Singapore

The moment we arrived back from Bali, we hopped on a bus for the 6 hour ride to Singapore where we spent the remainder of the Chinese New Year. Singapore was a great city, but it didn't really have much of an Asian feel to it. It's a huge and very clean city, but also seemed very Western. We stayed in a small hotel in the middle of Chinatown, which was still all decorated for the New Year's festivities.

These buildings were just down the street from our hotel.

The Chinese New Year decorations in Chinatown.

This is the Merlion, which guards the entrance to Singapore river. It is the tourist icon of Singapore, and was built in 1964.

Across the Singapore river from the Merlion lies the Esplanade Performance Center, referred to as the "Durian Building" by locals, since it looks much like the nasty smelling fruit.

This is the Thian Hock Keng Temple, built in 1821 by Taoist seamen who were grateful of their safe passage to Singapore. Materials used in this temple came from Scotland, England, Holland and China.

This is the Sri Mariamman temple, which is the largest and oldest Hindu temple in Singapore. It was built in 1843 for the goddess Mariamman, who protects against disease and death.

Gotta love the random North American Natives and their electric guitar...

While taking a rest in our hotel room before dinner, we heard some extremely loud drumming from across the street. When we looked out the window, we saw a dragon dance going on. As part of Chinese New Year, various Chinese-run businesses will hire dragon dancers to dance in front of their business. They place mandarin oranges out for the dragon to eat (oranges are a symbol of good fortune). The dragon dances around the oranges before eating them. The dragon then lies on the ground taking "a nap". When it gets up, the oranges have been peeled and the slices placed in a pattern (which I'm assuming is a chinese word). It was really interesting.


On our last night in Singapore, we discovered a parade that was being held to honour the end of Chinese New Year celebrations: Chingay- Parade of Dreams. What I didn't realise was that the New Year's festivities actually last for 15 days. I'd say we need more holidays like that, but then I suppose I'm probably not allowed to complain about the number of holidays I get...

On the 15th day, all Chinese people celebrate their birthday, no matter when it occurs normally. That way, the whole family can get together and celebrate all their birthdays together without having to worry about forgetting anyone. I wonder who gets to blow out the candles...

As a side note: How does one wish a Chinese person a happy new year?? Clearly it can't be "Happy Chinese New Year", and they must get confused if you just say "Happy New Year". Well, I decided to ask a few cabbies to help me out, and thus discovered that there are in fact two different, yet equally acceptable methods.
1. Gong Xi Fa Cai (as said in Mandarin)
2. Happy Lunar New Year

So... Back to the parade...Now, as you may or may not be able to tell... this parade was much like Carnival in Trindad... except much smaller and much much much more sober. In fact, I don't think a single alcoholic beverage was consumed by anyone either in the parade or anyone watching it. tsk tsk.
There were different groups of people that competed for best costume/dance and they did get to walk across a number of stages. But the dance routines were choreographed and contained very little wining. But, much like the Trini version, there WAS a good 1-2 hour standing-around-doing-nothing period. Ahh, that's more like it.

That's one big loogie that guy's got.