Moving on from Part 2. ^^
I was on the street again, heading for Bugis Junction after coming out of Iluma at Bugis. There was an overhead bridge connecting the two places, but it was under construction back then (October 2009), so I had to take a walk in order to reach my next stop.
Stop 6: Bugis Junction
The entrance I took was through Malays Street
There are a couple other entrance you can take to go into Bugis Junction. This is another one of them, which will lead you straight into the shopping area.
Bugis Junction is an amazing place to visit in my opinion. I'm not into shopping, eating or gaming there, but I'm always fascinated by the design of the place. The whole place is basically a merchant street constructed to look like that from the old days, with glass roof added between all the buildings, on top of the street, and it's fully air-conditioned.
In short, it's a modern shopping street consists of very old-looking buildings. ^^
A view of the street from the upper level of one of the buildings.
Bugis Junction is nostalgic looking alright, but the businesses in there aren't. ^^ You can find apparel stores, gaming centers, sidewalk cafes, Japanese, Korean restaurants and many other shops in this shopping mall.
Promotional event on the street
Virtual Land is a large gaming center located at the basement of one of the buildings.
Bugis Junction's sign when I got out from the whole street. This is supposedly another entrance I believe.
Well, I was not really into young people's stuff, so I only took a round inside Bugis Junction before I was out on the street again. ^^
And without any plan beforehand, next one coming up was a really long walk. ^^
Very colorful staircases on the buildings along Rochol Road. ^^ They are situated in an alley if not mistaken.
An ERP gantry near Fu Lu Shou Complex. An overhead bridge is nearby, which allowed me to take the picture of ...
... the traffic that Saturday (October 24th) afternoon. You can see that some construction work was going on next to the road there.
I didn't really visit the shops inside Fu Lu Shou Complex actually. I was walking around the complex to be exact. While it's not too far away from Bugis Junction, you can probably look at Fu Lu Shou Complex as a place from another world if you really want to make the comparison between the two. Everywhere you turn are shops that sell Buddhist and Taoist related items, and Feng Shui as well. Being a common visitor, I wasn't sure if I should treat that place as any other shopping centers I visited previously, which didn't feel right all the while. ^^; So I opted to go and see other places instead.
Some places I did walk pass near Fu Lu Shou Complex:
Really old school shop with a potentially cute shop name. XD
An old jewelry shop, but most of the items displayed are watches, clocks and CDs instead. The good stuff are inside most definitely. ^^
HDB blocks painted in gradient. ^^
And then, walking into Ophir Road.
It was a really hot afternoon that day. A long walk it was, I have nowhere to really stop and sit down at this point. So walk on it was ^^;
This is the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Lourdes
Stop 7: Albert Center Temporary Market
A temporary market that looks like it was suited to be there permanently. XD
A view of the hawker area.
Had a plate of fried kueh tiaw and a big cup of ice soy bean milk there. SGD $5.
It was hot outside, the food is hot and spicy, and I was wondering why I made the order throughout the meal. ^^;
Even older-looking shops inside the market ^^
安娣套装 Set dress for aunties
But aunties nowadays would have higher expectation in fashion already. ^^;
Out of Albert Center Temporary Market, it was around 4.30PM already and I was thinking about walking back already. ^^ So, I took the easiest way for me to remember to go back - a U-turn and walked back pass the places I'd been to. The problem to that is, I couldn't really remember how I got to certain places in the first place. I did manage to return to Bugis Junction, so a large part of the return journey started from there.
Surprising, the National Library was really close to Bugis Junction. And of course, Bras Basah Complex as well, but then again, I didn't want another round of book trip, so I just walked pass it on this return journey.
The interior of the National Library.
Opposite National Library is SMA School of Management
Further down the road, after Bras Basah Complex is Raffles City Shopping Complex. I decided to go in and have a look afterward.
Beautiful deco on Stamford Road - it was too glitzy I couldn't make out the words at all. Probably something to do with Christmas back then XD
A view inside Raffles City Shopping Complex.
Not sure if you can see it, but this is actually a waterfall. ^^
If you have been following my trip since Part 1, you would see that I didn't pay much attention to new, modern or trendy stuff. Raffles City Shopping Complex from what I see is a modern, high-class shopping mall suitable to folks looking for new fashionable items, which of course, are rock bottom on my list.
So, just 10 minutes inside Raffles City Shopping Complex, and I was out of there.
I walked pass the War Memorial Park to take some pictures before returning to there.
The building with a large monitor screen on the front wall is Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Center
Some distance away from the exhibition center is the famous
Some construction is shown on the left of the picture, I think it's for the upcoming Marina Bay Sands
Moving back,
Stop 8: War Memorial Park
As the name implies, the War Memorial Park is a small park in the middle of many tall buildings and shopping malls to remember those who died during the Japanese occupation era between 1942 and 1945 in Singapore (it was 1941 - 1945 for my country). The most significant structure at the park is a thin and tall tower, which is actually made of four separate columns. In the ground in the middle of the columns stand a pedestal holding a black urn. Plates engraved with information in different languages about the war as well as the park itself are on the inner walls of the columns.
City view from the park
Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Center near the park.
The Singapore Flyer can be seen behinds many tall buildings as well. ^^
Walking across the road from the park ...
... into Suntex City Mall ^^
Stop 9 [Final]: Suntex City Mall
Some views inside the mall
A giant shoe on display at the spacious area to promote for shoes (obviously) on sales there.
Toy "R" Us spotted
Gunplas - most in all the places I been to that there, but most definitely not the most in all of Singapore.
Trans-Armors Kamen Rider action figures. Not easy finding these anymore nowadays. ^^
Many kids playing Yoyo in Suntex City Mall.
It was around 6PM when I made the decision to return to my hotel, by taxi as well, which is conveniently available outside Suntex City Mall.
Tiredness was not the major factor actually, but the feel of no shower for the whole day ... ^^; (x1000)
Will tell you a bit about the next morning (Sunday, October 25th 2009) in the next posting, which is going to be the last. ^^
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5 comments:
The selections of Gunplas in Toys "R" Us there is definitely much better than the ones in Hills Shopping Mall here....
there's actually 2 other toy shops deeper into Suntec, one called Hobby Point and the other being simply toys.
Toys R Us in Canada doesn't even sell any gunplas lol.
Hi Mr Ngee Khiong,
Suntec City Convention Hall actually specializes in hosting events. I think there are a few Gundam and Cosplay events held every year at Suntec City Convention Halls.
The Kamen Rider action figures are actually quite common in Singapore and you can actually spot them in almost every shopping mall. The action figures (kamen rider) isn't actually that popular so they always have a humongous excessive amount of Kamen Rider figures on sale that no one wants to buy.
I think you missed out on several places where you could probably get gunpla at.
Somewhere along Bugis there is a Sunshine plaza where one of the shops specialises in selling mostly gunpla. And if you drop by OG, which is around the same vicinity, they might have had some discounts on em too.
And on to Tiong Bahru, if you took the lift all the way to the 5th level, there is a hobby shop which also sells hobby supplies and model kits. Gunpla included. Only accessible by lift.
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