Blogs from Raffles Marina, Singapore, Asia

I make no secret of my enjoyment of Raffles Hotel in Singapore. Check out my previous account of Raffles "British Colonialism at Its Best," from May of 2009. If I could afford it, I’d stay there. Heck, if I could afford it I’d live there. But, alas, it’s financially out of my reach. I can, however, shop in Raffles Arcade, visit their museum, and have a drink at the Long Bar. So, I’m walking along Beach Road, headed for Raffles, intending to do a little window shopping, maybe pick up a souvenir. A young woman comes up to me and points to her wrist, as if asking for the time. I shrug, point to my watch-less wrist, and shake my head. “Etes-vous Francaise?” (Are you French?) she asks. “Non, je suis Americaine.” She continues to speak ... read more

Today I woke up had breakfast, and decided to start packing because i was going home tomorrow, and after all the shopping in orchid, I needed to see if i was over my allowance. So it took me like 2 hours to pack my bag properly so that everything could fit. Gosh I wish mum was with me right now she could have packed it on half an hour. After the failed attempt to pack my suitcase, I headed down to the lobby and i just sat on one of the lobby couches and began to read a book and I also spent some time on my laptop, because I didn’t really feel like doing anything. At about 12 pm I decided to just catch a taxi to marine bay again, and have a picnic in ... read more

Marina Bay Sands is an Intergrated Resort in Singapore created by Las Vegas Sands. Its location is sitting on reclaimed land overlooking Marina Bay and the downtown. On the other side, the resort faces the Pacific Ocean and bunch of container ships waiting to get into Jurong port. It cost $8 billion dollars to build--$2 billion for the land and $6 billion for the resort. It was designed by three architects: Moshe Safdie (who designed the Habit in Toronto), Arup (who designed the Sydney Opera House), and Parsons Binkerhoft. The Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort consists of three different parts: (1) the resort which is three futuristic buildings with a skygarden ontop that looks like a boat, (2) the building in front that looks like a bunch of waves consists of a Convention Center, Casino and ... read more

In March 2011 we moved to Singapore with all the apprehension of a young couple moving to Asia. Would we enjoy the humidity and heat? Where would we find a good coffee? And in the absence of a real beach, rolling hills, wineries and the café culture of Melbourne, what would we do on weekends??? Lucky for us all of those questions were answered almost immediately. Although holding true to the clichés of being clean, safe and sterile, Singapore is rapidly becoming a melting pot of eastern and western culture with much more appeal to the Expat than the likes of Hong Kong having a visibly stronger Chinese influence. The post independence government, lead by Lee Kuan Yew and the people action party has managed to turn Singapore into one of the strongest economies of the ... read more

Singapore: Lion City. Pleasing on the eyes, perilous to your pocket, appealing to the senses, fiercely emergent, hygienically superior, orderly in arrangement and enviable in most regards... worthy of the moniker, I’d say. Crossing the border into Singapore from Malaysia was easy enough, and the journey from “KL” (as all the expats say) was comfortable on the sleeper train, in fact we both slept better on the train than we had in our previous dorm room and I woke up covered in drool, which is always satisfying. Generally, I’m not easily impressed by big cities but Singapore was immediately pleasing to me. In many ways I felt like I was “home” as the similarities between Seoul (South Korea, where we have previously been living) and Singapore are countless- although the Korean capital has some maturing to ... read more