First order of business of the day was to check out the East Shore Park. It looks like a long boardwalk along the beach. I got a cab down there and it let me off at one end where there were a bunch of restaurants and shops. It’s Monday so most of the shops and restaurants were closed. It looked like a ghost town. There were no cars in the parking lot. I did find a place to have breakfast. To my surprise, my french toast had peanut butter in it. Unnecessary.
I walked around the park for awhile. It doesn’t seem like a tranquil island beach when you look out to the water and see nothing but a solid mass of cargo ships. The park overdid itself like I imagine all the parks in Singapore do. It had benches, exercise equipment, bbq grills, separate walking and biking paths along with a lot of other amenities. It was spotless clean too. I did walk by an area of tents, boats and roll away garbage bins. Not sure what that was all about. I’d have thought it was homeless if it wasn’t for the fact that the garbage bins outnumbered the tents.
It was getting too hot for humans to survive outside. So, I decided to do the shopping I needed to get done. Oh, crap, how do I get anywhere? I’m at the ghost town beach and the only taxi is the one that let me off hours ago. I actually did see a few taxis, but they all went by me. I ended up going through a highway underpass to another part of town which was half a ghost town and getting a taxi there.
Orchard Road is the big shopping area, but it’s very high end and probably very expensive. Judy had suggested that I got to Mustafa’s. It’s cheaper and it’s a madhouse that needs to be experienced. It is one store that is 5 or 6 levels tall and has almost everything ever made in it. The isles are too small for two people to be in them at once and there are already 4 people in every isle. There is a small order to things such as all the cosmetics are on one floor, but if you want perfume, it’s in 6 different places on that floor. I was looking for perfume that Pat wanted me to pick up. I also wanted to buy some cosmetics for myself. Everything in Thailand has whitening agents in it because they think light skin is pretty. I’m now darker than most Thais and am happy to pale naturally over time without whiteners. I also wanted to get a gift for Judy for letting me stay at her place. After wandering the first floor, I decided I was up for the challenge of the other 5 floors. It was like a maze – just when you thought you got to the end of the store, there was another room on that level. After 2 hours I gave up on tackling the whole store. It was not possible and people are so rude and pushy, I couldn’t take it anymore.
Last night when Judy asked what I was going to do today, I told her I wanted to see Henderson Waves. She hadn’t seen it, looked it up and wanted to go so we decided to do it after she got home from school. From what I had seen on line, it looked like an undulating bridge, but I couldn’t figure out how you would drive or walk on it. Andy decided to join us. It was a foot bridge between two really big parks. It is the highest bridge in Singapore. The wave part is off the side of the walking part. It is stunningly beautiful with great views off either side. It is a serious piece of art, in my opinion. Bravo. We stayed up there for quite awhile taking pictures.
After Henderson Waves, we took the train to Sentosa. Sentosa is a landfill island, meaning, the island was made from the extra dirt of other construction projects over the years. It has a huge park, Universal Studios, beaches and who knows what other wonderful things. It was almost dark when we got there. We went to the shore and I put some of Scott’s ashes in the water! So, now he’s in Singapore too.
Off to dinner and then Judy’s neighborhood bar. She introduced me to a guy named Ian who works with or runs or owns a company that teaches English for hospitality industry workers. She was hoping he might have some future work for me. He was with family that was visiting and was not the least bit interested in talking to me. Oh well, it was worth a try to make a new connection.
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Rraine Drops 