hurrah! finally someone's coming to visit! sven will be here from sweden for four days next week. he's on a business trip, but he has a free day in between, and (if his company permits) may extend his stay by a day, so i think two full-day sightseeing is in order! what shall we do!

he's staying at the panpac, so i thought we'd take advantage of his wide-awakeness the night he arrives (sweden is six hours behind singapore) for an evening strollabout in the city centre? that part of the city looks best by night, anyway: so, starting from panpac lobby - esplanade, with a glance across at the cricket club and supreme court, down to one fullerton (for the breeze and buzz but NO photographs with the bloody merlion, i shouldn't think!) underpass to the fullerton hotel, cross cavenagh bridge back to victoria theatre, ACM, old and new parliament house, and crossing the river again, back to raffles place, into financial district, and ending up for supper at lau pa sat and then drinks along clarke quay/boat quay/robertson quay.

and the next morning, botanical gardens (if he is inclined to wake up early - i checked, no concert in the park that day, so we might as well go in the early morning), followed by ACM or SAM, lunch (in the bugis/city hall/little india area? i'd take him to lagnaa, but he's just spent three weeks in india, he should have something different, and i like sofra cafe, which is in the right area, but i think if he's come all the way out east, he should have his fill of local food, no? on the other hand, local food usually means noisy places, not so good for sitting and chatting? maybe lagnaa after all? and i'll take him to a hawker centre for dinner, so he'll get plenty of local food in anyway. afternoon: either duxton-club street-chinatown area (to look at shophouses and peranakan tiles and antique shops and bakeries.) then maybe tea? royal copenhagen is too taitai, fosters', too english. red house is closed (or else katong would be a really nice place to take him) eclectic attic? might be a bit too girly. maybe no tea, but chinese tea tasting? at cha yuan? then we can have guo tie at neil road? oh i dunno. he's got to go to a hawker centre at some point and be fed pepper crabs and stingray and satay! or perhaps changi village? get out of the south/central area? then we can go explore the boardwalk and watchplanes on the beach? gotta go dig up a picnic mat. and time to clean up my room for when he comes to visit!

then if he extends his stay till thursday, we would go to the night safari on wednesday night, thursday morning we can go and visit a hdb estate, or perhaps come home and meet the family, or! a day trip to malacca? no, probably couldn't get back in time for him to catch his evening flight. hmm. suggestions, people, on what we should do?