Made picked me up right on time after a peaceful, quiet evening in Seminyak -- and I was once again impressed with both the Bali (Denpasar) and Singapore (Changi) airports. I've traveled lots in the USA and we have nothing like either one that I've visited. High-end shopping destinations as well as airports -- Denpasar even had a Victoria Secret store!
I was lucky to have a friendly seatmate from Malaysia on the 3 hour TigerAir flight to Singapore (only $66 USD) who was helpful in giving me very useful personal insights about Singapore, Malaysia and SE Asia in general. And, with just a little help to get me in the right direction, I made my way to Singapore's excellent/easy to use light rail that whisked me to my hotel in the middle of Chinatown for about $1.88 USD.
After finding my way to the local shopping center to pick up a few things and picking up a delicious noodle/shrimp dinner in the very busy Chinatown -- I crashed, exhausted from my non-stop activity in Bali.
Saturday morning I headed out the door with very little planning -- just rereading emailed suggestions from one of my son's friends (an ex-pat professor here) and using my often-used-process of picking through the nearest of the highest-ranked tripadvisor.com "Things To Do" that interest me. I'm always thankful for technology -- including the maps.me app that gives me off-line maps with GPS routing. Using my process, my first stop was the very interesting Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum (tripadvisor.com rated number 11).
The "Tooth Relic Temple" does indeed contain a lavishly displayed tooth relic of a Buddha -- as well as many other relics and displays which provided an excellent overview of Buddhism. It was both an active temple (prayers in progress while I was there) as well as an interesting museum on 4 floors.
Right after the temple, my technology told me I was very near a group of "hawker stalls." With a similar high regard as Portland Food Carts, these "hawker stalls" around Singapore are another "not-to-be-missed" culinary experience. In fact the one I went to, Maxwell Road Hawker Center, is actually tripadvisor.com rated as number 86 among Singapore's nearly 8,000 restaurants.
After scoping out the stalls, I noticed that one particularly one had a line of customers. Of course I wondered why it was so popular. Reflecting on the similar lineups I've seen at Portland's Voodoo Donuts and Los Angeles' Eggslut, I decided to wait my turn and give it a try. Just like Voodoo and Eggslut, the couple of folks I asked in the line really didn't have an adequate explanation why this place had a line -- but admittedly the chicken rice and bean spouts were delicious. And, tonight I learned that Singapore's Chicken Rice is considered Singapore's "national dish" and is listed as number 45 on CNN's list of 50 Most Delicious World Foods. I enjoyed my brunch with some fresh squeezed sugar cane juice --you can it being squeezed below.
October 17 - Afternoon to be covered on next posting.
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