Day One - Singapore Tour

We all met in the lobby and made our way to McDonald’s for breakfast..yep you read that right. We made this choice since it was close to the library, affordable and halal. We were able to have a meeting in the McD’s before we started the tour and gave everyone a chance to ask any questions.

When we got to National Library of Singapore (NLS) we were met by Lian Geok and Shankari and given an overview of their structure and the steps they have taken to achieve their current level of success. It was nice to see TPL’s statistics along with NLS’s. The Sigli team were quick to point out ‘Toronto’ when the word turned up on the Power Point screens.

We were then given a tour of the many of the floors of the NLS. The focus was on the many galleries and Asian collections. The staff were quick to point out items that were familiar and ideas that they could apply to Sigli. The highlight of the tour was to see the circulating collections on the basement floor. The place was abuzz with people and it was colourful and welcoming. Special attention was given to the Children’s section where the furnishings and contests received a lot of attention from the Sigli staff. They were able to see the different ideas that Katherine and I have been talking about.

Roy took us to lunch at an Indonesian restaurant….we were slow to leave and got caught in a torrential downpour. The ever gallant Roy borrowed my umbrella and dashed across the street to the NLS and got us all umbrellas. We then walked through the Raffles hotel complex and then on through the shopping complex maze and made our way to the community library called the Library@Esplanade that was located in the Esplanade performing arts centre. The Esplanade is akin to Hummingbird Centre and is a focal point for the arts….Broken Social Scene are performing there in March.

The arts library focused on four villages: music, dance, theatre and visual arts. We were shown the collection, including an incredible array of scores. There was an amazing view of the harbour, as there was from the pod of the National Library. These downtown libraries take full advantage of the highlights of downtown Singapore.

We then went to the Merlion for the classic tourist shots. BY then there was a lot of walking and we were a bit concerned about the footwear…but the Sigli staff charged on. We had the sense that the SIgli folks were not used to this kind of all-day walking. So we generously gave them one hour rest at the hotel before taking them off to Little India that night.

Roy accompanied us on the MRT (two transfers) and they got their subway experience, complete with getting their own tickets from the automated machine. We ended up taking a city bus too. All new experiences. We shopped at Mustafa Centre, luggage seemed to be the main items purchased…they didn’t seem to enjoy the Indian food…too hot. Aceh food is really not that spicy…Simon was OK with it because it was similar to the Padang food from his region. We then piled into taxis to get back to the Pan Pacific for the night.