Viewing Singapore through the lens of a mother of a 22-month-old baby was not always fun, but we enjoyed our 9-day stay there. This journey was because of Santanu, who went almost every year after returning to India. Each time after his official trip, he used to complain about his loneliness, and so, this time, we made sure to accompany him. But what luck! He was extremely busy in his office, leaving early in the morning and returning late at night. It was me and Aarush who were left to explore Singapore on our own.
We reached Singapore on a Thursday morning, and on our way to the hotel, we noticed that it’s an extremely green country with no single patch left untouched. After a hearty buffet breakfast, we hit the bed to overcome jetlag and slept until 4:00 PM Singapore local time. When I went to the window of my room on the 30th floor, I was surprised to see nature’s tears rolling down from mournful, burdened grey clouds, and people carrying open umbrellas. I cursed myself, thinking I brought the rains along with me from Bangalore, as it was pouring the day we left.
Lazily, my son and I took a shower and left the hotel around 6 PM. Our hotel, Mandarin Meritus, was on Orchard Street, and I preferred to explore my neighborhood first. Walking on that street felt like walking on the Champs-Elysées of Paris, with the only difference being that the former is full of malls one after another while the latter is full of shops from branded companies. All these malls had branded showrooms with labels like Louis Vuitton, Prada, Cartier, Dior, and Giorgio Armani—name it, and it’s all there on one street.
It seems that Christmas preparations started earlier. The whole street was already decorated in a Christmas mood, with many caricatures along the road on the pavement, a huge Christmas tree at the shopping extravaganza ION Orchard, and lots more Christmas decorations outside and inside other malls. The architecture of the Ion orchard building is something different compared to other malls on Orchard Road, with the facade formed of huge glass bubbles.
For my son, the whole thing was absolutely new. He was behaving like a hero of Bollywood who just came from a very remote village to a big city. He was too excited to see all these bustling city life scenes. Near Orchard Metro, they have colorful fountains dancing with light, and he enjoyed it so much that he completely drenched himself.
It seemed like people were also in a festive mood, carrying shopping bags in each hand. After strolling on that busy Orchard Street, we headed back to the hotel as my son’s clothes were wet, and I didn’t want to take a health risk in a new place and ruin our holidays.
On returning to the room, Santanu was already there, busy on a phone call meeting. By the time my son had some food and slept again, it was almost 11 when Santanu had finished his phone call. We had dinner at Youth Park, behind our hotel, where we tried Stingray (a common Singaporean dish) with rice and Stir-Fried Kangkung (water Spinach). We walked around to locate the nearest metro station, and Santanu showed me how to follow the bus route.
