[Saturday Oct 6th]
Singapoura
Today we were a little jet-legged, so we got going around noon and headed downtown. We were both very hungry and started looking for restaurants. As we strode along we stumbled upon a row of restaurants along the river. We walked down the row and at each place a person really wanting us to eat there. 
They would tell us how good their food is and what discounts they would give us. We ended up eating at a seafood one about halfway down the row. The food was good, we had Sweet and Sour Chicken, Lemon Chicken, and Satay Sticks. It had a really nice view of one of the bridges. We had a bit of a startling moment when a pigeon flew up and landed on our table, whoa!
We got to watch all of the river boat tours go by. We then decided that it looked like a lot of fun, so we went on one of the bumboat tours. It took us down down the river to the bay which opened up to the Straits of Malacca. This is where we saw the Merlion fountain (picture up top). 
The Merlion is the national symbol for Singapore. Its the Head of a Lion and Body of a fish. Near the Merlion we also got a great view of the Esplanade. The Opera House nearby is very nice, it was reminiscent of the Sydney Opera House but it looks like a large Durian! Soon our boat turned and we then went up the river. Along the way we passed the city City Centre. The buildings here are in the colonial district. The most impressive of which were the government buildings, museums, etc. We ended our watery trip at the Clarke Quay.
The Clarke Quay is filled with tons of shops and restaurants. Of course the first place that we stopped at was an ice cream shoppe. ;) Anna had Mango Passion Fruit and Terry had Tiramisu, they were both delicious! We strolled through the Quay looking around. The area visually stands out because of the 60's style permanent umbrella coverings along the riverfront.
Singapore and Malaysia are both very well known for their pewter, it is quite common to find pewter shops.
We decided to go to Royal Selangor, this is one of the upscale shops in Clarke Quay and the most famous Pewter shop in the region. We went through a demonstration on how pewter is made and got to see them cast a few things using molten pewter into a 2-piece mold. Shortly after they were demonstrating how the tapped pattern got on the mugs. Terry got to tap and put impressions on a mug. It was really neat. They had a big money tree. This is from Chinese culture and it is to represent bringing of good fortune and wealth.
Evening was in full force after our tour of Royal Selangor. Clarke Quay took on its evening feel and ambiance. Clubs and bars were opening and the restaurants were all open. We walked past one restaurant called 'The Clinic'. Instead of typical chairs, their seats were all wheel chairs. How strange is that? They were all fully functional and people were wheeling around while waiting for their dinner.
We walked along the riverfront heading toward the the Esplanade. We stopped and took in the scenery, the row of restaurants we stopped at earlier in the day was brilliantly lit up at night. After our respite, we took a Trishaw, a 3 wheeled bicycle taxi, to the Esplanade. We had an old gentleman as our driver, poor guy, 2 big Americans to lug around. He was really nice though, telling us about the buildings and the area.
We wanted to get to the Worlds Largest Fountain, The Fountain of Wealth... From the Esplanade, it was quite a walk through a never ending mall to get there. They sure love their malls here! Finally we made it, just needed to cross the street. Alas it was a busy roundabout. We decided to take what we thought was a tunnel under the street over to the center of the roundabout. What we found was a whole nother layer of malls! All underground, under everything! We found our way through the Labyrinth and up to the viewing deck in the roundabout. The Fountain was huge. Though it was basically just a fanned out spray and not quite what we were expecting. We sat and watched the show for about and hour, they had a few laser images projected onto the spray, pretty neat.
Soon we walked back to our hotel, and slept after our long first day exploring Singapore!
For all those Oshkosh people out there, you'll enjoy this! Half way around the world and what did we see, thats right Jumbo Seafood! ;)
They would tell us how good their food is and what discounts they would give us. We ended up eating at a seafood one about halfway down the row. The food was good, we had Sweet and Sour Chicken, Lemon Chicken, and Satay Sticks. It had a really nice view of one of the bridges. We had a bit of a startling moment when a pigeon flew up and landed on our table, whoa!
We got to watch all of the river boat tours go by. We then decided that it looked like a lot of fun, so we went on one of the bumboat tours. It took us down down the river to the bay which opened up to the Straits of Malacca. This is where we saw the Merlion fountain (picture up top). 
The Merlion is the national symbol for Singapore. Its the Head of a Lion and Body of a fish. Near the Merlion we also got a great view of the Esplanade. The Opera House nearby is very nice, it was reminiscent of the Sydney Opera House but it looks like a large Durian! Soon our boat turned and we then went up the river. Along the way we passed the city City Centre. The buildings here are in the colonial district. The most impressive of which were the government buildings, museums, etc. We ended our watery trip at the Clarke Quay.
The Clarke Quay is filled with tons of shops and restaurants. Of course the first place that we stopped at was an ice cream shoppe. ;) Anna had Mango Passion Fruit and Terry had Tiramisu, they were both delicious! We strolled through the Quay looking around. The area visually stands out because of the 60's style permanent umbrella coverings along the riverfront.Singapore and Malaysia are both very well known for their pewter, it is quite common to find pewter shops.
We decided to go to Royal Selangor, this is one of the upscale shops in Clarke Quay and the most famous Pewter shop in the region. We went through a demonstration on how pewter is made and got to see them cast a few things using molten pewter into a 2-piece mold. Shortly after they were demonstrating how the tapped pattern got on the mugs. Terry got to tap and put impressions on a mug. It was really neat. They had a big money tree. This is from Chinese culture and it is to represent bringing of good fortune and wealth.
Evening was in full force after our tour of Royal Selangor. Clarke Quay took on its evening feel and ambiance. Clubs and bars were opening and the restaurants were all open. We walked past one restaurant called 'The Clinic'. Instead of typical chairs, their seats were all wheel chairs. How strange is that? They were all fully functional and people were wheeling around while waiting for their dinner.
We walked along the riverfront heading toward the the Esplanade. We stopped and took in the scenery, the row of restaurants we stopped at earlier in the day was brilliantly lit up at night. After our respite, we took a Trishaw, a 3 wheeled bicycle taxi, to the Esplanade. We had an old gentleman as our driver, poor guy, 2 big Americans to lug around. He was really nice though, telling us about the buildings and the area.
We wanted to get to the Worlds Largest Fountain, The Fountain of Wealth... From the Esplanade, it was quite a walk through a never ending mall to get there. They sure love their malls here! Finally we made it, just needed to cross the street. Alas it was a busy roundabout. We decided to take what we thought was a tunnel under the street over to the center of the roundabout. What we found was a whole nother layer of malls! All underground, under everything! We found our way through the Labyrinth and up to the viewing deck in the roundabout. The Fountain was huge. Though it was basically just a fanned out spray and not quite what we were expecting. We sat and watched the show for about and hour, they had a few laser images projected onto the spray, pretty neat.Soon we walked back to our hotel, and slept after our long first day exploring Singapore!
For all those Oshkosh people out there, you'll enjoy this! Half way around the world and what did we see, thats right Jumbo Seafood! ;)
1 comment:
Sounds so fun; please bring back a money tree or two for all of us! Oh, and maybe you should open up a "Clinic" restaurant here! I'd come, at least once! So you know you'd get SOME business!
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