The Great Hari Raya Puasa Walkabout

When I told friends I was going to check out the annual Geylang Serai Hari Raya Puasa pasar malam (night market) tonight, they thought I was crazy. Hari Raya Puasa's on Thursday (yes, I've figured that out), which means the pasar malam would likely be swarming with last-minute festive shoppers.

I shrugged and blamed Ondine, whose idea this was. Plus I'd bailed on her a couple of weeks ago, so I couldn't do it again tonight, no matter how humid and sticky the air was at dinnertime. And besides, I was a veteran of the Great Chinatown Walkabout.

As it turned out, the Geylang Serai pasar malam was crowded tonight, but not as ferociously impassable as Chinatown had been. Maybe it helped that we started our foray with ice cream sandwiches, Singapore-style.



And then there was lots of walking, past stalls selling rich cushion fabrics, intricate embroidered sarong kebayas, leather sandals dyed every colour of the desert, for $10 a songkok or three huge bags of prawn crackers, for $1 a honey-grilled chicken wing or four pieces of goreng pisang (deep-fried banana), T-shirts that screamed "Leave ME Alone!" and "AC Milan", henna hand(i)work and colours, colours colours ...



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