Singapore: Day 1...

It's nice to be back in Asia again... Everything is sooo different than in the west. Small things like the way the air smells bring back a nostalgic feeling for me. Tho I left M'sia when I was very young, the smells and sounds never left me. Each time I come back I look around and see sights that fascinate me, for instance... the Hong Kong style housing flat in the picture to the left. You won't see a sight like that in Vancouver, I'm pretty confident that you won't find that anywhere else in Canada either (if you know where, let me know ;)).

First day here Mary (family friend) came to pick us up and drop take us to Takashimaya. The malls in Asia are crazy big... it's something I don't think I'll ever get used to. Takashimaya has just about every clothing store you can imagine most of the stores are ones that I haven't heard of but apparently are huge brands here... Mango for one. I just did some research and it seems that Mango is available in Canada... just not in Vancouver, how ignorant of me... Among my favorite brands here is U2 :) It's my MEXX equivalent (though they do have MEXX here but mostly for women)... enough about that.

There's definitely an air of Chinese New Year about Singapore... Everywhere I go, all I here is DUK DUK CHANG :@ it's getting rather annoying, but then I should have expected it. It's like XMAS in Vancouver... but with more DUK DUK CHANG :P

Mary went to park the car and we headed into the mall to look for the food court :) we couldn't find it :$ Mary found us and then we ordered our food. Today was my first taste of some local (tho mall) food in a year! I ordered the Chicken Curry set w/ salad roll at a Vietnamese stall, while Jacq ordered the Beef Noodle set. Each set came with a Papaya salad, another first for me :) and not too shabby if I say so myself. Oh yeah, the drink sizes are frickin' small... My regular was the same size as a Kid's size in Canada... wth.

After our meal we walked around and had a look at what all the stores had to offer... wow... By the end of the day my feet were killing me... and I wanted to tear my ears off from all the CNY music. I left the mall with a pair of shorts and 2 short-sleeved collared shirts :) Jacq bought a skirt ;)

A couple of hours later Mary was done her shopping and so were we... on to Mary's house :) our 6 star hotel :P she lives in the Cornwall Gardens area where all the big houses are. Las time we were here I was supposed to stay there with my parents, but I was with Jacqueline... this time I got to see what I missed :P Mary wasn't kidding when she said that her place was going to be like 6 star accommodations! Like my father, she was also in the hospitality/tourism industry, and it still shows... her attention to detail is impeccable!


Her house is crazy! :) Like her dog Xaviah... I called him Stinky :D

That day I also met her son Chris :) nice guy... loves to eat and enjoy life ;) I have yet to play a rack of pool with him. We rounded off the evening by going to Da Paolo Bistro Bar... a fairly new establishment in the Rochester Park area.

Sometime during our stay Mary and I got into the discussion of Service in Singapore... in a country where there are so many rules and regulations in place, and where they are so keen on picking up western trends and copying western TV shows you'd think that they would want to pick up on Western standards of service too... no apparently not. Ah.. I remember now. I was in Giordano with Jacq and standing in front of a display/rack... one of the employees stepped right in front of me and proceeded to continue helping another customer... he just stood there RIGHT IN FRONT of me and stayed there right in front of me as if I didn't exist... asshole. I was pissed... that isn't even the tip of the iceberg, but I won't get into it quite yet... Mary was saying that she doesn't enjoy shopping here... the standards of service are not quite there yet...

Dinner was not too bad :) We even had some entertainment in the parking lot before we got to the restaurant itself :P someone forgot to engage the parking brake after parking their car and it rolled back into the car behind it :D hehe... there was no one in either car... I'm still wondering how they settled it ;). The atmosphere in the restaurant was nice. There was a huge patio and a few different sections each with their own motif. During dinner I got to make some small talk with Chris... from our conversation it seems like he does love his food ;)

To touch on the standards thing again, our waiter didn't look a lick over 17 and didn't know wtf he was doing... even simple requests like finding out if substituting pastas for other pastas seemed to be a confusing task for him... M and I both ordered a seafood pasta with tomato sauce while Jacq ordered a pasta with a cream sauce... I don't quite remember what it was exactly... all I remember is that it was REALLY rich...



... a glimpse of their Antipasti Bar upstairs...


We rounded off the night with some drinks and turned in for the night... I was pretty jetlagged by that time... mmm... Bombay Sapphire Gin :P