we lunched today in the old tanjong pagar railway station, a place i never even knew existed. i want to say that it was quaint, but to be honest, it was just old and not very well looked after, all mangy stray cats and rainwater leaking through the roof into our mee siam. we had an assortment of curry, none very special, and though i was tempted by the ondeh ondeh, the none too sanitary way in which they were being handled made me think twice.

i don't know. railway stations and train journeys are always so much more charming in concept than reality. in redang, my mom mooted the idea of a trip on the orient express, a discussion that rapidly focused itself on motion sickness, claustrophia, and how bored we might be. like, whatever happened to agatha christie and chris van allsburg and the hogwarts express?