Duck Tours!

Day 1

Sunday, 01 Jul 07

We set off in the morning to Suntec in 2 cabs, cos the 2 sis woke up rather late. But they learned their lesson and since then they've been much more punctual, tho it still needs some work.

As we arrived late, the first ducky ride at 10am was full, with not enough seats for all 6 of us. So we just walked around, til around 1045, when we went to que for the 2nd ducky ride of the day at 11am. We managed to get great seats as such.

Not gonna post many fotos of the ducky ride, cos most things will be repeated in the river cruise ride on Day 2. Besides, the most fun part of the ducky ride isn't the sightseeing, but the transition from land to water and back. *sploosh!* quite damn fun.
Anyway took this on board the ducky, posted this as we were really up close with the ferris wheel, and the River Cruise doesn't pass by here. This is the Singapore Flyer, open late this year or next year. Each round of the wheel takes 37 min, and costs 38bucks per person I think, but these are tentative, might change when it opens. When it opens, it will beat the Millenium Wheel of London as the world's largest ferris wheel. You can read more about it here.

The 2 sisters, mum, and the ducky tour guide.

Now I'm pretty impressed with this guy.. damn hardworking. On Tuesday night, we were at the Night Safari, and he was working there too. Had a short chat with him.. He works at Ducky tours from 10-5, Night Safari from 6-12, and has only 1 off day per week for each job. That's what I call dedication to serve... Impressed also cos he's a really good tour guide, despite not knowing Chinese. The girls didn't understand most of what he said but enjoyed his bubbly company.

Suntec Fountain of Wealth, the World's largest Fountain.

As most of us already know, Suntec is built in the shape of a hand; Tower Five is the thumb, Towers One to Four are the fingers, and the Fountain of Wealth is the palm. Additional facts I learnt in this trip: In Chinese tradition, the left hand is used to take in money while the right hand is to pay out money, thus Suntec is designed as a left hand to bring in wealth. Also, the fountain pours inwards instead of sprout upwards like most fountains do, to symbolize the inward flow of money. Apparently, it is working quite well cos Suntec's REIT has risen quite considerably since it went public. *damn* should have bought some. But it's alright cos CapitaMall Trust is performing even better. *cheers*

After a short rest and lunch, we set off for our Heritage HippoTours. It's actually a double-decked topless bus. Quite fun. Took quite a few pix on board.

Masjid Angulla, an Indian Muslim Mosque
in the middle of Little India along Serangoon Road.

Clarisse's Office, One Raffles Link.

Btw, yes, I'm getting everyone to get used to knowing her as Clarisse cos Jiefang is too Cina for her own good. No doubt it's a good name, a nice name, just too traditional for her career path.

The CBD from Nicoll Highway. Tour guide in foreground.

Buddha Relic Temple, opened on 31 May 07.

The Fountain of Wealth core.

Where I brought Clarisse to change her luck. Result? Tingting outperformed her usual grades. But she's still scared cos her target school raised the bar for entry also. All is yet uncertain for her despite a 10% improvement on grades.

Spiral Staircase. There are four around the Fountain of Wealth, one at each corner. Never knew they looked so nice from above. Saw a good pic, and took it.

The Fountain of Wealth core without anyone around it. ^_^

Tingting's ponytail, me, and The Concourse in the background.

Alsagoff Arab School, established 1912.

Raffles Hotel, Singapore's oldest hotel. Used to face the beach, thus Beach Road was named thus. 40 years ago, that is. As you can see, that's how much our little red dot has progressed over the years.

The City Hall, which will soon be reopened as a singapore history museum. The flying saucer in the background is part of our Supreme Court; they wanted a more modernized building and so they threw a rotating-saucer-like observation deck on the top of the Supreme Court when they designed it.

Tan Kim Seng Fountain, marking the significance of Chinese Businessman on the growth of our little island. erm...ok. judging by the size of it, it's apparently not very significant but still reasonably significant nonetheless. Think about this, back then, this was considered a national monument~! So it's small but still pretty good.

In the evening, we met up with Clarisse, who just finished tuition in Kembangan, at Bugis MRT. Why? Cos she's not interested in any part of the Duck Tours except for the DHL Balloon. lol. We got our tix, had a very rushed Fish Head Steam Boat dinner, and went flying upwards.

Nice sunset atop the balloon.

National Library. Yup, we're at 150m, we can see its roof.

Me and Clarisse in the sky. No, not you Sky.

The Suntec "Hand" from the balloon.

Parkview Square
Good vantage point makes a damn huge difference, see>?

The Gateway

The Concourse

Now there's a little story about The Gateway. Gateway was built as a blade, faced south towards the sea, and is like a very strong force in the area according to Feng Shui, that's why any building around it has to be careful, or may fall under it's negative "force". No, I'm not an avid fengshui believer, just telling everyone what the tour guides told us.

As a result, you have Suntec as a left hand a wealth magnet. Then you have concourse, which from the top, is shaped in a Ba Gua (八卦) or Eight Trigrams to counter the negative force. As for Parkview Square, which is quite recently built in 2003, has many statues carrying balls placed in its architecture. I didn't quite catch how that is supposed to counter the negative force, but ya, somehow it's meant to do so.

Arab Street conservation zone from the balloon.

Us in da balloon.

Da Sistas with Concourse and Gateway in da background.

Da us with da balloon.

And after that was home for a good rest.

Day 2!

Monday 02 July 07

Day 2 started out pretty late. We only set off after lunch.

Went to Suntec to board the City Hippo, and to our first stop - The River Boat Ride.

Sisters and Uncle before the ride.
Clarke Quay on left, Riverside Pt on right

Statues of boys jumping into the Singapore River beside Cavenagh Bridge,
Singapore's oldest bridge from 1856.

Nice bridge + nice sky (not you!) = Nice pic

View of One Fullerton and the CBD Skyscrapers from the boat.

Just opposite the last pic, construction site of the Marina Bay Sands.

Well considering how massive the workload is for the construction of this IR, one may wonder how it can be completed in a mere 3 years plus. Apparently, the construction takes place in shifts, and continues 24-hours without any stops. That's how our little red dot is gonna build 2 world-class IRs in a matter of 3 years.

View of the Marina Business District.

From right: Singapore Flyer, Marina Stadium, Ritz Carlton, Millenia Tower, The Oriental, Centennial Tower, Pan Pacific, Suntec Four, Conrad International, Suntec Three, Marina Mandarin, Suntec Two and Suntec One. Phew...what a list. In order of appearance.

Pan left and you get the Durians, and Swissotel Stamford.

Up close and personal with our friendly local iconic puker.
infinitely pukier than any of Xwan's pukey expressions.
Plus now he's got 2 streaks of algae down his mouth, even more pukey.

The friendly puker in a photogenic shot!! woot!

The CBD with Boat Quay in the foreground.

After the River Cruise, we walked thru Clarke Quay. The shelters are designed like the lotus plants; the transparent shades above are lotus leaves, while the lights below are designed like lotus roots, which many Chinese have used to cook soup or dishes. The semblence is very slight, and it takes some time to realise the similarity.

All except me in the centre of Clarke Quay, where they've got a nice fountain park.


Treated the sistas to Haagen Dazs at Clarke Quay.

They've got similarly-priced ice-cream back at home, but not as nice. Perhaps too much of the price paid there goes into transporting the goods to that location. I've no idea why exactly, but I guess that's the most logical reason.

Plus, the outlet at Clarke Quay was very posh, and everyone had a very nice experience which doesn't really exist back at home. Not for 2nd sis tho, cos she lives in Beijing, which is a pretty modern city, just like most other cities in the world.

After Ice-cream, brought them to MICA (Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts) building. Viewed the nice colonial architecture, and some nice works of art such as this above.

It's titled the Big Bang. Not gonna comment much, cos it's worth a lot more for you guys to pay a visit yourselves and have a good look. Nice sculpture.

That's the sisters and mum against the CBD as backdrop.

After that was the City Tour, and we went past Orchard Road and back to Suntec. Not many pics cos we were resting most of the way, as we've already been to Orchard Road. Dim Sum dinner at Haitien Lou Restaurant. Not many pix cos in a bit of a rush. After that rushed dinner, we scurried on to the Night Adventure bus.

Nice pic of the Concourse between Towers Two and Three of Suntec City.

Marina Square passing right above our heads. How close? If I stood up in the topless bus I would ram into the ceiling. That's how close.

Up close with the north face of Esplanade Theatres on e Bay.

Good pic of Swissotel Stamford.

Entrance to Sentosa

The 2 sistas pretty excited among Caucasians and Indians.
Not many in China.

A damn Pro Peacock which walked through the crowds, in opposite direction.

The Sentosa Merlion slightly before 7,
when the sky is still lit and the eyes are aglow.

The Sentosa Merlion in the night.

Well we had no idea that the Night Adventure was going to Sentosa. But we went to Sentosa on Wednesday again on a special trip so that night was like a sneak preview.

After Sentosa, it was a ride around the Quay area, Orchard Road, and back to Bugis and Suntec to see the lights. Really nice lights. No pics tho, cos it's damn hard to take night pics on a moving bus.

The sistas with the Hippo Tour guide after the tour.

The sole survivor of the night fotos.
View of Clarke Quay area from High Street

The rest, amounting to 30-over, will each give a brand new motion-sickness experience to the viewer. I got pukey filtering through them. No, seriously.

There's too much to post, so I'll do it a little at a time. Just sent off Third uncle and aunt this morning. And I'm heading off to Pan Pac gym with e sistas right now. Till next time!