Marina Bay

For my first month in Singapore, I'm staying in the Marina Bay area.  Prior to the 1970s, there was nothing here except for ocean.  The Singapore government started to reclaim the land and built an artificial bay where they could develop a downtown area to compete with Hong Kong and other Asian hubs.  

Here is what it looked like around the early 2000s (I think):

And here's a part of what it looks like today: 

The 3 buildings with the sail on top of it is a casino called Marina Bay Sands where the entry free for locals is $100 each visit, but for visitors it's free with a passport.  There are a ton of shops in there as well (oh hey, Banana Republic! So nice to see you and your twice the cost of the US clothing).  I guess they want the tourists to go spend the money that they just won...

There's even a floating Louis Vuitton store:

I'm currently staying about 10 minutes away on the other side of the bay at The Sail at Marina Bay.  Here is a picture I took of the two towers that make up The Sail:

I'll only be able to call this area 'home' until Saturday when I move into my new place!