Shopping in Bugis

On Sunday before Chinese New Year, I went shopping alone while Alex and Jakob enjoyed their time together.

Bugis is a neighborhood between the trendy Orchard shopping street and Little India. And you can find a mix of both in Bugis. There are two huge shopping malls (I actually got lost in one of them) and a huge street market spread over three floors.

I started in the malls but I was already overwhelmed. Where to go? What to buy? What do I even need? And then there's this endless selection of things, the crowds of people, and the loud music. It can be really overstimulating. So I didn't stay there for too long, because what was I supposed to buy anyway? The clothes were almost too small for dolls.

Then I went to the street market that spans three floors. Here you can find souvenirs, bags, clothes, everything basically. But it's definitely not the best quality, although it's very cheap. And loud and crowded again. I was glad I didn't have a stroller with me and I pushed my way through the crowds. It was really interesting and I saw things that I would never have thought people would buy. But even here, I got lost on the top floor and almost couldn't find the exit. When I finally found a gap down below, I squeezed through and ended up on a street that I didn't know yet. Thanks to Google Maps, it's easy to find the way back to the MRT. But I decided to take a different route for a change. I put away my phone and crossed the street. Suddenly, I found myself in a new hustle and bustle. This time, it was 99% Chinese people. I had accidentally landed on a Chinese New Year market. There were tons of Chinese cookies, flowers, mandarins. People were buying the last cheesy decorations for the New Year's celebration. And all of a sudden, at one booth, I saw mangosteen and bought half a kilo on the spot. This fruit tastes so delicious and I've never seen it in Germany before.

I was really excited and treated myself to a Kopi to go before the MRT (of course, I didn't drink it on the train!). Singaporeans love tea and Kopi in all sorts of variations. (Does anyone still remember Bubble Tea? You can buy it on almost every street corner here.) But I prefer my Kopi without any additives. Because it's already sweet enough. It's actually just strong coffee that is "pulled" with condensed milk.

And then I made my way to my men.

On Saturday, we want to go to Little India again. There will be another blog post about that.

Here's a video about Kopi:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/i8q1xlqcbejcjcg/AADSI0-ZCR_U-gzDA4K2t7sMa?dl=0