Arrived in Singapore bright and early Friday morning after catching a 2am flight out of Perth. Thought I would catch the train to my hotel, only to realize half way there that I should have probably just taken a cab. Negotiating the subway transfers with full travel luggage during rush hour in busy Singapore was probably a bit much. Fortunately the hotel, across from nice little district of colonial-style architecture shops, agreed to take my baggage straight away even though I wasn’t supposed to be checking in to my room until 3pm.
I used to travel to Singapore about 3 times a year a decade ago for business, but I have not been back in years. Traipsing through my old haunts in my very jet-lagged state, I snooped around the Bugis and Orchard Road shopping districts trying to stay awake. Fortunately, I checked back with the hotel by noon and they had a room available for me. I went straight to bed for a 3 hour nap and then headed out for dinner in the evening. Probably the nicest hotel I’ve stayed in on my own dime.
Looks like Singapore is getting ramped up for the next two big events: Chinese New Year and Valentines Day. There were large piles of fireworks for sale in many of the Chinese markets which I don’t think airlines would want me leaving the country with. Valentines Day would normally not be worth mentioning except for the fact that they had installed big over-the-top purple light displays for it up and down walkways along Orchard Road.
