Singapore: Day 2...
Day 2 began with a trip to the market with mary :)... She had to go see the fish monger and pick up some prawns... or something :p We all headed off to Farrer Market. I always liked the markets in Asia, there's so much going on there... and the Asian markets have a different air about them, it's not the same as going to the market when you're in Canada.
We don't have people screaming at you to buy things... we don't have people wearing headsets broadcasting what they're selling over loud speakers, crazy stuff... our markets don't feel like real markets. They don't even smell the same as the markets elsewhere... they're too clean.
Another reason for us to go to the market was for me to taste some more of the local food :) In Vancouver it's hard to get a decent plate of Char Kway Teow, and when you can find one it costs you your arm and possibly a leg as well. In Singapore... it costs $2 in most places and they're all better than the ones that we get in Vancouver.
Mary ordered us a Pancake thingy (forgot the name) and 2 Roti Prata...
Jacq ordered the Lor Mee. She's a noodle person and I'm more of a rice person :) and She can eat stuff that's damn spicy. I'm not just talking as a Canadian... per se, cuz I can take things that are pretty spicy, the stuff that she can take is insane! I stopped doing that to my body looooong ago ;) After we ate Mary brought us over to her fish monger... while we were there we ran into... none other than...
Jackie Chan!!! He was doing a shoot in the market, posing as a fish monger O.o... wait... ok, fine. It wasn't Jackie Chan, but the resemblance is pretty good :) He REALLY looks like Jackie from other angles, I was laughing when I saw him... btw, Chris still thinks that it's him ;) Mary has run into Jackie twice before and gotten his autograph :), not the fish monger, the REAL Jackie Chan.
When we were done at the market M dropped us off @ Holland Village. I wanted to have a look at the cameras and M recommended one of the shops there. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough information from my dad (he wanted me to pick up a camera) so I was not able to compare the price and make a purchase.
Holland Village is a pretty nice area... there are a variety of little cafes, hawker stalls and more contemporary watering holes tucked away in that area... one of the more interesting ones is Eski Bar.
When I was in Singapore last year, my good friend Leon brought me there... crazy stuff. There's a sub-zero degree bar where you can go and have a drink while you freeze your balls off... coming from a colder climate like Canada, it's still fekkin cold... like stepping into a meat freezer. Apparently people go in there wearing their everyday clothes... a round is ordered and the first one that can't take the cold and has to leave has to foot the bill :D funny :P.** k... I'm getting really hungry so I'm going to continue this post later... **
btw.. I'm in Tokyo on my 12hr layover as I'm typing this up... :'(
Ok ok... On with the tour :) While we were sauntering around Holland V I noticed some weird little signs on top of the tables... It appears that Singapore has put in place a no-smoking ban... even in outdoor areas...
Interesting. Kinda stupid if you ask me. We have a no-smoking ban in Vancouver as well, but it's restricted to indoor areas and within a 10 foot radius of entrance ways (or something). What's the point of banning smoking outdoors? The smoke is going to travel anyways. Blah.
A map of the path we took around the Esplanade area :)
After Holland Village, we headed down by the Fullerton Hotel, by the Boat Quay/Esplanade Park area. It's interesting to see the mix of modern vs. colonial structures all over the place. One thing that struck me is all the colonial buildings look VERY well maintained. The structures are beautiful and spotless :) Just across from the Fullerton Hotel was the Cavenagh Bridge with an interesting sign posted... I can't imagine many Cattle and Horses in the city :p
Just down the way from the bridge there are a couple of sculptures set up to remember a Scotsman trader, talking with a Chinese Trader and a Malay chief... I HAD to take a picture of the plaque because it contains a "contemporary racial slur for people of Asian descent, including people from India, Central Asia, etc".
Granted, it's also an historical term used to describe Asian laborers, but I'm sure that when Americans or Canadians stumble upon this they're trying to figure out what the government was thinking when they posted the description. I was surprised, because Singapore seems to pride itself in its ability to keep up-to-date with Western trends and be politically correct with everything (catering to everyone... al la 4 national languages, etc...) yet they still chose to use those particular words.
If you look further down the water you can see the Boat Quay. Apparently there are boat rides that you can enjoy while you're there. They will ferry you around the Singapore river and drop you off where you desire (or something ;)). It would have been nice to go on a ride, but I was having such a great time just being with Jacq ;)
Contrast between new and old... and a reminder of the days when children used to play in the Singapore river.
After taking a couple more random shots, we headed over the smaller bridge, I'll just call it Fullerton Bridge because I don't remember what it's called :P On the other side there was an old man with a cart. I was wondering what he was selling and Jacq suddenly got excited :) He was selling some funky Ice Cream Sandwiches. I hadn't seen anything like that over here but I definitely wish we had them too :).
Moving on, we reached the Singapore National Museum, another colonial structure...
Right next to it is the Victoria Memorial Building, on the left-side is the Victoria Theatre and on the right-side is the Victoria Memorial...
We sauntered around for a bit and read about some of the history behind the buildings... and then we walked towards Fullerton Road. There were lanterns strung all above the roads, you could tell that they were preparing for a CNY celebration.
We walked North on Connaught Drive, along side Esplanade park... It was amazing how elaborate the setup was... It looked like the Esplanade park celebration was going to be a big one.
I was wondering if it was gov't sponsored but then I noticed that each display had a banner associated with it... (or I associated the banners with each display :P). Still, somehow I can see the gov't dumping quite a large sum of money into decorating the city for the holiday :)
We continued down Connaught Drive along the park eventually we cut through to get to the underpass that led to the Esplanade... The Esplanade houses Theatres on the Bay (official site).
On the way towards the building we were approached by a Filipino student selling trinkets to raise money for her schooling... she wasn't so bad, we said, "no" and she left. What pissed me off was that she told one of her other 'partners' to talk to us, EVEN after we made it clear that we didn't want anything, WTF. If you don't have enough money to school in another country, don't go.
Below is footage of the front of the Esplanade buildings... some say they look like Dolly Parton's boobs :P others say they look like 2 Durians...
Here's a map of the site...
Inside the building was a nice little lounge area, the air-con welcomed us as we cooled our heels. There was a library, various restaurants & other establishments, some shops... then we went out by the water to sit under some trees and take in the scenery...
After awhile we began to make our way back across Esplanade Drive over towards the Fullerton Hotel again :) as we walked under the bridge I saw some people loitering under it... people trying to get out of the sun.. but loitering nonetheless. I also noticed that it was mostly Indonesian or Bengali workers who liked to do this... Not once did I catch a Chinese person doing something like this... I pretended to pose as Jacq took the photos of them in the background :P
Back across the way we walked to the Cavenagh Bridge to cross it :) and backtrack to the edge of Esplanade Park again... that's where I saw the little Zodiac Animal display that we had missed the first time we were there... yes, I know there are 12 animals in the Zodiac... I got 10, not sure what happened there :p can you spot the missing animals? ;)
We cut across the large field to St. Andrews Rd and I snapped a picture of this building... I think it's a courthouse, I also think that there's a good chance that I am wrong, hehe. So don't take my word on it. I'm going to leave it at that, because this post is already taking waaaaay too long so I'm not going to look it up at this time :P
Jacq and I walked to the Citylink where we saw more people loitering... this time it was more disturbing because the people were just sleeping there on the floor... and it wasn't outdoors. The underground link is actually quite a nice place. It's spotless and the floors are nice and shiny... this is something that we don't get in Vancouver, we get them outdoors, but not indoors...
Jacq brought me inside the Citylink mall to do somemore shopping, but by that time we were both spent... all we wanted was food. There was a nifty little place called New York, New York. I was hankering for some 'American' food. On the way through the restaurant I was doing a little window shopping and just looking around when I saw this bizarre display :P
New York New York is a restaurant made to capture the American spirit... The walls are graffittied with American sights and articles and their menu contains 'American' foods... unfortunately, they don't give 'American Quality of service' :P We had a look at the menu and I HAD to order the Crazy Dog :P a 12" hotdog on a 4" bun :D I wanted to see if it looked (in real-life) as it did in the photo. Jacq ordered the Spaghetti Bolognaise and told me a story as we were waiting for the food :) Oh yea, I also ordered a Root Beer Float to drink :)
We were stuffed by the end of the meal and decided to call it a day... we waited for the bill while all the waiters ignored us. And when they finally brought us the bill and I left money, they took their sweet time to bring our change back. So long, in fact, that I got up to get it myself :P Ah, well... enough for now... this was only day 2!!!
