Kaya Toast to Bugis Street

Spring                                                                  Wedding Moon

Kaya_Toast_SetBreakfast at the Club. Kate had a British breakfast and I had kaya toast with soft boiled eggs. Kaya is a Singapore speciality, a sort of jam applied to buttered toast which is then folded or made into a sandwich. Our waiter was Katrich, a young, very dark skinned Indian. A Japanese couple ate congee, a business type snapped open his laptop after ordering and checked his phone, a large Indian man ate a large breakfast.  A quiet way to start the day.

kate on the downtown lineThen, a nap. Still pretty exhausted from yesterday’s southerly flight from Korea to near the equator. Did I mention it’s hot here? Oh, boy.

We went out to get some necessities, took the excellent subway, Stevens to Bugis and the walk from the Raffles Town Club to the Stevens station was brutal even though it was short. The subway was air conditioned. A young Chinese man tapped me on the shoulder and offered me his seat.  A moving LED sign enjoined travelers to help the children and elderly. Red seats with a campaign persona named Standup Stacey encouraged the same inside the train cars.

bugis-st-3In the way of traveling we went to Bugis Village, a “three-stories of air conditioned street shopping.” It took us over an hour, including lunch at a ramen restaurant, to find the real entrance. In that hour we both got overheated. Once we found it though it was a genuine Southeast Asian shopping experience. Stall after stall of varying goods like I Love Singapore t-shirts, plastic merlions, racks of women’s short-shorts, shoes and sandals, and the occasional food stall. Crowded, busy. Jostling. Fun.

Waiting now to go out to with Mary who has taught all day.