Tuesday at the Helix Bridge

Warm nights, hot views,
Standing on The Helix looking across at the Fullerton.
The bridge itself is a double helix. At night it is an impressive display of lights.
The Singapore Flyer is right nextdoor and provides some interesting contrasts.

There is something that keeps drawing me back to the river and impressive concrete towers above the water.

Busy Times in Singapore

Lately we are finding that our two days off just don't give us enough time to
do all the things we want to do. For a small Island Nation there is lots to do on Singapore.

One of the things that has caused us to realise this is that we have been sort of restricted to staying here because we have had to renew our passports. I had just over 6 months left on my passport, if I didn't renew it there are very few Asian countries that I would be able to visit during the next 6 months. So be warned people you pay for a 5 year passport but it is only good for 4.5 years and you don't get compensation for the extra 6 months. The new passports for New Zealand are very nice, a work of art really.

But are we paying such high fees for a pretty book that gets stamps and stickers plastered all over it?

The Singapore Arts Festival kicked off last weekend, so there will be lots of things happening all over the city for the next month. As a part of the launch ther was a free outdoor sculpture display done with fire. It took place on Saturday and Sunday Evening. 7:30 - 10:30 pm. For us that means we can go after work on Saturday. Usually we struggle to get home after Saturday at work let alone go out anywhere. But Bradley was keen to go so we decided to tag along. And we were glad we did. You can look at the slide show below and make your own decisions. It was good enough for us to return on Sunday, sadly it rained and was not the same experience. But we did enjoy spending Sunday Evening in the Asian Civilisations Museum.

When we are not travelling and we find ourselves in Singapore for our two off days we like to spend at least one of them getting out and doing things. On Monday we sorted out our green passes on our new passports. That was a trip to MOM and a short 5 minute wait while they got stamped and validated and the old ones got cancelled. Monday Evening we went to one of our favourite Restaurants The Barefoot Place in Little India and had a cooking lesson. Now we have a certificate that says we can Cook Chicken Masala for our friends. It was a fun experience.

Tuesday we decided to take Bradley to Chinese Garden, it is a great place to wander and enjoy some interesting displays. We always enjoy visiting this place. It might be because we have been to these palces a number of times but these days Ruth and I seem to be noticing different opportunities with our cameras. I found myself preoccupied with the gathering storm clouds as the daily rain rolled in. Then while we waited for 1.5 hours in the pagoda beside the lake I was fascinated with the patterns of rain on the water. The monsoon season gives us a number of great photographoc opportunities. If you are interested in clouds and moody skies you might enjoy the slideshow below. Ruth was caught up with reflections so you might enjoy checking out her blog and the shots with reflections.

Our life in Singapore continues to hold lots of lots of opportunities
for adventures time to reflect on how lucky we are.
And
Lately it has been great to have Bradley along to rediscover some of the places
that we both enjoy.

I hope that you all get the chance to enjoy them too!

Singapore Wilderness Sungei Buloh

Back in Singapore with a Day off,
Time to explore,
New camera has helped to make me poor,
Sungei Buloh is close to our door.
Yeah Right!

This is a treasured wetland on the northern tip of Singapore.
It is visited by a variety of migratory birds.
Across the waters we could see Johor Baru, Malaysia can be seen.

The park is well maintained and there are many hides to observe the birdlife from,
Along the pathways there are many interesting living things to keep one amused.
The tower gives a good view over the very tidal ponds.

So many different varieties of Egret,

Wading through waters that are spilling with life.
A great way for a boy from the bush to charge his batteries.

The monitor lizards along the pathways are enormous,
This fellow was close to 2 metres from head to tail,
We gave him the right of way.

During lunch at the cafe a troup of otters arrived,
They caused amongst the Koi in the pond,
Eventually departing with their catch,
A solid Koi about 60 cm long.

Bugs, Butterflies and grasshoppers are always,

Bigger, Bolder and Brighter,
In the tropics.

A snake story
This snake also dropped in to the cafe for lunch.
He was on the handrail right next to one of the tables.
The couple seated at the table noticed hime halfway through their lunch.
After they left and the otters were performing the cafe worker came over,
She nearly placed her hand on top of the snake.
I warned her, she screeched with fright.
The snake lept up and into the water to swim to safety.
Such a small snake that was pencil thin, could leap a long way.
Beware of sleeping snakes, they spring to life very quickly indeed.

As we left midafternoon we noticed a familiar beasty,
A wasp, strangely Ruthy didn't stop too take a photo.
Remember they are bigger, bolder and brighter.

Our impression of Sungei Buloh.

Great place to see nature in the wild on Singapore Island.
We will go back again.
By the way the new camera, EOS 500D, is good too!

Chinese New Year In Singapore

Arab Street

Recently we visited Arab street on our day off. This is an area that has a lot material shops and Arab middle eastern style rugs and clothing shops. The streets are narrow and lined with old buildings in this part there is no big Mall. The contents of the shops flow out onto the streets and when you walk along the footpath it is like you are walking in and out of shops all of the time. There were some bargains to be had, but I had to take it from Ruth because it mainly involved stuff that I had little interest in.
In the middle of this area is the Sultan’s Mosque. This is the centre of the Singapore Muslim community. The Mosque dominates this part of town. This is open to the public when they aren’t praying in it, when they do have prayers it is interesting. It Starts with someone calling them all to pray. This is broadcast over loudspeakers from a tower in the Mosque. We could here it a couple of blocks away. People appear from all sorts of places all hurrying to prayers. The rest of the shops and markets go quiet. I noticed a number of taxis parked in the street with no drivers one was even left running. I imagine the drivers were Muslim and they too went in to pray. We had lunch at a little Morroccan restaurant, it was very tasty, the lunch for 3 people including drinks was only $15.00. It was very cheap and good quality.



The Lunar New Year



This weekend it has been the Chinese New Year, this meant public holiday for Half day Saturday and all day Sunday. The whole Island virtually shuts down. It was interesting to walk along Orchard Road with almost no shoppers around. We spent the Saturday evening watching Rugby with some other New Zealanders. There is a huge fireworks display at Midnight, but we didn’t get there. I was told it was spectacular and thousands of people come out to watch it. The fireworks are significant to the Chinese to ward off evil spirits. Most Chinese families also get together for a special dinner, the reunion dinner. There are a number of interesting customs that are a part of celebrating the Lunar New Year.



You can read more about these at:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year
http://www.educ.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/438/CHINA/chinese_new_year.html




We got together with a group of MASC new teachers and went out Shangri-La Hotel for High Tea. This is apparently a Singapore tradition. You arrive for a late lunch, and stay for about 3-4 hours drinking tea and eating from a range of tasty delights.
There over 100 different types of tea available. Some of the flavours are kind of interesting. The food available once again was amazing. I expected just cakes and scones but this had a range of different ethnic delights including sweets and savouries. There was even soups and carvery delights. It is buffet so you help yourself as you please. You are seated in huge armchairs around low coffee tables. Waitresses come round and serve you with tea. Because it was New Years Day we were entertained by a group of Lion Dancers. They arrive with a troupe of musicians playing drums and symbols. It is very loud and noisy to drive off the bad spirits and to bless us with prosperity for the coming year. Incidentally this year is the year of the pig and it is usually a good year for everyone. I was told that these Lion Dancers practice for the year and spend hours perfecting their skills. They certainly do some amazing tricks. They are strong flexible guys. High Tea was a fun thing to do, expensive, but a good treat. You can buy alcohol here but the drinks are very expensive, beer started at $15.00 a glass and Bubbles $22.00 a glass. The tea is part of the meal price.



Cycling East Coast Parks

Another activity we did during our days off at Chinese New Year was visit the East Coast parks. We got on the MRT and found our way to Bedok Station which is on the East-West line. From Bedok we took a taxi to the East Coast cycle centre. Here there is a Hawker centre, a bicycle centre where we hired bikes. There are cycle tracks that run up and down the beach with no cars. Because it was a public holiday there were loads of people out for a day at the beach. All along the beach there were hundreds of tents. and people enjoying the day. People seemed to swim in the sea, there were many big ships anchored out in front of the beach. The cycling was fun with the ride being flat, children on bikes being the main hazard. We rode out onto a Jetty where hundreds of people were fishing. They were catching fish. Most were small, what we would call sprats, these were going into buckets to be taken home to cook. Apparently they deep fry these hole. I am pleased they didn't try to fillet them!!! This ride was interesting and would be worth doing as a fun outing for a family. All along the rides there are food outlets and places to stop and enjoy water based activities. The bikes were in good condition and both Ruth and I found we were matched up for size. It did rain and we got quite wet but in Singapore that is not a problem because you dry quickly once it stops. This area of the island has well kept park grounds and gardens.

We have our first term break coming up in March. Its about three weeks away, Ruth and I have booked flights to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) in Vietnam. These were under $400.00 return for both of us. To get in to Vietnam you have to have a Visa which you must apply for before you arrive in the country. This means visiting the Vietnamese Embassy and filling out a form, providing two passport photos, producing your passport and parting with $70.00 cash. You then go away for 5 days when you return to pick up your Visa you have to wait for an hour while they check up on your passport. All very simple really, except the Embassy is hidden away the middle of very expensive houses in a part of Singapore that very few people ever go to. We went by taxi, even the taxi driver managed to get lost for a while. We are really looking forward to our trip way. It will be an adventure, we are going with a group of other teachers so we will have some support. At the moment we want to visit the Meekong Delta which is done on boats, we also plan to spen a day at the tunnels the Viet Cong used during the war. We are told everything is cheap in Vietnam but the people are very poor. It is third world so we expect it will be an eye opening experience for us.