This tastes better than the name would imply.  Kind of like a mild orange gatorade.

National Day Tomorrow

The 9th of August is a big holiday here in Singapore: National Day. Like the fourth of July in the U.S. it comes with parades and fireworks and the day off work.  There has already been some celebrating: not sure if it was a rehearsal or what, but they have already been flying the jets around, flying giant flags under helicopters, and fireworks displays.

Somebody did a cool time lapse video of some city scenes and the fireworks display.  Good view of the giant ferris wheel and some of the unusual architecture, and cool fireworks off a barge and off the top of some buildings.

http://vimeo.com/27112725

Another video that shows a lot of different parts of the city:

Random Pictures of Singapore

Singapore definitely has some wild buildings.  Here are a few pictures I've taken on my walks.

This looks like an old Art Deco building, but it was built in 2002.

The Fountain of Wealth, the world's largest fountain, or so the sign claimed.

The blob shaped stadium is supposed to be inspired by the durian, a popular but smelly tropical fruit.

Not the only glowing mall in Singapore.

A permanent address!

Looks like I'm moving to Bishan!

It is maybe a little farther from work, and a little farther from the subway station than is ideal.  But I think I did pretty well.   Around the Bishan station is a mall, a library, lots of places to eat, and several big grocery stores.  The house is in a neighborhood just west of the station with several playgrounds, and lots of kids, dogs, and professionals of about my age.  And a couple of restaraunts very near by the townhouse.  Somehow I failed to get a picture of the front of the house, but here is a shot looking down the street, and at a nearby park.

Hawker Center.

Apparently my office will be moving in a month to the Marina Sands area (maybe Singapore is trying to keep the finance guys close to the casino.)  So yesterday, I decided to take a walk down that way.  I was ready for dinner, so I was happy to find this gigantic hawker center.

A hawker center is like a mall food court.  Small counters with small kitchens behind them, with food prepared quickly after you order them.  I'm shure that some of the shops are chains, but I bet that most of them are tiny independent businesses.

Apparently the one I found is a famous hawker center among Singaporeans. It is an old victorian-era cast-iron market that once sat out on the water.  Luckily it has survived the many land fill projects since then, it even was disassembled for subway construction and rebuilt.

While most hawker centers seem to be eight to a dozen stalls, this one is an octagonal building with eight halls of stalls.  One of the neighboring streets was shut down and push cart vendors were setting up.  It was good I got there before the evening rush so that there were plenty of empty tables and room to walk around.

You can find a wide variety of food groups here.  I think the four main food groups are Chinese, Indian, Malay, and American fast food. In fact, this one has a Wendy's sitting at one end.  I ordered from a Vietnamese stall, and have also seen Japanese, Korean, Italian, German, and Turkish.  Most food would not look out of place in an American Chinese restaurant, but it is not hard to find such delicacies as fried fish heads, and of course the Chinese do not shy from organ meats.  The most shocking thing to me is how popular soup is in a country where you eat outside in the heat.

Eventually I did find my way to the new office building.  The thing is huge.

Transit.

The subway here is very clean, air conditioned, and fairly quiet.  The complete opposite of New York's subway.  The stations have signs telling you how long the wait is for the next train, and their platforms have doors that shut when the trains are not in the station.  All signs are in english, sometimes with several translations along with it.

It is crowded at rush hour, but not unreasonably so, and no pushing.  The worst crowd is the line for the escalator.  And I haven't had to suffer a long wait yet. You have pretty good coverage across the island, but you still might be a 20 minute or more walk from some areas, like east coast park.  There is also an extensive bus network, but it is a bit more challenging to know which one you want.  Trains and buses operate on a touchless fair card system, so I can just put my wallet on the reader briefly without having to find the card.  Fares are reasonable, I've only used $17 in about a week.

All in all, a pretty nice way to get around.

Day 4

Day 4 in Singapore was also Day 1 in my new job.  So no marathon walks today.  Instead, videos about regulatory compliance.  But I did get another glimpse of the huge new casino Singapore has built.

The sort of dotted tower thing above and to the left of the water-lily shaped building is a giant ferris wheel (seen edge on) the Singapore Flyer.

I'll finish up with some other pictures I've taken over the last few days.

 Lots of buildings in Singapore feature greenery on the roof or balconies, but this one has managed to grow vines up the wall.

An old majestic building of some sort with a giant post modern tower next to it.

 Can barely see the buildings behind the street trees sometimes.  Their shade is well appreciated, let me tell you.

 If you look just to the left of the tree, there is an Indian temple.