What would you do on a hot day in Singapore? Hit the street markets with thousands of others of course. The city is full of smoke from the fires in Indonesia and the locals are mightily ticked off as it makes life difficult for them and happens annually despite protests.
Tricia knows her territory and she knows how to bargain.
Arab Steeet was such a lot of fun. They have the most beautiful fabrics; things you would never see in NZ and you would pay a fortune for if you could get it.
The vendors wanted our money but they were helpful, friendly and polite. We watched a young Arab girl buy her fabric for her two wedding dresses; one for the formal ceremony and one for the reception. Her friend was sketching the dresses in the store and the merchants calculate the material required. The people were friendly and happy to chat. One older Muslim man knew all about our earthquakes in Christchurch and was very concerned for us. He said he felt very sad when he heard it on the news.
It was hot and I was a little troubled about the availability of the eternal bog. One of the merchants let me use his loo which was clean and a proper toilet. Thank you God. Probably saying ""hallelujah" to him was not the best.
We taxied back to the hotel to drop off Tricia parcels mainly!
The next plan of attack was the Mustafa Centre in little India. Quite a different experience. They had a huge gold and silver section with mainly Indian style jewellery and it was in the thousands of $. Not my style so no gold envy. It was packed with hundreds of people shopping for food, houseware, bags, jewels . Anything you could imagine. Many of the men there were arrogant and rude and mostly chose to ignore us when we asked questions. Tricia is great at standing her ground and letting them know that she is not putting up with nonsense. It was funny to watch. The attitude to women was noticeably different. It put me off buying anything although I may have to swallow my pride and go back to buy a bag. Dang.
We walked form there to Bugis Street which are the Chinese Markets. It was stinking hot and a long way. Many of the streets were less salubrious than the uptown parts so we saw the other side of reality.
By then I was knackered and thanks to the blood pressure meds my shoes were baking bread. I looked hideous with fat feet and canckles which caused us great mirth. Had we been caught in a famine I'm sure my feet would have provided 2 fine loaves of bread. Gross. Actually my toes looked like 10 fat sausages. Gotta laugh. At least my feet were clean. The day before, Tricia went to try on some lovely shoes and took her sandals off to discover very black feet. The girl meant to be serving her visibly paled. Wet wipes to the rescue and a very happy young man attended to her feet without once heaving.
Bugis Street was a lot poorer and a bit grubby. I couldn't be bothered looking at any more shops and as I had threatened to kill Tricia if she even suggested it we headed back, but only to hit more shops in the city.
I saw a lovely Indian shirt in British India and wondered about that for Daniel. $639. I think not. My lovely Tricia gets the "hangries" when her blood sugars drop so it was most amusing when she encountered people who couldn't give helpful directions. I think the laughing kept us going.
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