Mustafa Center Singapore, the video

Amongst the many things I miss about Singapore (food, weather, public services, multicultural environment, etc) there is surely Mustafa Shopping Center in Little India.

I'm not normally a huge fan of shopping centers, but Mustafa is indeed different. It's a crazy place open 24/7, selling basically everything you could imagine. At 2am the place is still busy, and it offers a great chance to observe the normal and odd products offered, and the normal and odd shoppers browsing around.

Being difficult to explain how huge and odd the place is, I created a little video that will hopefully give you an idea of this mad, contradictory place.




Check out more about Mustafa Shopping Center in Singapore...

Singapore, the Old and the New

Singapore is indeed a city full of contrasts. From the “fine city” legislation to the diversity of cultures, people and religions; from the extreme urbanization to the abundance of green. In what was my sixth visit to the state-city one of the contrasts that struck me most was the one between Old and New. The cement and glass of skyscrapers is often on the background of old temples or small houses. But let's have the pictures do most of the talking for a change.

Buddha Tooth Relic, a Buddhist Temple in Chinatown, and in the background tall skyscrapers. The crane on top of the tall building it's a sign that it might become even taller.


The view from the top of the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple says it all: small houses, tall buildings and patches of green here and there.


The pubs and bars on Boat Quays look tiny compared to the financial buildings behind.


Decorations on the roof of a Hindu Temple and financial district skyscrapers.


A traditional looking building contrasts with the new constructions.


Commercialisation of Feng Shui.

The Fountain of Wealth is built on principles based on Feng Shui and Chinese Horoscope. The fountain is located within the commercial complex of Suntec City, where five tall skyscrapers represent the finger of one hand. The fountain (which is also the biggest in the world) stands in the center of the palm. Being round has got all around strategic Feng Shui and Chinese horoscope points. The water is collected on a special night, and can bring you good luck if put in certain Feng Shui point of your house. How very traditional. At night though you have a show with pop music and lasers projecting images on the water. If you happen to be there you can even request a song or a dedication for you or your partner.
Happy and (hopefully lucky!) days!

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Mustafa Center in Singapore

If you're in Singapore to shop, then Mustafa Center is the place to go.

Mustafa is located in Little India, and everybody in Singapore knows it, any taxi driver would be able to bring you there, just say: Mustafa please! The center is open 24/7, and has got everything, and I mean, everything. With my buddy Paolo, who came to visit me for two weeks, we created a new game: Will Mustafa have it? Think of an object you can buy. Can you find it? Of course.


From golf clubs to wheelchairs, from toothpaste to laptops, from chinese medicine to porcelain, it's all there. You walk in between corridors of shoes and walls of food blenders. Gold? To trade in kilos or just for a present?


All credit cards accepted, but if you run out of money there's always Mustafa Financial Services and Mustafa Money Changers, they're just between the Mustafa Restaurant and the Mustafa Travel Agency.


Not only you have everything you might think of, but for every item you have all kind of brands. For watches for examples it starts from 2 Singapore dollars ones, and continue all the way up to real Rolex. Now apply that to pens, hoovers, fax machines, electronic Bibles and Qurans.


Another characteristic of Mustafa is the big sizes and packages. Rice? 20kgs pack. Mouthwash? 3 liters. Paolo was looking for dental floss, and instead of the normal 50 meters found a 200 meters one. The joke with him was that when you buy something in Mustafa you buy it once and for the rest of your life! My friends from Lombok asked me for a special fishing rod, and were expecting the classic 150 meters roll. Imagine their faces when they saw a 3075 meters one!


Being super busy during the day we love to go to Mustafa after 3am, even better after a couple of drinks. And even at that time, you'll be surprised by the sight of entire families browsing around, children running, the odd transvestite looking for business. Really a business capital, and one of the symbols of Singapore's controversies and contradictions.

New! Check out Mustafa Center Singapore, The Video. It'll give you a good idea of the place!

Singapore Nightlife

Nothing to do in Singapore apart from shopping and dining? Don't make me laugh!

Not only you have Boat's Quays and Charles Quays, which I like to call Ex-pats Land due to the fact that main frequenters are indeed expats, followed by tourists and some rich local. This time I discovered that there are indeed many other crazy spots open all night and where you wouldn't see many expats or tourists at all.

For my third visit in Singapore I decided to drop altogether the tourist stuff and live it a bit more like a local. The original plan was also to rent an apartment for a month in order to really have a feel of what it's like to live here, but the plan turned out to be quite naive as many friends who arrived here months ago are still looking for an apartment and still can't find anything decent for under 2-3000S$ a month.

I didn't see any of the attractions that i had left from my previous visits, (Sentosa island, boat tours, museums, Suntec city, etc) and instead spent my time meeting my friends there and just chilling out in bars.

And contrary to my previous two visits, Singapore revealed its crazy nightlife to me.

Often the starting point of those nights was the Countryside cafe in Little India, a tiny spot frequented by locals and visitors alike (due to some hotels and hostel in the nearby Perak street). On the first night there I met two girls from Austria and some locals, and we ended up in some Chinese song competition where if you like a certain singer you have to buy flowers to her, followed by a Thai rock venue somewhere, with the concert starting at around 2am.

The following night with the same crowd we ended up in a Bollywood nightclub, and again it was until early morning. After a few nights break it was Countryside Cafe again, where this time I met Kathryn, living in KL at the mom, and it was Bollywood club again until after 3. My old friend Suan showed me and Joao The Loof, a very fancy terrace bar on top of a building right across the Raffle's Hotel; great mojitos and a view of the city skyline to die for. With Helen-Alice, Tomas &co. we explored the more “conventional” clubs in Charles Quays, but I also convinced them to check out the Bollywood nightclub once.

Such a pity alcohol erased names and locations of a couple of very good spots, and my faulty SD card erased all pics, so I can only show the one above as I had previously saved it.

So if you thought Singapore doesn't offer much nightlife think again. Locals are not as reserved and difficult to approach as they say (at least not after a drink or two), and they can really show you a different, off the beaten track, and pretty wild Singapore Nightlife.

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Back to Singapore and the "Indian Call"

Okay. I'll stop backdating my posts and tell the truth. I'm in Auckland now. Still you'll have to wait for the next post to read about NZ, as this one is about my 10 days in Singapore.

I could live here. That's what was often on my mind when I was in Singapore. But then again I thought that of almost every place I've visited so far. Once again I was impressed by how everything works so efficently, the safety of the city, and the beauty of the girls. Not to mention food. You can walk into ANY random restaurant, food centre or simpy a stall on the street and still get exeptional food quality.

This time I was staying in Little India. Maybe a coincidence, maybe another step towards “the call”. India has been calling me so strongly in the last months. So in Singapore I was almost pretending to be in India. I was staying just in the very heart of Little India; two minutes from my hotel is Mustafa, an Indian shopping center open 24/7 where you can get absolutely everything, from gold to bikes, from aftershave to laptos, at the best prices in town. No bargaining though, which is a bit less fun. The most interesting event I attended was Incredible India, a 3 day exhibition to promote tourism in India, with art crafts, music and dance. The best part of it was actually the people, their costumes and their pride of their land. All pics here and a few videos here as well. I was really impressed by the Kalbelia tribe folks from Rajasthan. They had something surrounding their fantastic colorful costume, like an aura. Pure magic.


Another one of my signs. I don't know when I'll visit India, but I now know whereabout in India I'll go. First stop just has to be Rajasthan. Anyway, for the immediate future it's going to be New Zealand, where there are some good old friends and a lot of drinking sessions waiting for me. And speaking of which, there's a Scruffy Murphy's in Singapore.


What a perfect place for a TGIM!!

Singapore, a "fine" city where East meets West, West meets everything else..

Not lucky with the weather in Singapore, the Irish curse (you will meet rain everywhere you go in the world) hit again. It's not bad though being this warm and humid, rain can be a refreshing surprise. If you want to see the whole of Eastern world but you don't have the time or money just go to Singapore.



Within few blocks you can go from Little India, to Arab street, to Chinatown, to the Malay Village. In every of those areas is like the real thing: fantastic original food, a plethora of tiny little shops, temples, mosques, churches, all together with western ultramodern bars, skyscrapers, trendy spots and fusion restaurants.
Singapore is also called the Fine City, as in there's a fine for breaking the law. That's would be normal, if it wasn't for the fact that breaking the law involves: feeding pigeons, chewing or importing chewing gum (but they're opening up now, you can buy them in pharmacies for medical purpose), having standing water (because of mosquitoes), spitting, and a few more.


For drug trafficking there's death penalty, like for other crimes like vandalism, molestation or overstaying your visa (better pay attention there!) the punishment is caning (and i've been told is quite a painful one too!). My personal impression is that there is also an unspoken law, that will fine all girls who are not wearing miniskirts or shorts, as that's all they were here.. If that's the case this is my favorite rule so far..

3 days for me should be enough to taste some beautiful Indian and Chinese food, enjoy the sights (including the ones from the unspoken rule above) and avoid all punishments. I'll be back in a month or so, for the moment..next stop Bali, where I heard there's a very interesting spiritual festival.

Singapore Stopover

Coming from a month living with the famous Italian inefficency I was struck by how everything works so well in Singapore airport. As soon as you get off the plane, even before customs you have free internet stations (how thoughtful, to allow you to send an email home to say you arrived - or for facebook addict to check if you got something on your wall); soon after you have a smoking area (how very thoughtful, after intecontinental flights - for some other kind of addicts). You can now light-heartedly proceed to clear customs and get your luggages, all in the record time of around 10 mins. As i had to wait a good 8 hours i decided to stay at the airport at some traveller little hotel. Skipped the 2 hrs of highly technological Sleep Pod (see pic) and went instead for 3 hrs of traditional nap, shower and breakfast. A bit of chat with one of the ladies working there, that gave me an overview of Singapore and its lifestyle.. she also suggested i should marry a Singaporean girl as they're all good housewives! Well, what I would add is that they're also gorgeous, if I were to judge from Singapore Airlines hostesses (most sensual air hostess uniforms ever!). From the train to the other terminal you can see the tropical lush vegetation, and you can't avoid remembering the Singaporean Pirates Cove in Pirates of the Caribbeans. Definitely impressed with my first impression from the airport, see you in one month Singapore, when I'll be back to stay a good bit!