My Travel Diaries: Singapore Beckons!

We had lost our breakfast coupons but we were still allowed to enter the cafe for breakfast. Our lunch was also prepacked. The Bus today morning for our trip to Singapore was a different one. The journey was going to be around 5 hours. We were warned of Singapore’s strict rules. They say its a FINE city, an oft used pun. High on the not to take things is chewing gum. Chewing gum is a banned item in Singapore after authorities found people sticking the used gum on the doors of the monorail. After lunch at one of their rest stops which are developed along the highway , i joined the guys at the back to play cards. Thus began our card playing, Donkey nonstop.
Singapore is an Island so to get there we need to cross a bridge. After that we have to go through Singaporean authorities. Before the bridge is where the Malaysian border ends and we have to submit our Exit card and get the stamp on our Passport. The Singapore visa is a E-visa and valid for 2 years. After a quick check through we were back in our bus and journeying towards the centre of the city. Singapore!
Our hotel was The Village’s Albert Court, which was located near Little India and the Famous Mall, Mustafa Mall. Mustafa Centre is Singapore’s only 24-hour shopping mall. Mustafa was founded by Indian businessman Mustaq Ahmad in 1971, and at first sold mainly clothing. In 1985, Mustaq moved his business to the ground floor of Serangoon Plaza. As his business expanded, Mustaq bought over a shophouse on Syed Alwi Road. Subsequently, he also bought the neighbouring units, but decided to build a new shopping mall to house his business. Thus its grown really big nowadays!
There was still time before the day ended so everyone opted for a quick visit to the mall as long as we made it back for dinner at 7:30. Walking through the streets of Little India i couldn’t help thinking that ‘You can take the Indian out of India but not the India out of the Indian’. It reminded me of Chennai actually. After we trudged through the labyrinthine passages exhausted by the vastness and by the fact that this was a building that grew as the owner bought the neighbouring shops to add to the mall. You keep going into the next building only at a particular level and its confusing to navigate through it. Add to the length of a floor, I assure you , you will be exhausted. Things to buy here: Cosmetics ( Soaps, Perfumes) and Food. Other than that there aren’t anything thats “cheap”. As far as electronics goes you are better off buying them in India because they’ll have a valid guarantee/warranty. What we bought included Rechargeable batteries for the camera ( Rs 350 for precharged 2100Am) , cosmetics , perfumes and ofcourse Chocolates! But this was later on day 7, the day after tomorrow.
So quite empty handed we headed back to the hotel, exhausted. Dinner was in the nearby Sheesh Mahal attached to our hotel plaza actually. The Hot tub soak was definitely something required! I have always loved bath tubs. They were that elusive luxury when i was little and i never got round to having a bath in one till i got to go on this trip.
Watched some quality tv before dosing off, The Foo Fighters live at Wembley i believe. My room looked over the street below.

Exams for christmas

as i was saying.. life’s become kinda monotonous.. these study hols are truly from Hell!! why do you need them?? i always cram last minute inspite of all the time now. there’s no adrenaline junking if you study now.. so here i am sleeping 10 hours a day, watching a lot of tv in between studies.. seriously speaking i have been watching a lot of movies lately!!! more then i even have during the whole last semester!!!! am waiting for Heroes -season 2 now.

this is the saddest part of the year to schedule exams for.. all through my life i totally enjoyed December. being in catholic schools we got them 10 odd days holidays at christmas which was definitely what i looked forward to all year. enter VTU, no holidays only studies, ” Christmas..?? New Year…?? Bah! Humbug!! ” acting like Scrooge. stingy with its holidays and attendace( 85% is way too high but i manage). spoilsport!!!

ok so shopping is one thing that is synonymous with Christmas. Heck! we dont have any other major festivals to shop for.. Easter is there but prior to that day is the 40 day lenten season where you have to mourn, fast,etc.. ok so thats something which i will do.. My bro’s is done. we checked out the new Khadim’s store. not happy. no selection. costly. dont go there. i wanna check out the new Mega mart at PVS next.

right now looking curiously at the silver Sony Viao  beside my bed. more on that in the next post.