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Blog Day 119 Fri 2nd September 2011
City Sightseeing Bus today!
After a short Metro ride and Dan getting a photo next to a huge picture of Rick Astley we are back on Orchard Road to hop onto the city sightseeing bus. We find this is a great thing to do in order to get your bearings in the city. It takes us past the Singapore Flyer (Singapore's answer to the London Eye, which turns out to be bigger than the London Eye and offers and arguably better view), past the Marina Bay Sands (which is the Hotel complex that looks like it has a cruise ship parked on top of it), through the festivities and smells of Chinatown, past the Botanic Gardens, along some of the Grand Prix circuit (which is currently being set up), and kicks us off next to the largest water fountain in the world. The fountain is said to bring people wealth when they put their hand in it and walk around it three times after making a wish and saying 3 Hail Mary's and 4 Our Fathers. We feel wealthy just looking at it, so to avoid any confusion that's where we leave it.
The Suntec City Mall is where the fountain is located so we kill a few hours wandering around here. After our little sightseeing adventure we are both in desperate need of some food so we take care of this before killing a few more hours at the cinema. The movie of choice is Crazy, Stupid Love, which starts off pretty slow but turns out to be pretty good. By the time we exit the cinema the sun is setting and there is a light show happening at the fountain. The light show turns out to be pretty poor, even with the sense of wealth in the air. The best bit about it was an advert for a new mobile phone. Part of the office tower next the fountain appeared to be animated almost like a giant 3D tetris game. It was very clever.
After the show we remember that the Annual Night Light Festival is taking place over today and the weekend at the Art Museum. So we head off to find that. After an hour of walking the streets we finally come across a club called Double O, Trish remembers Hayley saying about this place. Turns out that the club is just across the street from where the festival is taking place. We head over to find what seems to be a small flea market, and not much light festivities occuring. A kind security guard points us in the direction of the museum. As he points about 100 yards down the street we see that it's the place with all the people around it, making us look like the typical stupid tourists.
The museum is a grand looking white building. Its front archways and windows have been cleverly lit up and highlighted with great detail. As we join the crowd outside, we see the building flicker and move to the sound of a guitar string being plucked and bent. It's a really strange sight and the more violent the noise the more distorted the building becomes. It looks so real. The show lasts for about half an hour and is really amazing to see. We head inside the museum now expecting great things. All we can say is that it was weird on a number of levels. There were a million people there (as it was a free event), courtyards were pitch black with ultraviolet jellyfish sculptures floating in mid-air above our heads, there was a club in the middle of the museum which had velvet red walls and gothic seating with a guy DJ-ing some pretty strange music. Upstairs wasn't much better. A giant screen played a movie about some young kids being taken in by a tribe after a tsunami had hit their village, there was a TV that was only viewable by looking down what seemed like a giant tube of bog roll, and that was where Trish drew the line. It was far too hot and crowded to be walking around looking at such odd stuff.
We made our way back to the metro station only to find Singapore's underground X factor taking place (in the subway). We sat for a while and watched a band who were obviously big in Singapore play a few songs, then the winner was announced.
Back at the hotel we cracked open another couple of Pot Noodles which turned out to be horrible! Silly us for deviating from the chicken flavors!!
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