Hot, Hotter and Shopping

Anthony Bourdain - you either love him or you hate him.  I happen to love him, and was so excited to come across an episode of his Travel Channel show, "The Layover", on the subject of Singapore.  Each episode focuses on how much he can do in a city in the short period of time he has on a layover, in this case about 24 hours.  I highly recommend checking it out. 

In the show, a Singaporean states that there are three seasons in Singapore - hot, hotter and shopping.  A truer statement has never been uttered.  You've all heard me go on and on about the extreme heat here, mainly due to the all-consuming 100% humidity.  The lowest temperature ever recorded was right about 70 degrees.  But I'm not complaining.  I will take the heat over the cold anytime.  Surprisingly, it is rarely uncomfortable to eat at the open-air restaurants (of which most are).  This is because they are all equipped with a ton of fans and shade. 

NOTE the "RealFeel" temperature!

In fact, as I sit here drinking a cup of (hot) coffee outside on my balcony at 9:30am, I am very content due to my super high-powered ceiling fan.  Thank you landlord!  My kitchen food might as well be in a maximum security prison - everything is sealed in ziploc bags and Snaplock plastic containers.  (chips and crackers do not fare well here). Mold is not your friend, people.  Anyway, I'm not going to drone on anymore about the weather.  You get it.  I accept it.  Case closed.

On to the shopping season.  I just can't even describe the atmosphere here.  How a country 26 miles wide can sustain the sheer number of highest level luxury brand stores I will *never* understand.  I know that a lot of wealthy people from China come here just to shop, but it is nonetheless mind-boggling. I googled the number of malls in Singapore, and the number 233 came up.  I'm not sure just how accurate that is, but I'm willing to bet it's pretty spot on.   Let's take a look at just how small Singapore is.  The state of Delaware is 1,954 square miles.  In contrast, Singapore is 247 square miles.  So this country has almost one mall per square mile.  Now take into consideration that the western and northern areas of Singapore are way less populated and you can only imagine how close in proximity these malls are.  Many of them are even connected by underground tunnels and MRT stations!

The most famous of the shopping areas is Orchard Road, which I happen to live within walking distance.  Here are some pictures from one of my recent nightly walks.  It was a Monday at around 9pm, and the streets were packed.  It's like Times Square at night, but filled with mainly Prada, Cartier, Chanel and Rolex stores.  At one point, I passed three Prada stores in four blocks, and those are just the signs I can see from the outside of the mall!  Most malls have multiple stores of the same luxury brand.  It's complete insanity.

Ion Mall

Directly across the street from Ion Mall

This country also has got to have the most sports cars per square mile.  Everywhere you turn, there are Ferraris and Lambourghinis.  When we came for our "look see" in January, we were driven by houses that had 6+ of these cars in the driveway.  And almost all the same color! 

Cooper was fascinated - typical male

I have yet to step into any of these stores, and I don't even have a car, much less a cheesy sports car.  I'm more than happy to shop at H&M (and still pay twice as much as I would at home) or just wait until my yearly trip home and stock up.  I'm sure that disqualifies me from applying for the inevitable reality show "Expat Wives: Singapore", but oh well.  I'd rather spend the money on travel.  (my kids will get college scholarships, right?)

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