Shophouses in Orchard Road

You will be surprised that Orchard Road is not all about tall shopping malls. We still do have these pretty shophouses around. Shophouses are used to be the owner stay on the upper floor while the lower floor are used as shops.

But sometimes bigger enterprises like restaurants, jewellery shop, etc occupied the whole shophouses and they used both floors for their business.
All the shophouses in Orchard Road are protected and preserved, they cant be demolished. These shophouses have a long history.

Orchard Road is always filled with shoppers and tourists.

Pink Saturday - Window Display

I am always impressed and fanscinated by window displays. They are really very attractive.

These window displays are found on the basement of Orchard Central, it looked more like an exhibition than window displays.

Worth going to look at the arts in Orchard Central Mall beside eating and shopping.

When I was there, the mall was operating till the 7th storey, I heard they have a total of 12 storeys where there are more arts on the roof top. One day, I will try to get a night photo of the mall, heard that they are very beautiful and pretty.

For more pinky participants, please visit Beverly of How Sweet The Sound.

Skywatch Friday - Orchard Central Mall - Ride along the escalators

The one thing I like Orchard Central is their escalators. They have escalators facing the main road of Orchard Road - a shopping district.

I am going to ride the long escalators up, it looked quite scary but there's a glass panel protecting us so that we would not fall out while looking at the scenery.

This is the long escalator ride up. The escalator is the same one as the above photo.

Photo taken through the glass panel.

From the escalator, I could see rows and rows of shophouses opposite me. All the shophouses are protected and preserved.

Most of the building along Orchard Road are malls after malls. The whole Orchard Road is a shopping district with malls on both sides. Come christmas, the whole Orchard Road would be decorated with fairy lights and it will be very pretty.

A short video showing my ride up the escalator and my two friends are behind me giggling at me...lol

For other sky watchers, please hop over to Skywatch blog.

Orchard Central Mall - 7th Storey - Food

Seems like part of an engine room? No, these are dummies. They are part of decorations or arts found on the 7th floor of Orchard Central where the whole floor are restaurants and eateries.



These oxygen tanks are empty too, they are just for decorations.

When I was there last month, not many restaurants are open yet, just a handful.

Korean restaurant

The food prices over at Orchard Central are so much cheaper than ION Mall. Tomorrow, I will be posting the long escalators at Orchard Central, will be very interesting.

Orchard Central Shopping Mall - Rock Climbing

Besides finding art sculptures in Orchard Central Mall, there's a rock climbing wall right inside the shopping mall. It is very interesting. One need to pay to climb the rock and many procedures are required to ensure the safety of the climber.

On the left is an eager climber, whereas on the right is the instructor.

My World Tuesday-Orchard Central - Arts - Tall Girl

Today, I hop to a new mall which is not branded mall but affordable to everyone and this mall is all about food and arts. I am sure many like this mall. So does this tall girl. She is so tall that I could not capture her in my wide screen camera.

Even her boots are more than one storey tall.

There are many art sculptures around the mall. But when I was there last month, the mall was not fully opened yet, so I could only take photos of some arts only.

A short video of tall girl and you can see how tall she really is.

You have to return to see more window displays and a rock climbing wall in the mall in my next few posts.

Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

ION Orchard - Fountain at the steps

At the steps near the entrance are these little fountains that are a child's delight.

The video is short and shaky cause I was rushing to meet my friend...lol

ION Orchard - Posh Toilet

A posh toilet to go with the branded mall. The toilet is so clean and posh. I am talking about the public toilets in ION Orchard. Sorry I am not eligible to use the VIP toilet. The VIP toilets are for customers who spend more than $10,000 and also for celebrities or dignitaries, i.e. very important people...lol.

These toilets are not VIP toilets but they still are very posh and clean and they are free to use, no need to spend $10,000...lol.

In the centre of the posh toilets are vanity table with beautiful mirrors where the ladies can do their make up, etc.

Oh I like this. Every mirror in front of the basin, are personal hand dryer and paper towel. So there are so many hand dryers in the toilets, each located at the bottom of the mirror. How cool is that.

And no need to queue to use the toilets as there are so many cubicles in the toilets. I wish all public toilets in Singapore are like that.

Next week I will post photos of a new mall that is associated with food and the arts. So art lovers will like to come visit my blog next week.

Skywatch Friday - ION Orchard - Condominium

If you are impressed with the branded mall of ION Orchard, then you will also be impressed with its condominium.

Beside the mall, is the condominium built by the same developer of ION Orchard. The condominium is known as The Orchard Residence.

The Orchard Residences will be the tallest building along the shopping district, standing at 218 metres. This residential building will have a total of 175 residential units from the ninth floor to the 54th floor once completed, four of which are penthouses. During the first phase of the sale of 98 units, the units were sold for an average of S$3213 per sq ft.

It is so expensive, it means that each unit is about a few million dollars. You can read more about it from source. The highest floor are the penthouses which cost so much more than the lower units.

For other sky watchers, please hop over to Skywatch blog.

ION Orchard - Inside the mall - shops

ION Orchard is a branded mall. So all the shops from the ground floor up to the higher floors are shops that sell branded goods.

Shops like burberry, Prada, Cartier, Giorgio Armani, Louis Vuitton, etc

The above photo shows a father riding the escalator with his daughter on his shoulder (circled). This is a very dangerous act, one wrong slip, the child might fall many floors down. Not a wise act by the father.

I like this bookshop's window display of star trek's characters.

Below photo is the one of the basement (there are four levels in the basement) where the shops are not so expensive, we can all afford it.

Tomorrow I will showcase basement four where all the food are. :)

ION Orchard

This is ION Orchard, the latest new mall that opened recently in Singapore. ION Orchard comes from the phrase "I on orchard". Orchard is the name of the road - Orchard Road. Orchard Road used to be a Orchard that grows fruits, that's how the name of Orchard Road comes about.

ION Orchard is a mall that sells mainly branded goods but there's still hope for budget shopping. From B1 to B4 (i.e. the basement), there are shops that are affordable for the average shoppers. But from the ground floor up to the upper floors, are all shops that sell branded goods.

In a supermarket in one of the upper floors, I saw half a water melon selling for about $25 (faints*) and a rock melon for $29. OMG, it costs only a few dollars for these melons in the markets and local supermarkets. It looked the same to me, wondered if the melons are tastier.

I like this photo very much, this is the entrance to the Orchard MRT Station. Looked at the beautiful architectural designs of ION Orchard. I like the way the glass reflected all the images.

The entrance of the MRT Station looked like people going into a spaceship.

These red long benches are so cute and striking but not many are sitting during the daytime cause it is quite hot. I think it would be occupied during the night. I cannot imagine how beautiful this place would be during christmas time.

A short video of ION Orchard. Looked at the sculpture on the right, it is a fruit sculpture.

This video is nice. I like the reflection on the moving vehicles on the glass panels.

There are more new places of attractions coming up in Singapore in the next couple of years.

Singapore is going to be like a wonderland for people having fun and leisure and eat and shop.

Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

Shophouses in Tanjong Pagar

More photos of shophouses in Tanjong Pagar. Shophouses are usually shops or office on the ground floor and the upper floors are living quarters for the owners.
These shophouses are restored and preserved, they are over 100 years old.
Love the beautiful architectural designs especially the windows.

Housing from the past, present and future

Continuing from yesterday's post. Today, I will talk about the future, present and past housing all in one district.

The background of the new flats in Tanjong Pagar are really very beautiful and expensive and they are government's flats (HDB) built by private developers. The bridge (circled) are heavier than an aeroplane and they are built as roof gardens. These HDB flats are even more expensive than some private condominiums.

And these flats are all taken up (if I am not mistaken), the flats should be ready by next year. I wondered if the roof garden are open to anyone besides residents there, then I can go up and take photo of the garden. It must be quite scary to be high up there.

The high rise flats are symbols of our future housing, builting upwards in land scared Singapore. The lower block of flats are present flats build at least 30 years ago.

Oh I like these old shophouses, they are restored and preserved. These old shophouses are at least more than 100 years old. They even survived the world war II. My late grandmother used to live in one of these shophouses and it was so old and infested with rats as huge as a cat. I remembered having to put my legs up the sofa cause the rats are running under the sofa...hahaha...very scary.

After all the restoring and preservation, these shophouses are now worth more than a million dollars.

You can read more about the history of these shophouses in wikipedia.

Although we are progressing very quickly, we dont forget our past and histories.

What type of housing do you like?