Little India Diary

I’ve always loved everything Indian.  The food, the music, the dancing, the clothing, and of course the people.  I’ve never been to India but I look forward to visiting one day.   One of the reasons I decided to take this contract work here in Singapore was because I knew there is a large Indian population here and I hoped that I would be able to experience their culture almost as if I was in India.  In the last 6 weeks I’ve visited Little India quite frequently, but always at night after work, and usually with food on my mind.  In Little India you feel as if you’re in a different city, away from the hyper modern, neon lit, squeaky clean rest of Singapore.  The brilliant color, spicy curry aromas, and fragrant jasmine grab your senses immediately.  It’s a magnificently beautiful, slightly gritty place.  Today, my last day in Singapore, I decided to finally visit during the day, exploring the streets and soaking in what the neighborhood has to offer, while doing a little shopping for myself.

Here are some of my favorite photos from my trip today and from my past trips while here in Singapore:

Alex on a late Friday evening, overtaken with the beauty and smell of these flower garlands that florists sell on the street.

Magazines at a newstand.

A market late at night.

How I love the colonial architecture of the old parts of the city.  Sadly, so many of these beautiful buildings are being torn down and replaced with mega malls and high rise condos.  This city is constantly under construction.  Even at night and on weekends.  The construction literally never stops.

I love the soft pastel color schemes of the buildings in this part of town.

One of the beautiful road signs of the neighborhood.

The covered sidewalks.

Gold…

Gold…

And more gorgeous Indian Gold.  Gold stores are EVERYWHERE.

As the rain started to pour, I ducked into a tiny cafe on Dunlop Street and sat watching the rain and eating my chicken curry lunch served on a banana leaf.

Shopping on the street.

I LOVED this store!  So much beautiful furniture!  If only we had room in our loft back home!!!

Shopping upstairs at the Tekka Centre.

And below, a view of the wet market at the Tekka Centre.

Fresh seafood at the wet market.

A photo I took on the cab ride home of my fabulous new ring that I bought on the street.

To think that tomorrow I’ll be flying back to the other side of the world after a day walking around these streets.

Ahhhh, now I am ready to go home.

-Summer

Singaporean Thanksgiving

Sadly, Singapore doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving, so I spent the whole day working.  However, my Singaporean friends took it upon themselves to provide me with a Thai feast that was equivelent to a Thanksgiving feast.  It was so extremely sweet of them.

Here’s some of the group at out favorite Thai restaurant in Orchard Towers.  FYI, Orchard Towers is a mall famous for their girlie (as in raunchy girlie) bars.  Amidst the seediness, there is this little gem of a restaurant on the second floor that serves incredible Thai food 24 hours a day.  As a tourist, there’s no way I would have ever found this place if it wasn’t for my fabulous Singaporean friends.  Thank you guys!!!  You have no idea how welcome you have made me feel.

Delicious prawn, spicy, coconuty tom yum soup which is served family style in the center of the table.

Basil fish.  Delish.

Ragnhild’s gonna kill me for this “HOLY CRAP!  THIS IS SPICY!” picture.  But I couldn’t help myself.  She was doing the sucking air sound and slurping down her coconut water to try to sooth her overheated tastebuds.

Now, onto the style aspect of this post. 

Sorry, I don’t have a whole outfit photo to show, but it didn’t come out too well.  So, you just get the components.  Even though I know that belts and Thanksgiving don’t go together I couldn’t resist wearing it today.  I wore a Madewell white ribbed tank, a Clu light heather grey lightweight vest, and this Linea Pelle belt.

My vintage bag, Cynthia Steffe skirt, and Pierre Hardy for Gap sandals.

One of my favorite photos of Ragnhild that I’ve taken.  It really captures her spirit and beauty.  She’s wearing a Peter Jensen dress and her Siv Stoldal necklace.

Her YSL distressed leather bag.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

One more day, and I’ll be giving thanks that I am back home. 

-Summer

Brunch is Best

Whoever thought to create brunch was a genius.  I could kiss them.  Brunch is hands down, my favorite meal.  Luckily, in Singapore there are some wonderful restaurant options to choose from for brunch.  But hey, we know that we like PS. Cafe for lunch, so we decided to visit their beautiful Harding Road location for Sunday brunch.

Well, hello.  Welcome to my home.  Oops, I seem to be daydreaming.  No this is not my home, but one day I plan to own a home very similar to this.    Here I am in front of PS. Cafe wearing my plaid cotton poplin dress layered over a black cotton jersey tank dress both from All Saints in London.

Notice how gorgeously green and lush this location is.  This is what I love most about Singapore.  I’m in the middle of the city and it looks like this.

My black patent Sigerson Morrison flats.

Alex and Ragnhild posing for a photo that I mooched.

Me and the fabulous Ms. Rachel.  Rachel has more amazing pairs of sunglasses than anyone I know.  See what I mean here and here.  Jeez, I could just do a whole post on Rachel and her sunglasses.

Amy and her delicious mojito.  I tried it, it’s just as good as it looks.

Gorgeous Ragnhild and I.  FYI, she’s wearing a vintage printed cotton dress she bought at Portabello Market years ago.

I had the fish croquette benedict, a bloody mary, and an ice soy latte.  And if that wasn’t amazing enough…

… Rachel and I split the steamed lemon pudding for dessert.  Steamed lemon pudding is like a warm, moist lemon bundt cake.  If your mouth isn’t watering, there’s something wrong with you.  Oh, it was such a yummy brunch.  And such a wonderful way to spend my last Sunday in Singapore with the ladies.

I’m really going to miss these girls.  I’ve made some life long friends on this trip and I think it’s just starting to sink in that I’ll be leaving them in a mere 4 days. 

The good news is that now I have an excuse to visit all of them in their respective countries of residence. 

More soon.

-Summer

 

 

3 Ladies On The Town

Seeing as it was my last Saturday night in Singapore ( and   ) .   Ragnhild, Alex, and I decided to get dolled up, have a nice dinner at Clarke Quay, and then go dancing at two of Singapore’s hottest clubs Attica and Zouk.

Lovely ladies Alex and Ragnhild at Clarke Quay which is right on the Singapore River.  Flirty, flirty.

Me and Alex outside of Attica at Clarke Quay.  Flirty, flirty posing again.  LOL!  I’m wearing a gorgeous printed silk Zara scarf as a top and my new super cool Aviatic pants and Alex is wearing an Alexander Wang silk/cotton t-shirt dress.

Alex’s personal style is a true reflection of her yogi lifestyle.  She’s always dressed a little tomboyish in oversized drapey knits and luxurious scarves that she cocoons herself in.  Alex is a true scarf lady.  No matter how hot or cold, she always has on a scarf.  Here she’s wearing a particularly beautiful Junk de Luxe black number.

Oh and gentlemen!  Gorgeous Alex is single!  If you’re an intelligent, tall, well-off yogi.  I can get you two in touch. 

Her very cool bracelets are from places she’s lived, such as Barcelona, London, and France.

I’m loving her layered jade and silver rings with her green clutch.

Her wonderful black leather woven sandles that she picked up here in Singapore.

Now on to me.  I didn’t bring that many clothes with me for this trip so I had to improvise a little by creating a top out of this scarf.  How’d I do it?  I tied two ends around my neck to create a halter and the other two ends around my waist.  All of the excess fabric then drapes beautifully around the body.  Simple as that.  And tres moderne, don’t you think?  I love the volume of this top with my carrot fit pants.

My vintage eggplant leather bag and my new gold bracelet that I bought on Arab Street yesterday afternoon.

My black patent Sigerson Morrison flats.

Beautiful Ragnhild’s turn.  (Oh, that’s right, you’re getting 3 for 1 today folks.  How lucky are you?!)  She’s wearing a Top Shop black silk dress with a white cami underneath.

The Bible says “thou shalt not covet”  and yet I find myself covetting this YSL necklace every time she wears it.

Her very simple, yet perfect, Margiela bag.

And her black patent peep toe Christian Louboutins.

This is the over-flowing dance floor at Zouk around 3AM.  The place was PACKED!  It was actually really difficult to move, much less dance.  But it was cool to experience the place since I’d been hearing about it ever since I arrived in Singapore.  The crowd is a mostly Singaporeans with a smattering of ex-pats.  The music was great and the energy was amazing.  Everyone was there to have a good time.  There wasn’t any pretentiosness at all, which I loved.  Just good times all around.

Alex and I ended up dancing on the stairs down to the dancefloor since there seemed to be more room there than on the dancefloor itself.

So much fun!

Less than a week to go and so much to do (both work and play) this week before I head back to New York on Saturday.

-Summer

Thursday Night

The ladies and I decided to head out to Little India to find Lucky Prata’s new location.  We’d been dreaming of their delicious chicken biryani for the last few weeks since they moved. 

Ta-da!  Me at Lucky Prata’s new location.  Today I wisely wore a loose fitting 3.1 Phillip Lim silk top (good to conceal the food baby that grows in my belly after I eat a huge meal), and Madewell white ribbed tank, and my favorite pair of J.Brand boyfriend jeans.

My jingly turquoise beaded J.Crew necklace.  I love turquoise with navy.  Then again, I pretty much love navy with most colors.

Like my new bag that I bought yesterday?  It’s handmade by an artisan in Thailand out of vintage embroidered Thai fabrics.  I love the color, the beading, all of the embroidery on the bag, but most of all I love the yarn fringe at the bottom that swings when I walk.  I’m unleashing my inner hippy with this bag.  Aww, who am I kidding, my inner hippy’s not so inner, you all know me to be a bit bohemian.  Anyway, I’m loving my new bag.  The shop I bought it at had so many amazing bags, it was hard to choose which one to buy.  This one just sort of spoke to me as soon as I tried it on.  I knew then that she was destined to be mine.  Definitely one of my favorite purchases this trip.

 

Crystal

Crystal’s an adorable young designer from L.A. that decided to take the plunge and move to Singapore for a couple of years.  She’s got the funkiest personal style.  A little bit L.A. laid back cool mixed with a touch of Japanese street avant-garde.  Every time she’s in Hong Kong she finds amazing pieces at her favorite store Universal.  In fact, every time I ask her where she got something she has on, it’s always from that store, leaving me with the thought…  How long is my layover next week?  I wonder if I have time to get to Universal.

Crystal’s wearing a Universal vest, a black no-name tank top that she’s had for years, and vintage black tights.  She looks a little Ann Demeulemeester today.  Don’t you think?

A detail of her top.

A delicate “U” for Universal is embroidered on the back of her top.

Bracelet from Club Monaco layered with her Zucca watch.  Her ring that she wears every day is from Tiffany.

She scored when she found these “vintage” combat boots at Steve Madden!  Who would have thought?  Steve Madden!

More to come.

-Summer

Au Revoir Edie

Sunday was Edie’s last day with us.  She’s the first of our group to fly home.  We decided to take a break from work and have a nice lunch at PS. Cafe on Orchard Road to say goodbye.

From left to right, Edie, me, Rachel, Alex, and Ragnhild.  Binnie’s behind the camera.

Three gorgeous ladies, Ragnhild, Binnie, and Edie.

A view of the place that I took in the mirror.

Their lovely logo marked by my iced latte.

Seeing as PS. Cafe is known for their homemade dessert selection, I decided to order donuts with ice cream for my lunch.  Delish.

A close up. 

I couldn’t deny taking one last photo of Edie before she leaves…  Or should I say, of her fabulous Balenciaga sandals.

Edie-  We miss you already.  ;(

Hope you’re happy to be back in Stockholm.

-Summer

11 More Days

Wow, only 11 more days until I fly home.  Which means only 11 more days to squeeze in some more Singaporean culture when I’m not working.  I’ve been super busy this last week and a half so the days are flying by.

Here I am running out to get some lunch wearing a Steven Alan blue poplin top, a Madewell white light weight cotton cardigan, and my new pair of olive, carrot fit,  Aviatic pants that I picked up at a super cool store here called Black Jack.

My vintage blue rose necklace.

Here’s a detail of my pants.  Carrot fit pants have been huge in Japan for years and years, but now they are starting to catch on everywhere else.  This fit is hip slung with a low crotch and roomy seat, the leg is skinny and long so that it gathers around the ankles.  These pants are in fact men’s pants that just so happen to fit me perfectly.  Hooray for me!

Here’s what the back looks like.  Love the leather half belt detail.  I predict that I’m going to be wearing these pants a whole lot when I get home.

Pierre Hardy for Gap brown leather sandals and my blue toe nails.

As for lunch (because you know I’m always thinking about food), we went to my favorite chicken rice place in Lucky Plaza on Orchard Road called As-Shifaa Cafe.  This is a photo that I took as I stood in line.  One thing I’ve learned here is that the best places always have a line.

Getting closer in line.  As you can see, everyone squeezes into tiny tables to devour their food.  Seats are always hard to come by.  Seconds after I snapped this photo two people sat down right across from this woman.  There’s no shyness in Singapore when it comes to food.  Jeannie’s taught me to have someone wait in line, while the other person scouts out seating.  As soon as a seat opens up, you swoop down like a vulture to grab it.

This is the Malaysian version of Singapore’s local favorite, chicken rice.  The fried chicken, rice, chicken soup, and sweet chili paste are all fragrant, spicy, and extremely flavorful.  Mmm-mmm.  All of this for $4.50 Singapore which is $3.25 US.  Can’t beat it.

-Summer

 

 

Ragnhild

Remember my fabulous friend Ragnhild (from this previous post, among others)?   She has some of the most beautiful clothes.  I’m constantly prodding her about what she’s wearing and where she found it (And if she’ll give it to me…  Tee-hee-hee.  One of these days she’s bound to cave.).  Ragnhild’s always pulled together and the picture of a true lady.  Here’s the kicker, while her style is undoubtedly very girlie, each piece she wears has unexpected modern details that give her look a more cerebral edge.  In a word, her personal sense of style is flawless.

She’s wearing a gorgeous lavendar Marni cotton poplin top with ZZI jeans.

A detail of her lovely top.

Her NW3 by Hobbs belt.

A strappy pair of Christian Louboutin wedges.

More to come.

-Summer

Christmas Comes Early In Singapore

Singapore’s favorite past time is shopping.  So, it’s not so surprising that the city loves Christmas.  When I first got here a month ago, they were already starting to decorate for the holiday.  I couldn’t believe it.  By the beginning of November the whole city was aglow with decorations and lights.

Here are just a few of the photos I’ve taken of the Christmas decor on Orchard Road, Singapore’s shopping mecca (where I spend most of my time).  This should get you ready for Christmas.  Enjoy and be inspired. 

Beautiful, isn’t it?

-Summer