By Rough Guy'd
A fairly uneventful day, this one was spent shopping with my auntie in Chinatown, where as well as picking up some groceries, she talked me through all the little nuances and interesting tidbits of life in Singapore and seeing a wet market is always enjoyable for the senses.
For those who don’t know, a wet market is a market where you can buy a lot of fresh produce, some of it so fresh in fact that it is still alive. We have similar markets like that back home in New Zealand but those are usually confined to Saturday mornings and do not have the bustle or charm of an Asian wet market. Many times later in my trip, I would peruse the wet markets of various towns and countries just to see what they were like, usually with no intention of picking up anything more than an explosion of sights, sounds and smells to assail the senses with.
Finally the weekend, and while that had no real meaning for me anymore, it did mean that my cousin had the days off and I spent them with him, catching up and getting to know each other better. It had been many a year since we had talked (though our mum’s still did) and we got on like a house on fire. I also learned at this stage that it is quite easy to spend big here as we caught a movie, went for dinner, dessert and then to a microbrewery, the cost really racked up and we spent more today than I did for the rest of the trip so far.
Now it is at this point that I will point out another important part of my trip. While the main goal was to enjoy myself and have new experiences, I had a few friends and family scattered around the place and I wanted to visit them as well. Foremost among the visits was my (another) cousin’s wedding in Malaysia. She was to be married in mid July and planning my trip to fit around that (visa constraints) was an important component of this early part of the trip. Not just me, but also my family from other parts of the world, including my mum and dad from New Zealand would be attending as well. It was with this thought in mind that I planned to fly to another country before coming back to Singapore (as my cousin had his work leave due soon) before finally going to Malaysia.
Though my goal was to decide on where to go, as for most of the trip I kind of just winged it and decided that I’ll decide best by walking around and being inspired. So, call it a plan, call it procrastination, call it whatever, my next goal was the Singapore Flyer, a giant slow-turning Ferris wheel giving an incredible view over the city and coupled with an albeit cliché audio commentary, was still well worth the effort to go see. It also inspired me to go see Sun Tech City. Imagine a shopping mall designed right at the start to be all about good luck, with the aesthetics, the colours, the shape and even a fountain in the middle that you’re supposed to walk around clockwise three times while dipping your hand into.
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