Well, our “Singapore full of fun and silly things” trip is coming to a close. Today was our last day to explore the city and experience all things Singapore. :0) We have pretty much killed Patrice by now, so Kacey and I decided to explore city and let her rest at home for a few hours this morning. (She actually ended up packing for her and Elliott’s trip to the United States of America!!!) Before I get into what we saw today though I posted a few pictures of Ernie and Patrice’s digs over here in Singapore. Most of the homes here are attached and have little to no yards in the front or the back. Some homes in their neighborhood have small pools that are actually in front of their house.
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| This is the front of their house. People here park cars in the front under a carport/porch type thing. |
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| Oakwood street! This is the street they live on. |
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| Front of their house |
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| Their house is on the corner of the street. |
Kacey and I took the MRT down to the City Hall stop so we could look at some of the government buildings downtown. We got our trusty map that had a lot of “hot spots” marked and just walked around for a few hours. We were a little disappointed that some of the buildings were under construction, mainly City Hall, but we saw a lot of great things today!
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| This is the part of the city we spent most of our time in today. We got off at the little bus (MRT Station) by St. Andrew’s Cathedral and walked around the middle portion of the map. |
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| The Capital Building |
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| St. Andrews Cathedral |
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| Inside of St. Andrews Cathedral |
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| View of Marina Bay Sans from St. Andrews |
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| This is a picture of City Hall because it was under construction :0( |
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| Arts Theatre (Under Construction! Boo!) |
We walked over to the Parliament building and went into the little visitor’s center. It was interesting to see how they voted people into their parliament from each region and how they passed rules and dealt with legislation. This building was NOT under construction!!! Whoo hoo!!
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| Regions of Singapore |
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| Treasury Building |
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| Not sure what this building is but I thought it was super cool :0) |
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| Armenian Church – This is the oldest church in Singapore |
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| Kacey signing into the guest book! |
We went into the National Archives for a little while and learned about the Causeway, which connects Sinapore to Malaysia, and how it was built.
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We walked by this really cute Bible House and went in for a little while!
I almost bought a blue jean Bible, it was really cute and had a pocket! |
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| Fire House |
We went into the Peranakan museum for a little while to learn about their culture. Peranakans are a mixture of two or more cultures of people basically. A long time ago, before people really came and made Singapore a sophisticated city, traders would stop in and marry the local women and have children with them. The children were called Peranakans, who then were raised in a blended culture between their Singaporian mother and their Chinese or Indian father. It was really interesting, because they have developed their own culture and ways of thinking. We really enjoyed the museum because it was very colorful and nicely designed.
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| Entrance to the Peranakan Museum |
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| Wedding Headdress |
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| Wedding Baskets |
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| Typical Peranakan table setting – Nonya Ware is a special porcelain pottery to the Peranakans (that is what is on the table) |
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| kitchen set up |
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| Still going strong! Do we look like tourists??? :0) |
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| One of the cool signs here |
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| Chinese Chamber of Commerce |
We then walked over to a mall area and saw this crazy wedding cake! It even had a horse drawn carriage and horses! I thought it would be perfect for Joanna’s wedding cake haha!
We then walked down to one of the shopping areas and got a snack at Mcdonalds! It was hilarious to eat at a Singapore McDonalds! It tasted good and had a couple of different options that we don’t have in the United States like a cup of corn for a side or chicken on the bone. They eat meat on the bone a lot around here, and it’s a different cut and quality than we have in the U.S. so it has been another one of those “interesting things” about Singapore.
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| Me and Ronald! |
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| Snack time! |
We walked down to Chjmes after we ate and looked at the cathedral here. It was absolutely beautiful and has been turned into more of a place to be rented for occasions like weddings rather than used as a place of worship. The garden area behind the cathedral has restaurants and an open area for sitting and enjoying time with friends in the evening. It was a really nice place.
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| Chjmes – this is the Cathedral portion |
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| Inside Chjmes |
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| Behind the Cathedral – turned into a restaurant area |
After we walked around Chjmes, we walked across the street and saw the Church of the Good Shepherd. They actually were having a service when we stopped by and and the priest was preaching about how Catholics need to marry Catholics, which can be difficult because there aren’t a whole lot of Catholics in Singapore. :0)
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| Church of the Good Shepherd |
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| Inside the Church of the Good Shepherd |
After the church of the Good Shepherd, we walked over to the War Memorial. This memorial was founded 1967 in honor and memory of the civilians lost during the Japanese occupation between 1942-1945. The Japanese tortured many of the Singaporian people if they were possibly supporting the British or trading certain items during this time that the Japanese considered illegal.
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| And we’ve been outside for a LONG time and are HOT! hehe :0) |
We then met up with Elliott and Patrice to eat a quick lunch and made our way on the MRT up to Arab Street to visit the Sultan Mosque and look around some of the Arab shops. Of course while we were waiting for the MRT I dropped my camera and the latch that holds the battery in popped off. The next few pictures were taken on my phone if you’re wondering why the quality changed a little bit.
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Stopping at a Seven Eleven (these things were everywhere!) and Kacey and Elliott got slurpees!
We were also very proud of Elliott because he got in the picture and smiled without even being asked! Progress! |
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| Arab Street |
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| We stopped by the Sultan Mosque to see what the inside looked like and to learn little bit about the religion and culture. |
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| Sultan Mosque |
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| We had to cover up with these robes. |
We talked with a guy from the United States named Jason Wilson for a long time. He lived in Indiana and then Michigan and about 3 years ago converted is Islam and moved over to Singapore to work at the Mosque. He told us a lot about how Muslims worship and what the prayer times meant that were posted on the wall. The times they pray changes each day according to when the sun rises and sets. Men worship on the lower level and women worship and pray in the upper level area. Islam has a lot of emphasis on symmetry, so you will notice that a lot of their buildings. We learned that their god is gender neutral, which was interesting as well. Of course they gave us a complimentary copy of the Koran before we left!
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| Inside the Mosque – the Praying area |
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| I just sat down and read this immediately! ;0) |
So I said earlier I dropped my camera and the latch that holds the battery popped off and we couldn’t get it back on. We stopped by this camera shop on Arab street called Camera Sultan and this guy named Adam fixed it for me! He was super nice and had these awesome business cards!
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| Adam from Camera Sultan saves the day! |
We then walked over to the MRT to make our way out to Pottery Jungle, which is further out of town off of Pioneer Road.
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| This is Ernie’s favorite building because of the architecture! |
We took the MRT half way and the taxi the next half because it is kind of far out of town. It was worth the travel though, the Pottery Jungle was a really cute outdoor store with an actually kiln and tons and tons of pottery. They had plates, vases, sculptures and other scrolls and swords too. We shopped around a little bit and I got a vase and a little Nonya ware container. Ernie then picked us up and we headed home.
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| Pottery Jungle |
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| You can see the Kiln here. |
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| Better shot of the kiln. |
While driving home, we pulled off into one of the cemeteries here. I always think it’s interesting to look at cemeteries, especially when they are of different cultures as they are here. A lot of the Chinese plots had colorful statues on them and even a picture of the person buried there. Elliott said that they burry people vertically here, like the body is standing rather than lying down. It makes sense because it definitely saves space! Patrice also said that with the plots here, sometimes they have a time limit on the plot of 40 or 50 years and then they will dig up the body to bury someone new there. It sounds grotesque, but when you are short on space and have a lot of people it does make sense. The picture below are of the cemetery we drove through, and if you can imagine there were just graves everywhere, all over the hills. It was really amazing.
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| Mom, Dad and little Brother waiting in the car for us :0) |
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| I thought this one was pretty with the blue lion statues. |
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| Some of the graves had a simpler tombstone like you see here. |
Well that is it for our travels in Singapore. Tonight at midnight we will be heading for the airport to catch our flight at 2:30 a.m. back to Houston! Thanks for all of your comments and for your interest in my trip!
