Day 27: Singapore – Asia for Rookies

This morning, we got out of bed later than we thought we would have to.  we thought our flight was at 9am, but when we checked, it was actually at 11:45am, so we got an extra two hours of sleep!  We grabbed breakfast and then a taxi to the airport, which got there surprisingly quickly due to low traffic.  We got checked in, and then hung out in the lounge as we waited for out flight.  Eventually, our flight boarded an we were off.

Not only was the airport huge, it contained an entire mall.

The flight was two and a half hours, and it went by very quickly, as I was working on yesterday’s blog post on the flight.  When we arrived in Singapore, we walked past all of the slow bums from our plane and got to immigration first from our flight.  There was hardly anyone going through, and a new lane was opening, so we walked right up and were through in two minutes, beating our record on the Cambodian border.  Our luggage took a few more minutes, but we were soon out of the airport and in Singapore.

Singapore is often referred to as “Asia for rookies,” and it shows as soon as you leave the airport.  Not only does everyone drive like normal, but the streets are clean and free of trash.  Taking it another step yet, many of the streets are lined with maintained trees and flowers, making the city look just like any major western city.  Actually, it probably looks better than a lot of major western cities.  As we drove to the city, it was hard to tell we were in Asia unless we specifically looked at the demographics and looked for the many Asian restaurants.  The official language is English, so even roadsigns are only labeled in English.  Everyone speaks very good English.

The hotel we are staying at is the Marina Bay Sands Resort.  It is three skyscrapers connected at the top by a terrace that looks like a boat.  The entire thing is massive.  The atrium in the lobby is about ten stories high, making it appear huge.  The entire lobby area also spans across all three towers, so it is at least 100 yards long.  Furthermore, it is always packed with people, all the way down the lobby, making it by far the busiest hotel I have been in.  Part of what makes it so busy is that if you take the tunnel from the lobby that goes across the street, the hotel is connected to a giant mall with a theater (as in plays), casino, convention center, and ice skating rink.  While Greg checked in, I went up to the top of the “boat,” which has, among other things, the pool.  This pool goes right up to the edge of the roof, and has great views overlooking the entire city.

That's our hotel on the right.

The main section of the hotel lobby.

The shadow of the hotel from the roof. I'm not sure what they are building behind it.

The edge of the pool is freaky.

The pool

When we got into our room, we headed out to Orchard Ave, the busiest district of Singapore.  This road is lined with an unimaginable number of malls and shops.  At night, everything is lit up and looks very neat.  We saw some massive stores there as well, such as one bookstore, the largest in Southeast Asia, which I was unsure if I would ever be able to find the back of.  It twisted and turned all around, but never seemed to end.  In fact, it covered half of the floor of one of the malls.

When it got late and we bored of looking at more shopping, we headed back to the hotel.  We stopped at the top floor one more time to see the city lights before heading back to our room.