So I went out to Orchard Road last night. This is the main shopping area in Singapore. People were queuing outside Gucci. It's not really my thing. The prices are cheaper than the UK, but hey, it's still designer goods, so not exactly bargain basement. The shops are similar to the USA - Banana Republic, Calvin Klein... but without the excellent sales.
Anyway, I'd come armed with Bleak House (the sheer size of this book means it handily doubles up as an actual weapon) and went to find a restaurant to have some food, as it's expensive to eat in the hotel and the food choice is limited. I found somewhere that did dim sum, but the queues were huge. So I settled for a noodle place. I was put on the same table as a chatty Singapore woman called Sarah, who was also on her own. I had no need for Bleak House. We talked about Singapore house prices, living costs, the cost of having a car - did you know, over here an average family car will set you back more than £40,000? They deliberately hike the prices to keep the number of cars down. I now know everything there is to be known about the Singapore school system (complusory school fees of £5 per month, and paid-for "enrichment classes" on top of that for competitive students).
I feel culturally appraised about Singapore. Interestingly everyone I ask about what to do in Singapore, they firstly mention shopping, then the night zoo (not really a fan of caged animals)... then they look slightly disturbed and say, "Well, that's about it really."
It's not raining (yet) here today: wish me decent weather for the weekend!
1 comment:
I was in Singapore with my family back in 1994 or 5. It was a couple of days stop over before we went on to Japan (Dad was over there for work).
Anyway, we did the Night Zoo and it was really good! Not caged animals, more like a night safari... pretty interesting.
Although the highlight may have been when 2 men started fighting on the bus before the tour got going and one throwing his cell phone at the other (cell phones were big back then!).
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