Our hotel is right across a major street from the major textile selling area of town.  The main street in this area is Arab Street, although “Textile District” is used almost interchangeably.  Purvi and I had gone to the restaurants in this area several times, but we had not made it early enough to go to the shops. Today we got back from work early and walked all along the various stores filled with all kinds of fabric and other textiles.  All the fabric was so beautiful, I just wanted to take it all home!  We enjoyed the atmosphere of the street – there were tons of people out walking…

The Merlion symbol was designed as a logo for the Singapore tourism board in 1964. The Merlion has a fish tail and the torso of a lion. According to an article written by Cornelius-Takahama, Vernon [replaced by a new article at the same document number; original article at WebArchive] in the Singapore Infopedia section of the Singapore National Library website: The lion head alludes to the legend of Singapore’s founding by Sang Nila Utama, a Palembang Prince who, on his arrival on the island, saw what he thought to be a lion and thereafter renamed Temasek, Singapura or “Lion City”. The fish-tail represents Singapore’s links to the ancient sea-bound island…

Orchard Road is a major shopping area in Singapore. It has several large malls all right next to each other, plus stores along the street itself. All the stores are high-end, fancy stores like Louis Vuitton and Burberry, and lots of boutiques. Purvi and I decided to go down and see what all the fuss is about. Saturday night the stores all stay open until 23:00, so we ate dinner and then went up and down the street window shopping. We stopped at a stall that sold fresh juice. I had a slush with mango and dragon fruit – delicious! We also found a sweet shop. Not at all like…

Saturday I went to the Singapore Botanic Gardens.  It is very large, and admission is free. The garden is filled with trees, fountains and flowers, benches and picnic areas.  There were families relaxing on the lawns, kids playing, people out for a jog.  The garden also has an open air theater where the symphony performs. My first stop was the rain forest walk. I immediately saw a lizard sunning himself. He had a very small patch of sun, just big enough for his body. He did not want to move, but he was annoyed by my approach. It was clearly a struggle – in the end he did run and…

Tonight Karen, Purvi, and I went out to dinner at a restaurant called Muthu’s Curry in Little India. Little India is the area of Singapore where many people who are originally from India live. Purvi said that it really sounds and looks quite a bit like India. One of the famous stores in Little India is Mustafa. It is a huge shopping complex that is open 24 hours. They have some of everything. There is so much stuff, and so many people crammed into a very small space! The pictures below do not nearly capture the scale of the place. One thing that was very impressive was the jewelry. There…

I am here in Singapore to observe a training class, and sign off the two Singapore trainers to be mentors to Purvi, who is new to teaching this particular class, and any future trainers. The AsiaPac training team is made up of a great group of ladies. Karen is the training manager. The training coordinator is named Sally. She is super organized, and keeps everything moving efficiently. The trainers in this office are Katrina and Esther, and they have been a pleasure to work with. Purvi is the trainer from Mumbai, India. She has traveled here to teach the training class, and she is doing a great job. The class…

Wednesday night Purvi and I walked down the street that is across from our hotel looking for a place to get some dinner. This street has many restaurants, so it is really just a matter of choosing what you want. All the places have callers outside to tempt you into their restaurant. One caller was particularly persuasive, and we walked over to look at the menu. It was Mediterranean food of all sorts. It looked good, so we told the girl we would like a table. We started to walk into the restaurant immediately behind her, but she told us to follow her, that there was a different dining room. …

I arrived in Singapore a few hours ago. I just finished unpacking and getting cleaned up.  There was no way I was going to bed without a shower after 32 hours of travel! I seem to have arrived with everything I need, and despite the length of the trip, it was mostly uneventful.  Singapore Airlines is wonderful.  The flight attendants are very kind, and everyone was super helpful and smiled each time they spoke with me. I had a really long lay over in LAX, which is possibly the strangest airport known to man!  Please note that there are no pictures of LAX – that is not an oversight!  The…