Reed in Asia
x
Singapore, our new home now
The next morning we woke up reasonably early to a sound that we both found quite strange the day before, but we had both gotten a little used to now, it was the loud sound of the beetles chirping in the trees outside in the mornings and early evenings. No rush today, so we just 'relaxed' in bed a little and then gradually got ready and made our way downstairs to have some breakfast. After eating, we just sat there sipping tea and were talking about what we were going to do today, I suggested that the first thing that we should do is to start at the top of Orchard road and just slowly walk down it to see what it looks like in the daytime and see exactly what is on there, because it seems to be the main centre in Singapore. Myra agreed to this and then we started talking about what we would do later, we went over the map and started making new plans again.
Eventually we had settled on a schedule for the day and we walked out onto River Valley road, we spent a little time looking in all of the small shops and stalls along there, we were very interested in what they were selling because many of the items on sale were new to us, there were many small oriental knick-knacks that were new and interesting for us and this passed the time for a little while. We next jumped into a taxi and asked him to take us to the top of Orchard road, on the way there we saw a large shopping centre and asked the taxi to drop us off there. So we went into Tanglin Shopping Centre and started walking around there, we were interested in all of the shops and just generally looking around, Myra was interested in the clothes shops and materials on sale and I was looking around the stereo and music record shops. We spent about thirty minutes in there and then we were both feeling a little warm, tired and thirsty, so we found a small stall, sat down at a table and drank some fresh coconut juice with ice. I asked the stall holder how far it was to Orchard road and pointing to the entrance to the centre, she said "just go out of here, turn right and keep walking for a few minutes and you will be there", so after finishing our drinks, that is exactly what we did.
The top of Orchard road had large hotels on each side of the road and we could see many more in the distance, we just slowly started walking down the road, looking around and were generally interested in everything because it was all new to us. We passed the Royal Thai Embassy on the left and then eventually we came to a road junction, the road leading off to the left had a sign that said Scotts road so we decided to turn down there and we soon came to place called the 'Shaw Centre' this was big shopping mall, so we went in there to look around. This place had some very classy shops and outlets and I was very soon looking around the stereo equipment in there, because that was something that I was really interested in, Myra again started looking at the clothes shops and then we both started looking together at the home accessaries and local craft outlets and saw many things that interested us, we had never had a home together yet, so when we get our house or flat here eventually, we will have to start furnishing it and there was lots of things in the Shaw Centre that interested us both. After a long time of generally mooching around the shops we both started to get very hungry, so I asked someone in there if there was a restaurant close by and we were told that there was a very good one on the Mezanine floor in the centre itself, so we quickly went there. I was very hungry, so when I spotted the word ' seafood pizza' on the menu I ordered that quickly and Myra ordered the same. The pizzas when they arrived were very big and turned out to be the best pizza that I had ever tasted and Myra completely agreed with me, so we decided to make a note of this restaurant for future use. We sat there for a long time relaxing after we had finished our meal, I ordered a couple of beers and we just kept talking for a very long time about all of the things of interest that we had seen in the shaw centre that day.
Eventually I paid the bill, which was very reasonable, then we made our move back onto Scotts road, we flagged down a taxi and asked him to take us to the boat quay, which was our next area of interest. When we arrived, I paid the taxi and we wandered through the large boat passenger building that they had there to the railings by the sea front and just enjoyed watching the local boats/sampans sailing and manoeuvring around. This was all very pleasant and new for us, but the main reason that we had come to this area was to see the 'Merlion' statue that was supposed to be nearby, so we wandered along the road near the sea front for a while and quite soon we spotted it, we quickly made our way over to it and for the first time that day, I started taking photographs of the Merlion and Myra posing nearby, my first snapshots of Singapore! After sitting down on a bench there and admiring the view for a while, we made our way back to the boat quay and I spotted something interesting on the other side of the road, there seemed to be an alleyway that many people were going in and out of carrying bags and boxes, there was an overpass across the road nearby, so I said to Myra that maybe we should go and take a look at this place. We went across the overpass and arrived at the place and went inside the alley, inside it was covered and had many stalls on each side selling many different types of goods, there were a couple of cubicles for money exchange and many people came up to us asking if we would like to change some money, so just out of interest, I asked how much the exchange rate was and they told me that to buy Singapore dollars using pound sterling I would get four dollars and fifty cents for one pound sterling, now I was interested, so I asked how much it was to buy pounds sterling and I was told that I could buy one pound sterling for five Singapore dollars, this I made a note of for later. I later found out that the name of this place was 'Change Alley'. After looking at many of the stalls in there and checking the prices of things that we were interested in, we made our way back to the main road, it was now getting quite late in the day, it was about 18:00, so we got a taxi and asked him to take us back to Orchard road near Scotts road.
We got out of the taxi at Scotts road and started walking down Orchard road again, but this time we crossed to the other side, it was now starting to get a little dark and we were just passing the Hilton hotel, when I said to Myra that we should go inside and take a look around. The hilton was obviously a high class hotel and probably very expensive to stay in, but we just wandered around out of interest, there were many shops on the ground floor mainly aimed at the wealthier tourists and selling jewellery, local crafts and trinkets. I then asked someone there if this hotel had a swimming pool and I was told that they did have a swimming pool, but it was on one of the upper floors, we went to look at the swimming pool out of interest and when we arrived there it was very pleasant. It was early evening now and they had tables around the pools and were playing soft music over the speakers there, it was a clear night and the stars were now beginning to shine, so I decided that irrespective of the price, we should sit down and have a drink there, listen to the music and look at the stars. The beer there was only a little more expensive than I paid at Orchard poad carpark, but the view, the music, the semi-solitude and the overall atmosphere was much better, so I said to Myra that we should spend the evening just relaxing there and she agreed. A little later we were approached by a waiter asking us if we wanted something to eat, they had a barbeque up there and we could order what we wanted, so to check the price of something that I already knew, I asked him if they had any pork satay and the price of it. I was very surprised by his answer, he told us that ten sticks of pork satay was only one Singapore dollar, so we ordered twenty sticks of satay, I ordered a white wine for Myra and another beer for me and we spent a very relaxing and romantic evening, listening to soft music, sipping our drinks and nibbling at the satay sitting around the pool under the tropical night stars.
We were both very impressed with Singapore now and thoroughly enjoyed it there, we had found many things of interest that day and we had rounded an already good day off very romantically, under the stars on the pool rooftop of the Singapore Hilton hotel.
'Our new lifestyle in the tropics'
Asia6: Our new lifestyle in the tropics
The Legless Blog
My first published book 'Legless in Thailand'
My new novel that I am still writing
Some of my true short stories
Royal Air Force tribute page
St Helens: My home town
The Ship Inn: a great British pub in Bangkok
The Blue Diamond Hotel: my favourite place in penang
Legless Pics Page: A page of amusing pics for viewing
Legless in Hat Yai: When I was stuck in Hat Yai unplanned
Legless in Vientiane, Laos: My first trip to Laos very recently
I shall be adding to this site over time, so if anyone is interested then please have a little patience and call back here from time to time. One of my very few pleasures in life these days is beer so I shall be occasionally referring to beer, I just wish that beer was the only reason that I am legless all the time 
Thanks for viewing my site, cheers for now, Legless 
If you wish to email me: legless@reedinter.co.uk
Reed in Asia homepage
Some search engines that I find useful below:
MSN AOL Google Yahoo Netster Dogpile Excite Lycos
