Singapore (GMT +8)

The adventures of Rosie continue below... days 3 and 4 in Singapore.

Wednesday, 12/29

As much as I'd like to take this entire day off, I needed to go in to the office for 1/2 a day.  So, after breakfast with Rosie, I headed off to the Haw Par Centre to get some work done.

Rosie ended up spending the morning touring on her own, most notably:  Raffles Hotel and their Long Bar; Chimes and the church there that's now a restaurant among other things; St. Andrews Cathedral 1 block over from the hotel, and; Raffles City Mall - the huge mall that starts on the 3rd floor of this hotel and goes underground beneath both the Fairmont and Swissotel.  I hope that covers most of the big ticket places she visited. :-)

Lobby Fairmont, Porter's area

Lobby Fairmont, President's Club

Entrance to Fairmont from across Bras Basah road

Raffles Hotel

Inner courtyard Raffles Hotel

Converted Cloister church part of Chimes

Stained glass window in Chimes Church

Inside the Chimes Church

Flying buttresses inside Chimes

Monsignor's residence

St. Andrew's Anglican Cathedral

A stairway in Raffles Hotel

Raffles inner courtyard

Inside St. Andrew's Church

About St. Andrew's Anglican Church

Chimes block

Chimes Church - converted restaurant and dance club

I got back to the hotel just before noon and Rosie showed up a short time later.

Our first order of business this afternoon: visit Little Arabia.

Jumped on the East West MRT line from City Hall and rode towards Changi Airport 1 exit to EW12, Bugis.  Drops you off right at the western most corner of Little Arabia. 

Approaching Little Arabia

We're right there

Just starting our visit

Masjid Sultan Mosque

Inside Kazura, a scented oil shop

Run by a 3rd generation proprietor

Kazura's been around for 76 years

Purchased 4 vials of oils

Enjoyed our brief visit

A Mexican restaurant in Little Arabia

A bunch of Hookah pipes - for smoking

Basket shop in Little Arabia

A corner in Little Arabia

Needle work in Little Arabia

The Dim Sum girls posted in most MRT trains

We started walking towards the area our concierge had recommended: Haji Lane and Arab St.  Before we hit those streets we followed North Bridge Rd for just a bit until Rosie spied a little shop selling scented oils... so we stepped in.  The propriety was a very nice, older man, who was 3rd generation owner of the shop - the shop had been open for the past 76yrs!  He was extremely helpful and we left with 3 deliciously aromatic vials of oil.  As we were told, Arabs are not permitted to wear perfume but, they can use scented oils. :-)  I can't remember the shop's name but, Rosie took a photo and when I get back to New Jersey, I'll post that photo into this blog.

Little Arabia

Arab Street entrance

Masjid Sultan Mosque

Reminds me of Jonny Quest

This is the shop of the woman with kin in Bayshore, NY

Heading over to Bussorah Mall

From there we found and walked down Haji Lane and looped back around onto Arab St.  Unfortunately, or fortunately :-), most of the shops were still closed due to the time of the afternoon.  Rosie was still able to find a proprietor open selling very pretty necklaces and bought one. This particular proprietor, a woman, was chatty and when we mentioned that we were from New York, her face lighted up and she started to regale us with the fact that her brother actually lives in fabulous Bay Shore, Long Island - a place Rosie is intimately familiar with - and that she loves visiting him there... particularly to get away from boring Singapore.  She was a hoot. :-)

Baghdad Street

A very popular place to eat in Little Arabia

Across from Glam Cafe

Bussorah Mall

Bussorah Mall

Masjid Sultan Mosque

We ended up taking a side street off Arab, Baghdad St, which led us to the famous Bussorah Mall area of Little Arabia.   Lots of vendors/eateries to visit and look into.  Had we not eaten earlier, there were quite a few interesting restaurants in and about that we'd have enjoyed trying out.

On a bumboat

Historic bumboat

Clark Quay, many boats for hire here

On the prow of our bumboat

Fullerton Hotel

Merlion Park

The Merlion

Marina Bay Sands hotel and many 'wishing balls'

Our bumboat Captain

Earlier in the week we had stopped at Clarke's Quay to see if we just snag a 'bumboat' ride but failed.  After we left Little Arabia, we trained back down to Clarke's Quay and did in fact find and purchase tickets onto a bumboat for a 30min tour of the Singapore River and Marina Bay.

Another view to Clark Quay

More modern bumboat

Bumboat tickets

Here comes our bumboat

Another thing off Rosie's Singapore 'bucket list' - bumboat ride

Our bumboat crew

We got to see Boat Quay, all of Singapore's government buildings, the Fullerton Hotel and several of the oldest bridges in Singapore from the river before ending up right in front of Merlion Park on Marina Bay.  The boat crew were very accommodating.  They let us sit out on the prow of the bumboat as we cruised down the river and even took photos of Rosie and I.  Was a lot of fun.

Boat Quay

Almost as tall as the skyscrapers

Asian Civilisations Museum

Cavenagh Bridge and Fullerton Hotel

Cavenagh Bridge

Bronze sculpture of kids jumping in to the Singapore River

Got dropped off near where we boarded, just on the other side of the river.  We were getting a bit peckish and parched so hit the first interesting place we saw for some drinks and enjoyed an early afternoon, lite lunch.  After our brief respite, we strolled back to Clarke's Quay MRT and trained back to the hotel to refresh, nap and get ready to return to Chinatown early in the evening.  Rosie wanted to check out some of the other shopping areas there.

Fullerton Hotel

Anderson Bridge

Photo by the bumboat crew

Science Center and Marina Bay Sands Hotel/Casino

Singapore Flyer and tons of 'wishing balls'

Bumboat, skyline and Merlion Park

Departed for Chinatown at ~1700 via train.  When we got there we did tour some of the other shops primarily situated in large buildings.  They weren't nearly as interesting as walking the streets lined with vendors just across the way.  So, we decided to leave early and I convinced Rosie to train back down to the HarbourFront to go have dinner at an Indian Restaurant I'd noticed there in Vivo City sometime earlier.

Merlion gushing

Another angle to Merlion

Rosie and I had lunch here, on the river, after our bumboat ride

Artsy photo of a bumboat

Enjoying a light, veggie lunch

Got there in plenty of time, found the Indian Restaurant and sat down to enjoy a good, not great, vegetarian dinner.  After dinner we went out on the boardwalk and Rosie was amazed at how brightly lit Sentosa Island was.  Headed back in to Vivo City and just started walking around the mall checking out some of the shops.  This is where we found the little eclectic electronics shop that was selling some cute little apple shaped MP3 speakers.  I bought 3, black/green/red, for $29SG each - on sale!  I was quite pleased and planned on keeping the green one for myself and having Rosie take the other 2 back for Meg and Conor.

Vivo City shop where I bought all the apple shaped iPod speakers

After that we left to head back to the Fairmont. Got back just before 2100 and called it a day... another very good day.


Thursday, 12/30

Big shopping day today - Rosie's had time to assess the opportunities and we've decided to head out early to Chinatown to see how good our haggling skills are!

Before that though, breakfast down in Prego's just off the hotel lobby.  Wanted to show Rosie another venue for chow.  Kinda like the Alligator Pear - without the pool - but with a wider variety of culinary options.  They'll also freshly squeeze/blend any combination of fruit/veggie you can imagine for you.  We enjoyed breakfast and Rosie really liked the Indian Aloo Gobi she tried.

Somewhere in the bowels of Chinatown MRT station

Some other buildings in and around Chinatown

On a overpass connecting different areas of Chinatown

Keep walking and you're on Pagoda Street

Just a nice photo of Rosie

At the top of the stairs looking at the MRT entrance and Pagoda Street

Some Chinatown history

We did most of our souvenir shopping with this proprietor

Left the hotel for Chinatown around 0830 and got to our destination before 0900... not too many vendors open this early in the morning.  There were a few though. :-)  One in particular on the cross road off of Pagoda St, welcomed us in and was happy to work with us on the many items we ended up buying off her.  For instance, she listed these cute little Chinese wine bottle covers for 3/$10SG... I negotiated a 5/$10SG price!!  So, bought 20 of them, and the same sort of quantities and price were applied to several other items of interest that Rosie ended up buying in bulk!  We walked away with quite the haul. ;-)  Had so much stuff that we had to train back to the hotel and drop everything off before heading off to our next destination of the day.

Just before we queued up for the Singapore Flyer

The queue - not too bad

Next in line to board

Part of the rain forest beneath the Flyer

Marina Barrage - fresh water dam project

Singapore Flyer circle

Ongoing new construction across from the Flyer

A view of the 'wishing balls' through the Flyer's support cables

My Love

Since there's no train to the Singapore Flyer, currently the world's largest ferris wheel at 165m, we jumped in a cab which took us the 2-3kms or so to the site - well worth the $5SG on a quickly warming day.  The Flyer sits across the Marina Bay channel from the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.  Bought our tickets, $26SG/adult, and climbed up a couple of flights of stairs to queue up for the ride.  The line wasn't too long and actually moves quite quickly.  Each of the 28 cars on the Flyer can take many passengers... my guess is 20-30 people.

Ongoing new construction

Marina Barrage and Singapore Straits anchorage

Another close-up of new Opera House

Marina Bay Hotel/Casino complex as we approach Flyer's apex

At the apex of Flyer's arc

Nice photo!

One more shot of the Marina Bay waterfront

I thought I'd have issues with my feet tingling but, I did not.  The Flyer is so massive and feels so stable, I had no issues and really enjoyed the 30min rotation.  Took a ton of photos and met a very nice retired Scottish couple, Alex and Marilyn, in our car.  Chatted with them for most of the ride.  Turns out they're on an extended trip to see this part of the world now that they can - including Australia and New Zealand - and were also staying at the Fairmont where we were.  Small world. :-)

Taken by our new friends, Alex and Marilyn, from Scotland

Our 'wishing ball'!

Very cool to do and FREE

Eye level view to the 'wishing balls'

One more

Staging area for anyone wanting to sign one

Departed the Flyer on good terms with them.

While we were up in the Flyer, I thought I spied the location on the Marina near the Esplanade Theatre where people may have been signing the white wishing balls (the ones that looked like mooring buoys from a distance).  Rosie and I decided to walk to that location and see if we couldn't sign a ball.

On our balcony on the 20th floor

One of many Fairmont porters

Outside of Prego's in the Fairmont

The NorthEast MRT line aka: 'purple' line to Chinatown

People bridge to Chinatown

Some Chinatown architecture

More facades

Bicycle rickshaw

We found the place!!  We expected to pay some fee to sign a wishing ball for the New Year's celebration but, it was all free.  So, Rosie and I picked a large ball - turns out they are very sturdy balloons that float - and wrote all over it with as many names of family and friends we could think of with wishes for a great 2011.  Our ball was 1 of about a dozen that would shortly be floated out into the marina.  Was good fun and we also signed a couple of ornamental Reynold's wrappy looking leafs hanging from light poles with our own personal notes to each other. :-)

Approaching gondola

Up next

Inside our gondola

Picture me, picture Rosie

Nice self photo on the Singapore Flyer

Hub of the Flyer

Approaching apex

A view to the Esplanade

We were in the midst of a very hot and humid day, so we walked through the Esplanade and went underground all the way back to our hotel where we chilled for awhile.  Enjoyed our short siesta and decided for dinner to just go strolling back underground over towards the Esplanade and marina.  We weren't looking for anything in particular... in fact the only thing that we were trying to find was some local cuisine, something non-American.

Close-up of the Alligator Pear on 8th floor of Fairmont

Courtesy of Rosie

About the 'wishing balls'

Another wishful person

Look at all the wishing balls

You could also pen notes on pieces of foil hung all over

2nd example

Eventually popped up inside a portion of the Marina Bay hotel and stepped out onto Raffles Blvd, very close to an Irish pub I was familiar with, Durty Nelly's.  Walked Rosie by the pub en route to the Marina and still in search of grub.  We heard music coming from the sports stadium right on the marina and walked that way.  Appeared as if whatever band Singapore hired to play on New Year's Eve was practicing.

Makansutra, Gluttony Bay, right off of Marina Bay. Quiet during the day

At this time of early evening, the marina's beautiful all decked out with thousands of white wishing balls floating quietly on the water.  The lights from all the structures around the marina reflecting off the water and wishing balls made for a very foreign feeling but very cool ambiance.  Still looking for grub and there's plenty of places along this, the eastern side of the marina.

Bustling at night...

A wide variety of inexpensive local street food

Ordering made easy - point at what you want

A happen chance find

Some of the crowds enjoying dinner

What we ordered for dinner

Another crowd shot

One particularly bright and boisterous area just off the marina caught our attention.  We walked that way.  As we neared the outdoor area, we started smelling delicious aromas, saw smoke, bright lights, canopies and a lot of people congregating around a line of food vendors - we hit local chow pay dirt!!  We'd stumbled onto Makansutra of Glutton's Bay food bazaar!  There were tons of folks enjoying the food and best of all, lots of it for very little price.  Rosie and I bought 4 dishes for $34/SG.  We had a ton of food and didn't finish it all... we were quite pleased with our completely accidental discovery. :-)

Out and about in Singapore.  This is Raffles Blvd

They really enjoy Christmas and New Years

Lots of colors

A pavilion on Marina Bay

The skyline at night

The wishing balls look quite brilliant at night

Gorgeous shot!

I was there too

Light reflecting off the wishing balls was quite glaring

Really enjoyed our meal... in fact the entire day was awesome, and we leisurely strolled back tothe Fairmont, mostly underground, and wrapped up Day 4.  What a great day!

Well, we'd covered just about all the items on Rosie's list of things to see/do so, we decided that we would mostly take it easy on New Year's Eve, Day 5, since it was going to be a long day with her departure very early morning on New Year's Day, 1/1/11.

Still have a few more days to capture... later. :-)