MAAD

YES, the weekend is upon us after a tiring week!

Though, this was an optional outing and I decided it would be pretty interesting to check out. It was located at Red Traffic Dot via Tanjong Pagar.

MAAD (Market of Artists And Designers) was the title of the event. It was, as the name suggests, a market where many artists and designer had set up stalls and sold their handmade works whether it be prints,stationary or jewellery. There were soooooo many interesting and inspiring things to look at and even buy. One of the stands there sold beautiful geometric shaped jewellery but was a but pricy but the main aspect I liked was that it was a really good inspirational form for the product I'de be working on with my group. There were other handmade jewellery stands but many wouldn't allow photos to be taken, unlike a few other stands I had been too, which I sneaked a photo shot at or even asked for permission to take a few photos.

These diaries had beautiful Japanese influence deign across them 

and I think the covers were of washi paper.

These were adorable XD

This particular store had these beautiful geometric like pieces of jewellery. Both me and on of my group mates agreed that it was a very good source of inspiration for our product.

The cat WAS NOT a product lol but was more of a celebrity amongst the crowd of people.

Another cool stand that many of my classmates came across and even bought some was a tattoo stand. They sold printed tattoos with artworks that were designed by others artists from the world. The artists themselves would be making some money and so would the people printing and selling their works. Many of the designs were really beautiful and would make great keepsake souvenirs.

Bad shot as there were so many people flocking to the store =="

Then event went onto midnight :)

On the way back to the train station, I happen to pass this restaurant with this sign. I think it was Vietnamese
cuisine but I just thought it was really creative, incorporating the kanji symbol of 5.

Day 4 - Little India & Orchard Road

Recovering from the big day yesterday, today was a nice and fun break. We started the morning outing by catching a bus out to Little India. Just seeing the first set of shops was enough to excite me for a shopping spree, which is NOT good DX. We were given 1 and 1/2 hours (I think) to freely wonder the area and take pictures. I went with a small group and we first explored an upstairs complex which had alot of Indian accessories, dresses and clothes for sale.

Afterwards, we wandered around the streets. There were many jewellery shops that sold alot of gold and bold Jewellery and yet the jewellery shops were owned by Chinese as this was evident with the staff working there and how the jewellery was displayed upon red.

There were also alot of those '3 for $10' shops around. I'm starting to notice that alot of shops try to get you to buy in bulk or quantities = ="

There were some beauty boutiques around, and they especially had henna. The first thing that came to my mind stepping into Little India was to get some henna art done on me.

This was a tourist we walked past getting henna done on her arm.

I wanted something cheap and pretty :)

One of the group memebers lead the way to this shopping complex called Mustafa Centre. The centre was like BHG + a supermarket + Lincraft . It was good to get into an air conditioned area for a while but the security at the door decided to oh so kindly seal my bags with some security wire. GREAT!!! and i don't have any scissors to free me bags either!
*BHG is like Myers or David Jones back in Australia

Our free time was up and we all gathered back to the meeting spot to head to lunch at a Indian restaurant.
Indian cuisine doesn't quite work well with my stomach and I really dislike curry but I still had to eat so I had Tandori chicken, which was a bit overcooked = ="
After lunch, we headed to the MRT station where we would be heading Orchard Road. I had been looking foreward to checking out Orchard Road. Though, it had to be gloomy wet weather and humid too =="

From this point, we were set free to wonder around and do as we liked for the rest of the day.

Day 1 - Chinatown & Arab St

We started the day off with breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Then headed to Lavender station to purchase our travel cards. It took a little while but everyone got on in the end. We caught the MRT to our first destination, which was Singapore Chinatown. We were given a tour guide by a friend of both tutors and as we got out of the station, we all pulled out our cameras and began shooting away at anything we saw that could be of reference.

First sight after getting out of MRT station

Such colourful buildings

Colourful chopsticks

Not sure what temple this belonged too but it had a gorgeous entrance

And giant calligraphy brushes 

Oh gosh, everything looked soooo good and even tempting for shopping. I was even amazed that they had these '3 for $10' shops, which was even more tempting.

So tempting to shop!!

She guided us around telling us abit about the area and some of the stuff that was being sold at some of the shops, which i didn't really take any pics of as the items were used for giving to the dead. These items were like paper money or paper items, which would be burned and those items would be sent to the afterlife for the deceased to use. A little fact that my mom told me was that these items aren't really good because it would be keeping the deceased in the afterlife rather than giving them a chance to be reborn. 

Mid way through, we all headed to the Chinatown Complex for some drinks, which we were all kindly shouted some sugarcane juice from Lisa, our tutor! As we waited, the customer before us, was carrying some drinks in an interesting way.

  

We visited some Chinese medicine stores too, where there were so many interesting packaging design ideas.

Another thing she showed us were the apartment complexes and it was interesting to know how the housing purchasing was made and how they hung the laundry out too XD 

We even went up to the top floor of one of the apartments and gosh, the view was breathtaking. 

So many skyscrapers

We then also visited the Chinatown tourist and info center. The souvenirs were interesting and I even bought one, a bag with a beautiful print design on it.

The bag design was so pretty XD

Around 2, I think, we headed back to our accommodation to rest for a bit since it was a hot day. Afterwards, we all headed out to Bugis to purchase sim cards. Then onwards back to our accommodation, where Arab street was located close by.....except I missed out since I was somewhat forgotten....back at Bugis Junction. So i decided to head back by my self and in the evening, headed back out to Bugis for dinner with some classmates.