Day 1: Merc transfers from Changi to Scarlet - a mad boutique hotel with bell boys dressed like Dracula in long black capes, high collars covering red scarves... and of course everything in scarlet and leather.
'Please may we stop on the way to eat something,' we ask the friendly driver who has given me his card and told me to keep in touch when I return to India just minutes after introducing himself to me. Cab drivers are the pulse of a city. Always. Right? And this one has such friendly cabbies, it seems. After the 'keep in touch' he asks if I won't find a nice Singaporean boy to settle down with, if that won't make my dad angry and how much they pay me in my job. Uff!
We are taken to the Singaporean equivalent of a cheap sandwich bar - a food court. Our options are almost all non vegetarian, all smelly and all strictly Not Breakfast Food. I settle for (hmph) an 'egg prata'.
Pishi's house, Takashiyama Ngee Ann City, the huge twin malls, cabbies who ask me in broken English, 'you from Madras, yes?', and then the evening!!
Naseem our guide took Shobita (from Outlook) and me to the Esplanade. We went to Humble House and despite a warning yellow sticker placed on my chair (Vegetarian!) I had many many courses of 'fusion' food. Which means they can pour hot water on dry ice at the end of the meal, create waves of steam amidst dry rose petals, and still not seem completely off their heads.
At night, suave Brit skinheads with ear pieces attached authoritatively, bow slightly, tell us to 'step this way, madam', offer us champagne and some not-bad seats the Versace show. Ah, the life of a fashion correspondent!
Post party at Rouge in Peranakan area, some itsy shopping at Mustafa and then to bed.
