June 24 2006 - Singapore Shopping and Anniversary

I woke up yesterday morning and my feet HURT – I should know better than to walk 10 miles in cute little sandals! So, that decided my day for me…the botanical gardens and shopping sounded pretty good. I strapped on my running shoes and headed to the Singapore botanical gardens first. Using the hotel directions, I only got lost a couple of times on the way there. The gardens are really pretty. So many flowers, strange LARGE flowers that looked like they’d like to eat me as easily as look at me. I walked instead of running so that I could really take things in, and maybe not get completely turned around. The paths are confusing though and my sense of direction, which is pretty bad at times, completely deserted me at one point. I know I probably ended up walking around the place 1 ½ times in my confusion. Ah well, it was beautiful, so who cares.

Singapore has lots of flowers and things just aren’t as congested as Hong Kong. I think both cities are pretty, but in different ways. Hong Kong is more dramatic for sure. And Hong Kong is more stinky! I don’t miss the absence of overwhelmingly unpleasant smells, which occur commonly in Hong Kong.

After the garden I took a shower and then started strolling down Orchard Rd. This time I had a plan – Ngee Ann Shopping Mall, Tanakanasa Department Store, Tang’s Department Store, and then a designer shopping mall to check out a DKNY store more closely…

Ngee Ann Shopping Mall was okay, but it didn’t really excite me; same with Tanakanasa department store. It’s another Japanese department store. I like the ones I’ve been in in Hong Kong, but this one wasn’t that thrilling. By this time I was getting hungry. I wanted something more sedate than a Hawker stand (and I wanted to stay inside!) so I headed for the food court. Asian food courts just crack me up. Instead of Burger King and McDonalds, its Korean Barbeque and Japanese noodle bowls. I headed for the soba noodle stand. I got some cold soba noodles and some tempura. It was yummy and I just scarfed it up.

Now revived, I headed into Tang’s department store; a Singapore institution. They were having a huge sale and it was VERY distracting. There were some great buys on purses, but I have a lot of purses right now, so I resisted. I found some really, really cute glass bead jewelry, but kind of gridlocked and couldn’t decide. I may still go back and buy some of that; it was unique, and cheap!

Then I found a department I just loved. It was called Island Shop, and had all kinds of clothes made from Indian print fabrics – skirts, pants, dresses, blouses. I found 3 or 4 outfits that I really liked but just bought one, a skirt and a tank top. The prices were very reasonable, and they give tourists an extra 5% discount! I’m going to wear it to the zoo today!

Then I headed for the DKNY store. I’d already been in it twice. The clothes were just beautiful, but there were no bargains here. But by now I was in “what the hell” mode. I bought a red silk blouse and I FINALLY bought some of those long shorts. So I’m one stylish chick now….I proudly told Lee the price of the skirt and top I bought at Tangs, but I told him not to ask how much the stuff from DKNY cost!

Our anniversary was actually on Thursday, but we celebrated last night. We had reservations at a nice restaurant on the 24^th floor of the Shangri-La Hotel. I wore my new pants from Hong Kong and my new red silk blouse, AND the beautiful black pearl necklace that Lee gave me. I couldn’t believe he went ahead and bought the pearl necklace from Japan – he said he did it all by email. And he got his new ipod, one of the ones that you can watch videos on, etc.

It was a very nice night, and this morning we slept until 8:30 AM. I cannot remember the last time Lee slept that late. It’s been years, for sure. He must have been really tired; he’s been working very hard.