Planning is not my forté
My day started with a simple plan. A plan to make a plan.
Having arrived in Singapore, I woke up bright and early and considered what I should do first. As I sat in my green lit, space aged bed pod...thing, it struck me that I didn't actually know why I'd flown here, nor did I know what I intended to do with 4 days here. Was it to have a Singapore Sling in Raffles? A life long regret of my mother's, but not necessarily mine. Was it to juxtapose the rustic and rural New Zealand that I'd spent so long in? Or perhaps it was just the cheapest flight to Asia from Auckland...? I'm still undecided on the matter.
Nonetheless I needed a plan, so I headed to the local tourist information centre in the centre of Chinatown. A veritable maelstrom of colour and sound. My facade of culturally interested tourist was unfortunately shattered when my first question for the cheerful Chinese lady behind the desk was "where is the nearest restroom?", an inauspicious start to my planning mission. She insisted that my best bet was the Buddhist Temple next door. Now, I don't make a habit of using places of worship as a public convenience, but needs must, and I decided that I should probably take the opportunity to look around whilst I was there.
The Relic Tooth Temple turns out to be a spectacular visage of red and gold, which supposedly enshrines a tooth of the original Buddha. It truly is a spectacular sight to behold, with hundreds of golden Buddhas lining the walls and huge gold plated statues in various poses of significance. Quite excited by what I'd seen purely by chance, I decided that my plan to make a plan had already been defeated and so I set off, in lieu of revisiting the information centre, in the hope that stumbling across things would 'guide' me through the day.
I meandered downtown and was drawn inexorably to an area of phenomenal colour, Clarke Quay. An area of restaurants and bars accumulated along the riverside, by day a palette of bright pastel colours and by night an oddly cool, neon nightspot, overhung with a translucent roof painted with light effects.
Having taken the obligatory photographs, I turned back towards the skyscrapers of the CBD and was rather startled to spy what appeared to be a ship supported by three skyscrapers... I decided I needed to investigate further.
On my way I passed the Esplanade Theater, a magnificent array of glass adorned with aluminium shards, and decided to have a look around and see what was on. As I probably should have expected at one of the worlds busiest performing arts centres...everything for that evening was sold out, although I did note that an orchestra was doing a free performance the next day, so I ear marked that and continued on my way.
The balancing boat that I had crossed the city to examine was in fact the Marina Bay Sands Hotel complex. A terrifying testament to what architects on LSD can dream up if they're given an unlimited budget. It was only opened a couple of years ago at a cost (apparently) of about FOUR BILLION POUNDS. It houses a whole host of shops without price tags with serious looking shop assistants who frown upon people who don't look rich enough to be worthy to browse their wares, such as the Ferrari Shop with one of the 2007 season Formula One cars in the window, Forever Flawless - a shop which appears to sell body lotions filled with diamonds and topping it all off, one of the most exclusive high roller casinos in the world. So I had endless fun perusing vastly overpriced products wearing a dayglow yellow T-shirt, shorts and sandals, wandering amongst people who I can only assume are famous for whatever well paid job it is they do.
Having observed the lifestyles of the rich and the famous, I headed out of this paradise of millionaires and revisited an rather peculiar looking structure that looked somewhere in between a flower and a satellite dish. It was the 'ArtScience' museum, a gallery based on the supposition that Art and Science are two sides of the same coin that both combine innovation and creation into one.
I went to see a couple of the exhibitions, the highlight being a New York artist called Nathan Sawaya, who uses Lego to create his sculptures. It was a brilliant exhibit, and one which I would heartily recommend, but I found it weird that he was seemingly being touted as some sort of visionary for such an innovative medium. Surely building sculptures of varying forms is the sole point of Lego, his were just more elaborate than the average 8 year old. His only real achievement is surely that he managed to con a section of the art world to pay for his Lego models, but fair play, that should be applauded.
Having spent a hard day of looking at things, the obvious next step was to eat chocolate, so I went to a cafe-type thing that only served chocolate desserts and chocolate based drinks. The dessert that I had, was, in particular, the single nicest dessert that I have ever had the misfortune to eat. I say misfortune because sadly all other desserts will taste like dirt by comparison. I shall never forgive that particular patisserie.
The weather also seemed to share my rage, as when I walked outside I was abruptly reminded that it is monsoon season and most likely would have drowned if it wasn't for the outdoor bandstand, host to free mini-concerts on a daily basis. So whilst a few musicians ran through a sound check, I along with many other umbrellaless tourists sought refuge. When the markedly abrupt end to the storm came, I hurried back to Chinatown for Chicken Satay and then ventured out for a fantastic night of street photography to capture the blaze of colour that is Singapore at night.
All in all, a successful day considering that my plan fell flat on its face before it began. There is something to be said for making things up as you go along.
P.S. I'll add photos to this next time I'm able!
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| Maybe I should visit the parks? |
Nonetheless I needed a plan, so I headed to the local tourist information centre in the centre of Chinatown. A veritable maelstrom of colour and sound. My facade of culturally interested tourist was unfortunately shattered when my first question for the cheerful Chinese lady behind the desk was "where is the nearest restroom?", an inauspicious start to my planning mission. She insisted that my best bet was the Buddhist Temple next door. Now, I don't make a habit of using places of worship as a public convenience, but needs must, and I decided that I should probably take the opportunity to look around whilst I was there.
 |
| Not sure how I missed this first time... |
The Relic Tooth Temple turns out to be a spectacular visage of red and gold, which supposedly enshrines a tooth of the original Buddha. It truly is a spectacular sight to behold, with hundreds of golden Buddhas lining the walls and huge gold plated statues in various poses of significance. Quite excited by what I'd seen purely by chance, I decided that my plan to make a plan had already been defeated and so I set off, in lieu of revisiting the information centre, in the hope that stumbling across things would 'guide' me through the day.
 |
| The city lights up with colour |
I meandered downtown and was drawn inexorably to an area of phenomenal colour, Clarke Quay. An area of restaurants and bars accumulated along the riverside, by day a palette of bright pastel colours and by night an oddly cool, neon nightspot, overhung with a translucent roof painted with light effects.
Having taken the obligatory photographs, I turned back towards the skyscrapers of the CBD and was rather startled to spy what appeared to be a ship supported by three skyscrapers... I decided I needed to investigate further.
On my way I passed the Esplanade Theater, a magnificent array of glass adorned with aluminium shards, and decided to have a look around and see what was on. As I probably should have expected at one of the worlds busiest performing arts centres...everything for that evening was sold out, although I did note that an orchestra was doing a free performance the next day, so I ear marked that and continued on my way.
 |
| Yeah that's definitely a boat on a few skyscrapers... |
Having observed the lifestyles of the rich and the famous, I headed out of this paradise of millionaires and revisited an rather peculiar looking structure that looked somewhere in between a flower and a satellite dish. It was the 'ArtScience' museum, a gallery based on the supposition that Art and Science are two sides of the same coin that both combine innovation and creation into one.
 |
| Nathan Sawaya's showpiece |
Having spent a hard day of looking at things, the obvious next step was to eat chocolate, so I went to a cafe-type thing that only served chocolate desserts and chocolate based drinks. The dessert that I had, was, in particular, the single nicest dessert that I have ever had the misfortune to eat. I say misfortune because sadly all other desserts will taste like dirt by comparison. I shall never forgive that particular patisserie.
 |
| Street Satay! |
All in all, a successful day considering that my plan fell flat on its face before it began. There is something to be said for making things up as you go along.
P.S. I'll add photos to this next time I'm able!
 |
| Too much like hard work for Paddington |