Blogs from Orchard Road, Singapore, Asia

Bonjour à tous, Aujourd'hui superbe journée de découverte. Même timing qu'hier 9H dans les rues. Pas de perte de temps au petit dej de l'hôtel, c'est mode régime, une mini omelette, 2 mini saucisses, et 2 mini croissants. Il fait toujours aussi lourd à 9H 28°, différence avec hier, à 13H prévu 36°. Une petite pluie, en matinée, de 10 minutes a bien réactivée le taux d'humidité. UN petit mot quand même sur Singapour. En préparant ce voyage je me suis principalement concentré sur ce le côté touristique de Singapour, mais cette ville mérite plus. C'est une cité état de 724 km2, population de 6.2 millions d'habitants. Sa densité de population est la 2ème au monde derrière Monaco, son surnom la cité jardin, cette verdure découle en partie de son climat équatorial. Population majoritairement chinoise 75%. ... read more

Bonjour à tous, Un petit retour sur mon coup de gueule d'hier. Je sais que mes propos choquent quelques uns d'entre vous, mais j'assume. Hier en faisant la queue pour les contrôles douaniers, j'avais une petite inquiétude, à savoir si j'avais bien remplie les papiers, coché les bonnes cases, savoir ce qui allait m'arrivé si j'avais fait une erreur. Refoulé peut être. Si la France trillait un peu plus, peut être qu'il y aurait moins de fait divers au couteau!!!!!. Tant pis si je choque, j'assume toujours "nous sommes une poubelle sans tri sélectif". Hier dans mes mails j'en avais un du service de immigration Singapour, concernant les règles de vie à Singapour. La liste est longue, je l'ai parcouru en diagonal (en anglais), c'est la même que j'ai déjà acceptée et signée, j'ai bien compris, ... read more

Saturday, 17th July 2021 One of the really nice things that happened to me during the staycation was that I was offered a complimentary check-in from as early at 7am on Saturday morning. The concierge contacted me the day before and offered me this great service. Since 7am was way too early for me, I opted for the 10am option. Receiving my room keys for level 22 of the property was a nice surprise. While the room configuration does not permit a window near the bed, the views from the bathroom was nevertheless gorgeous. More surprises awaited me in the room as I was presented with a generous serving of marcrons as well as two servings of cocktails at the level 9 cafe. There was also a mini-swimming pool within the premises. Needless to say, I ... read more

One of the (many) things I love about Singapore is the interesting architecture of the modern buildings and the careful conservation of historic buildings. And some of the historic buildings have remarkable stories attached to them. Most people, if they are at all familiar with Orchard Road, think of it as one long concourse of conspicuous consummation. It is all that, and then some. Huge malls connect underground to other huge malls that connect to other huge malls via skybridges. But along the way, there are a few spots where you can still see what things looked like in Singapore’s past. I went out this morning looking for one of these conserved buildings that I had read about, 14 Orchard Road, which had been the home of Malayan Motors. But before I got there though, I ... read more

We were so wrong. Me and my wife never considered Singapore as a must see destination. With our limited resources to go on travels, we always thought why would we visit another mega city, when in fact we live in one, and have easy access to maybe one of the world's best known mega city, Tokyo, which we are not a big fan of. But then, I was pleasantly surprised to be asked to go Singapore to attend a work related symposium. I was not so thrilled though that my original 7 hour flight to Singapore from Osaka was changed to more than 12 hour waiting/ traveling time, with a Tokyo stop. Osaka's international airport is still not operational as it was destroyed by the biggest typhoon to hit our city in the last 25 years. ... read more