Along the way I saw a sign that said \u2018please closed gate at all times\u2019.\u00a0 I find it really fascinating that Chinese people have such difficulty with the \u2018ed\u2019 on the end of words – when they need a d on the end they don\u2019t use one and now they had one when they shouldn\u2019t!!!\u00a0 In Singapore it struck me even more so as English is the official language, so are they taught incorrectly in school?\u00a0 Or are sign-makers not native Singaporeans?\u00a0 Or\u2026\u00a0 (Don’t worry, I’m not perfect either, it’s just something I’ve noticed and it makes me smile.)<\/p>\n
We eventually got back to the hotel and went for a swim in the lovely pool and laid on sun chairs, officially to look at brochures, but my eyes were shutting so I confessed rather than fall asleep there and we went back to our room for a shower.<\/p>\n
After this we decided to walk to Orchard Road.\u00a0 The valets seemed surprised that we wanted to walk rather than catch a taxi and I\u2019m not sure if that\u2019s because the natives don\u2019t walk or they thought us too old to make the distance but it really wasn\u2019t very far at all.\u00a0 We just walked up Clemenceau Ave, through a little park named Istana and we were there.\u00a0 Orchard Road was most interesting and we saw all the brand names \u2013 wow!\u00a0 We decided to go into the Gucci shop to see how the other half lived \u2013 felt like giggling as the doorman opened the door and greeted \u2018sir\u2019 and \u2018madam\u2019 dressed in their Kmart-style clothes!\u00a0 Not many items had prices and we knew that if you needed to ask you couldn\u2019t afford it.\u00a0 We saw a pair of white jeans for $1,700 and a plain black belt for $450; its only embellishment being the gold \u2018G\u2019 on the buckle so you can pay a fortune to do their advertising for them.\u00a0 You can always tell how expensive things are by how many, or how few, they have on each shelf anyway so we didn\u2019t need price tags to know about everything else.<\/p>\n
We didn\u2019t go in any other expensive shops, just glanced at the names and were so surprised by just how well represented they all were\u2026 Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Rolex, Armani, and all the rest, all with their greeters and door openers on hand.<\/p>\n
![\"Tiny](\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Tiny-McDonalds-Cafe-on-Orchard-Road.jpg\" "\\"Tiny")
Tiny McDonalds Cafe on Orchard Road<\/p><\/div>\n
Here\u2019s the tiniest McDonalds I\u2019ve ever seen.\u00a0 It was only a McCafe so not selling burgers etc. but I wonder what his rent is considering it\u2019s on Orchard Road?\u00a0 It\u2019s about twice the length of the width you can see here.<\/p>\n
All of the shopping centres in Singapore appeared to be 5 or 6 floors high, again reinforcing to us how much space is at a premium there.\u00a0 In one such centre we saw a Haagen Dazs ice creamery and, as they are famous and we don\u2019t have one in Perth, decided to try their wares.\u00a0\u00a0 David, in typical David style, pronounces these \u2018Haygen Deeaz\u2019.\u00a0 His world is far more fun than the real one.\u00a0 We sat in their restaurant and the waitress brought us a glass of iced water each which was much appreciated and we downed those so fast she bought us a whole bottle instead of just refilling our glasses.<\/p>\n
![\"Haagen](\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Haagen-Dazs-treat.jpg\" "\\"Haagen")
Haagen Dazs treat<\/p><\/div>\n
The ice creams were really delicious and we enjoyed the experience very much but they add GST and a service tax on top of the menu price which was a surprise as our GST is included in prices here in Oz.\u00a0 So it cost us S$42 for 2 ice creams!\u00a0 But they were pretty special\u2026<\/p>\n
Yes, that is just one.\u00a0 Three tiers of wafers with 6 scoops of ice cream sandwiched between, plus chocolate sauce, strawberry sauce, a few real berries and almond slivers.\u00a0 Drooooollll.\u00a0 The ice cream consisted of 4 different flavours plus 2 fruit sorbets so we had a good variety each to enjoy.<\/p>\n
Further along Orchard Road was the most unusual McDonalds I\u2019ve ever seen \u2013 not<\/p>\n
![\"Multi-Level](\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Multi-Level-McDonalds-on-Orchard-Road.jpg\" "\\"Multi-Level")
Multi-Level McDonalds on Orchard Road<\/p><\/div>\n
that I\u2019m an expert as we don\u2019t indulge but I sure felt it was worth photographing\u2026<\/p>\n
The sales counter looked a lot like an old railway carriage and was at the bottom, directly under where I stood to take this photo.\u00a0 This picture only shows about a third of the seating area but the whole thing was on about 5 levels with the counter\/meal prep \u2018carriage\u2019 at the bottom.\u00a0 Pretty neat I thought, and very nice to be in the fresh air in the warm Singapore climate.\u00a0 There was a roof a few floors above as this was at the edge of a shopping centre, but still plenty of fresh air.<\/p>\n
To get to \u2018the other side\u2019 of Orchard Road we had to go down and through an underpass.\u00a0 There were underpasses or overpasses on all the major roads, many of the overpasses being beautifully decorated with small, flowering bougainvillea plants.\u00a0 But I digress.\u00a0 This one at the corner of Orchard Road and Paterson\/Scotts was to be our nemesis on this holiday.\u00a0 All we wanted was to continue on Orchard Road so we went down the escalator, turned some corners \u2013 there was no choice in this \u2013 up a few steps, followed some signs that meant absolutely nothing to us and found that we were at the doorway for the MRT (their underground).\u00a0 Oh!\u00a0 So we retraced some of our steps and took a different direction after a while, up another escalator and came up\u2026 in the exact spot we\u2019d first gone down!!!\u00a0 Completely confused and bewildered we decided we\u2019d probably reached the end of the interesting part of the road anyway so turned around and walked back the way we\u2019d come.\u00a0 Chicken?\u00a0 You betcha!<\/p>\n
A couple of things I\u2019ve not mentioned, and should, is that passing some of the smaller shops was a difficult pastime \u2013 it was amazing how many shop-holders came out and tried to persuade us to enter their dens.\u00a0 One in particular was a camera shop \u2013 having seen the camera case over David\u2019s shoulder the guy leapt into action to sell us a lens we couldn\u2019t live without which would capture a wider view and allegedly pick up a picture in darker circumstances than the one we had.\u00a0 When we asked the price the answer was $399 (all prices for this story are Singapore) which just about bowled us over backwards!\u00a0 We said no and the price got reduced.\u00a0 We said no again and the price was reduced to $200.\u00a0 After a further no he was telling us to make him an offer so I wonder, deeply, about the original price!\u00a0 We extricated ourselves, lens free and still with our wallets intact thank you very much, but wiser for the experience.<\/p>\n
The other observation was the only thing that we really did not like one bit about the holiday.\u00a0 You take a footpath the width of 4 people and you\u2019d get 4 people walking towards you and not one of them had any intention whatsoever of moving to one side so you could pass them.\u00a0\u00a0 The overruling intention seemed to be that they wished you\u2019d simply vaporise out of their way.\u00a0 In Australia if you\u2019re approaching someone on a footpath you both step to the left and miss each other.\u00a0 In the USA, people step to the right, it\u2019s a given.\u00a0 In Singapore they try to plough right through you and we bumped arms more than once with people even though we\u2019d gone single file ourselves.\u00a0 For the most part everyone walked right down the centre of the path and we even had one girl, walking alone, who strode slightly to the left of centre when we were on the left of a path wide enough for 4 people.\u00a0 This happened everywhere for the entire holiday and we really did find it extremely rude.\u00a0 We could only guess that there were so many holiday makers from so many countries that you couldn\u2019t rely on the \u2018keep left\u2019 or \u2018keep right\u2019 rule and it had all become a mess.\u00a0 It still didn\u2019t excuse them trying to plough right into us though!\u00a0 And to add insult to injury, if we stepped to one side for people, no matter how awkward that made things for us, there was no sign that they\u2019d even noticed you, much less to say thanks.<\/p>\n
Anyway, after looking in more shopping centres, but avoiding the \u2018half-submerged-lower-floor shop-keeper-accoster\u2019 area we once more crossed the easy underpass at the far end back into Istana Park and sanity.<\/p>\n
Next page\/…<\/a><\/p>\n Please feel free to leave a comment in the fields below before leaving this page. Email addresses will not be used in any way, nor displayed for anyone to see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Needless to say, if you\u2019ve read any of my other holiday stories, we got mislaid finding the hotel again, but considering we were just going by feel in a new country it wasn\u2019t too bad. Along the way I saw … Continue reading