We were awakened this morning at 5 AM by the telephone. Our request for a 9 AM wake up call was misunderstood...not too fun. I think we were all able to roll over and get over it, though. I was really unimpressed by the “free breakfast” options we were given on our first morning, so I wanted to go down to the restaurant’s buffet. I don’t know why I don’t learn my lesson that when the words “breakfast” and “buffet” are involved it means dollar signs. To make a long story short, we paid 100 Singapore dollars for 2 people for breakfast. (Your homework assignment is to go to an online currency converter and figure out how much we paid for breakfast.) We went more than a little overbudget.
Abby decided to take the morning off, so Milind and I headed off on the MRT (Singapore’s subway) to a camera shop we had heard about. We searched for awhile til we found it, crossing our fingers that it wouldn’t be one of the many shops that is closed for Chinese New Year. (BTW, I thought being here for Chinese New Year was going to be great, but basically it sucks because everything is closed!!) When we found it, there was a jovial Chinese man standing outside waiting for us. He greeted us with a smile as we told him about my husband’s camera and our need for a new, higher powered zoom lens. He showed us one that was basically the same as the one we have...then he showed us the next model up, quoting us a price o
f $1000. “But I’ll give it to you for special Chinese New Year price of $850.” We declined. He then lowered the price to six hundred and something. We still declined. He wanted to know how much we would pay. We didn’t know. We were clueless. I think he saw the chink in our armor. He finally whittled the price down to $350, and I told my husband to go for it, knowing how badly he wanted to take pictures with his new camera and how he needed the lens. He bought it.
We left the store and were on our way to our next destination, Little India, when my husband realized that the man didn’t give him a receipt for his purchase. We started to smell something fishy (as Velma would say).
Little India was...basically just like the real India. I saw no differences. Well, maybe the traffic moved a little more smoothly and the streets were cleaner. :) I mean that in the kindest of ways, because as you know, I’m a big fan of India. We had lunch at a well- known vegetarian restaurant called Komala Vilas. It was so delicious! I had Masala Dosai, which is a dosa (a huge thin pancake-like thing that fills the whole plate, rolled up) filled with a potato mixture, plus, to put it in Western terms, some dippin’ sauces. :) Komala Vilas was kind of interesting because of course everyone was eating with their hands...and I guess because of that, there were two sinks in the main dining room for hand washing. Did I eat with my hands? Well, I was given a fork (I guess they assumed I was inept), but I used a spoon in my right hand and ate with my left hand in the food. The only hard part was that that food was HOT! The best thing about lunch: it was only $2.50!
We left Little India and came back to the hotel to check on Abby...we wanted to see if she was ready to join us, and she was. While we were at the hotel, my husband did a little research on the internet about lenses and found the same lens he just bought for only $250 on Amazon. He was so upset. He was determined to go back to the store and either get some money back or all his money back. Unfortunately, we checked with the concierge, and there is no concept of merchandise returns in Singapore. There is only an agency called CASE that basically goes after seedy businesses when they make poor business transactions. We did go back to the store...the man was NOT as jovial as he was the first time, and of course he refused to give us our money back. We told him we’d be reporting him to CASE.
After our disappointment at the camera store, we had to check a Singapore “must-do” off our list: Singapore Slings at the Raffles Hotel. We traveled by MRT to the Raffles Hotel, and found our way to the Long Bar...a really cool, old fashioned bar with a lot of history...and my husband and Abby sipped Singapore Slings and ate peanuts in the cool air of the bar. When you’re done with your peanut shells, you just throw them on the floor. It’s that kinda place.
Now we’re back at the hotel for happy hour...we’ve got plans to go out for dinner tonight at a place called Banana Leaf Apolo. We saw it on Andrew Zimmern’s show.
We have vague ideas about what we’ll do tomorrow....but who knows? It’s our last day in Singapore, so we’re going to make the most of it. I do know we’re going back to Clark Quay, but that’s all I know for sure.
TTFN!
No comments:
Post a Comment