Singapore: Let's walk
The next day is first reserved for business. After one of those super power breakfasts featuring the finest cheeses, meats, cereals, and custom made omelets, we get Axl ready and walk out the door. The Singapore sun knocks the wind out of us the moment we leave the friendly, air-conditioned confines of the Hotel. Singapore is a short distance from the equator, and we finally realize it. The warm and agreeable spring breeze that caressed our faces the night before has had a bad hangover and morphs into Mr. Hyde with razor sharp, white-hot teeth. Translated into meteorological terms, this means a humidity that feels more like a series of upper-cuts and jabs that leave us reeling.
We spend more than an hour looking for the clinic that turns out to be right at the backdoor of the hotel. So much for directions in this town. The clinic, predictably, is clean and modern, but Axl refuses to be still or behave, owing to the fact that he’s tired and needs a nap. I will have to pass on meeting the doctor, regretfully, and take the kid in his stroller. He falls asleep on the way to the hotel and awakes almost the minute we get there. I can’t take him out for now – it’s going to be the Wiggles and tossing some soft rubbery foam footballs in our hotel room. My wife joins us an hour or so later. The news is great: very likely a daughter, healthy and active. I look at the ultrasound photo and regret having missed seeing her live and up close. There will be more chances.
We eventually force ourselves out of the hotel and head toward Orchard Road, the Madison Avenue of Singapore. We visit a few shops and again realize that this place is way out of our league. We don’t make Gucci money, so we won’t buy any Gucci clothes, plain and simple. We go to a Toys R’ Us in a shopping mall and buy a few items while passing on numerous others in stores you wouldn’t find on Rodeo Drive. Our son gets a haircut and is miserable. He is sitting through the worst fifteen minutes of his life, and it is a relief to be out of there.
Lunch is taken at a McDonald’s On Tangrin Road. I realize I will discover the remotest secrets of the universe before I know just why so many Americans (us included) anywhere in the world must frequent a McDonald’s the moment they hit fresh and unknown turf. Forgotten is the fact that you can frequent the choicest restaurants of Singapore. Never mind that you can have the finest sushi outside of Japan at the drop of the hat. The inherent longing for the Big Mac seems to triumph every time, and our son is treated to his first Happy Meal. Bored, he plays with his food. It’s not time for his lunch just yet, so it seems.
Eventually we make our way to the Embassy, a slick, new modern building that refuses to be upstaged in this city of megas. My wife receives medical clearance from the staff, and we are back on Tanglin Road, treading as slowly as a toddler on ice. We run into the entrance of the famed Botanic Gardens, but decide we should visit it the next day, our last day in Singapore.
We order takeout for dinner and retire to our hotel shortly before sunset. Tomorrow is our last day, so we must make it count. It will be nice to get out of the heart of Singapore and test the city’s other, though not lesser organs.
We spend more than an hour looking for the clinic that turns out to be right at the backdoor of the hotel. So much for directions in this town. The clinic, predictably, is clean and modern, but Axl refuses to be still or behave, owing to the fact that he’s tired and needs a nap. I will have to pass on meeting the doctor, regretfully, and take the kid in his stroller. He falls asleep on the way to the hotel and awakes almost the minute we get there. I can’t take him out for now – it’s going to be the Wiggles and tossing some soft rubbery foam footballs in our hotel room. My wife joins us an hour or so later. The news is great: very likely a daughter, healthy and active. I look at the ultrasound photo and regret having missed seeing her live and up close. There will be more chances.
We eventually force ourselves out of the hotel and head toward Orchard Road, the Madison Avenue of Singapore. We visit a few shops and again realize that this place is way out of our league. We don’t make Gucci money, so we won’t buy any Gucci clothes, plain and simple. We go to a Toys R’ Us in a shopping mall and buy a few items while passing on numerous others in stores you wouldn’t find on Rodeo Drive. Our son gets a haircut and is miserable. He is sitting through the worst fifteen minutes of his life, and it is a relief to be out of there.
Lunch is taken at a McDonald’s On Tangrin Road. I realize I will discover the remotest secrets of the universe before I know just why so many Americans (us included) anywhere in the world must frequent a McDonald’s the moment they hit fresh and unknown turf. Forgotten is the fact that you can frequent the choicest restaurants of Singapore. Never mind that you can have the finest sushi outside of Japan at the drop of the hat. The inherent longing for the Big Mac seems to triumph every time, and our son is treated to his first Happy Meal. Bored, he plays with his food. It’s not time for his lunch just yet, so it seems.
Eventually we make our way to the Embassy, a slick, new modern building that refuses to be upstaged in this city of megas. My wife receives medical clearance from the staff, and we are back on Tanglin Road, treading as slowly as a toddler on ice. We run into the entrance of the famed Botanic Gardens, but decide we should visit it the next day, our last day in Singapore.
We order takeout for dinner and retire to our hotel shortly before sunset. Tomorrow is our last day, so we must make it count. It will be nice to get out of the heart of Singapore and test the city’s other, though not lesser organs.
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