21-day South-Asia trip (2007)

January 19th

Woke up at 5am to Muslim prayers, about 15 minutes only.

Early walk before breakfast.
Breakfast of fried rice and egg complimentary of the hotel.

Dominic called this food 'junk food' and wanted to have a real breakfast. We walked over to a place across the way from the hotel to see where the locals eat. There is a place where customers choose take-out dishes and serve themselves rice and a variety of about 20-30 dishes. I was amazed. When you are done serving your portion, the checkout girl looks to see about how much to charge. After helping ourselves we snacked to our hearts content, satisfying ourselves with a cup each of warm soya milk.

After breakfast we toured the town for a bit. We headed for the pier, where Dominic has purchase some items before. There are roadside shops lining just about every street in this town. Small shops specializing in their own line of products, house-ware, clothing, spices, tools, etc.

At the harbour, we arrived in time to see a merchant ship unloading goods. To me it looked like a scene straight out of a Joseph Conrad novel. Dominic said they used the same system when he was a young boy living in Singapore.

Eating:

sugar and peanut pancake from street-stall: tasty
Another one or two, wrapped in banana leaf

Chinese char kwiteau 2 different kinds: wet and dry. $1/plate
An excellent lunch. If I ever go back there, I will go to this particular place again. I suggest trying both sorts of char back-to-back in order to test the difference between both kinds.

Boat to Singapore.

Dinner:
Bugis Food Court: 3 dishes and a dessert.