Pawwing Little India In One's Own Land!

Grrrowl!!!

We were pawwing the streets of Little India during the Diwali weekend early this month and like every festive month, we would be joining the huge crowds, rubbing shoulder to shoulder with just one simple intent - TO SHOP!

Ok, so we don't shop every festive, but we sure do bask in the mood - we feel Indian during Deepavali, Chinese during Lunar New Year, maybe multi-ethnic during Christmas and so on...

Festive seasons in Singapore are often celebrated with the hanging of huge decorations and street lightings, so you cannot help but feel a part of the community. I guess that's one of the reason why Singaporeans are often respectful of each other despite our ethnicity, which is really, a very commendable thing.

Along the streets of Race Course Road, also known as Little India or Tekka by the locals (named after a wet market in the area), we see grand street light-ups to welcome in the festive. According to a Hindu friend of mine, Diwali basically means "row of lights" or the festival of lights. It signifies the welcomed return of Lord Sri Rama 14-years "retreat" into the forest to become king.

So to celebrate his return, Hindus express their happiness by lighting up lamps, (as an offering to God for health, wealth, knowledge etc.), decorate their houses, indulge in festive sweets and go visiting to the homes of friends and families to renew their kinship.

And like most other celebrations in Singapore, we have night bazaar (or night market) in the particular area densely populated by the race in celebration. This year (and every other year i should think), the night bazaar is held at Birch Road, just opposite of the widely famous, popular and packed, Mustaffa Centre.

Remember this corner? That's right, you're looking at the heavily congested, every driver's nightmare on Syed Alwi Road where Mustaffa Centre is. For those who haven't been here before, Mustaffa Centre is a budget department store that sells EVERYTHING. Everything you need from Plasma TV to retro 1980's Casio watches and all the spices you can dream of including clothes and sundries too - It is a ONE-STOP shop and because it is, goods often overflows making it probably one of the worse shopping arcade to bring child strollers and shopping carts. Leave those behind, you only need cash or your credit card! :)

Information on Mustaffa Centre can even be found on Wikipedia - thats how HUGELY popular this place is. Visitors probably knows Mustaffa Centre better than the Singapore Merlion! Haha!

At the corner of the bazaar is the "kerepek" stall, which basically sells the dried goodies and chips the Indians call, "Murukku" (in Tamil) - which is a savoury snack made by grounding spices (like cumin), lentils, rice and butter then fried in coconut oil. Very addictive and tasty... But those looking to cut them calories should stay away from it completely. One is never enough!!!

I like the idea of them hanging the savoury snacks... Definitely attracts attention!

Apart from the food, the bazaar also offers beautiful, colourful, sequine-heavy punjabi suits and kurtas (for men). The Indians (Hindus) are encouraged to put on clean and new clothes especially during visiting. Like we needed to be told to do that!!!

Because we were there during the last weekend and just 2 days away from Diwali, goods sold at the bazaar (whose prices were initially quite steep) were probably slashed into half at least to tempt patrons into purchasing. The idea is to let go of the products this year, because next year, no one wants to buy "last year's" fashion!

Pretty little sandals to go with the pretty outfit anyone? You betcha! I took this picture only because it looks like the white sandal my brother got for himself during his wedding! Hahaha! And so, its only sold for S$15... Hmmm...

Jumbo-size altars are also for sale, displaying Lord Ganesha - which is the popular Elephant God of removing obstacles in one's mortal life. Its so popular that even my "ang moh" (caucasian) boss puts a mini-deity in his room to remove "obstacles" (like us) away from him! :)

"Henna Tattoo" are a craze here in SG. And for Hari Raya as well as Diwali, people are actually willing to queue to get their hands and feet "tatooed" with henna ink by the Henna Tattooist. Depending on the intricacies of the design, it can probably range between S$5 to S$150! Or even more, i dunno... I've never done them before and i don't think i will. Cubbies don 't want her cute fat paws in colours other than furry brown!!! Bah!

With just a tube of henna, the tattooist skillfully "squeeze" her way through those, by now, i think, tired little hands, keeping in mind the design of choice.

See what i mean by multi-ethnic? That even though this is a celebration meant for Hindus, everyone is welcomed to join in! Shisha (or hookah... gasp!) pipes are also found at the bazaar. Although the Indians have something to do with the origins of the pipe (it actually originated from India), it is hugely popular in the Arab world that people often mistook it for an "Arab thing".

Know why i said Mr. Mustaffa Centre is one of the most insanely popular spot for shopping in Singapore?

First to Mustaffa... then to Airport! ;)

A Fishy Tale On A Diwali Weekend!

Grrrowl!!!

Whoa... What a weekend it had been for The Travelling Teddies. We spent the looooooong Diwali weekend, home-away-from-home style and it was probably the awesomest ever. It's been quite a while (since the start of Ramadhan) that we get to leave the comforts of our individual lair and into the wild world of pleasure and pamper.

We bitched about all sorts of things and slept at 2am and slept in till 9am the next morning... stroll our way down to breakfast in flip-flops and bermudas (where Cubbies got her 3 rolls of butter croissants - yayyy! - and baked beans eaten with Rocket leaves - just the way she liked it!)... went up to the room again and continued hibernating till checkout.

What a life! If only every weekend is a long Diwali weekend, i'd be a happy happy bouncy bear!

Anyway, after we checked out, we made our way to lunch before heading home. Meebops suggested Popeyes Chicken. The outlet that we usually go to when we have the cravings for hot juicy chicken thighs (and breasts for Cubbies) is the one at Changi Airport Terminal 1.

And since we were in the city that day, we decided to give the outlet at the Singapore Flyer a shot. Meebops' been there before so it was a second time for her but as for me, it was my virgin experience on SF grounds. Man, it was breathtaking! TSF was a huge complex with a quaint little sanctuary at the foot of the flyer, which i'd really like to walk around in when the weather is better, because as soon as we reached SF, it started pouring!

So we took a break and went for lunch first since we were by then, famished. We ordered the usual fare of 2 chicken set each (upsized, with large mash and slaw) and a side order of that moreish red bean and rice.

This is the Cajun Mash - upsized! The gravy, which is laden with gizzards and fats, herbs and chicken shreds were absolutely to die for. Unlike KFC (whose potatoes tasted earthy and probably blended till almost powder-like), Popeyes mashed potatoes are lumpier and close to perfect! Very tasty and makes you want more more more! I licked it all off to the bottom of the plastic cup... Heh!

This is their infamous insanely famous, yummy and almost exquisitely scrumptious Popeyes Coleslaw - with just the right hint of tanginess and sweet sourish flavours. I just love the almost-chunky pieces of cucumber pickles that you can see before they disappear in your mouth... absolute heavenly...

OK... so the photo didn't do as much justice as i had hope for. Looked a little mushed up but if you have never been to Popeyes, you probably haven't tasted darn good fast food coleslaw. You have to try it. Definitely a star award from The Travelling Teddies!

We also ordered a regular side-dish to go with our chickies. This is also their famous Red Bean and Rice side which is very very tasty even on its own... Simply finger lickin' good. Meebops is not a big fan of red beans and neither am i but we simply can't resist this lil' number. A mixture of light sweetness and greasy goodness. Even though Cubbies is on a no-rice diet but heck, for this one, i'd take a day off - and i did! Haha!

Ahh... well well... spicy fried chicken never tasted so good! Cubbies didn't even wash her hands before eating (bad, bad Cubbies!) and before i took the picture, i couldn't resist a bite off the chicken drumstick! I am personally not a big fan of their buttermilk biscuits (crispy on the outside and soft on the inside) but i had it all to myself this time! Yum yum yummy!!!

Move aside KFC, McDonalds' and Church's Chicken (didn't try Church's in the US though...), Popeyes' here to take over the fried chicky world (in my heart at least!) with fat juicy breasts and killer thighs. Yummza! We pawwed Popeyes' countless of times that we can paw no more - cos we're too busy devouring the chickies...

Errmm.. moving on... Right after lunch, we went for a little walk at the mall. There weren't much shops around but we were fascinated by the Fish Spa treatment offered by Kenko. Though i am usually quite sceptical with the true benefits the fishes offer, i have to say, i was intrigued... After at least 10 minutes of asking each other, "How? You want to try? I'm good with anything... You want? You want, i can play along... How?", we finally decided to give the fishies some feet to nibble on. It was raining anyway...

Big Fish, Small Fish... and Medium ones. As a start, i wanted to give the tiny fishies a treat but the masseuse directed us elsewhere. I didn't like the fact that we were "optionless" but to the medium fish tank she showed us and there we went... It was intimidating just by looking at it!

Smile fishies! Smile!

See.. the one sitting on the opposite side of the large tank is Cubbies... Yup the one with white, pale, fat legs and curled up paws. See Meebops? Both her feet are already in the water, fully submerged!

It costs us S$38 (per pax) for a 30 minute "fish massage" and a 10 minute shoulder massage (which to me is super lame anyway). My gut feeling says that all this hooblah is painfully for pure entertainment sake but according to the website, the fishes actually nibbles off dead skin cells on your feet and helps improve blood circulation, lighten minor scars (which i don't have on my bear paws anyway...), ease eczema (poor fishies...) and releases stress and tension (the stress of dipping your precious feet to a swarm of hungry nibblies?... yeah right!).

Meebops was a lot braver than i gave her credit for!!! Bravo Meebops! She started her spa treatment first by dipping in both her feet, without much hesitation! A little squirmish at the start when the hungry fishes started nibbling but she was a-OK after 10 secs of giggly gaggles...This is Meebops and her paws in water.

"The fishies seemed confused... They're swimming the WRONG direction. The feet's THAT way!"

Cubbies couldn't bear to let the fishies nibble on her cute little fat paws!! So i dipped my paws in and out and continued to do so for at least 10 minutes (time is money...) before i fully submerged them for the fishes to devour. Aw man... I kept going, "I'm scared... eww.. aarh... takut la.. yakkk! Oooo... arrggh... eeek.. gasp!.." What an embarassment!

And after much coaxing from Meebops and from within my brave little self (and reminding myself how expensive this treatment is...), i finally dared to dip my fat paws into the water. Not sure if this is sanitized though... but its hard not to think negatively about how polluted the water may be when probably thousands of people already dipped their dirty smelly feet, before they changed the water to a fresh one! BAH!


My Feet In With The Fishies from thetravellingteddies on Vimeo.

My verdict is that the Fish Spa was a refreshing new experience for me to bond with the fishies.

Its not that i do not like it, but i am not comfortable with the idea of exploiting ignorant cute little fish friends and getting them to nibble on my "dead skin cells" - which is really, simply treating the fishes with disrespect (and as second class citizens) but it was an experience that i may probably try again (with larger fishes next time, Meebops?). I will stop after i feed the larger ones out of sheer respect.

The shoulder massage was very disappointing for me, personally, cos Meebops said hers was pretty good.

What a pawwing day it was.. despite the embarassing moments!