Christmas in Singapore

Happy New Year!! We hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed Christmas. We were unable to fly home to spend Christmas with family, and it was a little sad being away from our loved ones. We missed everyone, but Kevin and I created new memories spending our first Christmas in our shorts and flip flops in and around Singapore. Kevin had two weeks off for Christmas and New Year. Four of those days were spent in Bali, Indonesia. Details and lots of pictures will follow in a later post.

We were here in Singapore for Christmas day and had a wonderful buffet dinner at Melt the World restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. There was a turkey, ham and roast beef carving station, Indian and Chinese specialties, barbeque, sushi, fresh crab, shrimp, lobster, oysters, a decadent dessert station, and much more. We were sitting next to a large group of people and the men were dressed in their formal Scottish kilts and Sporrans (leather or fur waist pouches). They were having such a good time with their loud merry making, that we expected them to break into song with a folk ballad. No such luck.

Not only was the warm and tropical weather in December kind of fun and different, but so was watching children playing barefoot in the "snow" generated by a soap making machine. This stuff was sprayed all over the ground and on a huge Christmas tree in front of a shopping mall. This happy scene was complete with snowmen, reindeer and the all too familiar sound of Elvis singing "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" over loud speakers.



Since we live in a very small apartment, we did not have room for a Christmas tree. Plus, all our decorations and ornaments are back home buried deep in storage. But we had to do something festive in our little dwelling place. Our inspiration came from all the blue and silver decorations along Orchard Rd. (The well known elite road in Singapore with endless high-end shopping.) We did a simple garland with blue, silver and gold trimmings. The lights were fiber optic stars.






















There were so many different Christmas trees throughout the city with various themes, colors and sizes. We spotted traditional red and green trees, turquoise trees, teddy bear trees, fairy trees, elephant forest trees....




















































Tangs is a department store comparable to Macy's or Nordstrom. They hosted a Christmas elephant exhibit which showcased large, hand painted elephants by different groups of people around the world. These elephants were all over the city, but most of them were on Orchard Rd. near Tangs.






















































We ended 2011 by watching the new Mission Impossible movie at the nearby Imax theater, and going to the Titanic Artifact Exhibition at Marina Bay Sands ArtScience Museum. Singapore is the first city in Southeast Asia to host this exhibit. There were real artifacts recovered from the ship's wreckage and intriguing stories of some of the passengers. They replicated the grand gold staircase and different areas of the ship with great similarity. We felt like Titanic passengers walking through hallways of first class, steerage and the boiler room. There was even a large chunk of ice on display to look like an iceberg for people to touch and feel how painfully cold it was for the doomed passengers fighting for their lives in the freezing ocean.




We had a wonderful time during Kevin's time off. He's back at work now working hard, and I am catching up on our blog. Time flies by quickly when your working and playing hard. I plan to upload some video of the "Christmas Around the World" musical presentation from our church in my next post. So stay tuned...

Singapore Walks - Clarke Quay

Welcome back to part two of The Original Singapore Walks. This time I will show you around the eccentric Clarke Quay Singapore River area. Kevin joined me on this walk which took place on a Saturday evening.

There were only about five people in this tour group, and Kevin was the only guy. One woman was from Chicago, one from Australia and another from Italy. There are many restaurants along both sides of the river, which is called the pedestrian mall. The tour guide said that some of the best chili crab can be found in one of the restaurants here. We took note of that for later. There are seafood restaurants, ethnic restaurants, brew pubs, and lots of night clubs.

The Singapore River used to be very polluted when it was used primarily as a trade route filled with boats transporting goods to warehouses. Some people used to live in tiny spaces under the bridges making their living fishing. One old man in particular was called the Guardian of the River, who lived under one of the bridges for many years. City planners had a vision to change the Clarke Quay river area for good. They cleaned up the river and relocated some tenants to a different area of the city. Historical buildings were restored and moored Chinese junks (tongkang boats) were refurbished into floating restaurants and nightclubs. Now, river taxis such as bumboats, float up and down the river providing relaxing and interesting tours of the Clarke Quay area. Kevin and I have not done this yet, and were told that the best time to ride one is at night.


The building in the background of the picture below is so unusual and unique to Singapore. This is the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. This building complex has a hotel, large shopping mall, skating rink, casino, art/science museum, convention center, grand theatre, and a skypark on the very top of the building which looks like a ship. When I first saw this building I thought it looked like there was a great flood in Singapore and a ship beached itself on the top of three buildings, and then the waters receded to expose the spectacle. That's definitely not the case. This building was designed by a great visionary.


We walked by some intriguing restaurants that Kevin and I will be returning for dinner sometime. Two restaurants in particular that caught our eyes was a Chinese restaurant called Indochine, and a Moroccan lounge called Marrakesh. As a group, we stopped in Marrakesh and had drinks while listening to our tour guide talk about the history and current happenings of the area. I had a Moroccan mint tea on ice that was so refreshing. They normally serve it hot, but I wanted it cold. It's not traditional ordering tea on ice, but I loved it. Kevin had a green drink that I don't remember the name of. It was sweet and very green!
































We stopped into a pewter museum and gallery called Royal Selangor that specializes in handcrafted pewter and tin. Pewter was originally used as currency. People would trade pewter figurines, such as animals in exchange for goods. Later, the figurines were replaced with pewter coins. Pewter was made into coin "trees", and someone would snap off a coin to be used as currency. When all the coins were used up and just the outline of the tree remained, it would be melted down to make more coins. We watched pewtersmithing demonstrations that showed pewter being poured into coin tree shaped molds, and cups being hammered into textured patterns.

At the conclusion of our tour, we took our little souvenir coins that were given to everyone in the group, and headed to one of the restaurants to sample some yummy food that enticed us earlier. I might head back to Royal Selangor sometime soon to try my hand in making my own pewter bowl at the School of Hard Knocks. I can take home a hand made piece of history, plus it would be fun to make a little noise. :-)

Learn Something New Every Day

The most exciting thing that would happen while walking Gracie back home in Greenville would be passing a new construction dumpster to dispose of Gracie's doodie. I never know what I am going to come across while walking Gracie here. I have walked past a prehistoric snail on the side of the road that could carry Gracie away, and watched a bat fly back and forth over my head between trees hunting for insects in a frenzy.

The other day was a little different. I left our apartment building and didn't get very far, and noticed a construction site that caught my attention. There are common wall houses (like duplexes) throughout our neighborhood. Frequently, the owner on one half will do remodeling projects. The nice thing about construction here, is that they put up tarp walls to contain the dust and debris so it does not drift into the neighbor's side or onto the road. While I was taking the picture, I noticed a man on a scooter drive onto the sidewalk toward me. He called out to me and asked if I was Karie. I said yes and thought, "Oh great, what did I do?" He said he had a package for me from Asian Tigers, the company who moved our belongings into our apartment. I was trying to figure out how he found me down the street walking Gracie, who he wanted nothing to do with.

As I was signing for the package, Gracie was trying to approach him in her normal friendly manner. He kept putting his hand out to keep Gracie from coming near him. I pulled her back toward me and he was off and away on his scooter. That is how mail is delivered; someone driving a motor scooter with a blue metal Singpost box on the back.

When I got back to our apartment and walked past the guard, he said that he spotted me down the street and pointed me out to the mail courier. That explains the mysterious identity game. I asked our guard about why some Asian people are very cautious and put their hands out to stop Gracie from coming near them. I thought that maybe they are scared of dogs. He said that these people are Malay, usually from Indonesia and Malaysia who are Muslim. They believe dogs are unclean and do not come near or touch them. If they touch a dog who is wet or has a wet nose, they need to wash their hands many times or even take a shower immediately after contact. Dogs are only used for hunting or guarding property, not pets.

I think Gracie can be unclean too, especially coming back from a walk with dirty paws and a dirty face after sniffing everything she comes in contact with on the ground. But, after cleaning off all the dirt and grime, I still let her touch me and sleep on our bed and sofa. Kevin and I are just dog-loving softies.


















 


After learning this, I am cautious now when I'm out with Gracie. I keep her away from people looking apprehensive and scowling at her. But she always tries to convince passing people how cute she is. Fortunately most people like her and want to pet her. That's a good thing, or Gracie will start getting a complex.