Yup, I know. This isn't a monster hunting blog. But, I've been slammed this week and didn't get the fiction blog post done. However, I've got some travel blogs hanging out ready to go. Here's a random snippet from my trip to Singapore:
Day Seven: September 1st, 2015
We got up at a reasonable hour. Early enough not to rush, late enough to be relatively well rested. We showered, and made our way out to the train station. We caught the train down to a place called Holland Village, which, according to a guidebook Ruth lent us, was to have plenty of shops and places to purchase things.
We got there early, 9ish, and had breakfast at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, continuing with our trend to have non-local foods. Muffins, a coffee drink for me, and a chocolate one for Nicole fueled our soon to be shopping excursion. We went on out to the area even though shops wouldn’t open before 10. We spent some time wandering the quiet streets, looking at a good variety of eateries, but not many shops.
Undaunted, we continued our search for a place to get souvenirs and gifts. We bounced around the area some more, stopping in at a pet store and even getting to catch a glimpse at a couple cute kittens. After being shooed from the back of the shop (apparently we weren’t supposed to be there), we began working our way back toward the MRT, feeling defeated and disappointed in the lack of shops to browse.
We then stumbled past a pair of doors labeling itself as a mall. They were locked, but following someone else who looked to be a local, we gained access to the Holland Village Shopping Center; a circular indoor mall. We spent the next hour and a half window shopping, and Nicole was even enticed enough to try something on, but was ultimately dissuaded by the price tag.
We contacted Ruth after further exploring the Holland Village area (by that time, enough time had passed that other shops would be open if they existed), and met up with her and the family for lunch at their place. We talked about a plan of attack to finish shopping in the evening which boiled down to Ruth and Norm bouncing ideas back and forth, and weighing the benefits of visiting Mustafa in Little India (a place described as the ‘Walmart of Singapore’) versus going to Chinatown where they have a bunch of stalls with a huge variety of things.
We opted for the latter and after getting Winnie down for her nap, Nicole, Ruth, and I set out. We bounced around the train system to Chinatown.
This area felt more like a bazaar to me than the malls we’d been shopping in prior to this. A few people hawked their wares, and almost every shop front had a cloth canopy of some sort. There was a ton of variety out for a traveler to choose from.
We hit the shops hard and fast, acquiring the majority of our gifts and souvenirs in the course of a bare few hours. We bounced out to a dumpling place for a delightful dinner before bouncing back to the train to visit another shopping area in search for a Go set for me.
We visited another mall though the Go set that was available was sealed shut, so I couldn’t handle the stones to ascertain their quality, and it didn’t comes with a proper wooden board, so I decided that the price tag was too steep and left it behind. I’d just have to get a set somewhere else. We visited a couple other knickknack shops in the mall before leaving it for a shopping area frequented by the locals rather than tourists in search for a folding stool for Ruthie. In the process we found a cheap Chinese Chess set that I chose to pick up.
Our day of shopping drew to a close and we made our way back to Ruth’s neighborhood, and parted ways with plans set for the next day.
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