Cake in a Can part II

 The next day was Saturday. Jane didn’t have class, so today was the day she’d be moving from her host family’s home over to the Hilton. I got up early and went to the breakfast buffet for breakfast. Beth had told me how lush it was, but I wasn’t prepared for this:

The journey to Jane’s host family’s was an easy trip, back to the Beauty World station, then a bus ride for three stops to the building. The neighborhood was very nice, made up of multi-story condo building with a lot of lush tropical greenery all around. I can see why someone would want to stay here awhile. 

Jane and J met up and finished packing a few things, then headed out. On it way out to the street to wait for our rideshare, Jane’s host dad arrived back with his mom and one of their two boys! He stopped to come over and talk with us. He is such a kind and friendly guy. He offered us a ride, but our rideshare was just showing up and it was too late to cancel. However, we will be meeting with them in a few days for dinner. We both look forward to it!

Today Jane and I decided to head back to Chinatown after dropping off her bags. On the way, we decided we both wanted a chicken sandwich. We stopped at Jollibee, a Filipino fast food chain that specializes in chicken sandwiches. It turns out they have outlets in many places interest he US, including San Antonio. That was a surprise to us! The sandwiches were really good.

After that we strolled back to Chinatown to explore. Being the weekend and around noon, it was much busier than it had been a couple of days earlier. We found ourselves making use of alleyways and other short cuts to avoid the crowds. On the way, we found a delightful bridge which had been expanded into a peaceful park above the busy street below:

 We explored the hawker center we’d gone to a couple of days earlier, looking for jade and for some gifts. Jane had been saving her money for a jade pendant, so we wanted to find the best one for her budget. Several stalls had jade or jade-like objects for sale. Based on the prices, we didn’t feel very confident our ability to evaluate the genuineness of most of the offerings. We decided that any jade we bought from a stall would constantly leave us wondering about its provenance. We ended up stopping at a jeweler and jade specialist in a nearby mall, which we felt confident about.

Later we headed to Bugis and stopped for a beverage. We also decided to try the cake in a can, which we found a machine for here too. The ingredients were all regular ingredients, and once we got over the novel form factor, we thought it was actually pretty good.

On the way out, we found even more vending machines, in this case one that dispenses smoothies:

Within Bugis is also a network of alleys selling all manner of vintage and craft items. A live musician was playing for the people moving through. These alleys in turn connected to a warren of stall selling just about anything one could imagine. I unfortunately don’t have any pictures, but if we make it back over there I’ll be sure to get some.

That evening we were both feeling pretty exhausted so decided to make it an early night. We went to an Italian restaurant directed adjacent to our hotel. While there, Jane recreated the expression seen on an awesome Donkey Kong keychain she had gotten for me:

That’s all for today; we will add more of it adventures tomorrow!