It is new years eve today and we decided to make it a low key day as it would be a late night.celebrating new years eve in the CBD.
We took the bus today for the first time and headed to Chinatown. Chinatown is an area of Singapore that is mostly Chinese and is where the Chinese locals come for shopping and dining. When we arrived in Chinatown it was all decorated for New Years and being the year of the dragon the dragons were represented strongly in the decorations.
We shopped at the markets for a while until we realised that the majority of the stuff was relatively the same. We stopped in the china town food street and saw coconuts being sold for $2. Anthony and I have never drank from a coconut before so we sat down and tried one. I don’t like coconut normally but the coconut juice tasted different.
We explored more of the markets until we came across Sri Mariamman Temple which is the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore. We removed our shoes to go and have a look inside, but when we got in there we found that you had to pay a small fee to take photos of the inside. Not impressed with that we made our way back to the markets.
Steve had been in some pain with his foot, and decided to try getting a foot massage to help with the pain. He went into this small shop and returned half an hour later with a less sore foot. During that time Anthony joined a line of Chinese people who were lining up for Jerky. We thought it must be the best Jerky if all the locals were lining up as well.
After we were all back together we headed back to food street for lunch. Food Street in China town has a line of hawker carts selling a variety of food. I ordered Won ton soup $5 and Anthony ordered noodles with prawns $8.
Tired and knowing we would be out late tonight we decided to head home for some R & R. After a little while at home Anthony and Sarma thought it would be a good idea to go to Sim Lim plaza which is a shopping mall which only sells electrical goods. I went with them, we asked a taxi for a price to get there and he quoted $8 for only traveling 750m, so we decided to walk there.
Sim Lim was huge however once you walked around you realised all the retailers were selling the same stuff for about the same price. We completed the 5 stories of electrical shops not finding any bargains and headed home.
We decided to Celebrate the New Year at Marina Bay Sands, The whole mouth of the river there was set up for a light display and fireworks. We found a spot down by the river and sat in the heat waiting for 2012. Across the river a concert was happening so we could hear some of that.
The fireworks that welcomed in the new year were worth the wait. They were brilliant, Melbourne could learn a lot from Singapore in this regard. My favourite fireworks shot into the sky and then fell down slowly like stars. We hung around for a while in the city as we wanted to take some panoramics and good photos of the city. My panorama looks good, I was really impressed with it. Our journey home was long as parts of Singapore had been fenced off to control people celebrating.
We got back to the Arab quarter and ordered a Singapore Sling to welcome in the new year. Drinking it fast and with not much in my stomach, it made me a bit dizzy. Then it was time to get some well earned sleep.
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