Singapore Skyline

Singapore is a place where I can be both a tourist and a local. I was born in Singapore and grew up here until I went to college in the US.
I am here on a business trip and stayed at a hotel that is about 2 miles from where I grew up. It's an interesting experience because I recognize much of the area but a lot has changed. There were no first-class hotel except for the famous Raffles Hotel, where legend has it that that's where the Singapore Sling was concocted.




Today the skyline is very impressive by any city standard. The first picture on the left is a bird-eye's view of the city center taken behind the Marina Bay Sands Casino.
I wish I can say I took this picture. But, I did not.
I pulled it off the internet on one of the promotional articles about the casino.
There is a swimming pool on top of the 3 buildings and a viewing area.
You can see the office buildings in the background, many of them more than 50 stories high.
On the right is a tall cyclindrical building. This is the Swissotel Stamford where I stayed.

The second picture shows the casino in the background with the Merlion spewing water in the foreground. The Merlion is Singapore's mascot.

The next picture was taken while I was doing my morning run around the city.








The picture on the left was taken from my hotel room. It shows the Suntec Convention Center and other hotels in the background. There are several 5-star hotels in the area, including Conrad, Fairmont, Pan Pacific, Mandarin Oriental, Ritz Carlton, etc.








This last picture is that of the commercial center. It was taken from my hotel room.
They are building something on the left that looks like a Lotus flower. I don't know what it is.
I should ask the locals here.
The government built a very nice waterfront around the entire area. There are shops, restaurants, bars, etc, all around.
There is even a place where they hold water sports. All these places did not exist when I was growing up here. This area is reclaimed land.

There was a long debate about whether Singapore should get into the casino business. Singaporeans love to gamble and they often go to Malaysia or other neighboring countries to gamble. So, the government finally allowed 2 copanies to build casinos here, one by the Las Vegas Sands group, and another by the Genting Highlands group. They charge locals S$100 to get into the casino for a 24-hour period. If you have a foreign passport, it's free. I heard the government has already collected S$70m since the casinos opened last year.