Yesterday morning I had to post a letter to our estate agent. Simple enough you would think, right? Not when you have no clue where your nearest post box/office is or don’t even have an envelope to put the thing in! A quick look on the SingPost website revealed that the nearest post office seemed to be down at the Bras Basah complex, which is not that far from where we are staying, and close the Raffles Hotel. So foldy Singapore map in hand, I trotted off to explore.
Now, I’d been having a bit of a tough morning – I’d spent some time chatting to some night owl friends at home and was feeling a little homesick if I’m honest. But arriving at the Bras Basah complex lifted my spirits – what greeted me was absolutely masses and masses of books! For those of you who know me well, you will know I was in absolute heaven, as I am a complete and utter bookworm. I even have another blog that I started a few years ago writing book reviews that you can check out here. I like nothing better than a good rummage around a bookshop, looking for new authors, and finding old classics for a bargain price. One of the things we had to do when we moved to Singapore was to put my book collection in storage, as we knew we wouldn’t have enough room for it here (it barely fitted into our London flat either, in fairness).
I had a great time being thoroughly distracted by the big rows of second-hand books and bookshops. Oh, and I also discovered an AMAZING bookstore they have there called Popular which had a great selection of English books, including a lot of things that were out relatively recently. It took a lot of willpower to not spend all my money and come home laden with new things to read! On the top floor they also have a great stationery section, where you could buy pretty much anything you wanted.
It was nice to know that when I needed it, Singapore gave me exactly what I wanted and made me smile again.
The actual letter posting (the whole reason I left the house) was pretty straightforward, once I’d managed to find the post office! I bought a book of stamps – they are so much prettier than the ones you get in the UK as they have waterlilies on them. I’m not sure when I’ll get to use them, as I’m not sure I’ll be sending all that much internal Singapore mail, and I’m sure to post things back to the UK will probably cost more than the stamps I have!
The Dot Diaries 
If you like Popular you will LOVE Kinokuniya! Bookstore to beat all bookstores. I could browse there all day. We should meet up and go someday. Lots of other book lovers here in Singapore.
Glad you got the post all figured out!
Cool, thanks for the tip. I’d love to meet up for a poke around a boookshop sometime. Do you know if there are any book clubs going on in Singapore?
I’ve tried to get involved with few book clubs via meetup.com and the american women’s association but it’s generally been made of fail. Maybe we should start a SG blogger bookclub?
I was going to mention Kino but Laurel beat me to it. The one at Takashimaya (aka Ngee Ann City) is the largest/best bookstore in SG. I also like Page One at Vivo City.
Bras Basah is definitely made of awesome 🙂 I would live there if I hadn’t mostly converted to e-books these days.
Yes I’m a massive e-book convert but miss the browsing experience. Nothing beats having a good nose round a bookshop! I like the idea of a bloggers bookclub… Will get my thinking cap on!
There’s a book shop somewhere in Sing where you pay for the books and you get some money back when you bring it back – so almost a library! I remember spending quite a few hours in there – it had a pretty good range. I’ll try and find out what it was called!
That would be awesome – thanks Cat! Running out of books I downloaded on my Kindle before we left so will need some new material x
If you do decide to start a bloggers book club (hint hint) – count me in 🙂
Popular is cool, though I prefer Kinokuniya and Page One. The bookstore with the return deposit system is in Holland Village.
My favourite thing about Bras Basah is the big Art Friend store – oh and there are few guitar stores as well!
Yes, since posting I have discovered Kinokuniya, and I think its much superior, although I do like Popular’s stationery section.
Will is also a fan of the guitar stores there 🙂