Punggol and Orchard Road

I continue From Here

Day-02... 30-April-2016

We woke up late and the wet windows indicated that it had rained that morning. We got ready and headed for our breakfast buffet at the hotel. The spread was very impressive. It had a few vegetarian options as well. At around 10:30, we went to the Krishna Temple behind our hotel. It was surprising to see that even Singaporeans worship the main deities but of course in their own way, by burning incense sticks.

We then headed to the MRT at Little India and took a train towards Sengkang. At Sengkang, we took the light rail until Bakau. The north eastern tip of Singapore is completely a residential area filled with Government built apartment complexes. We met my school friend Anand at the Bakau station and he guided us to his apartment. It was nice meeting him after a long time and also to know his wife and sweet little twins.

Anand explained to me that these apartment complexes are built such that a few complexes combined have a supermarket and park. The house has a special room built of metal that is a protection from Bomb attacks. Every house would have such safe rooms in case of emergency. The houses are very spacious unlike in HK. The citizens buy these houses but they have to stay there for at least ten years before renting them out. The public schools come at a subsidised rates for the citizens but the foreigners pay the regular fee. It was interesting to get to know the culture and lifestyle here. Anand and I also discussed photography and he convinced me to edit my pictures using the software named Lightroom. Another interesting topic was about the full time Indonesian maid they have at their place to look after the kids. Anand’s wife briefed us about the elaborate interview process before hiring a maid and how they are treated like an employee and are eligible to avail yearly leaves, medical coverage, yearly travel tickets to their home country and other amenities. The maids also come with a two page resume detailing out their experiences. It was interesting to hear that Government provides some interesting English and other vocational training classes for these maids on Sundays, at a reasonable fee, so that they can make use of their time-off in a constructive manner.

In the evening, we took a cab to the Punggol point, which is the Northeastern tip of the country. There is a nice walkway created near the shore. The approach road to this area is filled with trees and gives a forest like feel. The area was filled with the locals bicycling, fishing, playing or trying the series of sea food restaurants. It was a nice sight, with very less tourists and more residents.

On the other side of the shore we see Malaysia and Indonesia.

We headed back to Orchard road and took a walk by the huge malls filled with very popular and expensive brands from around the world. The streets were decently crowded and we saw one or two singers on the street entertaining the crowd.

You find a lot of small road side stalls serving ice cream wafers; seemed like a delicacy that everyone wanted a bite of it. We tried a few flavours ourselves. The shop was setup on top of a motorcycle. You could also choose the bread instead of wafers you you wish.