Singapore, Round 2 – Night Markets, Zoos & Cameras

By Rough Guy’d

Arriving back on Friday morning meant that I managed to spend the weekend with my cousin. It was almost like I had planned it that way... Anyway, so the weekend ended up being a nice relaxing one with the two of us getting to know each other better and basically spending some time together. It was just the two of us on Saturday but on Sunday we ended up meeting some of his friends and eating a local delicacy for dinner, claypot rice. After that we went out for a couple of drinks and I vowed to try the infamous Singapore Sling, a drink so popular even the locals didn’t know it existed. When the drink arrived, I felt almost embarrassed to drink it, being so fruity with a little umbrella served with the sweet alcoholic beverage.

After that we had a quick stroll through one of the local night markets. Now, if you ever get the chance to go, local night markets are where it is the most interesting. I’m not talking about the big gaudy night markets that are around that cater to tourists, where haggling is prerequisite to buying. No, what I’m talking about are the various night markets all over Asia that cater to the local populace, that sell inexpensive treats and little knick-knacks as well as fresh meat and produce (some of the meat so fresh, it’s still breathing). The main difference between the two different types of markets is that the local markets don’t try to push stuff onto you. You either want it or you don’t and as a result there is no hard sell and the prices are usually not worth haggling over (though it can be fun to try anyway).

After a boring (and wet) Monday, I went out to the zoo the next day. Even though I woke up early enough, by the time I arrived at the gates, it was already 11am (public transport may be cheap and convenient but it sure isn’t fast) and so my trip around the zoo was based around the three shows that they do at the zoo and overall I have to say it was a more than pleasant way to spend the day.

The rest of the weekdays were spent doing travel maintenance and clearing my camera of all the photos I took as well as making sure I had copies. I had heard from a cousin back home that most of her holiday photos were lost when she had her laptop stolen. To prevent that happening to me as well, I vowed to make two copies of all my photos (on DVD). One copy I would keep with me in my hand luggage bag and the other would be sent back home with an assortment of presents, letters and other things so that I don’t have to carry so much all the time and so that there would always be a second copy of all my photos.