One Degree 15 Marina

Sentosa Island, Singapore

Hi Everyone,

   Randal and I went into Singapore center yesterday.  We walked out of the Marina and caught the bus that takes you off Sentosa Island to Harbour Front  and Vivo City Mall or the MRT. It’s about a 10 minute ride.   Vivo City Mall has a Giant Supermarket with great reasonably priced fruit and veggies and yogurt.  There’s lots of other stuff too like you’d find at your local Kroger store, but when you have to carry it all to a taxi or the bus and then down to the boat, you shop lightly.  We had stocked up on lots of paper products, chicken and pork in Sebana Cove so we don’t need lots of stuff at this point. 

   So we caught the bus from the Marina, took the MRT to the Little India area and went to the Sim Lin Tower and Sim Lin Square which have lots of electronic products.   Randal actually picked up something we’d ordered our last trip.  We got several things we needed though not all because some shops were still closed from Chinese New Year.  After a quick lunch at Burger King (a treat for Randal) we set off for the National Library.   Our walk took us through Chinatown and the rows and rows of stalls set up for Chinese New Year sales.  A Singapore Chinese flea market.  Pretty quickly we decided to continue on to the library and got out our map.  A lovely lady, born in Singapore but for the past 30 years living in Australia, guided us on a shortcut over to the National Library.  She said she’d left for Australia 30 years ago, WHEN SHE WAS VERY YOUNG!  She kept emphasizing that she had gone very young so I wouldn’t think she was old, I guess  But she was very nice and took us the quickest way to the library.  Everyone seems to know where the library is located and that’s quite nice, I think.  Of course everyone seemed to know how to tell us how to get anywhere we needed to go.  The MRT, the book stores… And they were correct too!!  Most people speak English, though some accents can be difficult to understand

Unfortunately, it was NO GO at the library to get a visitor card.  There are requirement, like you have to stay here for 6 months or have a greencard work permit… So we just didn’t qualify.  RATS!!!  We can go in and use all of the National Library resources and any of the branch locations; but we can’t borrow material.  I’m really disappointed.  The Bras Basah Complex is right next to the library and that’s where there’s lots of used book stores and a really good art supply store.   So I guess I’ll have to just read in the library and buy cheap books next door.  I did email the library system and asked if we could PLEASE have a card, but I haven’t heard back.

   That was yesterday.  Today we stayed around the marina and did chores.  Later in the day I went for a walk around Sentosa Cove next door and it will be a great place to walk and bike.

I found this map on the Sentosa Cove website to show you where in the world we are. 

Amazingly I’ve been everywhere they note except Dubai.

This is a terrible map of Sentosa Island, but it does show where we are and the great area for walking and biking; all the dark brown area above the line is where we can walk and bike on a bike/walking path around Sentosa Cove. Sentosa Cove is mostly a high end residential area with most condos having lap lane pools.   Maybe below the black line too, but I haven’t gone there yet.  Most of the green area is amusement parks and beaches and places we’ll probably skip.

So we seem to be getting over missing Sebana Cove… though we do wish all of our Sebana Cove friends were here too.

So that’s it.

Ruth Johnson

DoraMac