Singapore - Shopping, anyone?

One way in which we determine locations for this big trip is cost.  While there are lots of places that  we would like to see, we are trying to think of our year as life, not a vacation, so if we feel like there is a place that would be better as a future vacation spot, we take it off our itinerary and save it for another time. Africa is one example - our budget for this trip won't allow us to see Africa in the way we want to, so we will hold off (probably) until we can do Africa complete with safaris, etc (i.e. a vacation).

Singapore was on the list of "too expensive for this kind of trip". A few days before leaving, a Singaporean-American friend offered us her vacant (until next month) apartment for use while we are there - so we happily took advantage of their generous offer, and spent a few nights at the Chia/Kwan apartment.

We weren't sure what to expect in Singapore, and didn't have a lot of  time to explore, but we did learn a few things - Singapore is clean, their train system is well-run and pretty easy to follow, the food is delicious, and the national pastime has to be shopping. We struggled to find places to go in Singapore that weren't shopping malls - every train station, most restaurants, and most tourist sites - all malls.  We were happy to walk through the malls because of the air-conditioning, but since we are carrying everything we own with us, we didn't partake in much shopping. :(

One thing I did appreciate about Singapore was the architecture - lots of buildings with innovative and unusual shapes. Our favorite was this one that looked like a cruise ship fell out of the sky and landed on three buildings.  Here is Maggie holding up the ship:

Unfortunately, we didn't get a lot of Singapore pictures, but we do hope to return someday (on a vacation), where we can spend a little more money and see more of Singapore!