Orchard Road is the main shopping strip in Singapore and is well maintained by the government to present the best image possible to foreigners who are in the country. You can find everything from Louis Vuitton to McDonald’s there.
I read an article recently that was talking about counterfeiting in Singapore, and wrote a post about it because I saw it for myself, and it was saying that it is very prevalent, but they keep Orchard clear of it. Well, as much as possible anyway. Not that I can blame them for it. Singapore wants to present the best image possible to tourists, and they want that image to be clean and law abiding. I guess getting Singapore 100% free of bootleg items is impossible given the nature of the surrounding countries.
Regardless, Orchard Road is filled with malls that are very clean and posh looking, including the new Ion mall that was recently opened. Lucky Plaza, however, is the ugly kid on the block. Lucky Plaza is a sort of ‘bargain bin’ mall, with a lot of little shops that have, honestly, cheap looking products. The whole interior of the mall has sort of a cheap feel to it actually. It’s also acquired a reputation of being the Filipino mall in Singapore, since a majority of the shops there are run by Filipinos and there are mostly Filipino eateries on the top floor. There are also quite a few money remitting establishments there. Money remitters are where people go in Singapore to send money back to their home countries. It goes without saying that most of the patrons in Lucky Plaza are Filipinos.
Those things together make Lucky Plaza a somewhat undesirable place to visit for most locals. Adding to that negative reputation is the rumor that a portion of the Filipinas that hang around in the mall are prostitutes. It could be true. I don’t know. That sort of behavior isn’t just limited to Lucky Plaza though. There’s a rumor that if you go towards the end of Orchard Rd, where it meets Tanglin Rd, there are prostitutes there as well. So, it looks like the hookers are slowly making their way out of Geylang!
Still, Lucky Plaza’s not that bad a place. The Filipino food is cheap and good. You can get products there that aren’t available in many other places in Singapore. Also, there are imported products from the Philippines, which is probably what initially drew such a predominately Filipino crowd.
And, there’s a nice view from the balcony, as seen in the photos above!
Bradley Farless 