asia, virtuoso

Singapore Harbour Lion

As is normal during these trips, we started our day with laptops and coffee.  The hotel's internet connection is a wired connection that we're sharing via wireless cards.  After having enough coffee and email, we opted to head down to the pool area for a quick buffet breakfast.  The more time we spend here, the less I'm impressed.  The breakfast buffet was fairly typically British, with a couple of interesting Asian items mixed in.  However, many of the selections had run out and they didn't seem anxious to replace them.  While everyone is nice enough, the service levels just don't measure up.

After breakfast, we headed over to City Hall MRT for our first exploration of the Singapore mass transit.  The touch screen machines are very easy to use - just touch the station where you are going, buy multiple tickets and round trip or one way.  We opted for a one way ticket to Orchard  -  a quick trip to the intersection of Scott Road and Orchard Road - and then a wander down Orchard back toward the hotel.  Along the way, we detoured to Ft. Canning, walking over the top of the hill and down to Clarke Quay (see breworkz above).  From here we made our way along the riverwalk and eventually to Boat Quay.  Boat Quay is a much older version of the riverwalk shops at Clarke Quay.

After the riverwalk we returned to the hotel for a cooling swim before the evening reception at Chjmes which is directly across the street from the hotel.  The evening was very warm - so even in the air conditioning of the church, it was sweltering.  Dinner was also held outside - so many of the attendees didn't appreciate the heat while wearing suits and sport coats.