Little India

Today John did not want to join the women on a trip to Little India, so after a small breakfast Annika and I travelled the blue line to this very Indian area in Singapore. She had not explored it to her liking so that is why we chose it.

The first street we got to had banners above it saying Pongal Festival. It did not seem to still be active, or just nothing was happening at that time. We decided to cross the street and head towards my chosen location through smaller streets. The goal was to reach Mustafa Centre; a mall Annika's daughter Rebecka had recommended when she was here during her visit in December. On one of those small streets Annika and I found a stall that sold incenses. I saw the name of the ones John really likes. We used to have a lot of those in Sweden and our home constantly smelled like Nag Champa (the name of the scent). I bought a box to put the sticks in which had a lid that I thought would be convenient because of the cat.

Mustafa Centre had everything. It was crowded with shoppers on every floor. We strolled around the first floor, giving it an honest try to find something interesting amongst the perfumes for a good price. None of us found anything. On the same floor they sold bathroom essentials, the floor above had food. It felt strange with the sudden change, but walking around we found that the mall truly had everything. Sports gear, jewellery, food, shoes, household appliances, tech-stuff, apothecary and probably a lot more that we missed. After getting lost and going up, down and up again we eventually found a way out. By the time it was around three and we were getting hungry.

We both really intensely wanted sushi, so I googled some restaurants close to our location. I found one fifteen minutes away but it had started to rain so we did not really want to go that far. Just a few streets in that direction Annika spotted a sign with sushi. We went to the mall bearing that sign with no idea what the name of the mall was, or where we specifically were. Inside we looked around for the restaurant serving sushi but could not see it. We asked in a help-desk to point us in sushi-direction and were given a Japanese restaurant that was actually Korean (it was even called Seoul Gardens). The other was on the fifth floor and had just closed for the day. Being very hungry at this point we headed back downstairs to eat at Pastamania. We both ordered Ravioli di Salmone, but after sitting down at the table the woman behind the counter approached us and explained they only had enough left for one dish. Annika was kind enough to change her order.

When we were fuelled up we could actually see where we were. The mall had several floors, many of which we explored briefly. I took Annika inside one of my strange favourite stores called Daiso Japan where I never buy anything but always walk around thinking I could find something. It is very Japanese and has everything you can think of. A lot of stationary stuff, cleaning supplies, kitchenware, toys, snacks and so on. There is usually a very long queue to the cashiers and yet I have not found anything I would want to buy there.

When we eventually left we though about where we should go next. Instead of going directly to Farrer Park station, which was near, we walked back towards Little India. Essentially the same way we had walked but now we walked down other small streets. At one point we found a small garden with umbrella-trees. I could not grasp the meaning of these apart from art, but they looked cute and unusual. I think that is Singapore's signature; odd trees. It was a bit sad to see so much littering inside the fenced park. Singapore is very proud of being a clean country but I find that Little India is uncharacteristically dirty. It is a shame really because there is no shortage of bins.

The headache that had slowly crept up on me during the day was now in full bloom. Even though we could have gone further I felt the need to get home. We took the MRT from Rochor and were soon home. While Annika bought ice tea I went up to John, surprising him with his gift of incenses. He looked really happy to receive them, having searched for some online for quite some time now but thought they were too expensive with the shipping fee. We promised not to light any while Annika was here since she does not appreciate the smell. I went to bed and tried to sleep, only John wanted to cuddle and talk. As soon as he left I fell asleep and slept for almost two hours. I had told Annika I would come down to the pool so we could have an evening swim, but when I awoke I felt groggy and hungry so I wrote to her that I would not join her. My dinner was tasty cheese and ham sandwiches.