Day 4 - Mall Hopping
(posted @ 9:36 p.m. July 25, 2004)

At 7 a.m sharp my wake up automated call rang, then I went to have breakfast at the Starlight coffee shop. By 10:30 a.m after my parents had come back from hearing Mass at the Cathedral of the Good Shepard, we took a taxi to Suntec City. It seems that the shops at that mall open at 11 a.m. Barely 30 minutes into opening time, I had already bought some toiletries from Watson's, several t-shirts at Giordano for pasalubongs and my copy of 8 days magazine. Since I was wearing my 2 inch black slide ins, my feet were starting to ache like crazy from walking all over the 4 floors of Suntec City. I was desperate to find some decent pair of walking shoes. The first shop I entered was Hush Puppies and I proceeded to their kids department. Yes I'm bold enough to approach the kids shoes section when I'm abroad. LOL I found these, bought socks and wore them right away.



By noon, we were seated at a table for 4 at Crystal Jade Kitchen Restaurant located at the basement. Pigged out on salted fish fried rice, beef with pepper sauce, century eggs, double boiled soup, grilled garoupa, fried dumplings and to top it all we had mango pudding and honey dew sago for dessert. Boy I can't begin to describe how sumptuous that meal was.
Yum Yum Yum.
Just a few steps away from the restaurant is the
Fountain of Wealth. It is said to bring good luck if you run around it in circles. But hey I wasn't going to do that. I didn't like to get wet. LOL



Next stop - Marina Square. I remember it being adjacent to Suntec City. Little did we know that it was currently undergoing some major renovation so we had to walk through scaffoldings. Inch our way inside the Pan Pacific hotel and take a loop through the Oriental Hotel to reach it. It was a disappointment because the shops looked run down and I didn't get to buy anything.
Upon seeing a sign that the Esplanade was just a few meters away, we followed the path and were there in 10 minutes. This is the durian shaped massive building known as the theatres on the bay which is situated right along the banks of the Singapore river. Most plays, concerts and artistic activities are held there. Streaming outside, one can see the new location of the Merlion as well as the lovely skyscrapers of the CBD or the Central Business District.


Then we took a taxi to Bugis Junction which is my favorite shopping mall in Singapore.
Seiyu, the main department store, the small shops inside the mall, the wide variety of cuisine offered by the different restaurants all add to the attraction of Bugis Junction. By 8 p.m. after shopping like crazy, we settled at Seoul Garden to have dinner. It is a korean restaurant fondly known by the moniker The Table BBQ people. It is buffet style and on your table you have a hot plate with a steamboat and you cook your own food. You pay in advance and can go back to the buffet table as many times as you want. To top it all, they even had CHOCO MINT ice cream which is one of my favorite flavors. My feet were killing me but I over indulge and ate alot. Our hotel was just about a block away so we just walked back. We passed by the pasar malam (night bazaar) on Bugis street and bought magnets, a Singapore wall clock and these really cheap wrist watches for me.



By the time we reached the hotel, I was hungry again. LOL So I went to the Rochor hawker center located next to the Allson hotel and bought myself prawn mee (prawn noodle soup) and fish ball soup for my mother.
11 p.m. I was very exhausted after a very lond day of walking and shopping and fell asleep dreaming of Choco mint ice cream.