Shopping on Orchard Road and Being Fancy at the Raffles Hotel

Orchard Road is the shopping capital of Singapore. While there are over a hundred malls throughout the city, there are twenty-two on Orchard Road and the adjacent streets alone! TWENTY TWO! This is in addition to the freestanding luxury stores such as Louis Vuitton, Prada, and Gucci lining the street as well. I went with a mission to buy some hiking pants for our trip to Brunei next week. It took me almost half and hour to find the North Face story in the ION mall because it was so big! I felt like I was walking in circles but I actually wasn't. I finally got my pants and emerged from the depths of 4 floors Underground to explore the street itself!

The ION Mall from the outside

Some statues that I thought were cool

I walked up and down the road, taking in the sights. I went into several malls just to get a feel for the area. Many of the malls had the same stores in them, which I thought was really weird considering they were on the same road. For instance, I saw 3 Coach stores and 6 Rolex stores! 

I went into one of the department stores, Tangs, to see if it was like American department stores. It was pretty much the same, except everything was very tight. Most American stores would have the same amount of stuff, just more spread out. They were actually having a great sale on a brand that I had never heard of, Martina Pink. The style was a little more retro than I would normally wear but I really liked a couple of the tops and I ended up getting one that was 70% off! I felt like it would be cool to say I got it in Singapore and probably very few Americans have it! I spent and hour or so looking through more malls and stores before my stomach told me it was time to head back!

After I got back, I didn't have much time to eat and get ready for my nighttime plans: walking through downtown and heading to the Raffles Hotel. Additionally, my door decided it would be a good idea to get stuck on one of my drawers, so I couldn't get into my room. I eventually had to push so hard on the drawer that it broke, but there was no other way to get into the room, even if maintenance had come! Whoever decided to put drawers right next to a door was not the most intelligent human being. Finally I got ready and made my impatient companions happy as we headed off to the subway station 15 minutes behind schedule. 

We started at Merlion Park where the guys enjoyed some literal ice-cream sandwiches, ice cream, between two pieces of bread.

Then we walked around the city for a bit before finally finding the Raffles Hotel. Turns out we had gotten off at the wrong subway stop.

Sir Thomas Standford Raffles in considered the founder of colonial Singapore. The Raffles hotel is a five star colonial palace. However, the mood is very 1950s fancy-relaxation, which is nice. We sipped some Singapore Slings, which is the Signature drink of Singapore, created at the Raffles itself. I had terrible blisters from my shoes, but it was a great evening!