My first visit to Clark Quay

It's been two weeks since we arrived on the Other Side of the Globe so I believe it's time to start recording what is happening during this little adventure, or else I will completely lose track of everything. I THINK I am beginning to like Singapore just a tiny bit more... Today we had an appointment scheduled at the Ministry of Manpower - doesn't it sound scary? Bryan worked from home (as the phrase says it, although home is not what I am inclined to call our little apartment as of yet) and we went to have our employment permits granted and cards issued around 3 pm. It all sounded rather scary - especially for me, the Dependant - as I am lovingly referred to here, but it was not too bad. Other than having our pictures taken YET AGAIN, and having been fingerprinted YET AGAIN the whole thing was not too much of an ordeal and we were done with it in less than 45 minutes. The MoM building is in the middle of an area called Clark Quay - which is a really pretty part of the town, I discovered to my surprise. I got quite upset with Bryan that he had not brought me there earlier - it's been two weeks of walking up and down Orchard Road in search of decent food places that are NOT inside a mall - and there it is - a rather big cluster of little restaurants and cafes on the river, where you can pick and choose the cuisine and the style of the place and the price you want to pay for your food... We walked around and since it was still early, we settled at one of the few places already open for dinner - Brewerkz. It actually serves a variety of Western foods (all the familiar and close to my heart cobb salads turkey sandwiches, burgers, pizzas... you name it) as well as a huge selection of beers brewed right there. Since we have not had anything non-Asian to eat for the last two weeks we decided to eat there, sharing a salad and a pizza. Their brew of the week was a Blackberry flavored beer and I loved it! Afterwards we walked around a loong time, checking out places and picking restaurants for our future visits - I foresee a lot of them. There is a park nearby (I can't recall its name but it's rather large and famous so - to be visited soon) and lots of other nice things to walk to - like the Esplanade. But we had enough for today and got on the train to go back to the hotel around 7.30. On the way we decided to stop at the Sigapore Plaza and check out the Carrefour there - I was hoping that it would carry more European brands. I was not disappointed with the place and there, at Carrefour, of all places, I also had my first encounter with the Terrible Smell. Something smells really bad, I said to Bryan as soon as we walked into the supermarket. I thought it weird that a food store would smell bad but he confirmed that I was right. Soon we realized what the smell was - they were cutting and selling DURIAN there. Durian - the infamous Singaporean fruit that smells like a rotting corpse but allegedly tastes good... The smell of that fruit is truly unreal. I don't know if I am going to ever master the courage to try it - with my nostrils closed tight, it would have to be. Not tonight though. The whole afternoon / evening adventure was a nice change from the everyday Orchard Road crowded sale-mall-craziness. So there is more to the city than just designer stores. Ah, the designer stores - this is a topic for a completely separate entry. One day.