Yesterday, he called me again and asked if his friend has contacted me and passed his gift or not. I said, "No, not yet. If he has passed it to me, I will surely message you." It's been 3 days and his friend had not contacted me yet. He started to worry. Hahaha...
A while later, I received sms from Karma, his friend. He introduced himself and told me that he had left a voice message for me this afternoon. I was wondering, which voice message he referred to? I don't think I have a service of leaving voice message in my hand phone. Then, he said, when I'm free, give him a call.
I was quite busy yesterday evening as my colleague was on leave. But after receiving his sms, I called him right away. Found out that he and his Bhutanese friend were just finished from their training at one of the hotel not very far from where I worked. And I was asking them if they had any plan after this? If no, I would like to meet them up in Chinatown MRT, bring them to have a walk and feel the atmosphere of the upcoming Chinese New Year. At the same time, we could have our dinner there. They agreed. Suddenly I felt so happy. Seemed like the two Bhutanese that I was going to meet up, brought the air of happiness directly from Bhutan hahaha....
So, I was rushing with my work and not finished yet. Will continue the job this morning hehehe... I left the office and headed to Chinatown, which was only 1 station away. We met up in front of OG Dept Store. He came with someone called Tashi. Karma and TG has known each other for a very long time and used to work at the same place before.After we met, Karma immediately passed the tea from TG. I thanked him for his kind help.
Both of them wear the office work attires, both brought the laptop bag with them. So I brought them to the other side of Chinatown where the place was more crowded. As we walked, we had a chat. I found out that it's actually their first visit to Singapore. They came here for training for 5 days and only started it yesterday.
They flew on Saturday. Due to the snowing in Thimphu, their flight was delayed for 5 hours. They reached Singapore at night and reached hotel at about 10 pm. They were so tired and took a rest at hotel. On Sunday, they went to Little India. Right away went to Mustafa Centre, a 24-hr department store, founded by Indian businessman. They sell everything. The price are good too. They mentioned that it was the place where Bhutanese will shop in Singapore. Hahaha... I didn't know that...
They also went to VIVO city, a shopping mall in Harbour Front, nearby Sentosa Island, for shopping again. I asked them what they ate. Did they try any Singapore food? Tashi said, what is Singapore food? I told him about Nasi Lemak (rice cooked with coconut milk, with condiments like fried egg, fried ikan bilis (small salted fish), fried fish, cucumber and sambal chilli). He didn't seem to know that.
Interestingly, he was asking me if there is any McDonald and KFC here. Hahaha... Ya hor, I forgot!! There is no fast food or junk food sold in Bhutan. I don't know if they should be happy or sad. Then I told them, it's everywhere!!! But they visited Little India and Vivo, they couldn't find any. I explained to them that usually, when you go to shopping mall, the junk food or fast food restaurant are usually located in Basement, while food court in upper floor. Maybe they were busy shopping, looking at the shops, that's why they missed out that! Hahaha...
They told me, the first thing in their mind to eat once they reached any country in the world, was to eat McDonald or KFC. It's the other way around with me. I'm sick of McDonald and KFC. Hahaha.. Usually I will prefer to eat local food. Unless if it's too expensive or the food not nice/clean, then I have no choice.
We walked around and brought them to Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. Too bad, it was closed when we reached. I didn't know the temple closed so early, at 7pm. So they could only take photo from the outside. When Tashi looked at the name of the temple, he was asking me, "Was there a Buddha tooth relic inside?" I said, "Yes, but you can't really see it as it's protected behind the glass and covered with many gold." The second question he asked after that, "Is the tooth relic fake???" I said, "No la... It is real. If you don't believe, tomorrow you can come here again, before 7pm, and have a look for yourself." Then he said he knew that is the temple in Srilanka which has the Buddha tooth relic, but never heard that Singapore has one too. Hehe...
Across the temple, there was a famous hawker center selling chicken rice, called Maxwell Food Center. It was renovated few months ago and now have been back for business. It was 7.15pm and I was asking Karma if he was ready for dinner and he said, yes. So we crossed the road illegally and found a seat.
Singapore is famous for its Hainanese Chicken Rice. There were few stalls selling the chicken rice, but there was only one shop that had people queening up. So Karma and I queued together while Tashi chopped the seat. We order the portion for three persons and bought drinks. While we ate, we chit chatted.
It's been quite some time I didn't bring any friends from overseas out. Last time there were many friends who came Singapore looking for me to meet up and have dinner. But perhaps most of my friends are having family and when they traveled with family, it would be inconvenient to meet up with friend. They might be too busy with where to go next, what to shop, etc. I usually meet up with friends who often come to Singapore, so there is no need to introduce them about Singapore. Hahaha...
So when I met Karma and Tashi, I was so happy. They had many questions to ask. I loved that. And I tried my best to answer them hehehe...
After dinner, we waited in front of the temple, until another Bhutanese, who is studying his Master degree here, came. Karma had another parcel to deliver, which was for him, a guy called Drakpa. He came directly from his school and took quite some time to reach Chinatown. He also waited at the wrong door of temple (He waited at the back door while we were standing in the front door). However, he managed to come.
Then we walked back to MRT. Karma looked very tired after a day of intensive training and couldn't wait to go back to his hotel to take a rest. Tashi looked forward to meet me again, in case I managed to visit Bhutan again in the future. We exchanged our contacts and yeah.. hope to see you again guys!! Thanks for delivering the gift from TG to me and hope you enjoyed our little time in Chinatown.
I reached home at 9.30 pm. I opened up the small package given by TG. It was wrapped with handmade paper, a special characteristic of buying goods in Bhutan. I love how Bhutanese are so environmentally friendly. They used the recycled hand made paper to wrap the thing you buy in store, and they didn't use plastic bag, but they gave a kind of cloth made bag. Unlike in most Asia countries, you'd receive plastic bag everywhere you shop, which is not environmentally friendly at all.
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| Bio Tea from Bhutan |
I have passed a jar of Indonesian tidbit and two pouches filled with candies for him and his two daughters. Just a small present from me. Hope all of you like it too.. :) Btw, I couldn't sleep last night due to drink the tea late at night hahaha... But at least I managed to wake up on time this morning.
This morning weather was very cooling. In office, since the coffee machine was spoilt just now in Cafetaria, I ended up soaking another bag of ginger tea to my cup, added some sugar, and drank right away. Hm.... It soothes my throat and it feels good. I feel energize now!! Another busy day to go! Have a great day everyone!!!
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