Brian’s PhotoPile

Anna treated us to a “Duck Tour”, a ride on an amphibious vehicle. I’ve seen these vehicles on the streets of NYC and wondered what it would be like to see the sights in one. On land it was noisy and bumpy, it’s more at home in the water, but even there somewhat slow and the motor still roars, definitely not a stealth vehicle. It seemed weird cruising around city streets in a boat but it was kind of fun. We toured the mouth of the Singapore river and the streets in the government section, an area where the large office buildings and old hotels are. The balls on the water are placed where the New Year fireworks show is going to be. They prevent boats from getting too close and have New Years wishes residents and guest have written on them before they where placed in the water. We cruised by a couple large construction projects for three hotels and a gambling complex. A botanical garden is also being landscaped in this area. The lion mermaid, Merlion, is the symbol of Singapore. It’s said that a south sea islander landed in what was then a small fishing village and saw a lion and named it Singapore, which is lion in his language. The lizard was sunning itself on the rocks as the vehicle came up out of the water. In the evening we went to Justin’s favorite Italian restaurant. I tried spaghetti with squid and a black ink sauce. It was good, very garlicky, the sauce was quite thick, but yummy.

Some days adventures are more exciting than others. In the morning I took a quick walk around the peak of Sentosa Island, viewing the ships, the professor, and a large construction project. Matt and I took a cable car over the water around noon and ended up at Vivo City for a shopping mall experience. We got there about one o’clock and where scheduled to meet the rest of the family at a central location in the mall at 4:30. So for three and half hours, outside of grabbing a bite to eat at a food court, I wandered around Singapore’s largest mall. It’s not like there are all kinds of exotic stores to spark my interest. Everything is pretty much like what one might see if all of Rochester’s malls are combined. Prices for goods are about the same, maybe a little more that what one would spend in the US. In the states I do a fair amount of my clothes shopping at 2nd hand stores so I wasn’t inclined to want to buy anything. I did wander up on the roof and was surprised to find water ponds and play areas for the kids. On the way home Matt & I stopped in Chinatown where I showed him the impressive Buddha Tooth Relic Temple with the big statue of Maitreya, who is supposed to be the future Buddha.

River trade is where it all started here so I thought I’d see what’s left. For about $12 US I took a 45 minute cruise on one of their tour boats.There appear to be two competing companies offering tours. I took the one with the quaint wooden boats with wood paneling, quiet engines, and an 19th century ambiance. Trade is no longer carried out on the river, unless you consider what goes on in the mega office buildings along the river bank. Most everything is brought into the harbor on container ships that are unloaded at giant terminals. However, the architecture and scenery was impressive. I purchased the ticket for the ride at Clark Quay, which is pronounced Clark Key, and had about a half hour before the boat would pick me up. While waiting and wandering around I found a Art Museum nearby and low and behold in the bookstore there was one remaining copy of a book of photos by Stephen Black who I had mentioned in an earlier post. Of course I bought it and now have to find Steve again to have him autograph the book. The boat ride narration was prerecorded with music and historical information, all in all quite pleasant. I found myself sharing the enthusiasm of the speaker as he described the scenes before us. Took the subway (MRT) back to the resort, went for a quick swim and then headed over to the amusement section of the island to hook up with the rest of my family. We met at the Luge and Skyway park where we proceeded to take two rides up to the top of the hill on the Skyway, climb into our little luge carts and then shoot down the hill on a course with hairpin turns, steep inclines, and breathtaking thrills. It was fun… that’s why we did it twice.

Jae and Matt and the grandchildren hit the Forest Adventure park again to swing between branches while I sat under a tree watching them and writing post cards. Then we headed over to Sentosa island to check into the Sentosa Resort and Spa (http://www.thesentosa.com/) where we are going to spend the next couple days. A large part of this trip seems to be eating great food. I tried the Singapore noodle dish which comes with a couple shrimp and some sliced pork. I haven’t explored much of the area yet but did catch a glimpse of all the ships in the harbor. I took a quick ride on a shuttle bus to pick up a few supplies at the local mega mall, VivoCity (http://www.vivocity.com.sg/home1.html). I was blown away, never before have I seen so many shops, even National Geographic had a store about the size of a basketball court. The flower ball is an outside sculpture about 25 ft in diameter.

Steve and I spent about five hours together in Little India. We took back streets and alleys over to a French Cafe where he met with the owner to discuss a web site he is creating for the cafe. I sat and had a cappachino and read yachting magazines while they talked. Then we went to a gallery opening for Holly Pereira (www.myspace.com/sarahhollypereira). Steve knew of a bar in the area that had a quiet rooftop deck where we had a couple beers and chatted. Every once in a while he asked if he could take a picture of with my camera. Watching him I learned something about composition and seeing. I like his images. Here’s one of him and a couple he took.

Checked out Chinatown and Little India today. Chinatown tourist attractions are crammed with street vendors selling everything from paper souvenirs to fine jewelry and cameras. There are also some beautiful Buddhist, Muslim, and Hindu temples. I saw a few things I’d like… big glass balls with paintings inside, jade jewelry, tea pots, a cloth dragon, and an opium pipe. The only thing I bought was a little wide angle lens that attaches to the lens of my pocket camera magnetically. Maybe I’ll return for one of the other things. I had arranged to meet Paul and Peggi’s friend Stephen Black at the metro station in Little India around 4:30. I got there early and was wandering around some side streets a few blocks from the station around 4:00 when Steve walked up to me and asked if I was Brian. That was kind of far out. I had told him what I’d be wearing so that we would recognize each other and I think he and I where the only Anglos for blocks around.

After the last post I went downstairs and joined the kids opening presents. Rena got a Takara Tomy Blythe doll from Santa that made her day. She had been saving to buy one herself for sometime. They’re quite expensive and now she can put her savings to some other use. By noon I was really tired and finally collapsed into a deep sleep during the afternoon. I think all the excitement of the past few days finally got to me. That evening we went to the Long Beach Seafood restaurant @ Dempsey. Fortunately, Sam and Anna are very familiar with the dishes and had a good idea of what to order for this seafood feast. Long Island Seafood is noted for their crab dishes and we tried two of them, a curry crab dish with an excellent sauce and butter crab. Also on our menu was a grupper fish dish, fried soft tofu (delicious), some kind of thin green bean and according to Matthew the best fried rice he has ever tasted. Matt is a self proclaimed expert on fried rice having lived in Japan, New York, Boston, and Los Angeles and subsisted on fried rice many a time. P.S. When I post these photo gallery pictures in order to see the full size version they need to be clicked on… once for medium size and again for full size.

Wow, It’s Christmas morning here. Yesterdays adventures, everything is an adventure here, where mostly family oriented, more shopping, eating, and visiting relatives. We went to the Newton Food Court for lunch. It consist of about 80 Chinese, Muslim, Japanese, Malaysian food hawker stalls built around a court in a park like atmosphere where people come to eat. We scoffed down several shared dishes of goodies. I took the photo of my family standing under the Singapore sign. Sam on the left with Matthew and Jae, then Sam’s wife Anna and the three grandchildren.
After lunch some of us went shopping again and dealt with the traffic jams and huge crowds of holiday shoppers. While shopping we stopped at another food vendor area in the basement of one of the upscale department store complexes. On the ground floor they have a really big Christmas tree that people couldn’t seem to walk by without stopping to have their companions take photo of them standing in front of it. Christmas eve we had a big family dinner with some Anna’s relatives who where visiting from Manila.

This morning we went to The Botanical Gardens and walked along the “Evolution Path”. This tree is a representation of a giant lycopod tree that grew in swamps give or take a few million years 360 million years ago. Later in the afternoon we took my grandchildren to the Forest Adventure park where they where able to ” expeience 2 hours of exhilarating fun swinging from tree to tree 5 meters above the ground”. At dusk we headed downtown to try to do a little last minute Christmas shopping. I took a few pictures before the batteries became exhausted. I was also somewhat exhausted and was feeling overwhelmed by the crowds and huge variety of goods on display. This was the first time I ever saw a sidewalk vending stand for McDonald’s. Somehow it seemed more appropriate than some of the fancy, high tech, stores they’ve built elsewhere to just sell hamburgers.

After going through another security check in Tokyo airport and boarding plane and getting out on the runway the pilot informed us that the deicer in one of the engines wasn’t working. They couldn’t repair it so we had to board another plane. Finally arrived in Singapore about 3:30 in the morning, almost 24 hours after leaving Rochester. I’m staying here with my son Samuel and his family. They live in this house, I’m staying in the bedroom up front on the second floor. While out walking around the neighborhood this morning a lady who saw me taking some photos of a flower out by the sidewalk asked if I would like to see her garden. She took me down the street and brought me out back of her house to show this incredible collection of exotic tropical plants. This is one of the ones from her secret garden.