Singapore at Last!

October 14, 2011, Friday, in residence at the Fullerton Hotel, Singapore.  After over twenty-four hours "bed-to-bed," we arrived in the City of the Merlion.  The trip was largely uneventful but there were hours of turbulance over the North Pacific and coming down from Inchon to Singapore.  This gives a whole new meaning to "shaken not stirred."

The Fullerton Hotel is a real gem.  Its shell is an early 20th Century landmark building from the days of the Raj.  One of its main functions was as the Singapore General Post Office.  (Jerry, the stamp collector, keeps trying to take off his clothes, because he thinks he died and has gone to heaven).  It was totally remodeled and opened as a hotel in 2001.  We won't bore you with bad photos; just visit the hotel's web site at www.fullertonhotels.com.  They paid that photographer a lot of money to take those images.

This morning we awoke way to early and jet lagged.  After a breakfast of many eggs, and other forbidden foods -- think  bacon, Cooper! -- we walked along the Singapore River.  The image below is from the River Walk of Cavenagh Bridge and the exterior of the Fullerton on the right.

On one side of the walk is the river and on the other numbers of big banks, but not a protester in sight.  Also, there is some nice yard art, for instance, this Botero chicken (no wonder there are so many eggs in Singapore).  Eloise is there to give you scale and some color.

We walked through an area of traditional shop houses.  The ground floors have been converted to pubs, bars and "fastish" food joints for the wage slaves of nearby bankerville.

After crossing the river, we continued our explorations, passing the main government areas with Parliament House and the Supreme Courts.  (Were those lobbyist we saw swimming the Singapore river or was it just imaginative transference from Washington?)

Continuing down North Bridge Road, we tried to find a cell phone store which could explain data roaming on Jerry's HTC Android phone and ended up at the Raffles City Shopping Plaza.  With nothing purchased in hand, we returned by taxi (Remember, Noel Coward wrote "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" in Singapore) to the Fullerton to sink into a jet-lag induced stupor awaiting tea.