leaving home & first day in singapore

our singapore trip was set and planned about 2-3 months in advance. my sis and i gave in to mom and aunties' request for organizing the trip. we'd tried ignoring them many times as we just went there last december to buy a buggy for phun. but after checking that there was a new thing for us to see; universal studio, we surrendered to their requests and planned the trip.

as usual, we took a night bus from home straight to singapore but flew back on tiger air. lucky that we got pretty cheap flight as we booked it early. the fare started from 0 baht. can you imagine that?

we had no problem entering and leaving malaysian border but at singapore border some of my aunties were called into the immigration office and were stuck there for nearly an hour. i was finished with my passport stamping in time while the immigration officer was leading them inside the office. i walked straight to the guy telling him that i was with them and we were family being on a holiday. as a result, he dragged me inside the office too..

every door we passed through needed code and was securely locked. they interviewed my aunties and needed their thumb prints. i explained them our purpose of coming into singapore and showed them our flight booking. 45 mins later, we were walked downstairs by a security guard and immediately headed out of the immigration building.. lucky the bus was still there waiting. some buses didn't wait up if you were stuck in the immigration office. they just speeded off and let you deal with our own plight.. (we were in group and some of us were in the bus so they had to be there for us!)

we arrived in singapore at golden mine (the bus terminal), way ahead of time, at 4.30 am. what are we gonna do at this early hour? we hailed 3 cabs and headed to the hostel we booked a month ago. as we separated into 3 groups, i printed out 3 maps for us to show the cab drivers the direction. forget to tell you there were 13 of us in this trip, including our 2 little people; phun and py..

the hostel receptionist was in awe seeing us storming in that early. as we could only check in at 2 p.m., i checked if there was a room available for us to pack in and nap before we could check into our 16 bedded-dorm. there was one 4bedded-dorm available. so we took it and packed inside to nap and take a shower.. they are communal shower rooms..

around 8 am, while some of us were taking a shower, i checked with the receptionist if there was a foodcourt nearby. there was one within a walking distance. so we walked there to check it out.. there were plenty of things and various kinds of food to eat. so the food had been fixed..

this is our hostel

after everyone was done with their shower, we headed for our first destination; Buddha Tooth Relic Temple (วัดพระเขี้ยวแก้วจุฬามณี)

The Buddha Tooth Relic temple is the biggest Buddhist temple in Singapore. The temple is dedicated to Maitreya Buddha, and it houses the Sacred Buddha Tooth Relic.

instead of going to the foodcourt we checked out this morning, we decided to have breakfast at maxwell food court, sitting in front of the temple..

after breakfast we crossed the road to the temple.

inside the temple, sarongs are prepared for visitors we wear shorts so they can walk inside and visit every part of it..

we took the lift to see the buddha's tooth relic in the 4th floor and then walked down visiting every floor. third floor was a musuem, second floor a souvenir shop..

Ikkyusan, one of my fave childhood cartoon

inside the souvenir shop

the model of the temple

outside parts

next to the fence on the right-hand side sit more sourvenir shops. we walked along the road taking photos and did window shopping. as it is in china town, most of the surroundings here are chinese looking..

then we walked down the road looking for a china town mrt station.

we got off the mrt at city hall station and walked along the underground walkway to suntec building. my sis wanted to shop at charles and keith..

surfacing to the first floor, we saw a line of army tanks with soldiers inside. we were wondering what they were doing but didn't know who to ask. so we kept our suspisions inside.. i will go figure it out later..

walking into suntec building, my sis and i wrecked our brians trying to find our way to the food court inside. we'd been there last time but still we got lost before we found it.. we lunched here and let the aunties who didn't want to shop waited for us here...

i didn't shop but wanted to walk around taking photos..

after the shopping was done and our credit cards were put into high action, we walked up a spiral staircase near the fountain of wealth and emerged at the first floor..

The Fountain of Wealth is listed by the Guinness Book of Records in 1998 as the largest fountain in the world. It is located in one of Singapore's largest shopping malls, Suntec City. During certain periods of the day, the fountain is turned off and visitors are invited to walk around a mini fountain at the centre of the fountain's base for good luck. At night, the fountain is the setting for laser performances, as well as "live" song and laser message dedications between 8pm to 9pm daily. It is situated in such a way the fountain is the hub of the shopping mall.

as the queue at the taxi stand was ridiculously long, we hopped into the mrt station nearby and surfaced at raffle place.

leaving the mrt station and walking along the road, we saw some roadside art exhibition.

Raffles Place is a geographical location in Singapore, south of the mouth of the Singapore River. Located in the Downtown Core and the Central Area, it features some of the tallest buildings and landmarks of the country.

after we walked along the river feeding doves and watching people, we crossed the road to merlion.

there were so many people there today and so did cameramen with their precious camera screwed to the tripod. walking along the bridge crossing singapore river, we were even more wondering with those big crowd along the bridge, here and there.. my crews asked me to look for someone to ask to solve their wondering.. so i grabbed a male teenager wearing student uniform and asked what the singaporians were doing..

he told me that they were having a big rehersal for the national day on august 9th. on this day this year, sigapore will be turning 45! and i asked him about the cameramen lining up the bridge overlooking the water. the boy had no idea either. so i let go of him and looked for someone else to ask. finally, i asked a policeman standing guarding the area. he too didn't have a clue. so we moved on looking for a place to sit and someone to ask again. finding a place, i made friend with a sigaporean girl sitting there before us. i started to shoot the question at her. she told me that they were waiting for fireworks at 8 pm and they had this rehersal every saturday until august 9th. okay, done! the curiousity had been solved!

after the question why so many people sitting and lining up the seats along the river had been fixed, we sat with them waiting for the fireworks too.

while waiting, i walked around shooting.

first round of rehearsal; parachuting

walking and shooting again

second round of rehearsal; militant flying show

waiting, watching the city getting dark

yep! bb was on our trip too.

..singapore at night..

Esplanade is one of the world's busiest arts centres, officially opened on 12 October 2002. This architectural icon with its distinctive twin shells aims to be a performing arts centre for everyone. The original plans called for five major performance spaces. The first phase includes the 2,000-seat Lyric Theatre and the 1,800-seat Concert Hall, in addition to a 250-seat recital studio, and 220-seat theater studio, plus outdoor performance spaces, private functions rooms, dining and a shopping mall.

and finally the fireworks!

we walked out of the area before the big crowd of people started to disperse to hitchhike 3 taxis back to our hostel.. and this is our 16 bedded-dorm...

g'night singapore!