Singapore - Dec. 2

We made it to the hotel at 8am. So we of course had to pay for the night we did not sleep but could check in immediately and take most needed showers. They did give us free breakfasts "out of the goodness of their hearts" as the check-in person said, and it was nice to eat non-airplane junk after such a long travel period.

Despite the tiredness we decided to go exploring after breakfast. We walked along Orchard Rd which is the main shopping drag. It's one of the most kitschiest places ever. Seems like any architect in Singapore can throw up any building s/he feels like - the more unusual and odd the style the better. So we walked and marveled at the impossible monstrosities all around us - and to top it off they were all decked out in Christmas decorations. The whole place is basically a huge shopping mall which extends over many city blocks. And we were shocked to see quite a lot of litter in the streets. But that might have been due to the early Sunday morning stroll when the streets have not been cleaned yet.

Our stated goal was go find a tailor and order a couple of custom made jackets for Avi. We "interviewed" about 4 such tailors - all Indian, all very nice and all explaining why their stuff is unique and their prices the best (we could not see the uniqueness and the prices were pretty much identical). So Avi haggled a bit and we settled on number 4. Avi was measured and they were quite impressed with his asymmetry (turns out that not only are his legs of unequal lengths, but so are his arms...). We will pick them up when we return for Penang, and if need be they will adjust anything which needs adjusting. Hopefully this experiment will be successful as it was not cheap. We did stay firm and did not order slacks or ugly blouses for me to their great disappointment.

We went back to the hotel for an afternoon nap which was cut short by the cleaning staff filing in (we forgot to lock the door...). So back out for another walk - back to the tailor for a meeting with the expert tailor(!). By this time of day the streets were completely packed with people - strolling, shopping, eating... There are so many different types of people it is very nice looking at them all and trying to figure out their ethnicities - Chinese, Indian, Phillipino, Caucasians and all possible mixtures. And they all seem to be living together harmoniously - so amazing when you compare to other places...  The streets were much cleaner than what we saw in the morning but still not as spotless as the way Singapore is always described. I even saw one guy spitting - shocking!

Then we explored Little India and the Arab Quarter. Little India is billed as "an experience for all senses" but we were underwhelmed - it's cute but rather sterile looking and not very interesting after having spent time in the real India. We were struck by the fact that there were hardly any women on the streets there.

The Arab Quarter is even less interesting  - a couple of mosques and a few men in Arab garb.

By then we were ready to collapse so we headed back to the hotel. Avi insisted we have a proper dinner which was a good idea. We went to an Italian restaurant at the hotel. It was very good but we did not enjoy it enough as we were nodding off...

The night was quite restful despite the 13 hour time difference. I slept for 8 hours and Avi is still asleep so we should be ok today. We have to leave for the airport around 11. It's a short flight to Penang, Malaysia so we should have some time to start exploring Georgetown tonight.

Today's photos: https://plus.google.com/photos/115788154995936631095/albums/5817514008860325025?authkey=CImL7uGsqaeCZw