Day 2 and Day 1

Caught up with sleep (11 hours!) and had a swim in the pool.

Karen took some pictures yesterday that I hope to upload after breakfast. I love the breakfast at the Asian fine hotels. Here they have a station for everything. Custom made omelet, lots of fresh fruit including

papaya, cantalope and lots of other melon, many kinds of juice, fresh pastries, cheeses, smoked fish, something from every type of breakfast cuisine including Japanese, Scandanavian, two Chinese stations (deem sum and congee), two Indian stations (yoghurt and traditional) and others.

After breakfast yesterday (day 1), we took a walk down Orchard Road,

noted for shopping. Just about everything you could imagine from very high end (think Rodeo Drive or 5th Avenue) to bargain electronics and everything in between. We ended up at the Long Bar in Raffles.

Never been there and glad to have finally made it. Had

a gin (Tanquerey) and tonic and a draft Heinken. The Raffles is archtypical colonial British enclave. Great architecture. The bar was classic.

See picture at the right. The picture up above is me after a couple of drinks at the Long Bar.

We were kind of tired from the long trip so did not do too much else yesterday except for dinner at the Shang Palace in the hotel. Which was ok, but not great.

We are staying at the Shangri-La in Singapore. In the garden wing. With a balcony overlooking the pool. All of the balconies have bougainvilleas streaming off of them and it is quite a side. And the gardens are beautiful with huge plants of all sorts.

We came in the middle of race season and tonight is the Singapore Formula 1 race. Preceded by the Aston Martin, BMW and other races this PM.

I think it is the only night race on the circuit. That, combined with the city streets makes it unique. Lots of race fans around and about.

This picture here is looking down on part of the race course from a hotel bar. Speaking of cars, I could not believe the number Ferraris and Lamboghinis on the street here. There does not seem to be any recession at all in Singapore.

Time for breakfast. More later.

Here are a couple of more pictures from yesterday. The inner court at the Raffles and the front of Raffles.