View from ION Sky

It was a clear day, it was going to rain, thus the view is full of tiny droplets of rain/mist.

This view is towards the south and you can see the Reflections and Sentosa Island.

(Viewing on a retina display? This photo will look clearer if you click on the photo and view it in Flickr)

That's not going to prevent folks who think Singapore's not boring from going up 218 metres in the sky from ION Sky.

You can have a 360 degrees view of Singapore from the 56 level of the ION Orchard Tower. Kind of reminds me of climbing up Eiffel Tower, but this is all enclosed and no strong winds to blow you unstable. LOL

I just discovered there's an ION Sky website too! http://ionsky.com.sg

Christmas Reflections

A slighter delayed post, it was on draft since before Christmas last year.



Orchard Road Christmas decoration and reflections on the glass windows.

The Shopping Gallery - Hilton Singapore

I saw this and took a photo of it just because I see my name on it!
(yes, I am conceited and vain)

It's my brand, but I can't really afford the clothing and accessories from that brand!



Haiku for the day:

oh, who can resist
walking along Orchard Road
credit card screams help!

H&M Singapore First Day Queue.

Brilliant marketing! The people behind it must be really brilliant indeed.

You heard of the phrase "selling igloos to Eskimos", well these folks are selling Autumn wear in sunny 'forever summer' Singapore! Look at the people queuing to get into the store!



This was taken Saturday afternoon, and there was still a snaking queue of people waiting to get in.

To start the queue forming, they offered the first few people $250 vouchers and subsequent few $25 vouchers. Read that people started to queue the night before!



At around 9 pm the same night, people were still queuing!

But I heard from folks that things are really cheap inside, some say they were even cheaper than the HK store, the nearest H&M branch to Singapore. Is that true?




Maybe in the next few months I will get in, when it's not so crowded.

I have visited H&M in many countries and have always walked out empty handed. I realised they don't fit me. Maybe the sizes in Singapore might?



H&M on the first day could had stand for Herd Mentality. Everyone was just wanting to do in.

Guess what? Another great marketing tactic. If you have queued so long to go in, you 'die die' have to buy something before coming out right? So clever of them!

Orchard Road - Road Raising

The roads are being raised along Orchard Road.



I got confused recently when I took a bus to Orchard Road.
The bus stops have shifted and I got down the wrong stop.






On another note, this photo reminds me:
"Look right, look left then cross." That's the thing to do when crossing the road. :-p

Musical Instruments Lights

A few more days to Christmas and you can see tourist and locals shopping in Singapore.

The lady on the most left looks intrigued by the horn.
The two young girls love the horn too.

The two ladies on the right, are glad to be happy after shopping.
The lady on the right must be texting her latest buy to someone or maybe updating her facebook status.



The baby sure looks happy sleeping while their parents and grandparents are happily taking photographs.



Have you done your shopping yet?

The ION Orchard Christmas Tree

The ION Orchard Christmas Tree!
About a month or so ago, I posted the tree 'planting' in progress here.



Not sure when it was completed, but everyone seems to be excited about this tree.
Like in previous years,  you get to go inside the tree and get mesmerized by lights!

Probably the only tree along Orchard Road where you can walk inside.



You listen to Christmas carols being played inside and watch the lights blink inside!
Hypnotic!

Orchard MRT

I think structures that is made out of glass are really gorgeous and catches people's attention.
Err.... Maybe only mine. Some people are oblivious to their surroundings, don't you think so? ;-p

Have you thought about it? It looks so simple, yet each piece of glass has to be specially moulded so that it can be assembled nicely to look like this. Glass is really versatile eh? Look at the curves for each piece of it.





I think this is the most interesting entrance to any MRT stations in Singapore. (It's the entrance to the Orchard MRT Station)

Do you think it looks like an octopus head?

All the cone shape trees

It's only early November and the Christmas trees are all up everywhere! I was wondering how the Christmas Tree came about and read about it in Wikipedia. It does have a long history, some that I have not heard of!

We no longer have trees in our house as we can't find a reason to link it to Christmas. What has a tree got to do with the birth of Jesus Christ?

But one reason that I just read is that Martin Luther established it to use it as a symbol of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. Hmm..



About this tree, it's still in the midst of being set up. It's like snow!
I noticed it is also aligned with the other 'cone' across the road. The glass cone from Wheelock Place!

Large Purple Lantern at ION Orchard

It's past the Mid Autumn Festival, but I only noticed this large purple lantern at ION Orchard.
I guess I have not been in town that often. ;-)




It reminds me of Mrs Pots in Beauty and the Beast! LOL



If you noticed the little board on the first photo, this is the story.
Enjoy. (sorry, you got to squint to read it)

Myth Fortuna

From a far, you might think it's some lady doing Pilates or something.




Walking near to it, you realise it's a sculpture that's part of the Grand Prix season in Singapore.

Monitored by security surveillance. Hmmm.
Someone would want to steal it? Or turn the white sculpture into some technicolor creation?





I tried to perform the similar post and my hands got really shaky after that.
So I can't take a clear shot of the description.




Enjoy. I love sculptures!

Knightsbridge in Singapore

When one mention Knightsbridge, you might think of Harrods in London.
Well, there's also a Knightsbridge in Orchard Road Singapore now. After almost a year of refurbishment, it's almost ready.



The gym that's situated here has already opened. Heard it's more expensive than the rest too.

Orchard Residences

Was passing by this building and wishing I own an apartment here.



Our real estate agent recently asked us if we wanted to sell our current place. She has a buyer willing to pay 150K more than what we purchased 2 years ago. We asked her, then where are we going to stay? Not selling. You just wanna get more commission from us right? LOL...

So we continue our dream. Dream of owning this apartment called The Orchard Residences. It's right above ION Orchard and above the Orchard MRT. Sigh....

The Stair, The Clouds and The Sky @ Rooftop of Orchard Central

More art pieces are being displayed in open spaces in Singapore now.
The little city is getting a more vibrant art scene!


These photos were captured on the roof top of Orchard Central.
The sculpture is titled "The Stair, The Clouds and The Sky".
It's by Victor Tan Wee Tar. His works are characterized by the use of wires.

Enjoy.








Read what inspired the creation:



You can find out more about Victor at: http://www.victortanweetar.com

Orchard Road from the top!

I was on top of one of the new buildings on Orchard Road and had a different view of Orchard Road.


See the row of trees in the middle of the photo? That's Orchard Road!
It's so green!



Don't you think the trees look like broccoli? ;-P

Mandarin Gallery

It's a "yet another" shopping mall on Orchard Road kind of post again.

This is the shopping mall at the Mandarin Hotel. They relocated the hotel entrance to renovate this 'mall' or as they call it Gallery.The hotel used to have the entrance facing Orchard Road. Now it's the shopping mall that is the front of it.




Photo was taken a few weeks ago.When not every shop was open for business yet. Like most modern shopping malls, it's nicely renovated and looks classy and chic.

But the 3rd floor has very low ceiling though.  Feel a bit claustrophobic walking on that floor though.

Done with your shopping for Christmas?

Yet another shopping mall...

Yet another shopping mall along Orchard Road. It seems that Orchard Road now have 'sections'. There's the high-end section, ie ION Orchard, Tangs, Wisma Atria, Paragon and Ngee Ann City (Takashimaya).

Then there's the young and hip section. Orchard Central, 313 Somerset and the Heeren Shops.

Ok the list is not complete, but don't you see there's so many same shops in different buildings?



One thing I want to try next time is the Via Ferrata (wall) in this building. Wonder if it's scary.... Hmm..

Posing with Reindeers...

OK. Since I took so many photos of the chio reindeers, I must post them up. But this will be the last post about it. Too much of a good thing is bad.



You can see so many people posing with the reindeers. Just like this couple.



We saw some cheeky boys trying to look under the skirt of the reindeer. Sigh. So juvenile eh?

Meet the Chio Reindeers on Orchard Road

These could be the sexiest and prettiest reindeers you could ever see.



The locals might say these are 'chio' reindeers.



Do you think so? LOL... It's all along the sidewalks of Orchard Road.

That Christmas Tree at ION that you can see what's inside...

The newest tree of the newest mall in Orchard Road. It did not look very particularly special.



But we saw people entering the tree! See the security guard at the triangle at the bottom of the tree? That's the entrance to the inside of the tree.



Walk inside and you can enjoy a very bedazzling view!
You but get a bit dizzy though.




The sides of the trees.  Head down to take a look if you are not too busy. :-)