My thai friend came to visit and I thought it would be fun to take a lovely walk down Orchard Road. We started at Wheelock place and walked all the way down to Plaza Singapura. It took half a day, as we stopped to eat and enjoy the sights and sounds of Orchard Road.
 Beautiful conical building, known as Lane Crawford when it was first built and designed by architect Kisho Kurokawa, it is now known as Wheelock place and features the underground link to Shaw Center and Ion. |  The Ion Orchard, Designed by leading architecture firm Benoy, who brought shoppers iconic malls such as the Bullring in Birmingham, UK, ION Orchard’s signature futuristic architecture has won two prestigious awards at MAPIC 2006 against stiff competition from submissions from around the world. The panel recognized that ION Orchard “demonstrates unique and progressive urban design” that will bring vitality to one of Southeast Asia’s most prominent sites. |
From Wheelock Place, we were wondering if we should walk down the stretch of Orchard Rd or walk over to Isetan Scotts for a fun walk in the Japanese supermarket at the basement with all the interesting food samples.
Since it was sunny, we decided to take the "scenic" air-con route! We walked from Wheelock via the underpass to the Ion.Find out more about Ion Orchard right here: http://www.ionorchard.com/en/about-ion-orchard
It was easy to find and the underpass led us to yet another building, the Wisma Astria. From Wisma, the walk took us to Ngee Ann City,, which was completed in 1993 but still looks beautifully new. It has an anchor tenant from Japan, Takashimaya, and most locals refer to the shopping center simply as Taka. Loads of interesting events and goods can be found here: http://m.takashimaya-sin.com/ I heard about the yummy macaroons found in the French Macaroon boutique, Laduree and had to go and take a look. And look I did, for it was $3.80 for a tiny macaroon.
 Beautiful and tasty macaroons |   So many flavours! |  |  |
We decided to settle down and have tea at Paul's, and Redz gave us a treat! So sweet of her, literally, as the macaroon we chose, as well as the lovely pastries were really sugary. We had a lovely table by the window, and felt like Queens drinking Camomile tea with our desserts.
| | There were so many beautiful choices that we found really hard to choose. Then I spied the granddaddy of all macaroons. Wow, that sure looks like it's worth eating! Happy with our trip to the display, we sat and started ordering...we ordered so much we were actually thankful when my friend, Sister Sang from Thailand came to join us for Tea. We simply had to call for back up, the pastries we ordered were large and extremely rich too. |
 A little tart, delicately balanced with the lovely cream and crusty pastry. |   Check out the largest macaroon I've eaten! |  Deliciously fresh fruit in a jelly glaze atop the custard was refreshing. |  Pure Chocolate decadence! The chocolate cream was so thick it had become chocolate. |  After all that sweetness, especially from the macaroon, this berry filled tart was very welcomed. Just a tad bit sour, it balanced the entire afternoon really well. |
After eating so much, we felt compelled to take a walk, in an attempt to burn up the calories we just binged on. So walked we did! From Takashimaya, we strolled down to Mandarin Gallery, crossing the road to 313 and ended up in Central. Here, Redz had to go, so we took a little drink to refresh ourselves before heading on to Plaza Singapura.
 Paragon was just opposite the road from Takashimaya. |  Beautiful window displays. |
 |  The large seed outside Orchard Central, created by a local artist. |  |  |
After our little drink, we carried on and walked across the road to Concord Hotel, where we had a spot of yummy thai food before strolling down to the before continuing to the Istana. That was quite a sight, as the gates were open and the view was just imposing. Sister Sang was suitably impressed that the Istana was located in the middle of town.
Singapore's Istana
| After the Istana, getting to Plaza Singapura was easy. We took a tour round Daiso, a $2 chain before heading to the MRT, onto our next adventure, in Chinatown! |  |
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