The trip to Singapore was a fantastic success. The place is built around a perfect two or three day stay for a tourist. For the most part, the trip was good from top to bottom. I am going to write as much as I can about the trip in this post, I am battling time however. Tonight is the NOFX party which will give me more material I want to post and less time to post it. I do not want the Singapore trip to end up like the Xian, Yunnan, PingYao and the last Philippine trips and never get written about...TIME, I need it!
So, we took the 11:30 flight from Beijing and ended up in Singapore at about 6 in the morning on Friday morning. We took our time going through customs, which was very fast at that time of day. We changed 4,000 rmb at the money changer and then took a shuttle bus, for six Singapore dollars to our hotel, the Copthorne Orchid Hotel.
Before getting on the plane, I had time to read some reviews of the hotel off of one website and it scared the pants off of me as we were going to the hotel that night. It was nothing but negativity from this one particular website; smell, size, clenliness were all at issue on the comments. However, the hotel was FANTASTIC. I searched for that specific hotel because of a coworker who said it was the cheapest with a pool and a pool was important in Singapore. Well, we could not have been happier with the hotel. Big room, clean room, decent location, nice pool and helpful staff. They also had an hourly shuttle bus to Orchard Road (the main shopping area).
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The first thing we did when we got to the hotel was to take a nap until about 12:00. We then took the shuttle, all ten minutes of it, to Orchard Road and walked the whole length of it. It was hot as could be, so we went in and out of shopping malls to cool off with air-conditioning periodically.
This is the Marriott Hotel.
There is hope, I have a reason to see a movie again!!!!
We wandered for what must have been ages.
The trees, with their huge canopies, were amazing. They seemed to reach to heaven itself to hold it high.
I am not sure what this large plot of grass actually is, but it is important enough to guard with automatic weapons.
After we decided to take the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) to China Town for some lunch, we just happened upon a free bus service that went to both China Town and Little India. We hoped the bus and cruised to China town.
That is just funny!
When we got to China Town, Jiao Jiao was noticeably disappointed. She basically said, "This place is for foreigners, it is not Chinese. Do foreigners think Chinese are like this?"
She was hoping that China Town would be modern, clean and trendy like the Orchard Road area, but it was old and restored and looked like any market that caters to foreigners who want to buy an imitation Chinese dress or eat with chopsticks. We had a lunch there, chicken and rice, and went on our way. It was only about a 1 hour tour of China Town - 30 minutes of which we spent eating. It is not a big place!
Just a normal view of China Town.
This makes it Chinese style for me...Cloths hanging to dry outside. I later saw an add telling people to cover their bamboo pole holders when not in use to avoid dengue fever...we saw like 2 mosquitoes the whole time. Shocking with all the heat and water.
After we finished in China Town, we went to Little India by the MRT. I have become the victim of time, so I will leave you with two videos. The first is the MRT in Singapore and the Second is Orchard Road at night. Enjoy.
Hey, sounds like a good time. The videos weren't working for me and when I clicked the youtube link they were listed as private even when I have you subscribed on my account.
Posted by: Stephen | April 11, 2007 at 12:12 PM
Yeah....I can't see them either! :(
Posted by: Lucy | April 11, 2007 at 10:27 PM
Video fixed! Sorry about that!
Posted by: Jake | April 12, 2007 at 05:18 AM
wow... looks like you guys had fun. Playing Teresa Teng on an Erhu is kick butt!
do they have paper tickets in Hong Kong? I think they are plastic when you buy the single journey tickets.
The last time I bought a single journey ticket in Hong Kong was in the 90's before the Octopus. but back in the days, the single journey tickets were plastic with a magnetic strip. After you used the ticket, the machine would collect your ticket on exit. same as shanghai.
Posted by: Andy 美國土子 | April 14, 2007 at 02:56 PM
I've never been to Singapore, but isn't all of Singapore Chinatown? It's it 75% Han Chinese there?
Posted by: Andy (美國土子) | April 23, 2007 at 09:04 AM
It's 70% Han Chinese there, to be exact, but 40+ years of nation building has changed us so much that we're possibly quite different from mainland Chinese. The fact that I'm much more proficient in English than in Chinese bears this fact out.
That patch of grass is the Istana, the residence and office of the President of Singapore.
Glad you enjoy Singapore. To most Singaporeans, it's quite a sterile place. :)
Posted by: Sensei Michael | April 30, 2007 at 08:50 AM
That "plot of grass" which is heavily guarded is the Istana, which is the office of the President of Singapore. LOL.
Posted by: | May 04, 2007 at 10:09 PM
I guess you all have a different idea of chinatown than us singaporeans. Chinatown for us is not a place that is inhabited by predominantly chinese people, which is what Andy seems to imply. (of course, if that were the definition then the whole of singapore would be chinatown) Instead, Chinatown as a chinese quarter is an obsolete concept. Similarly a Malay quarter or an indian quarter. Chinatown for us is a preservation of the place that in those obsolete times was a place where chinese immigrants congregated to upon arrival in the british colony of Singapore. Therefore, Chinatown especially should not be like orchard road because the very existence of it to this day is as a preservation of the past and the culture that is centred there.
Hope this is informative. :)
p.s. those tall buildings with clothes hanging out to dry on bamboo poles... they are typical of residential blocks and hanging clothes like that is a common practice among all Singaporean households, by no means a mark of "chinese"ness
Posted by: htc | August 06, 2007 at 01:36 AM