Friday & Saturday

Editors note: this will probably be a long post so feel free to scan and/or just look at the pictures... I did a lot over the weekend. I'm having fun in Singapore (!), although I do miss a few things back home (1. my friends 2. my bed :) ) Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Friday.

Got back from work and headed out to explore for the first time since landing early Thursday morning. I decided on Bugis Street as my first stop since it was relatively within walking distance to the hotel. A lot of people on the team went out of town for the weekend to either India or Malaysia so I was pretty much on my own, but Singapore is a safe city so I wasn’t too worried. I think India is about a 4 hour flight from Singapore, depending where you fly to in India so a lot of the Indian guys (and girls) on the team from the U.S. were taking advantage of the close proximity and the work-free weekend to visit family.

So anyway, armed with my map of the city, I headed toward Bugis Street which holds the reputation as the largest street shopping location in Singapore with over 600 stores offering a wide variety of fashion, accessories, gifts, souvenirs, and food/drinks. Ten million people walk through Bugis Street annually! On my walk over, I stopped in some neat open-air shops which after the fact, I found out were called Bugis Junction - a more upscale Bugis Street. I browsed the shoes and apparel and walked away with 2 pashminas for around $15 USD (for both). They claim to be 100% cashmere... not sure if that’s true or not, but they will be nice for the office since the A.C. is always on full-blast. I finally made it to Bugis Street and it was different than I had pictured. There were people everywhere and tons of little stalls selling trinkets and well, to put it bluntly, junk. It kind of reminded me of the shopping in Mexico. It was a neat cultural experience though – also lots of authentic Asian food - all of which I was scared to try - the fresh fruit and juices looked good though. Here are some pics-
Bugis Junction:

Underground Bugis Street:



Got a little lost walking back to the hotel.
Ended the night sitting outside at a restaurant/cafe sipping a cocktail and having a bite to eat (still jet-lagged... crashed around 9pm)


Saturday.

Decided to do the touristy thing and bought a hop-on hop-off double-decker tour bus pass.

I figured this would allow me to see a lot of the city, learn a bit about the history, help me learn my way around, and give me an idea of the places I wanted to go back to. Here were some highlights:
The Singapore Flyer – the largest Ferris Wheel in the world, even larger than the London Eye. It's a 360 degree panaramic view of the island and surroundings - you can even see Indonesia and Malaysia. Beijing is currently building a Ferris Wheel slightly larger though to surpass this one.

Raffles Hotel – the oldest and most prestigious hotel on the island

Boat Quay (pronouced: "Key")

Clark Quay:

Largest Mosque:

Most of the residents in the island live in buildings like below, which is government subsidized living. Since there is a limited amount of space on the island, homes are built up rather than out... and in order for someone to live in one of these places, they must (a) have around 100k and (b) be married.

Little India:

Old police station and living quarters. There are 911 colorful windows to signify 9-1-1 (no longer in use)

St. Andrew’s Cathedral – it’s been hit by lightning not once, not twice, but three times.

The Merlion is Singapore’s tourism symbol – half-fish, half-lion. The fish body comes from Singapore’s ancient name back when it was a fishing village. The lion head represents Singapore's original name, Singapura - meaning "lion city" in Sanskrit and Malay.

Esplanade, a massive theater costing 600 million to build. It was designed to be extremely green-friendly.

Singapore Library – really cool architecture

Chinatown

on the bus... after an Asian couple motioned for me to take a picture with them. I think I stick out in this country...

I decided to "hop off" the bus at Orchard Road. Orchard Road is a famous shopping street in Singapore with all the high-end names. Actually, Singapore has shopping on pretty much every road and every corner. There's even a 24 hour shopping center in Little India. There are shopping malls connected to more shopping malls - but I was told the best shopping was off Orchard Road. I grabbed a Starbucks (yes, there are Starbucks everywhere here!) and walked down to Takashamaya.

Spent a few hours shopping... left once my feet stared hurting... but had to wait out a big tropical rain storm first.

...will post Sunday later on tonight!