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?

Skywatch Friday-Tanjong Pagar

Saw some cute sculptures in front of the building. Hope you can see the reflection of the sky on the glass panels.

In the background you can see few blocks of HDB Flats (government flats) still under construction. They are HDB Flats build by private developers. They are the most expensive HDB Flats so far. Gone are the days where HDB flats are considered alternative cheap housing. Nowadays HDB Flats can cost more expensive than private condominiums. As land is scare in tiny Singapore, properties over here are so expensive. You can no longer find any flats that are in the five figure sum, they are all over six figure sum for a decent flat. If you are interested to see how an HDB Flat look like, you can view the virtual showroom in here.

Noticed the bridge linking each block, they are supposed to be roof gardens. These bridge are so heavy and each weighed heavier than an aeroplane.

These flats are known as The Pinnacle @ Duxton, Singapore. I will tell you more in later post about these flats.

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

Shenton Way - Financial Business District

This is CPF Building where most Singaporeans would come when they retired. CPF Board stands for Central Provident Fund Board. The board was created to safeguard Singaporean's money.

Every month, we need to deduct a certain percentage of our salary and our employers has to contribute a certain percentage of our salary to our account. The percentage varies for different age group.

Our CPF Account operates with three accounts i.e. Ordinary Account, Medisave Account and Special/Retirement Account.

We can used money from the CPF ordinary Account to purchase our home or investment (only those approved by the government), Medisave Account are used to pay part of our hospital bills and Retirement Account can only be used when we retired.

It used to be we can withdraw all the money in our ordinary account when we reach 55 years old but there are many who spend all the money they withdrawn on holidays, gambling and some even get a mistress in a neighbouring country. Some man even get cheated of their CPF money by pretty young lass from other country.

These are real news that we get to read daily in the papers.

So the government do not want this to be a social problem to the nation and now there is limit to how much we can withdraw from the ordinary account and the balance will be transferred to the Retirement Account and when we reach 62 years old, we get a monthly allowance of few hundred dollars (more for those who earn higher salary) for the next twenty years. Not many are happy with this rule but in long term, I think it is good so that retirees wont spend their hard earned savings of their CPF unwisely nor would they be cheated by young pretty lass from other country.

So dont expect a windfall when we reach 55 years old...sigh...our money are locked up. :( Either you like this new rule or you hate it.

A short video showing a small part of the financial district in Shenton Way.

Bus Ride 2 - PSA

Continuing from my bus ride, I saw these giant cranes. Yes, this is PSA Singapore.

It handles about one-fifth of the world's total container transhipment throughput. In 2008, PSA Singapore Terminals handled 29.0 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUS) of containers. PSA operates 4 container terminals and 2 multi-purpose terminals in Singapore, and links shippers to an excellent network of 200 shipping lines with connections to 600 ports in 123 countries. You read more about our port from source.

A short video of the port from my bus.

My World Tuesday-Taking a Bus Ride 1-Train Station

OK, enough of walking for my friends and me. After the long walk from Henderson Waves to Alexandra Arch, my friends and I decided to reward ourselves with a meal...lol. We decided to take a bus ride from Alexandra Road to Shenton Way.

A double decker bus came along, so we boarded it and went to the upper deck. It is so comfortable with the nice air conditioned and clean bus and with mobile TV on both decks, better and cheaper than taking a taxi...lol

Sorry about the darkness in the bus, as I did not want my camera''s flash to disturb some snoozing passengers.

This is the first time that I am taking this bus route and was surprised to see so many beautiful scenery on the way.

I managed to take a photo of the train station when the bus was slowing down and stop. As if the driver knew I wanted to take photo of the station...lol.

Tanjong Pagar railway station also called Keppel Road railway station or Singapore railway station, is a railway terminus owned by Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM), the main railway operator in Malaysia. The land on which the station and the KTM railway tracks in Singapore are situated is held by KTM on a 999-year lease.


There are so many problems with this train station as the train tracks was taking up so much land in Singapore. You might like to read the disputes between Singapore and Malaysia from wikipedia.

Two short videos of the train station and trains. Warning, it might cause you to have a headache cause the video is quite shaky...lol




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

National Day - Singapore 44th Birthday

August 9th is Singapore National Day, which means Singapore is 44 years old. Geez, I am five years older than Singapore...hehehe

Seen across the island are flags hang out by homeowners to celebrate the occasion.

Decorations for national day can be seen across the island.

I spotted these cardboard cut out of the cows. Wondered why they only painted one side of the cardboard.



This year something big is happening. At 8.22 pm on 9th August 2009, Singaporeans at home and abroad are urged to recite the pledge together at the same time.

Siblings and I thought it is a good idea. After all, siblings and I have seen Singapore struggled from a poor country to be a branded country. During our childhood, most Singaporean are poor or very poor but today the poor still have a roof over their head and they own their own home and only a handful dont own their home.

The words of the National Pledge are:

We, the citizens of Singapore pledge ourselves as one united people, regardless of race, language or religion, to build a democratic society, based on justice and equality, so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE