank, a glow in the dark skeleton, the list goes on :)

After we got done with this time pass shopping and I finished my serious stuff at Sephora, we decided to head back home, and pick up a suitcase on our way back. I realised that with all our shopping and us arriving with already filled tony suitcases, we needed a bigger one. So we walked around Toa Payoh market and picked up a nice suitcase for 50 bucks post which we headed back home.

I began packing while Sudhir and Ravi helped bubble wrap some liquid items that we needed to take back for Subhi. It was a good thing we bought the suitcase - all the stuff we got at Sentosa, the zoo, bird park, all the bottles and creams etc fit into the new bag, while the 2 old ones contained just our clothes :D

Once I got done with all the packing, Ravi suggested we go eat authentic Singaporean food. Near his place there is this restaurant (I cannot recall the name), but he said that Subhi and him go there regularly to eat. So we walked to the restaurant and ordered some food, which came pretty quickly. There is this chilli paste sort of thingy that is served along with the rice, which is CRAZY ! The food was simply amazing and so damn delicious and spicy, that we could not stop eating :D It actually had those dried red chilis in the dish !!

After a good filling dinner, we walked back home and crashed.

The next day we woke up at 5AM (a cab had been called), and we reached the airport and purchased some usual stuff from Duty free and got on the flight back home.

Now comes the part where I explain why 8 days are not enough.

I am sure you've all come to realise we did a whole lot and visited a lot of places. This being said, there is a lot that we did not see. Botanical gardens, Gardens by the Bay, Singapore flyer and a few things at Sentosa. I know that all these would have taken another day and maybe if we had stayed back on Saturday we could have covered these.

Now the reason we took 8 days to do the stuff we did is because we walked every single part of the way. In every zoo and bird park we did not take the trams which many people were taking (I am sure they came through tour packages). The trams help save time, but then you do not get to experience the place and spend time taking in the sights and sounds.

I would love to go back there and have considered working at that place - I LOVED the organised society it is. The way people follow rules, especially on the roads, just blew my mind. There is a lot of positive re-inforcement by the government all over the city which I think is a good thing. Why be told "Don't do this" when you might as well say "Do this".

Anyway, thus ended Sudhir's first trip abroad and our first foreign trip as a couple :) Was tones of fun and we have already started making plans of where we should go next :D