Home via Paris and Singapore

Arab Street, Singapore- some traditional shutters of which too few remain.
Eating stall at food market, Singapore

Indain temple near the little India Quarter, Singapore
Ceps and Chanterelles- market vendor Rue de Mouffetard, Paris
Fruit and vegetable stalls in Rue de Mouffetard
Cheese deli , Rue de Mouffetard, Paris

Finally home- the journey always takes so long- more than 20 hours of flying, and this time we decided to stopover in Singapore for a night.

We ended up only having one day in Paris and stayed with friends. We decided we would like to see the Klimt, Schiele and Viena school of painting at the Grand Palais, but it was not to be. The queue to get in was over 500 people long, the weather was glorious and many Parisians were out and about. So instead we headed to Rue de Mouffetard, and enjoyed the market stalls and food delis that lined this famous eating street. The mushroom season is in full swing and the ceps and chanterelles were enticing- but unfortunately you cannot take such things home. I do wish I knew more about identifying edible mushrooms in this part of the world.

Then onto Singapore where we spent some time in the Arab street quarter, looking for white silk georgette- which was not an easy matter amongst the richly coloured fabrics and silks on offer- and one guy wanting to send me things to Australia- no worries. Bought threads in a funny little Indian shop in a back lane in the Arab quarter- at $2 Singapore a cob how can you go wrong, and then onto shops selling the more traditional batiks. We also ate in the food markets- where for $10 Singapore you can eat a delightful meal and fresh fruit juice to boot, for two people. There was one of these food markets not far from our hotel and we walked there one evening and found on offer about 20-25 different stalls offering all kinds of Asian foods. Sinagpore is such a mix of cultures that the culinary mix is fabulous not to mention the colours and inspirations.

I like the juxtaposition of these two great "culinary" cities- the food so different, yet each offering such taste delights.The food stall in the photo was tiny- one room where a team fo two cooked their specialities over gas burners in tropical heat.