Chinatown and Rochester Park
Trip Start
Jun 28, 2007
1
3
Trip End
Jul 05, 2007
Singapore,
Singapore
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Here's a quick summary of what I covered:
In Chinatown:
1. Hayden boutique on Club Street - Local Singapore designer specialising in special occasion cocktail dresses. Great scarf-like ones using silk satin and colours that are easy to travel with amongst other more formal ones.
2. Qi Mantra on Club Street - Massage! What else need I say?!!
3. Ember Restaurant (part of Hotel 1929) - Attempted twice to get there. Comes highly recommended and has been around for at least 5 years with strong staying power.
4. Down the street from Ember is a famous family owned and run coffee shop serving the fattest pieces of Char Siew (roast pork) I have ever seen but locals seem to like it enough to patiently wait their turns at being served. The few lean meat strips I had were delicious.
Rochester Park:
1. Colonial bungalows owned by the British (military quarters for officers?) and handed over to the Singapore Govt. and now converted into very nice locations for dining. Fabulous decors. Ate at Da Paolo - decent. Take a taxi there.
West Jurong:
1. Singapore style Indian rojak, a first for me. Very different to Malaysian style Indian rojak. You select your own mix, and the sauce (sweet and spicy) is served separately as a dip. Delicious.
Birkenstocks trivia:
Styles vary country by country. Asia: more patterns and colours. Europe: more classical styles and solid colours only. German HQ decides on pattern and stock distribution.
Tatami designs (Japanese range) highly valued by Singaporeans as collectors' items with regular limited edition styles. Wider selection of Tatami styles than in Hong Kong. Arch supports are designed to be higher for Tatami styles catering to Japanese (and Asian?) feet of which ~60% women have flat feet or a pronate stance. Since my feet pronate, these are fabulous for walking distances and standing long hours as evidenced by my 3 week trip to Turkey recently.
