When the party's over.....

Over the last couple of weeks the River Hongbao has been on at Marina Bay. This is to celebrate Chinese New Year and people come from all over Singapore to see it. Beside it is the fairground and Sunday was it's last day (for this year). I thought I'd take the opportunity to take some photos of the aftermath and the ensuing clean-up operation. Something rather melancholy about seeing all the fantastic lanterns and decorations being set aside.

But there's always next year.....

Haw Par Villa

I'd never expected or desired to go to Haw Par Villa. It really didn't look like my kind of thing. But, as we have the in-laws here, all bets are off and my mother-in-law took a fancy to having a look-see. So on Monday morning we went. From all the reports/blog accounts I had read it looked pretty strange, utterly gaudy and totally bizarre. And rest-assured it is! On arrival you are greeted by two life-size Sumo wrestlers who stand guard on the edge of the 'park' (I say park because it's a bit of a struggle to know how to refer to it!). Behind them are some evil looking seals with crazy eyes.

Courtesy of http://www.loneleeplanet.com/

Let's just say it sets the scene for a walk through the fantasy world of the brothers Tiger Balm, Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par (and if you haven't tried their products then you really should!). The park follows the accounts of the Ten Courts of Hell in Chinese mythology involving (amongst many other things) the famous story of "The Journey to the West", also know as the legend of the Monkey King. Now, this particularly caught my attention because, as a child, I spent hours (well, it felt like it) watching the Japanese series, "Monkey Magic," on kids TV. At the time I didn't even realise it was badly dubbed from Japanese to English, much less that it was Chinese mythology based on a true life pilgrimage and the adventures of Triptaka, one of the stars of the TV series. Sufficed to say, the characters portrayed at Haw Par Villa are not quite as friendly looking as their televisual counterparts. For example, this is Pigsy. Scary huh?

See the other photos on Flickr

Anyway, you can go away and read about this show for yourselves as probably 99% of the readers of this post will never have heard of it! But I loved it and this brought fresh colour to it in no uncertain terms.

Another surprising thing to come out of the visit was that once I had posted my photos of this weird and wonderful place on Flickr, I found that one of Huffington Post's blogs had picked up on a photo I took and had made it photo of the day on Gadling.com (a travel blog)! It's a photo of a series of giant masks that adorn a wall right at the back of the park.
This is the image in question. I must admit, I do quite like it as it seems a pretty good visual representation of everything I saw that morning.....

Chinatown

Having just sat down for some lunch after an arduous few minutes buying all manner of Chinese New Year gifts for the nieces, nephews and God-children back home, I get a chance to do what I really enjoy and people watch. Chinatown is particularly good for this especially during the run up to CNY when it is busier than usual (although not the mayhem that will ensue this weekend, the last before CNY). The English couple in front if me have just been brought two large bottles of Tiger beer and are staring at them in astonishment (the bottles are 633ml each, more than a pint). The business of ordering lunch looks a hard task too. Menus are large, with a raft of unfamiliar looking food (although all printed in English with Chinese subtitles) and some of the items are apparently live.
'Euw, I couldn't eat anything living',
'It'll be dead by the time you eat it,' I interject, 'don't worry'.
They seemed to take this in the spirit it was meant although when the fish, still flapping in it's bag, was presented for their approval they did blanche slightly. The panic is starting to rise slightly I sense and a discussion ensues about the merits of ordering sweet and sour pork. The spring rolls arrive and much to their relief look 'just like the ones from the Chinese at home'.

Phew, the fries have also arrived. Just in time, it was all starting to look a bit 'Eastern' for my liking.
I must say the white faces and voices (mine amongst them of course), are quite prevalent today. Last Saturday the mayhem was very definitely in favour of the locals. We we're warned by one that it was a human traffic jam in there. He wasn't wrong. This was the evening for Singaporeans to do their CNY shopping. I found it quite enjoyable, however, I wasn't trying to shop.
So, remarkabley the beers have both been sunk and they've just asked for another. I think they're starting to get into the spirit of things. That's the thing about Singapore. It never takes long to relax into it if you give it a chance.

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Marina Bay Sands - a photo set

Finally.

I got round to seeing a sunset from the top of Marina Bay Sands. There were, I guess, a couple reasons for this. One - the excuse. My in-laws are here and they 'needed' to get up top to see what all the fuss is about. Two - the sun. It's been in short supply over the last month or so leaving the opportunities for sunset spotting pretty slim. It is, in fact, only the second time I've been up there since living here. The first time was for free (which involved a generous bit of BS to get them to let us up to Ku Da Ta without charge). This time we paid the $20(!) fee, although the oldies got away with $17 each. At that price it could be a while until I venture up there again. But it's worth it once in a blue moon (and if one of those occurs I'll definitely be there). Anyway, that aside, the sunset was pretty good with minimal smog so the camera came out and then later the tripod. The other excuse, if one was needed, is that my father-in-law is photo mad which gave me the perfect reason to have to stay up there for a few hours while the 'girls' went to watch 'Wicked' (which seems to have taken Singapore by storm) at the theatre. Very definitely not my cup of tea so the option of photos from the top of MBS was certainly a winner!
The results were variable, but here are some of the more acceptable photos that transpired (in my opinion).

Marina Bay, a set on Flickr.

Superlative Singapore: A Tiny Island’s Quest to be the ____est Anything

Love this blog entry by Tanya Procyshyn (Find her on twitter - @idreamofdurian). It's spot on!

idreamofdurian - superlative-singapore

West Coast Park in Singapore

So the last time I came over to West Coast Park was at least in April when we still lived in Dover Park View. Several months and a lot of work (not to mention money) later and the kids play area has been transformed into a veritable adventure playground for kids of all ages (yes, of course I had a go!). It was just staying to happen as we moved away but I didn't think it would end up looking like this!
Previously the kids area looked like this.


Now there are myriad areas to explore and they aren't all aimed at my two's age group (2 & 4 years old). There are even some quite scarily high climbs to be had which is quite a surprise given Singapore's usually conservative approach to kids and potential danger.



There are some additional younger kids play things which my two thoroughly enjoyed. Having said that they eventually gravitated back to the original play area with it's ships and slides and sand.





Sufficed to say the kids had a great time and I don't think it will be the last time we venture out this way as pretty much the only thing missing from East Coast Park where we live is a kids playground (somewhat unbelievabley)! Oh and the parking's free too. Bonus!

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