Chinatown

Monday July 27, 2009

Our little red cell phone rang at 10 AM Monday morning. Jens was calling to check how we were doing before going to bed Sunday evening in Chicago. We were already on Mosque Street in Chinatown doing a little exploring. We had arrived on the MRT an hour early to meet Jane Tay and her 18 and 21 year-old sons, Joel and Julian. We would meet them at the Chinatown MRT passenger service boothe at 10:30. We had already walked along Temple Street, New Bridge Street, strolled briefly through the not yet active Chinatown street. The exit from the MRT opens right into Chinatown.

Jens was impressed that Bruce could now text message for cab. Bruce hasn't texted before.

Kaye and Lynn Garner know the Tays because they were in their ward while their 2 sons attended BYU. I contacted them by e-mail for advice about attending church and Jane invited us to spend a day with them exploring Chinatown, various Chinese foods and fruits, and the east end of Singapore.

We met up with the Tays, knowing immediately who they were (and they us) though we had never seen each other before.

Out in Chinatown, we explored shops, stopped to sample something kind of like Chinese jerky, bought a yam cake, sesame ball, barbecue filled dumpling (not wet, but dry and fluffy) and maybe some other stuff. We all shared a sampling of these. Jane wanted us to taste as many examples of Singapore Chinese food as possible. I decided to just explore the shops today and not buy much.

We saw a Buddhist Temple built in the 1800s and a Hindu Temple; you could take pictures of the temples if you bought a "license" for your camera, which we didn't.