Taking a night stroll...

About a week before I moved to Tanjung Pagar, we were watching TV while still at Joo Chiat when my room mate suddenly blurted out "I'm hungry, let's go for something to eat!". "I bought some instant noodle. I can make some for you!" I said, as I had just bought a pack of 10 at only SGD2.20 and I really did not want to go out and spend more money as I really don't have much left before my next paycheck! "I feel like something better. I think we need to reward ourselves! Give ourselves a better life and have some fun while we are here!" my room mate protested!

"Come on, be a sport! I'll take you to where lots of Chinese people hangout!". And so with this, the three of us casually dressed up and took a walk out of our apartment. It was a Saturday night and around 7.00pm as we passed by City Plaza and continued walking down towards Geylang road. This was my second time strolling out at night, the first was when my colleague took me to City Plaza to get a phone card and MRT card.. I wasn't expecting a long walk but friends insisted on crossing the wide junction as "... there are more food stalls over the other side!" they quipped.

The roads became more glitzy and glittered invitingly as we walked, the crowd became more rowdy and I could catch the accent of many local Chinese. Food stalls lined the streets. I could also see many Indians too. My friends told me most of them are also foreign workers... just like us. I could see that in front of me, the traffic were starting to slow down as more and more people walked the streets. I could see women sexily dressed and men gawking at them. While I've never seen anything like this in Singapore, my instinct tells me that this must be the red-light and night life entertainment district and my friends confirmed it. This is the first time I've seen the streets so crowded in Singapore, the bright lights, the good looking and well dressed up people... it's really quite a sight to behold! In fact, it felt a little bit like the more crowded cities near my hometown. I felt a little under-dressed in comparison! The number of Chinese Nationals here just amazes me!

We finally stopped by a porridge stall and ordered something to fill our growling tummy. We were already hungry when we left home but after the long walk, we were like a pack of hungry wolves. This was a night of excellent food (although rather costly as the three of us ate about SGD12 worth. My pack of $2.20 noodles could fill more tummies!), excellent scenery and certainly an educational tour of the nightlife of Singapore. As I did not have to work the next day, we walked all the way to the end and back again. By the time we were back home, it was close to 11pm... tired but an eye-opener and a night I truly enjoyed nonetheless!