We then had some coffee in our room and took a shuttle to the
Specialist Center, a shopping mall on Orchard Road, a famous
shopping district in Singapore. Right across the street was where our
wedding banquet was held.
We bought some stamps for a few more
postcards, then went into the mall. I bought a lamb's wool sweater
at Robinson's, one of the oldest department stores in Singapore. For
that, we got a free pair of gold earrings. I think they
were 18k gold. One cannot find 14k gold in Singapore. Even 18k and
22k gold are uncommon. Singaporeans like pure gold in their jewelry.
We then took the MRT from Sommerset station to Outram Park. That was the stop closest to the CID, by the way. We met Corinne, Paulette, and Anna at the station. Anna is an old friend of Charmaine and Corinne. Her older sister was eaten by a shark while scuba diving when she and Charmaine were children. I think they never found her head. Needless to say, Charmaine is afraid of sharks.
From the station, we all walked through chinatown
to the Tea Chapter, a famous tea house
run by business students. Queen Elizabeth had tea there once. There
is a picture of her just inside the door. Once inside, we had to
remove our shoes.
From the server, we learned the
art of making
Chinese tea. It is a fairly elaborate process. First, hot water is
brought to the table. It is kept hot by a small burner. Whenever our
water was low, they brought more. Then we received a tray over a
large pan to catch excess tea. On the tray was a small clay teapot, a
small basin for waste tea, five sniffing cups, five drinking cups, and
five plates. Chinese teapots are made from a special, rare kind of
clay, only used for teapots. The type of clay is thought to affect
the tea in various ways. The server also brought a tea scoop, pick,
tweezers, and towel. We tried two types of tea: a green tea (I don't
remember the name) and a floral tea made of chrysanthemum flowers
(called oriental beauty). I preferred the green tea, but both were
very good.