Recently in Misc. Singapore Stuff Category

The St. James Power Station is, as the name implies, a former power station located near the Sentosa Gateway in Singapore. Instead of converting the power station into a gallery like the Tate Modern in London, St. James is now a multi-club venue that's one of the bigger players in the nightclub scene here (google images link).

I'm a subscriber to their mailing list and each time they send an update out, it has some sort of wisdom in the subject line. Examples:

"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness."

"Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions."

My fave today is: "Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes." The question is, will there be the courage to remedy that mistake and the current lack of leadership? There's two opportunities to fix things, one in 2010 and the other in 2012. One depends on the other to be successful...

This is a great price from Tokyo!

Watching this always makes me want to go somewhere. As long as it's on ANA!

I think that each time I visit the Lion City, I will do ONE touristy thing. On my last trip, I had dinner at Halia in the Singapore Botanical Gardens and then a stroll in the gardens, though not in the same visit.

This visit, myself and a friend took a ride on the Singapore Flyer. It's currently the biggest ferris wheel in the world and is very air conditioned and very smooth. I usually have a problem with heights (that's why I fly a lot!) but it wasn't an issue this time. Because I was enjoying the view AND taking night pix!

I think this is the construction site of the Marina Bay casino...

If you watched the Grand Prix last year, I think you'll recognize these buildings.

The CBD and the Fullerton Hotel.

When I mean a "stimulus package", I'm not talking about handouts to unions, such as what has been happening in the United States. I mean this:

20% personal income tax rebate, 40% property tax rebate

There will also be 40 per cent property tax rebate for owner-occupied homes in 2009.

The ordinary people are the ones who bear the brunt of the bad economy, not gahmen and their cronies, the unions. In Singapore, the people (not gahmen or unions) are getting tax relief, in the United States, the gahmen and the unions get the free money and the people are forced to pay for it. I mean, if you're giving out all that money, someone's got to pay for it. If you're a US passport holder, just look into a mirror. That's who's gonna pay. Sheesh.

Learned from my last visit:

Bukit Timah is far; off the beaten track with no MRT access

You can SMS for a taxi and guess what, they show up! Here's a useful iPhone app...

Oosh on Dempsey Road is far but a nice place to have a drink and meet local bloggers.

Apple and me. I need to go on a diet...

Her blog is here.

Driving down Orchard Road, taking in Xmas in the tropics!

Singapore Changi's Terminal 3 will be going online during the first week of January. Most of SQ's long haul flights as well as the 380 will fly out of here.

Yes, it's really that tall. Note the people for scale....

One complaint I have about Changi is addressed in T3. Unlike T1 and T2, T3 has high ceilings and a very airy feel. To address the greenhouse effect that high ceilings have, it will have computerized shutters that will close off the windows from the sun during peak hours.

Immigration for arrivals

Immigration for departures

This pic is what you will see as you clear immigration departing Singapore. The fountain looks like an onsen!

I wound up transiting through SIN overnight to get to HKG today. Normally it works like this:

Fly SQ1 from SFO-HKG-SIN, stopping over in HKG and continuing on to SIN a few days later.

However, SQ1 was sold out so I wound up on SQ15 which leaves SFO at 1245 and arrives at SIN two days later at 0100! Technically it's "two" days later since we arrived after midnight...

Anyway, my original plan was to stay overnight at Changi Airport's Transit Hotel then head into town via MRT in the morning. I really had a craving for kaya toast and sock coffee. Still do.

Sounds easy and stress free, right? This is me, remember?? Don't count on it.

First off, the Transit Hotel was sold out. Period. Second, there's not a lot of moderate (>US$100) lodging in Singapore. Basically, Singapore lodging works like this: There's a lot of hostels then boutique hotels and then the big ass fancy awesome get laid hotels that costs as much as your air ticket.

For that bracket inbetween the hostels and boutique hotels are a couple of local no-frills hotel chains: Fragrance and Hotel 81. They're spread all about the island but their critical mass is in Geylang where you can check in at 0200 and get a single room to crash in.

Besides the odd traveler, these Geylang hotels also attract working girls and their johns for *ahem* business. Not necessarily the *business traveler* type! If you tell your Singapore frens that you stayed in Geylang, be prepared for lots of jokes about "cleaning up". AHEM...

Anyway when I took the taxi last night to get to the hotel, I inadvertently left my handphone in the cab. I realized this after I checked into the hotel and promptly went into panic mode.

I panic VERY WELL. I asked the hotel clerk to ring my phone for an hour straight.

Anyway, there's a happy ending to the story when my phone was recovered by the cab driver and turned in to his office. Apparently, when my phone started to ring on the back seat, the cab driver heard it and kept it with him. If he picked up another passenger and the phone was just sitting there the chances that my phone would have walked off were high. Really high. How high? Well, answer this question: Do I like EQMs? Yes? Well that's how certain my phone would have walked away but for the driver rescuing my phone. I collected it on my way out to Changi Airport for my flight to HKG.

So I just emptied my karma pot for this trip. Best try to refill it on this trip...

Singapore is calling!

Hawker centres are there!
Low fare airlines are there!

People I wanna see are there!

Bizzare architecture is there!

Singapore is calling...

So I was reading the news when I read that Newton Centre is gonna be closed for NINE MONTHS for a retrofit starting in October??

Naturally, the timing of this is bad bad bad, since my "Fall Asia Trip" is around November...

No more Newton Centre for 9 months? You can have a baby in that same time frame! Some people could say that in 9 months, a new Newton Centre will be "born" and there IS going to be temporary location for all the hawker stands that are in the Centre...

And that's good, I suppose. Any other late night options (besides Mustafa)?