Singapore Shopping

What does a shopper want? A new set of expensive China, a business suit made in a day, the latest in fashion or the cheapest copy watch available, a personal computer or mini-digital camera, Sting Ray, Dimsum or Steak. It is all in Singapore, all readily available easy to find and depending on which country a traveler comes from not that expensive or prohibitive.

Singapore is a shopping paradise and if prior knowledge is obtained even better. By asking friends and relatives, by extracting nuggets from those who have been before, by reading guidebooks and searching the web a good stack of ideas and ‘wants’ can be stored for the actual trip. A shopping trip to Singapore will be a nightmare, expensive and fruitless if no research is done and no details are sought prior to going – although this article should help.

To shop and to explore Singapore three days is ideal. Any more and it becomes repetitive and any less will cause certain shopping areas to be bypassed. Arrive in the evening if possible and get a goodnight sleep before heading off in exploration. That evening go out of the hotel and invariably a cheap food court will be in view: sit down (don’t be shy) and order anything (chili crab is good for chili addicts or just sweet and sour pork/fish with rice). Get a long sleep and rest the legs because tomorrow they will be worn thin. Oh and don’t plan to be in town by 8 O’clock or even by 9 O’clock because nothing gears up until ten at the very earliest.

Day One

In the heat of the day take it slow and easy. Get up and shower. Have a lovely breakfast in the Hotel Restaurant (as this would have been included in the package) and read the newspaper or your guidebook, for the tenth time. Relax and enjoy because the rest of the day will exhaust and punish – walking will be non-stop.

The first stop is a trip to Orchard Road: the touristic shopping street where one dazzling mall follows the next. Clothes, books, cameras, electrical goods, carpets from Turkey and paintings from another corner of the globe, all is available to look at. NB: Don’t buy on this first day of the three days. Why rush in and spend money when around the corner maybe the same item or a better one for half the price. The famous malls in Orchard Road are known for their higher prices so …….relax ……another two days to explore and find the cheaper deals.

Walk along orchard road and visit the various shopping centers. The typical one of Center Point that has six floors of everything and including a Marks and Sparks if so inclined. Then walk along to Ngee Ann City (on the other side of the road) and visit some of the even more expensive shops and including the Japanese Department store of Takashimaya. The only good thing about Ngee Ann City is its architectural beauty and the fact that once you enter you can continue underground in the air conditioning to the next couple of shopping malls. Anyway, walk through and get cool and then go up and out and along the road to more: the gold shops at Orchard Towers (where men meet woman and buy expensive jewelry for them) and the extremely expensive tourist shops. These are in one large mall and shop after shop sell anything from carved wooden elephants the size of a sitting room, to Ming Vases that are comparable in cost to the house back home.

Yes, that is Orchard Road. A tourist shopping experience. Some bargains may be had if ‘John Little’ the famous Department Store has having a Sale or the Condomeria is having a promotion day (there are two Condomeria in Lucky Plaza if one is so inclined), just enjoy the afternoon for the interest and activity that is all around.

Well, enough window-shopping and let’s get serious. Jump on the MRT at Orchard and get off to City Hall. Here it is time to walk around Raffles City and window-shop again, but in reality this is just more of Orchard Road – more glitter and fanfare at great cost. No, go out of the MRT station and up and walk along to the Funan Center. Six floors of Electronic Goods and Computers everywhere one can look. Browse around and find the deals, don’t be afraid to barter a bit and if things look a bit expensive then get along to the next Electronics Mall called Sim Lim Square – another four floors of the same but where bargaining is more accepted. NB: There is an excellent shoe shop just next door to the Funan Center – great bargains to be had there.

Okay, getting back on the MRT, remembering not to be eating food as they might fine any miscreant 500SGD for that, and go back to the hotel. The Hotel? Yes, enough for one day and enough walking – rest those weary and shocked feet.

Get back to the hotel and put the feet up, have a catnap or a full-blown sleep but make sure that the alarm is set for 5pm. Get up, get dressed, get those walking shoes on and get out and on the way. Get yourself to Boat Quay a dazzling street of bars and restaurants along the river – excellent party atmosphere every day of every week. Eat some food at any of the food parlors and expect to pay a bit above the normal but excellent and the atmosphere party like. After that? Well the choices are many, maybe Bugis Junction by MRT. Bugis is one area filled with shopping malls and things to buy and many a stall outside selling pirated CD’s, cheaper clothing and trinkets for presents. Then sit outside the temple, relax beside the fountain and rest or something along those lines – plenty more walking tomorrow.