Welcome to Singapore - You can leave your diet at the door

If you are expecting me to write about whisky, you will have to wait for the next post. I'm at the end of four days in Singapore and whisky hasn't featured. Booze is fairly expensive here, so apart from the odd bottle of Tiger after a day of sightseeing, it has been an almost teetotal visit.

What I have done is eat. There is so much good food here.
You probably know the story - Singapore is a small island, populated with Malays, Chinese, Indians, Europeans and lots of others. They all brought their food traditions, and some have evolved into distinctly Singaporean dishes. I wanted to eat them all and gave it a good nudge, going to different food centres, full of tiny food stalls everyday. I haven't had a western meal since the plane trip here. Breakfast this morning was rice porridge with fish stirred into it, yesterday, it was sort of turnip Egg Foo Yong. Maybe the best thing was a Mutton Biryani from a bustling restaurant in Little India. It's a good thing I'm leaving. My trousers feel tighter already.

It's always hot here. It's the least warm part of the year at the moment, but it's still always between low 20's and low 30's. I just got used to sweating and buying plenty of fresh juice drinks. The best of which was made from tropical Starfruit and tastes like a slightly sour, slightly salty Nashi pear. Very refreshing,

Anyway, hearing about other people's holidays isn't all that interesting, so I'll stop now, but here are a few photos.

A typical food centre scene. Meals here are typically $3 - $5.

With so many vendors under one roof, one vendor can be very specialised. This one only offers two variations of the same dish, Kway Teow, and has done since 1974. Needless to say, they do a bloody good Kway Teow.

This is a coconut milk drink called "Cendol". It's nice enough if you like drinks with Durian and little green noodles in them.

I took this photo to prove that I didn't just eat in Singapore. I looked at some touristy stuff too. Singapore seems slightly obsessed with the "Merlion' at the right of this picture. It's a statue that projectile-vomits water.

I wasn't really in Singapore to shop, but this was a bargain I couldn't pass up. For 30 cents, I purchased a dual-purpose "earwax pick" and blackhead remover. I didn't even have to haggle. In saying that, for $2, I could have got clear plastic earwax pick with a built in light. Truly a gift for the man who has everything.