This crime is not a crime, it's just a great big mess.

OC fashioned herself as Hilary Barry this morning exclaiming the title above after our third mishap in Singapore. Yesterday morning it was lemonade and ice over the table at breakfast on Serangoon Road. Then OC was fiddling with my soup (don’t ask) and we had another flooded table on Orchard Road. Today was especially messy as this was coffee. The owner of “Du Toast” told me that he had predicted this would happen. He studied meditation in Malaysia and knew it would happen when we walked in. Why then, did he take away the plastic tray with a big rim that would have prevented this from happening. One can only meditate on that one.



“Du Toast” provided us with life saving Nutella – a family staple. I made the choice of peanut butter but wished later I'd gone with the kids. Had our first coffee since leaving New Zealand. It was my second cup that landed on the floor. Such is life.

We decided to bunk out of our Sentosa trip preferring to take in more of the local cuisine and shopping. There is a duality in Bugis Street. Where the MRT comes up you have the choice of faux old shops completely encased in a roof of glass where the whole area is air conditioned, or you can cross the road into Bugis Street proper and partake of the shopping in more traditional style: a metal roller door and a shop of 2 square metres, each shop crammed full, just absolutely bursting with product. A walk through and into Bencoolen Street we meet two wonderful temples, a Chinese and an Indian one. The temples have been twice rebuilt to accommodate growth and well worth the visit.


A taxi ride to China Town which like Little India has some wonderful architecture but pretty kitch-y at the end of the day. However we crossed the road into the “People’s Park” complex. This is three of four high rise apartment blocks with shops on the ground floor and at the back one of the most impressive food halls that The Cook has seen. Nothing flash. It's all function over form but oh, how great, how absolutely mind bogglingly great. We were virtually the only foreigners there. Why on earth don’t travellers just cross the road some times to see what’s on the other side? Speaking of which, this is not a wheelchair user-friendly town. You notice the difference.


Then a taxi back to the hotel. These taxi rides are fifteen minutes long and the maximum price has been five Singapore dollars. One really only needs to walk to do a bit of pavement shopping, to experience the sights and smells. One certainly doesn't walk to save money. The Night Safari tonight. The rain that appears around 5pm each night better be gone by 7pm.



PPS
Night Safari went well. Saw ions and huge male elephants with metre long tusks doing their thing under the moon (that doesn't sound quite right but I'm up too late to care).

Changi Airport tomorrow morn for the London leg. God preserve us ;-)