I went to Singapore not to shop. Really. I went there to treat my family and to celebrate my birthday with them. It was my third time to visit Singapore, whereas it was only the first time for my sister and mother so I had to bring them to the tourist attractions. However, my friend had another purpose in going to Singapore: to shop. Doing touristy stuff and shopping, though not incompatible, should have separate agenda. Shopping takes a lot of time, and shopping in Singapore takes longer since there are a lot of shopping malls to roam . So, which one should prevail?
In order to placate the feelings of my family, who wanted to see what Singapore has to offer, aside from shopping, and of my friend who wanted to max out her credit card, we decided to just shop first. And that turned out to be an endless shopping spree from morning till past midnight. No kidding.
Since for the first night we stayed at a budget hotel in Little India, just a block or two away from Mustafa Center and in front of a small mall, we all went shopping, first thing in the morning. We shopped at Cotton On which had items on sale. Then we went to Mustafa and bought some trinkets, goodies like tea (I love tea more than coffee) and chocolates for my younger relatives.
Little India
Afterwards, we went to Chinatown to buy souvenirs. And mind you, it was only technically our first day since we arrived in Singapore quite late the night before. Just enough to go to the hotel, rest, and sleep. We haven't seen anything yet, but we're already buying souvenirs! And the worst part? My family clearly enjoyed souvenir shopping even if they have not yet seen and thoroughly immersed themselves into the Uniquely Singapore experience.
MRT Station Exit
Why go to Chinatown? Because the souvenirs are cheap, really, really cheap. But just don't be too picky about the quality, okay? Also, food is cheap, too. And buildings there are colorful and quite lovely.
After spending considerable amount of time in Chinatown, we went back to Little India to change hotels. For our second and third night, I booked a room at Festive Hotel in Sentosa. When we got to the Festive Hotel, it was past 4 pm already. I was too tired by then. But we just can't lie in bed and chillax. My friend wanted to shop some more. So I just told my family to just roam around Sentosa and I gave them money for dinner. And then, my friend and I went to Singapore's premiere shopping district, the Orchard Road. To go there, we walked along the Boardwalk considering that there was an unbelievably long line for the monorail to Vivo City and we weren't able to use our free ride passes given by the Festive Hotel concierge. Or course we took the MTR from Harbourfront station to Dhouby Gaut to reach Orchard Road.
Ticket Cube at Orchard! It changes its color! So cool!
So, my friend shopped, shopped and shopped. Well, window-shopped, that is. We went from one shop to the other. She didn't buy anything because there weren't too many sale or discount items although it was the Great Singapore Sale. My feet hurt, my toe was bleeding because some girl stepped on it and scraped the skin of my toe, and worse, I was hungry. What a day!
We almost went home empty-handed but my friend wanted to return to Mustafa Center which we visited the night before and the morning after, to buy luggage. And by golly. It was a Friday night and it was really hard to get a cab. It took us about an hour to get one. We could have ridden the MTR but it was already closed. It was a disastrous night. I was too tired and my feet were in agony. If they could talk, they would curse me for sure.
