Two days ago I had wondered into Holland Village, a place that has a mall filled with little hole-in-the-wall shops and outside, rows and rows of small eateries and bars. Holland Village is also home to a lot of foreigners who work in Singapore so you may find a family speaking French as they stroll through the grocery store and then a blond-haired woman sipping coffee, reading an Australian news paper at the cafe. It felt a little like home to me.
Today I had ventured out to Marina Bay Sands, an integrated resort that combined a casino, hotel, museum and shopping mall all into one amusement area. It is one of the newest tourist destinations in Singapore. While I was eating in the Kraze Burger restaurant, I watched children ice skate in a rink right in the middle of the food court. It's a novelty to the children since it is about 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Another remarkable attraction in the mall is the man-made river where you can ride a miniature gondola. You'll feel like you are riding through a high class Venice with Prada, Gucci, and Fendi on the left and Ralph Lauren, Fossil, and Dior on the right. I end up wondering outside of the mall to look at the man-made bay that wasn't there seven years ago (which was the last time I was in Singapore). I try to take in all of it because it's quite intimidating. The tall buildings on the other side of the bay dominate most of the landscape, but there are construction cranes here and there indicating that this land has not reached it's peak potential. Some might call this place "beautiful" since a lot of the buildings are fantasy-like (the ArtScience Museum, which is right next to the mall, is like a large hand cupping the sky, and the hotel is made up of three tall towers with a large "boat" on top). The bay is glittering with little tour boats slowly gliding from one side to the other. I look back at the tall buildings across the way and I notice that a lot of them are bank buildings. There's DBS and HSBC and Standard Chartered. There's even Bank of America in the corner. This is what Singaporeans call the business district because that's what most Singaporeans do - finance.
I said that I had been re-reading Eat Pray Love in my other blog post. I had gotten to the part where Elizabeth (the protagonist) defines cities and people with one or two words. Stockholm is CONFORM. New York is ACHIEVE. Rome is SEX. That got me thinking what word describes Singapore. I've been here multiple times and I have gotten a better idea about what the culture is like as an adult. So after careful thought sitting at Marina Bay Sands looking out at the business district I finally came to the conclusion that the word for Singapore is ACQUIRE. I won't try to describe my reasoning because you really need to experience Singapore to understand what I mean. (Or just read my blog!) The reason why I bring this up is because I have to wonder if I can be like Singapore and "acquire" that spirit. Hahaha! However, I would rather just enjoy that culture/spirit and move on to the next. Like a traveling writer. What a dream that would be...
Today I had ventured out to Marina Bay Sands, an integrated resort that combined a casino, hotel, museum and shopping mall all into one amusement area. It is one of the newest tourist destinations in Singapore. While I was eating in the Kraze Burger restaurant, I watched children ice skate in a rink right in the middle of the food court. It's a novelty to the children since it is about 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Another remarkable attraction in the mall is the man-made river where you can ride a miniature gondola. You'll feel like you are riding through a high class Venice with Prada, Gucci, and Fendi on the left and Ralph Lauren, Fossil, and Dior on the right. I end up wondering outside of the mall to look at the man-made bay that wasn't there seven years ago (which was the last time I was in Singapore). I try to take in all of it because it's quite intimidating. The tall buildings on the other side of the bay dominate most of the landscape, but there are construction cranes here and there indicating that this land has not reached it's peak potential. Some might call this place "beautiful" since a lot of the buildings are fantasy-like (the ArtScience Museum, which is right next to the mall, is like a large hand cupping the sky, and the hotel is made up of three tall towers with a large "boat" on top). The bay is glittering with little tour boats slowly gliding from one side to the other. I look back at the tall buildings across the way and I notice that a lot of them are bank buildings. There's DBS and HSBC and Standard Chartered. There's even Bank of America in the corner. This is what Singaporeans call the business district because that's what most Singaporeans do - finance. 
I said that I had been re-reading Eat Pray Love in my other blog post. I had gotten to the part where Elizabeth (the protagonist) defines cities and people with one or two words. Stockholm is CONFORM. New York is ACHIEVE. Rome is SEX. That got me thinking what word describes Singapore. I've been here multiple times and I have gotten a better idea about what the culture is like as an adult. So after careful thought sitting at Marina Bay Sands looking out at the business district I finally came to the conclusion that the word for Singapore is ACQUIRE. I won't try to describe my reasoning because you really need to experience Singapore to understand what I mean. (Or just read my blog!) The reason why I bring this up is because I have to wonder if I can be like Singapore and "acquire" that spirit. Hahaha! However, I would rather just enjoy that culture/spirit and move on to the next. Like a traveling writer. What a dream that would be... 
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