Apple Store Singapore

Apple opened their first official South East Asia store in Singapore. Located right at the heart of Orchard Road, the store proved quite tricky to find. Yes, there was the big Apple logo at the front of the building - typically an all-glass facade - but it proved difficult to spot.

Ironically, I had to use Waze to find it.

The main entrance to the storeWhat was there? Nothing special actually. The only item which caught my eyes were a portable printer, connectable via wifi where you could print directly from the phone wirelessly.

It uses heat to print, so there were no need for ink. Unfortunately I didn't have time to explore the device. It uses a disposable cartridge for the prints, which may be tricky to get hold of in KL.

The unmistakeable symbolOn the retail floor. Yes, the staffs were wearing red.They displayed the usual fare but nothing I wouldn't be able to find back home. But what was unique about the store was the upper floor. To get up, you would use the gorgeous stone staircase, at each end of the store. That was where they had an open space, used for events and product discussions. I had to queue to get upstairs and decided to give that a miss.

I ended up coming out of the store without spending a dime. Frankly, there was nothing there which I craved. Maybe next time ...

St Regis Singapore

I really made an effort to get there. Anita had a good deal booking into one of the suites at the hotel. It would be such a waste of we let it passed. Especially when everything had been paid for.

Arriving at 4 am meant that we wasted a day's stay. But still checking in was straight forward and we declined to be sent up, opting to make our own way there. Straight away we ordered some food - more like a super early breakfast for me.

A quick shower and I was already in fairy land. I was really tired. The bed and the shower were just amazing.

The main lobby. Rather quite in late morning.The next morning, I woke up for some omelette as a second breakfast. The breakfast in the room were part of the package of you opt against going down to the café. Limited selection but in mornings such as this, it was priceless.

I spent the next day walking with my camera while Anita did some exploring in the hotel. The Butler we were assigned to confirmed our booking for the Night Safari later in the day while I had an afternoon nap.

The exterior looked unassuming Time for afternoon teaWe got back from the safari at 11 pm, straight away into the shower while the boys sat in the bath. The next morning, we had a proper breakfast by the pool - again amazing food.

Even though our stay there was short, it was enjoyable. I would definitely recommend it although the pool at Marina Bay Sands was hard to beat. The location being near Orchard Road was a plus if shopping was part of the plan.

Should I have more time, I would've sampled the pool. Maybe next time ...

Airport Adventure

As you would probably knew, we were in Singapore last weekend. The original plan was to fly there. Everything went smoothly until it was time to board the plane. Idlan had a panic attack and started screaming.

We ended up abandoning the plan to fly. But since we had booked our suite and the tickets for the Night Safari, I decided to drive all the way down there.

But first, I had to clear the immigration again to re-enter the airport and then went to claim our checked-in luggage which had to be removed from the belly of the aircraft.

That took almost a couple of hours. We then drove back yo Gombak to exchange the car. My C200 needed servicing and I wouldn't wasn't t take the risk of driving all the way to Singapore in it. That detour to change into our MPV wasted another hour and a half. We finally set off from KL close to 10 pm.

I had to make a couple of nap stops - once in Ayer Keroh and another in Machap. We finally reached out hotel room at 5 am, having a quick supper - or should I say early breakfast - before I took a longer nap. It was before noon when I finally woke up, in time to take Idlan out for lunch.

Then another nap after lunch.

Our transport for the Zoo was due at 6.15. I managed a couple of hours of walking around Orchard Road before we departed - and learn the awesome power of the GoPro.

Then came the trip to the zoo before having a nice KL g breakfast the next morning before we set off again back home to Kuala Lumpur. More tiring than I bargained for but at least we did our traveling.

We still need to sort out Idlan's fear of flying. We thought that he would be OK. We were more worried about Anita. In July, Idlan has a school trip to Chiangmai arranged. Not sure if he would be able to deal with that trip ...

Friday Prayers at Orchard

During my recent Singapore overnight stop, I had the chance to visit one of the mosque there for Friday prayers. It was only a 10 minute walk from the hotel we were staying and the timing was just right as we were going towards a lunch recess.

The mosque, called Masjid Al-Falah stood right behind a Holiday Inn hotel in the middle of Orchard Road, the main shopping district in Singapore. It was at a simple building, only marked with some simple letterings. It was already crowded when we arrived, and we got a spot on the upper floors where the Muslimah usually attend.

The toilets and the absolution area was clearly marked and conveniently placed. And this being Singapore, they were spotless.

Impressive. The whole setup was great. The sermon was in Malay and the subject matters were straight to the point and easy to digest. None of the political connotations we were preached to in the mosques in KL. Towards the end of his sermon, the khatib then switched seamlessly into fluent English in summarising his talk.

We could do with some of that back home as the mosque I went to in Gombak had a large Yemeni and Somalian community attending.

Overnight in Singapore

It was a meeting I was invited to in Singapore, and it involved an overnight stay. Initially I was not very keen but I thought I might as well go.

I left after my rounds on a Thursday, flew over reaching Singapore in time for dinner.

Then I had a free morning for myself - enough time to prepare for my talks on a later date. The meeting proper only started on the Friday afternoon after which I had to catch a flight home straight after.

A full day, not really much time to do anything else but to read, sleep and read some more ...

Good thing that the hotel was cosy and there plenty of malls next door. Not that I could afford to shop with the state of Malaysia Ringgit! I was then greeted with a busy Saturday morning clinic as well as a couple of talks to give upon return, not to mention being on call on the Sunday! Happy times!