Orchard Rd

     Today was my first "real day" in the city of Singapore.  My friend worked a half day and then we went out for lunch in the basement of Raffles City Shopping Centre.  It's interesting that most people eat out for meals here.  There were many restaurants to choose from, but we went to a buffet.  It had food from every Asian culture:  Thai, Indian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese...I get the idea that Singapore food is made up of all these cultures.  I looked at The World Factbook and about 75 percent of Singaporeans come from Chinese ethnicity, followed by Malay and Indian at about 13 and 10 percent, respectively.  It's such a cool mix of people that make up this city!

     After lunch we took the train to Orchard Road, which is a huge shopping area in Singapore.  This main road is filled with shopping centers and brick-and-mortar stores, mostly designer shops.  It's actually a blessing that everything is so expensive here because there's no way I can fit any more things in my backpack:)  By the afternoon the temperature was in the mid 80s (F) and the humidity was high that we stopped for a drink.

     Later that evening we went to Emily's downtown office building.  Every Thursday/Friday there are Happy Hour events from 6-9pm.  Drinks are complementary, and so are the Lays potato chips!  The only semi-depressing part of the evening was when the bartender asked where our boyfriends were, and then proceeded to put little citrus peel shaped hearts in all of our subsequent drinks.  It was good to follow that up with a ton of Thai food, so we had some Pad Thai Chicken and Basil Thai Beef.

Orchard Rd

Beautiful day in Singapore

Entrance to Thai restaurant

Mmmmm Pad Thai Chicken & Basil Thai Beef

Getting to Singapore

     After a 15 hour flight over the North Pole, from Chicago to Hong Kong, and another 4.5 hour flight I have safely made it to Singapore!  It is a beautiful, immaculately clean city surrounded by water.  I'm visiting Emily McKenzie as she represents Diageo in many Asian countries.  She has already been to Japan and South Korea, and will visit India, Thailand, and many more before her time is finished!

     I must admit I had big plans for my first day here.  Emily was still traveling back from Japan, so I had the apartment and city to myself.  My plane landed at 5:20am, and it was 6:45am by the time I got to her place.  I thought to myself, "I'll just lie down for a quick nap before lunch..."  When I woke up it was 8:30pm.  Lunch was ruined and now my timing is totally off...I say this as I write this blog post at 2:15am.  Oh well, I'll get it together sooner or later!  In the meantime, here are two photos I was able to take; Emily's apartment's view over the city.