This past weekend

hello.
Saturday morning we went on a tour around singapore.
Friday night
We went to Far East square for dinner. We started as a group, even managing to coordinate 16 people, spread over 4 taxis, to the same place.
It really was quite an achievement. After problems, we managed to call a taxi and arrived at the square first, so went looking around. The avenues were lined with restaurants and bars, this part of town was obviously popular with the tourists and european community and there are many restaurants combining asian specialties together, or with in one case, french cuisine. Finding a bar, we sat down for a beer to celebrate finishing exams, however, the beer was a little pricey, so we kept it at one. After about 1/2 an hour, the last of our group arrived and we undertook the task of trying to find a restaurant. Eventually we realised it probably wouldn't happen, so we broke off from the group and ordered the menu for 4 at a thai-indonesian fusion restaurant.
The Food
We're still not quite used to the drinks over here and find the sweetened variety to be a little over the top in some cases, but burdened with the need to try everything once we often find ourselves dubiously sipping at fluorescent coloured beverages with tiny odd gel like balls floating around in them. The food was incredible, a very very spicy chilli basil chicken, a stir fried fish dish, a beef curry and an incredible soft shell crab, despite our full stomachs, we considered ordering another plate of this as it was just so devine.
A neat little box made of bamboo leaf filled with water chestnut and a milk based topping as well as some kind of dried fruit with a white sauce was a very tasty dessert of the day that came with the meal.
The reason I pay such attention to detail is that everyone always talks about the quality of the food in singapore and this restaurant certainly proved this to us.
We went off for a wander after the meal, searching for a cheaper beer house, and some where to sit. We found ourselves in an outdoors food court. It was quite impressive, people were flagging us down, asking us if we wanted satay. Our marketing skills came out as we questioned the businesses unique selling point.
We found ourselve in a nook of mama africa, a dark little pub decked out in african regalia. Hidden amongst the singaporeans, we drank our tiger beers and discussed the trip.
The Tour
Not wanting to be too tired for the tour, we headed back home quite early.
The tour started at 9.30 and took us to the esplanade where many a photo was taken of the merlion, which apparently started it's life on the other side of the road. Walking along the river and under the bridges, we came across a man with an albino python. We took turns feeling it and posing for photos, being the tourists that we obviously were before being turned away from our next destination by the presense of the national guard preparing their procedure for the National day on August 9. Stretchers with fake bodies and balloons could be seen as we drove past. So without seeing the raffles landing point, but hearing all about it from our ever informative guide, we made our way on towards china town. The Thian Hock Keng chinese buddist temple was incredibly ornate and the stop coincided with a brief burst of rain. Walking around the temple we learnt about how the temple was designed and the various gods that were worshipped there. With our heads bursting with folklorewe made our way through china town weaving in and out of the stalls.
Stopping for lunch near little india, we also looked briefly inside a muslim mosque as a prelude to next weekend's proposed tour of places of worship.
We also wove through the little india arcade. Some girls got themselves henna tattoos while others were content to watch. We were told that little india came to life at night. Unfortunately, around this point I left the tour and made my own way around, but I'm told the malay quarter was extremely beautiful.
I myself was in need of a digital camera, and I -think- I managed to get myself a good deal at Sim Lim Square, which is the electronics capitol of singapore. In addition I found my way to Bugis markets, a huge varied outdoor-indoor market.
After a snooze back at PGP, a few of us made our way back out to little india to see it by night.
The wet market was very impressive, with so much meat and fish and amazing fruits and vegetables like none I've seen before. Upstairs we found the indian dress stalls and marvelled at the incredible colours and detail. The items themselves seemed very cheap and I myself intend to return before I leave. We saw a few street performers and thought about making the journey home.
Unfortunately that wasn't as easy as we'd hoped. It took over an hour to hail a cab. We now know, if you want to catch a cab on a saturday night, you either have to wait at a cab rank, or you have to call and order them. For some reason, no matter how wildly we jumped up and down in front of cabs which were plainly for hire, they didn't seem to want to pick us up.
We are recuiting more people to post, so hopefully soon there will be some more accounts of what has been going on.