singapore’s orchard road

I hadn’t visited this area in decades, but as I walked along its busy street I realized why. The famous road was lined with highend brand name stores and other shops that could be found in any other part of the world. Even Tangs, one of Singapore’s first department stores with a hint of Chinese architecture on the outside, looked like every other department store once I stepped inside.

Tangs Department Store, Orchard Road

The road was lined with Christmas decorations because I’d arrived on the island nation in December, 2019. Inside one complex I entered, Christmas lights hung from top floor to basement as if I could have been standing in my own hometown’s shopping centre. But this was Singapore — yet not the part that interested me.

Christmas decorations along Orchard Road, Singapore

I wandered up and down the main thoroughfare and found a food mall that offered every kind of dish. I ate the best Korean seafood pancake — even better than I’d eaten in Korea.  Then it was time to head back to my hotel and collect my luggage for the next leg of my journey south.