Marina Bay Sands

It feels to me like people who come to Marina Bay Sands often know what it is they want to do. 

It's like an excursion, a planned thing. 

So much so that whether they're coming up from Bayfront MRT, from the Helix Bridge or from the MBFC side, they look like they know which shops they want to go, they know what they want to see, and they know what they want to buy. 

I don't.

I go there with a blank head, a blank brain and a very open mind.  

It doesn't matter whether I'm here to have a birthday lunch of fried chicken from Yardbird Southern Table and Bar. 

It also doesn't matter whether I'm on a bike stopover and I just want to use the restroom. 

It's (more or less) the same to me. 

There's one thing about Marina Bay Sands, and her Shoppes that impresses me. 

Her financial vibe. 

Oh, you don't see it. 

You don't feel it very much either. 

But it's there.

Especially if you step out through the heavy glass doors into the bright, hot sunshine, and take a walk along the waterfront promenade. 

If you're wondering about the offices that sit in these towers of concrete, glass and steel, well, every two out of three skyscrapers in this picture are home to a flurry of financial institutions, and technology companies. 

Microsoft was/is somewhere here. 

And so is Tiktok. 

Now, who exactly is in where, and which office tower, I don't know, but amongst the money people, there's DBS, there's UOB, there's ANZ, Maybank, Bank of Scotland, Bank of China, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, and Bank of Singapore. 

It's not just the banks. 

There're a couple of financial-related institutions around here as well.

I think there're insurance companies, venture capitalists, auditing companies and asset management firms. 

The view, thankfully, doesn't stay the same over on the other side of the water. 

On this side, towards the War Memorial and the Jubilee Bridge, you have (Singapore's premium arts destination)- Esplanade: Theaters on the Bay.

Then, on the other side, near to where we call the Benjamin Sheares Bridge, you have Ritz Carlton Millennia and the Floating Platform (which, by the way, was on this day a sea of red for parade rehearsals of our country's 2022 National Day)

You know, it's really not often that I stop to gaze out over the water or pause to admire the view. 

So, perhaps, it's a good thing that today, I stopped, and I stared. 

Because, admittedly, this is a beautiful sight, where- in the distance- the silhouettes of Swissotel Stamford, South Beach, Suntec City, Mandarin Oriental, Millennia Tower and Ritz Carlton line up against the blue of the sky, across the waters of Marina Bay, over on the other side.