Move over Mall of America

America's biggest mall can hang it's head in shame. It's got nothing on The Shoppes at the Marina Sands Bay Hotel.

Cheryl took the kids and me on our first venture out of the apartment. We were on our way to the Gardens by the Bay, but got side-tracked by the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. 

We went into the mall to cool off and find a potty for Maisie, but once we got inside, we couldn't leave!

The mall is massive and absolutely stunning. It's part of the coolest building in Singapore, The Marina Sands Bay Hotel. Tom stayed there one night on his first trip to Singapore and I was green with envy. I plan to explore the hotel more later so, for now, I'll stick to the mall.

Every single upscale shop iyou can think of is here. Seriously. I'm not just talking American stores. Oh no. There are stores from every corner of the world. You have to be ultra rich to shop here, but it's just fun walking through.

We ended up at an indoor playground a bit like Kids U near us in Westchester only much smaller. Here's the cool thing: before any kid is allowed into play, they scan the kid's forehead and make them use disinfectant! Nobody gets sick!! Brilliant!

In the end, I was disappointed that we didn't make it to the Gardens, but I think the indoor playground was a good choice. The kids played really hard for an hour (both were really sweaty as we left) and burned off a lot of energy they'd stored up in our days of traveling.

For me, the best part was the food court. American malls have what? 20 choices tops? Well, honey, this food court - situated around an ice skating rink - easily had 200 choices. It's a very nice version of what they call "hawker stalls" which is a food court with lots of choices. I saw just about every kind of food you can imagine except for Mexican. Most were Asian varieties: Thai, Malay, Chinese and the like. Our food was great! The kids even tried some stuff though poor Hudson pilfered off of Cheryl's plate (something he often does) and got something too spicy. Poor guy! I'm proud of him though as he is trying everything in sight and loving most of it. 

Forgive the pix being out of order. I'm still trying to figure out how to use this system! The thing that looks like the boat on top of towers is the hotel. The first pix is the inside of the mall. The food is what the kids ate and loved!