In a nutshell:
- Walked along Orchard Road (2.7km long!), the big fancy shopping street (inc. all the major international brands). Unless you’re high end shopping, meh
It’s called Orchard Road because there used to be orchards and plantations here, including nutmeg trees
Tip: Check out the views from (and funky artwork on) the rooftop garden/terrace of Orchard Central mall (near the Somerset MRT); take the outdoor escalators up and the elevator back down. - Walked through the Singapore Botanic Gardens – excellent and highly recommended!
It’s quite large – 1.8km long, stretching between the far end of Orchard Road and the aptly named Botanic Gardens MRT.
I didn’t realize bananas were in the same family as ginger! - Took the monorail to Sentosa Island (from HarbourFront) and went to the “southernmost point of continental Asia” – which ironically is on a little island reached by a hanging foot-bridge. How is that part of the continent exactly? And it’s not quite off the southern tip of Sentosa Island either. But hey, that’s where the self-proclaiming signboard is…
- Was invited into Sue’s home (from dinner previous night) to see what a local government subsidized apartment/condo looks like. Surprisingly large and quite nice
- Neighbourhood was great too, and Sue explained about how these things work.
- Met Ellen for dinner at Newton Circus – the hawker stall near Newton MRT – where amongst other things I had the chilli crab
- Hopped in a taxi to Little India to buy an alarm clock at Mustafa, since I have a very early flight on Wed morning
Tip: check out gothere.sg for directions between any 2 places in Singapore: it gives you options including time and cost for bus, train+bus and taxi (and car driving directions too).
The taxi fare option was quite handy, though it doesn’t take the many surcharges into account (like certain time-of-day). Fancy website with map or smart phone version too.
