I’ve been in Singapore for hardly 24 hours and I already have a weird story. Well, I had a weird one before I left the airport, but that’s for another time…

So, after showering at Frisca’s house, we headed out to breakfast and coffee with her and her fiancé, Johnson. After a delicious breakfast of toast, kaya jelly, Soft boiled eggs, and coffee, we headed to the famous Orchard Road.

It’s famous for its expensive shopping. Obviously we weren’t doing much of that, but it’s a fun street to stroll down. And they’re already decking the place out for Christmas so it made for some fun pictures.

At one point, the four of us were stopped at a corner waiting for the cross walk man to turn green. We were gathered in a tiny clump if 4 people and I was messing with my camera.

All of a sudden, I felt a poke in my back. You know when someone taps you near your shoulder blade to get your attention? This was like that except no tapping. Like when someone just presses their finger into you to get your attention. It was quite a hard poke, but I just assumed it was one of my friends trying to get my attention. I slowly looked up from what I was doing and turned and was like, “ya?” and no one was behind me there… Tiffany was to my right and Frisca was tAlking to Johnson. All I saw was a random Chinese man in his thirties. He looked at me and them walked past me. He was the poker. Frisca saw the whole thing.

Um what just happened? This guy literally just walked up behind me, poked me with intent for an abnormal amount of time, and then walked on. SOOOOO weird. Frisca checked my back to see if he stuck anything weird on me. Nothing. As he walked along the cross walk, he turned back twice and made eye contact. It was one of the weirdest things I’ve ever experienced.

Soooooo weird.

So for the rest of the day it was an ongoing joke to poke someone else in the back real slow. Ha.

So anyway, the rest of our day. After Orchard, we picked up Yessy and Went to Sentosa, the man made beach in Singapore where tourists go. But we actually enjoyed it. And walked to the southern most point in what’s considered continental asia. Saw the famous Merlion – the symbol of Sungapore. Passed by Singapore’s universal studios, complete with a Battlestar Galactica ride. Haha. Hilarious.

After that, we went to little India. It was sooooo crazy – kinda like real India 😛 cuz they’re preparing for Tuesday’s Diwali celebration (known in Singaoore as deepavali). It made me both miss India and fear for my belongings at the same time.

Then we went to the Mustafa Center. I don’t know that I can explain this place to you in words… Basically it’s a store that sells legitimately everything. Downstairs you can bargain for gold watches, upstairs you can find rare spices, in the middle you can find any kind of electronic yiu can imagine. There are entire rooms with cloth for scarves of various sizes. Last time I came, I bought a journal for super cheap from the piles of notebooks for sale. On the shoe floor, I’ve never seen so many soccer cleats in my life. No joke. They literally have everything. Oh, and did I mention it’s super cheap?

The store has at least 4 floors and is connected various ways to different
Buildings. it’s a maze. Actually, the store is famous for its violation of fire codes. Everything is as close together as is allowed by Singapore safety code. Some places in the store, 2 people can hardly squeeze by each other in the same aisle.

If the store is empty, it doesn’t seem bad. But if you’re claustrophobic, this place will start getting to you very quickly. Especially on deepavali weekend. People are everywhere.

This was my favorite part: when we first got in and started walking around, Tiffany goes, “soooo this is the stuff that’s supposed to be close together?” it was, but she hadnt been in the store long enough to have the full effect. “just wait,” I told her. Within an hour she was overwhelmed and we decided to leave. What a great and ridiculous experience.

Don’t worry, we didnt leave before buying some awesome and cheap shoes for ourselves.

After that, my friends took us to Bugis to get some traditional dessert. (We go here every time I’m here because it’s so delicious). Mango sago with pomelo. Google it.

Then we headed to Robertson Quay to meet Adelyne and have some legit coffee. Well, actually, of the 6 of us, I’m the only one who had coffee.

We chatted and laughed and walked along the key.

Alex and his fiancé Pauline met us and we headed to a super nice restaurant along the quay to eat chili crab. My favorite! I’ve been craving it for 2 years ;P

Then we headed home because we’re jet lagged and had been up since like 3am.

Let’s see what today will have in store.

Yay Singapore. Yay seeing friends I haven’t seen in a year.

(Frisca figured out its been EXACTLY a year since we last saw each other!) kinda funny.