My first day there, I went out to the Tekka markets in little India where they sold fresh meats and fish, and it smelled like it too. There was also food places that haggled at you to eat at their place over the ones two feet to the left or right of them. They kept yelling things at us to try to make us choose their food hut…Strangely they all pretty much offered the same thing. There is a tea there that is slightly reminiscent of Chai that would make you feel all warm inside! It was delicious!We walked around little India more and caught glimpse of some seriously intricate Hindu temples.
One of the most graphic included a colored sculpture of a group of people, one being eaten by a lion. They went into detail. We also saw lines of stores selling typical Indian jewelry and scarves.They were beautiful but got pricey.We made our way back to a restaurant called the banana leaf. We enjoyed a traditional spicy vegetarian meal served on a banana leaf. The men literally walk around with huge pots of various curries, sauces, rice and concoctions spicy enough to burn your insides and spoon out a dollop of each on our leaf.
These curry rice dishes are traditionally eaten by hand… the right hand to be exact, because from what they told us, they use their other hand to wipe themselves. I’m learning something new everyday... and I just used a fork.
As Singapore started to literally pour, we hopped in cabs and made our way over to Chinatown. Streets lined with ethnic trinkets and gifts for any visitor wanting to remember Singapores culture.As we walked through, there were people holding up signs with promotions for feet, back and full body massages. Sooner, our new amazing lighting director, convinced me this would be worth the barely 40 American dollars we would be spending.
I got a 30 minute back massage, 30 minute foot massage, and ear candling done for about 40 bucks. Steal of a deal, especially as good as it was.
Ear candling… I don’t know if this is even good for you, but I tried it. Basically, they use a hollow candle about the size and length of a pencil. They stuck one end in my ear and proceeded to burn the other end. The fire at the other end pulls in oxygen through the candle and in doing so, acts as a vacuum for your ear, extracting any old debris and large amounts of ear wax. Sorry for the graphic verbage... I was so disgusted when I saw the aftermath of this experience that I took a picture, but believe me it’s not for the weak of stomachs, it really grosses me out. Now I can say, though, that it is no longer in my body and although I don’t feel any difference, seeing how it looked makes me know it made a difference.
The following day, the rain continued as I was blessed with meeting up with a friend from home all the way on the other side of the world! I spent the day walking around Chinatown again with my friend Nick, his girlfriend and his buddy from their show. He was performing at the same venue we were, only a few days after we’d left. We opted out of doing any clothing changes for our show that night and the crowd was larger than we had heard it would be, so overall the night went well! I was excited because I love having friend in the audience... I just feel like I dance better.
After our show in Jakarta was cancelled, we were lucky to have an extra day in Singapore to do more wallet damage. I started off walking out by myself and ran into some of my favorite partners in crime, Jill and Sooner... We found ourselves in a Japanese style photo booth that was equipped with a bench and monkey bars to sit and climb around on. This photo booth was easily the most advanced I've ever encountered, allowing you to have post production capabilities in personalizing the end result. We were impressed, but unfortunately, all of the post production instructions were in chinese or japanese. This left us guessing and pressing random buttons and since they give you a time limit on editing, we had no time to figure it out! None the less... I love these things!
They have an amazing 4 story high indoor mall attached to our hotel’s back door! A bunch of our people got their electronic gadgets personalized with something they call digi art. It’s simply a better version of art worked saran wrap that is put on anything from an ipod, cell phone, computer, etc and lasts about 6 months to a year. They also had a market right across the street that seemed to be able to fit 100 little shops where 20 should only be. Similar to santee alley in downtown LA, but only cheaper and more haggle friendly. I literally shopped from the moment I woke up… until about 10:30pm when everything closed.
Singapore thrives off of tourists and the commerce they bring to the country. I suggest a visit, if nothing else to get a great inexpensive massage and eat amazing food!
No comments:
Post a Comment