Today was my Big Trek through a fair part of what's known as the Downtown Core of Singapore City. I started out from the hotel and retraced my steps at the Esplanade, then struck across the bridge to Merlion Park (and yes, the picture is that of said Merlion - neat, no?) After that, I cut across through the Anderson Bridge and got peeks at a couple of museums, the Singaporean Parliament, and the Supreme Court Building.
My first major experience with the kind of hypershopping that's common here came next. I had walked a few miles and was rapidly losing the last of my body moisture to the buckets of sweat coming off me (it didn't get above 90, but the humidity was like New Orleans); I then spied the "Funan: The IT Mall". IT as in Information Technology...squeeee! I ducked in and spent an hour or so on its five floors of laptop shops, consumer electronics, mobile phones (including the latest Sony Ericsson models that I covet but won't work here....grrrr), and some very interesting food shops - unlike other parts of Singapore I've seen, these were more skewed toward Japanese or "American" restaurants. Not only was there a KFC/Taco Bell/Pizza Hut restaurant, but a Swensen's as well - offering, among other things, "Tennessee Chicken". I decided to pass them by.
Next, I walked to what could possibly be the most intense consumer experience I've ever been in : Orchard Street. I'd been through this area by car several times on my way to the hotel from work, but being on foot allowed me to see the sheer scale of all the stores, food pavilions, smaller shops, stands, and stalls. I have a couple of pictures in my Flickr archive of the experience, but I don't think they do it justice. It makes my trips to shopping districts in Tokyo and New York look calm by comparison.
