Little India, Little Malaysia, And A Little Smoke

This morning started off with Ryan nearly evacuating the entire hotel. We were at breakfast and he put bread in the toaster and walked to the far side of the room to get some eggs made. About three minutes later there were staff running to figure out why the entire room was filled with smoke. Ryan was mortified. I thought it was AWESOME.
Nothing really opens here until 11:00 a.m. so we went for a swim after breakfast. You can't even compare this pool to the one in Hong Kong but it was nice to take a plunge into cold water. Today the temperature was hovering around 30 Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) but with the humidity it felt like 36 (97). It was bliss for the first 10 minutes... then a hoard of children came and we evacuated immediately.
After our swim we decided to walk (of course, we pick the hottest day... but I'm not complaining. I wasn't forced to dress up. I'll count my blessings) to Little India and Little Malaysia. We weren't sure if it would be worth the 2 hours of walking but figured we could melt off some blubber on the way. As an aside, Singapore is as clean as everyone makes it out to be. I haven't seen one piece of litter, have seen people scrubbing down handles, and scrubbing outdoor floors like this lady was.
Our first stop was at Little India. We weren't sure what to expect but as soon as we turned a corner into the area we were blasted with incense, fabric, gold jewelery, statues of Ganesh, and women that wanted to cover us in Henna. We were happy we made the trek but there wasn't very much room to move. I asked Ryan if he was happy we went and his reply was "It reminds me of Istanbul... stinky and way too many aggressive sales people." I'm pretty sure that's his way of saying that it was a really cool experience and he's glad we went (after I coerced him into spending the day there).
We were probably ready to go back to air-conditioning at this point but we didn't feel right about missing the opportunity to go to Little Malaysia. It was O'kay and we were glad we went but we were seriously 'done' at this point as far as heat.
We had our free lunch (thanks to our super awesome travel agent Ilana) at the Chinese restaurant in the hotel called Jiang-Nan Chun. After about 15 minutes looking at the menu we found everything that didn't have seafood in it (I would have been happy but Ryan, not so much). It was delicious to be honest but it came out at lightening speed and we were done in about half an hour. Kind of lame but it was free. To be fair, I think they cater to a business crowd that needs to get in and out.
Once lunch was finished, Ryan insisted we go have a spa treatment. Not just any treatment... a 'fish' treatment. There are spas here that cater to people who want hundreds of fish to nibble at their feet to exfoliate them. I thought it was gimicky but decided that it would be an experience. I was SO GLAD we went! It actually is amazing as far as the feeling afterward. We opted for the 10 minute treatment (which was about $7.50 CDN) but there were deluxe packages including those with internet access (while you feet are being cleaned you can browse the internet).
I've got to admit, it was somewhat excruciating for the first couple of minutes but I managed to push through the tickling sensation. Ryan, on the other hand, didn't fare so well.

Once we finished at the spa we went through the shopping district (again). Of course, by this point, we've had a beer (*cough*) each and may have gone overboard on a present for mother for taking care of our angel. After all, it is her birthday when we get back. If you want to get an idea of the state we we were in, check out this picture of Ryan.
It's close to dinner so we're about to have an overpriced glamourous cocktail and some dinner at the New Asia bar on the 71st floor of the Swisshotel. We fly out first thing in the morning to Bali and get in there just after noon. More to come.