This weekend was National Day here. Singapore is 55 years young! Majulah Singapura means “onward Singapore” in Malay which is also the name of the national anthem. Even with the covid restrictions, they celebrated well here and we enjoyed participating. The theme to this years celebration was “Singapore together” and they honored all the frontline workers in the ongoing battle with covid. There were military fly overs, a giant flag flown by helicopters, military parades, parachutes, a new yearly song (since there are 55 songs, we now notice we hear them all the time on the radio around town) and fireworks at 10 different locations. To try to prevent too much congregating, the events were spread out all over Singapore and televised. They have come an amazingly long way in 55 years. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for this small but mighty nation.
Sporting our patriotic masks. I bought these for us, but all Singaporeans were given a national day pack that contained the same masks.
A little sunny in the beginning, but worth it for the front row subset view!
Drink 1 for me!
Putu Piring. If you watch Street food on Netflix, the woman who made these is on the Singapore episode.
Drink 2!
Fancy night out to celebrate the end of summer break
Chendol dessert reimagined. So yummy.
Chocolate is always a winner
Beautiful night
View toward the front of the “boat”
Avery with her flyer in the background
Night view
Friday night we had a sunset dinner at Ce La Vi on top of marina bay sands. They were running an event called “Sky High Hawker” which celebrated Singapore’s hawker food in a reimagined way. It was beautiful and delicious. so many pictures and I could easily post more!
Marina Bay Sands
The Fullerton
Parliament building
All lit up!
Nothing to report on from Saturday. Soccer, swimming and a fun grown up night out for dinner in Dempsey hill with friends.
Flyover
Spotlights from MBS
Fireworks from our balcony
An Awfully chocolate cake to celebrate. Yummy!
Sunday we enjoyed being able to see some of the festivities from our balcony. The giant Singapore flag flied by a helicopter went by, as well as the fighter planes in formation. For dinner, friends came over for a bbq (first time using our grill on the balcony) and watch fireworks from the balcony. Since the 4th of July was a bust, this was a fun re-do.
We get very excited…
There was a display about wastewater and poo. We liked it a little too much
Ella and I skipped this.
Monday was a holiday as well. In the morning we swam in the pool with some condo friends. In the afternoon we headed to the science center in Jurong. It was a great science center and a fun way to pass a very hot afternoon.
Monday night we did some more sky high grilling on our Aussie bbq. Liam made cookies in the waffle maker for dessert. we can’t decide if they are a wookie or a caffle. Either way, they were delicious. Our first national day weekend was a great success and without covid we would most likely be traveling. Silver linings.
The more “local” areas in Singapore are referred to as the heartlands. This is where typical Singaporeans live. Not expats, not crazy rich Asians. They are culturally rich areas full of HDB blocks (these are government built housing which 80% of the population lives) local hawkers, wet markets and religious centers. They have a vibrant feel to them that makes them fun to go to.
We’re trying to have a fun (ie not sitting at home on tech) last week before school starts. Today we visited Bishan-Ang Mo Kio park (when I say Ang Mo Kio I realize that I haven’t quite lost that hard Buffalo A yet…) the park was only a short MRT ride away and was a beautiful reminder of how thoughtful Singapore was in designing its urban spaces. Instead of fighting or eradicating it’s natural spaces, it embraces them and makes them part of the community. Bishan-Ang Mo Kio park is really a flood plain for the kallang River. Such a smart use of a necessary space and an acknowledgement in the era of global warming, we need to be prepared. It also creates a peaceful space in the midst of the city. Singapore is full of these regional parks and I hope to visit as many as possible in my time here.
Twins!
First stop was the Merlion statue. There are 7 Merlion statues in Singapore and Ang Mo Kio has 2! Twins!!! we’ve now seen 6/7. One more to go!
First stop was the therapeutic garden. Again, another beautiful example of how Singapore is very pragmatic in their city planning. City living can be difficult. Some people find mental relief in a garden space, so let’s add one. Beautiful!
Almost teenagers will be almost teenagers.
Next stop was the playground. Only us and a toddler who played on a different area. Win!
This is the Cerbera Odollam otherwise known as the pong-pong or suicide tree. It’s fruit is poisonous.
Next was the lotus garden. another peaceful space with my rowdy children…
Then lunch in the park at Grub. Super yummy everything.
Not sure what this is for. Music? Tai chi?
These are eggs of the apple snail.
Fascinated to see this in action…
A little workout after lunch
Temples
More temples
HDB’s
More HDBs
Awesome street art
After lunch we continued to explore the park. The parks here are also full of exercise spaces. People here tend to be fit. There are very few overweight people and the men have reserve service requirements yearly until they are 40, so they have to make sure they can still pass the fitness test!
Then found ANOTHER playground. There’s also a water playground but it’s still closed. Grrr…
A HUGE reflexology walk. Only made it 1/4 of the way around barefoot. Felt so good.
Crossing a creek full of fish and turtles
So pretty! Hard to tell it’s the city
Interactive art.
Just hanging out
A beautiful cloudy day
We finished the day crossing the river which was so fun. When we come again, we’ll start this direction so we can spend more time here. We also found 2 more cool restaurants to try…Finished the day with a treat before hopping on the MRT for home. I had ah egg custard tart. Sooo good….
Hopefully we’ll have more fun posts from this week. Seeing the summer out with a bang!!!
We continued being tourists in our own city this weekend. Friday was a holiday here (Hari Raya Haji). While Ryan still worked in the morning, we managed to escape in the afternoon. What a better way to pretend you’re traveling than heading to the airport? In all seriousness, Singapore has the number 1 rated airport in the world. This is mostly thanks to the amazing experience known as Jewel. Since it’s not always easy to take the time to experience jewel when trying to catch a flight, now seemed like a perfect time. It was also lovely to feel cool for a few hours inside the dome. Sadly, I didn’t prebook the bouncing net experience and it was full. I guess we will have to go back….
Welcome!
Posing in front of the worlds largest indoor waterfall.
The mirror maze
The hedge maze
View from the lookout in the hedge maze
Get it?
The amazing nets!
Looking down 5 floors underneath.
Cheese
On the canopy walkway
In the mist
At the bottom of the 7 story waterfall
Night time lights!
A much needed drink for me
Jewel has the tallest indoor waterfall in the world. I thought it would be silly and hokey. Nope. It was amazing. It’s actually remarkably peaceful to watch.
Next up was our normal sports Saturday.
Walking in like a boss
Riding the escalator at the MRT to soccer practice.
Soccer has a parent cafe. Win!
Avery perfecting her skills
A little silly pool time
We scored a new to us grill! Bring on the burgers!
Saturday night we headed back to the zoo (enough with the zoo already, right?!?) to the last of the 4 parks. The night safari. It was great! Hard to get pictures of the animals, but they were super active. We walked through an enclosure with bats (pretty much like a horror film), saw a real life pangolin (it was huge and moved like a raccoon!) and saw a keeper call a sloth bear like a dog (the bear was named was Krish, and he really came). We also got a Mercedes excursion van for our car in the way up. Nice! We didn’t get to see the zoo keeper show as it was always full! Next time.
7:15 reservation!
Our safari tram awaits
Ready to go!
There are Asian lions!
Blurry elephants.
A red panda
One of the many cats
Finished the night off with Ben & Jerry’s!
Finally Sunday! The girls got their back to school haircuts in the morning, then we all had brunch at the American club. A little back to school shopping for Liam and I, then Sunday night we headed out for a ride on the Singapore flyer! This has been a bucket list attraction for Avery. When we first moved here, it was closed because it was broken. Then the circuit breaker. Finally it reopened this weekend! Such an awesome experience to have a car designed for 28 people for just the 5 of us! we enjoyed the view and the experience! It was a bit hazy, but with our unpredictable weather, I’ll take it!
When you have the car to yourself….
Finished up with some Senor taco at CHIJMES.
Playing under the lights
His virgin margarita. He learned he doesn’t like salt…
So pretty
All lit up for national day!
Fun fact: the church at CHIJMES was used for the wedding scene in crazy rich Asians.
A fun weekend which actually looks tiring but wasn’t. Now to figure out next weekend, National Day weekend!
We are more than 6 months into our expat journey in Singapore. It has definitely not been what we signed up for. That said, we are happy and still happy we moved here. We are sad that there is a huge world of travel at our doorstep that we are unable to access. We are also very sad that family and friends are not able to visit. We would love nothing more than to share a small piece of this experience with them. But like Sheryl Sandburg said after the death of her husband, we are making the best of our plan B. In some ways, it’s easier for us than for people who have lived here for awhile. Singapore is really very small. Most westerners who travel to Asia don’t have Singapore as their only destination. Let’s be truthful, for most people it’s a stopover. But it’s also rich in culture, food and history. I am grateful for the opportunity to slow down and really get to know this adopted nation of ours. Singapore is turning 55 in a few weeks and they have much to be proud of. I am proud to call it my home for this period of my life.
Let me try to answer a few questions about life here now that we are 6 months in.
What’s the best part of living in Singapore? This is really a tough one. Without Covid, the answer would have been travel. Easy. In Covid world… I think I would say it’s the opportunity to live in a big city again and have that city be safe enough that my children can travel in it independently. Both Ella and Liam are able to have a level of independence here that is unthinkable in the US. They can take Grabs (our Uber) and ride the MRT alone. Even having been locked down for 8 weeks, they still emerged more confident and independent. That alone is worth it. In second place would be the food here. It’s truly amazing and we have access to anything. Everyday there’s a new franchise I want to bring home to the US.
What’s the worst? The heat/humidity… This is also a tough one and also changed by covid. Being so far from home is very hard. When we moved here, the world felt small and easy to travel. All that has changed and it weighs heavily. The rest are generally little things. Like things here are both more and less efficient than in the US. It’s like living through the looking glass here. Things run by the government tend to be very efficient and organized while private things seem less so (let that one settle for a moment). Service here is not tip based so there’s no incentive for service people to go above and beyond. At a restaurant, it’s common for your food to come out at totally different times and trying to get your bill can be a time consuming affair. They also pay for things via bank transfer much more frequently than Americans do. Not every place accepts credit cards. Since our Singapore bank account is only in Ryan’s name, this is sometimes frustrating for me. I’ve just learned to always carry cash…
What do you miss from home? Easy one. Family, friends and Tia. That’s really it. During lockdown I missed having a yard and a car, but now that’s over, that feeling has dissipated. Our life here is simple. Our condo is new and uncluttered. Public transit and grab takes us everywhere we need to go. There really isn’t any food we can’t get here. We don’t use a VPN, so having Disney plus again when they roll out here will be nice…
What’s most surprising? That’s also an easy one. Asia is most surprising. In general, in the US we don’t really learn very much about Asia at all. I’ve been really enjoying learning everything I can while I’m over here. I’ve joined an Asian studies book club and can’t get enough of the museums and all the history. I hope we get to travel in person to all the places I’ve been learning about. History here is so long and complex. In Singapore, the “birthing process” of becoming an independent nation really impacted them deeply and formulated many of the beliefs they hold deeply and are reflected in the way they run the country. Colonization, Japanese occupation, religious clashes, poverty, drugs and pollution have all been deeply impactful in how Singapore created their institutions. They are a pragmatic people that because of their nations youth still realize the value in flexibility. This has all been of great benefit during covid.
Will you come home early? Ryan’s work assignment here has always been flexible. It could have been 12 months or as long as we want it to be. Covid has changed everything, but nothing really about his job. Right now we are leaning toward staying longer. The kids will be going to school full time and life here is pretty stable. We are hopeful that we will be able to travel again on the back half of our assignment. The kids all really like their school and despite everything are doing really well. Ella going to high school will still be a natural breaking point for us, but we’ll see where this new world takes us.
I’ll end with a few pics, because I know that’s really the best part of any entry 💕
Beloved pool…MerlionThe Alkaff or art bridge. My favorite. Real lifeFamily selfie pre covid. First day in Singapore…
Only Singapore would have a whole zoo just for birds. Last weekend we ventured to the Jurong bird park. It was pretty impressive and we only managed to make it through about half of it (all 5 of us over-heated in the aviary, next time we will go to the bird park at 9am and visit the aviary first). We finished the day up with some din tai fung for lunch then took the MRT home (Erin the crazy public transit girl strikes again) which took about an hour. That’s about the longest any travel takes in Singapore. Avery was happy as the MRT was above ground which is fun for her…
Penguins galore! Did you know penguins only live in the Southern Hemisphere? they were so fun to watch swim. They almost look like a flotation device!Another amazing enclosure. Singapore really does zoos well. There was a whole building full of hatchlings. From eggs to 1 year olds. This woman was so patiently feeding brand new babies. This was the baby owl born 5 days before.
Avery hatchling and blue eyed cockatoo babies
Flamingos with our flamingo. Yes, she planned the outfit…
Pelican wingspans
Inside the aviary. It was huge! They are actually relocating the bird park to be next to the main zoo. I wonder if they will try to re-create the waterfall? So many parrots…
Singapore is something of a foodie paradise. We are trying to make up for lost time now that we have some freedom and childcare! We have officially become “expatted” in that we are no longer shocked when we pay S$30 for a cocktail. That’s the price of access for food and drink options from around the globe! The other thing is, it’s actually hard to get a reservation. With the safe distancing measures and eating out being a national pastime, you have to book early! Not good for people with indecision like us… there’s always dumplings and chicken rice at the hawker.
Our outing on Sunday (that’s dubbed family outing day) was again to the zoo. Not quite as crazy as it sounds. The Singapore zoo is actually made up of 4 different parks. We’ve only been to the actual zoo. Sunday, we headed to the river safari park.
I loved the premise of the river safari. It features major river systems from around the globe and highlights animals that live in these rivers. The Mississippi, the Mary River, the Mekong, the Ganges, the Yangtze and half of the park is the amazon. Very cool and we will go back again (and tour it the correct way, we somehow ended up going through it in reverse order 🤦🏼♀️. We also had some small annoyances actually getting to the zoo. Ryan and the kids tried to take a grab like normal. Because we are a “large” family we have to take a grab 6. He tried for 45 minutes and no luck. So they took the MRT and then a taxi. I had the brilliant plan to bike there. What was supposed to be a 12 mile ride ended up being about double as I kept ending up on unfinished bike routes and mountain biking trails (no good on my folding bike). I will have to be more careful in my route planning next time. So all that meant we missed our time slot at the regular zoo but luckily made it (2 hours later) for the river safari. I think we had our first glimmer why people give in and get a super expensive car.
Wood fires sourdough pizza on a plank. Really good!
I thought our beer bottles were dragons, ryan thought snake. Turns out a tuatara is a reptile that only lives in New Zealand (where the beer’s from)
Liam and I shared an ice cream with espresso. So good…
A black and white home
Friday night we all walked over to Dempsey Hill for sourdough pizza. Dempsey hill is a cute area that was formerly a nutmeg plantation and barracks for the British army. The officers homes (black and whites they’re called) are now private homes (#housegoals) with beautiful yards. The barracks are all converted into restaurants and shops. We spent a lot of time walking here during the circuit breaker so it’s nice to come back and try all these places out.
The front of the Raffles hotel
Enjoying my sling
A beer-a-rita
Covid fashion
Saturday night Ryan and I raced from tennis (we have a clinic together on Saturday’s, which we both love) to meet friends (yay!) for dinner. You are allowed to socialize in groups no larger than 5, so if we bring the kids, we are at the max. Karen and Matt are the parents of Liam’s friend, Ben. They’re originally from Houston, Texas. They’re great and it was fun to hang out with them without the kids! We met at the courtyard bar at the raffles hotel for a drink and snack (bars are not allowed to be open, but they can be if they serve food. No one can get at drink themselves from a bar and no groups larger than 5. They’re pretty strict about it. The Raffles hotel was originally a beach home of a British officer. In the late 1800s it was acquired by Armenian hoteliers and converted into the Raffles (named for the British officer who colonized Singapore in 1819). It’s a beautiful building and was just recently renovated. It was the perfect place to sit, enjoy the beautiful night and drink their signature drink, the Singapore sling (gin based fruit cocktail that was invented at the Raffles for the British wives to “sip” while their husbands were out hunting). We followed that up with a much more “low brow” dinner at a Korean-Mexican fusion restaurant that was sooo gooood. Korean and Mexican should always go together. And my Vatos ‘Rita (I call it a beer-a-Rita) hit the spot! Mine was a mango frozen margarita with a Kona beer in it. Matt got a plain margarita with a corona. Might have to try that next time… Such a fun night.
Biking selfie. I pull the mask down when I ride, but pull it up when I stop.
Rail trail. Awesome until it dead ends.
The old Bukit Timah rail station
Pics from my ride to the zoo on Sunday. They are working on building extensive bike trails all over the island. Sadly for me, they’re not all complete. A little frustrating, but I love seeing more of Singapore on my bike. I rode through a lot of new neighborhoods and saw lots of fun things to torture the kids with in mom camp. I saw 2 lizards, was rained on once and my chain fell off during the ride. All signs pointed to folding up my bike and calling a grab. But I’m too stubborn for that.
In the seal tank
Manatees! Beautiful tank.
A python in the water. Ewwww
Boat ride
Ready to go
The rest…
Jaguar
First we toured the amazon. They have a fun boat ride through the “amazon” to see the animals. Only one family per boat, 2 per row. They clean it after each use. Mostly monkeys (ho hum) but cool jaguars and ROUS’s: capybara’s.
Chinese salamander
Jia Jia
Jia Jia chilling eating some bamboo
Kai Kai
On to the Yangtze and the pandas! Kai Kai and Jia Jia. They were awesome. There was also a red panda and a super enormous and gross Chinese salamander. It makes the nasty hellbender salamander in the US look puny.
We finished up the trip with a fancy mocktail. Liam had a kid version of the Singapore sling and I had a fizz. The rest all had regular slushees. Boring.
We are getting into a groove with “mom camp” over here. Are they on tech way to much? Yep… but we are getting out and about and seeing and learning more about Singapore. That combined with sports, music lessons and the dreaded “workbooks” and we have a cobbler together summer without travel. Play dates are also a joy to have again. Luckily Liam has made friends with little sisters. Ready made play mates for Avery! Here are a few pics from our adventures.
Xiao long bao. Was 5, I inhaled 3 before the pic. All for $3.50!
Pan fried dumplings
Our bike route
On Tuesday I escaped mom camp and went for a bike ride with some friends. A much needed escape that had a lunch stop at a hawker for xiao long bao (soup dumplings) for lunch. I’m lucky to have found this adventurous group of women that help me discover new places in Singapore!
The museum is in the old empress place building which was built in the 1860s to be a court building
My new favorite quote
Kids in jail. I should have left them…
The exhibit on religions. Very interesting and so many Buddha’s!
Tired of museums…
Heading home
Wednesday we went to the Asian Civilizations Museum. We were the only ones there! Kids are VERY loud when alone in an echo-y museum. Very interesting artifacts and interesting to learn history from an Asian perspective. Did you know the Chinese have been making pottery (in a kiln) for ~20,000 years?!? The kids big take away was about the practice of foot binding. They had some shoes on display. Scary small…
Majestic white tiger
Therefore there can be no ligers!
Kangaroos were fun to watch!
Snack time!
Elephants!
Singapore zoo lunch is very tasty!
Indian platter
Not sure why we went in….
The cats were all VERY active
It was actually cool and rainy. Crazy weather for SG
This is a cassowary from Papua New Guinea. At one time you could trade one of these birds for 8 pigs or 1 woman…
The zoo has timed entry and is operating at 25% capacity. It was a great day as it was cool and rainy.
Elephant feeding time. Our zoo has Sumatran and Sri Lankan elephants (Asian elephants)
Goofy orangutans are always having funThe big cats were all pacing. Poor things…
I just like these because they make me laugh. I’m a big proponent of mass transit much to my children’s chagrin. This is Liam and Avery after I told them the bus had 25 more stops before we got to the MRT. They’re lucky I didn’t make them bike there! I’m going to try that on Sunday!
We survived our first 4th of July as an expat. While I’m sure this is a surreal experience under normal circumstances, in the covid world, it’s even stranger… But I think we made the best of our weekend. We are getting to be a pretty great little tribe of 5!
Since socially distanced sports are allowed again, we’ve embraced them wholeheartedly. We’ve also been very grateful for our American Club membership! All 5 of us are playing tennis and Liam and Avery are swimming at TAC. We can walk there from our home and it was wonderful this weekend to see the American flag and be wished “happy 4th of July!” While normally they would have held big celebrations, this year, these small things made all the difference!
Lu Pa Sat
Inside Lu Pa Sat
Satay… yum
SOS
Friday night Ryan and I escaped the kids for a night out. I’ve been wanting to check out the satay at Lu Pa Sat hawker, so Ryan humored me. Lu Pa Sat (or Telok Ayer market) is one of the oldest Victorian structures in Asia. It was originally a fish market, but was moved and restored and turned into a popular hawker center in the CBD. The building is impressive and very pretty. When we first arrived we were taken aback at how aggressive the hawkers were to get you to sit in their area and order from them. Once we figured out how it worked (thank you to the very nice and slightly less aggressive man that helped us) we loved it. A pitcher of tiger beer and grilled meat is always a winner. I thought the prawns were the best, but crazy messy. The peanut sauce is really the Star and the satay is just the vehicle to consume that… we also learned that the clock tower at Lu Pa Sat really works and is loud! All in all it was a really fun dinner and we can’t wait to go back! After dinner we walked down to marina bay to a bar owned by an American called SOS. Ryan knew about it from a co-worker in for US. Fun to see the flag again!
Taking a double decker bus to practice
The Arena
Avery working on her freestyle
So much water needed…
Saturday during the day we had more swimming, and Liam and Avery started soccer at JSSL. They both liked soccer despite it being soooo hooottt. Avery’s in a group with older girls. I thought she would be upset about it, but she was fine, so I guess we’ll keep on with it!
Waiting for our grab at home
Beers!
So good…
Happy face 1
Happy face 2
Happy face 3
Saturday night to celebrate the 4th we went to a restaurant called “American Taproom”. We were a little nervous when our grab driver dropped us off at a strange, decrepit looking building. But being Singapore, restaurants are tucked in the strangest places… we weaved our way through the building and found it. Delicious burgers, fries and pizza. And 32 beers on tap! Happy 4th of July to us!
So happy to see you!
Sentosa, here we come!
Checking out all the ships
Beautiful day!
Sunday we were tourists! No Ella as she was off with a friend celebrating a birthday. First stop was the newly reopened cable cars. The only way to travel!
Families that mask together…
Socially distanced fish viewing
Crazy to live in a country that actively talks about climate change in a constructive way.
Sharks!
In the tube!
HUGE manta rays swimming overhead
Our destination, SEA aquarium! This aquarium has the largest volume of water in tanks in the world. It is truly an immersive (pun intended) experience! Tourist attractions are open at 25% capacity and all tickets must be pre-booked. No touch tanks or feedings, but we did see a bunch of divers feeding the fish and being there with so few people, it was great! Now we need to go back and take Ella!
Pre wrapped cutlery.
Yogurt eating.
Riding the Sentosa line, there are 2 lines here!
On the MRT home
Finished off the trip with a one and done lunch at Hard Rock Cafe, frozen yogurt at Llaollao, another cable car ride and the MRT home. Fun to be out in the world again!
One of the rules during the circuit breaker (lockdown) and phase 1 was that you were only supposed to exercise within your neighborhood. Some of our long walks and bike rides definitely stretched the definition of this, but all in all, we were pretty good at following the rules. Now in phase 2 we can spread our wings a little bit. While it rains quite frequently in Singapore, the past week has been VERY rainy. When it rains here, it dumps. Literally monsoons. So Thursday was our first day with a long enough break to venture out. I’ve wanted to head to labrador nature reserve for quite some time. We talked about riding our bikes there, parking, walking around then riding home, but it always seemed like too much. So yesterday we hopped a grab and went for an adventure.
Part of the nature reserve is an old fort from the British colonial days. There is so much fascinating world war 2 history here. When the British set up their defense of Singapore, they always assumed any invasion would come from the sea (which from their mindset of seeing Singapore as a integral port city, made sense). Then came the Japanese. They invaded from the north through Malaysia. The above cannon is facing the sea. While they could re-orient the cannons to aim inland (they could shoot up to 10 miles!) the ammunition they had was to shoot at ships, not to explode on land. The British lasted 7 days before they surrendered Singapore to the Japanese. The Japanese brutally occupied Singapore for a little over 3 years.
The cannon was interesting to see, but while the people were away in lockdown, the bugs came out to play! There were giant swarms of mosquitos and a bee nest in the cannon. Considering there were more cases of dengue fever diagnosed yesterday that covid, we hustled away from the swarm. The fort at Labrador is built up on a hill, underground were a series of tunnels and store rooms. Apparently one tunnel went under the water to fort siloso in Sentosa! These sealed off entries are all that are left and they are so overgrown by jungle it’s hard to imagine it as a fort…
The entire time we were at the park, the Air Force jets were flying over in formation. It was so cool! We read later in the day that they were practicing for the national day celebration in August (which I wasn’t sure was happening as normal, but apparently no one told the Air Force that yet…).
Playgrounds are open again! Limit to 5 kids at a time. Again, major bugs.
After the playground we walked along the coast. There were a few small spots where you could get a glimpse of what Singapore might have looked like before it was a major city. But then you looked up and saw the giant shipyard with cargo freighters stacked waiting as far as you could see…
At the far end of the park is another small playground and man made feature called the dragon’s teeth gate. This is a representation of a rock that used to sit at the mouth of the harbor that is now called keppel bay. Long Ya Men (dragon’s teeth gate in mandarin) or Batu Berlayar in Malay was a famous pirate hideout for centuries. It was recorded in 1349 by a Chinese historian as a landmark of note for mariners. When the British came in 1819, they also “discovered” the harbor as a safe place to anchor their ships. Sadly, in 1848 they blew up the dragon teeth rock formation so larger ships could enter the harbor.
Keppel bay condos
Small, medium, large
We would rather have this one…
We ended our walk continuing along the water, past Keppel marina and some huge yachts!
The government here surprised everyone and started our phase 2 early, last Friday! And they opened up A LOT. Even strict Singapore is not immune to the financial implications of long term lockdowns. Restaurants, shops, beaches, POOLS, TENNIS, parks, FRIENDS. Life is GOOD. The kids have all had play dates, Ryan and I have played tennis and we ate ice cream… outside! Sitting down! The little things have been made all the more sweet. Next week museums open and we’re really hoping the zoo. Social distancing is still very strict and 💯 mask usage. But it’s all good.
This past week we had “mom camp” which meant a lot of bike rides and walks. I have a few fun pictures from our adventures. Hopefully we will continue to have more Singapore adventures, we are getting to know this city by 💜
2 weeks ago we rode our bikes in a new neighborhood following a trail a friend mapped out called “the temple tour”. This first building is called the David Elias building. This building was build in 1928 by it’s namesake as his trading company. The building is famous for its architectural style, but since the Jewish community is very small here, it’s nice to see some landmarks represented. Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple (Chinese temple for the goddess of mercy, believed to bring good luck. All religious institutions have been closed for the circuit breaker (see the gates and fences). People were praying outside which was both happy and sad to see. As of the 26th they will reopen to only 50 people max at a time. Sri Krishnan temple next door. The entrance is decorated with 10 incarnations of the Hindu deity Vishnu. We were all partial to the green dog man to the right..More bike riding sightings (different ride than the pics above) I kinda love this one, I feel like this a lot. Shipping is still going strong!Marina Bay from the other side!On this ride we rode home through Kampong Glam. Deserted Sultan mosque.
Both of the bike rides above were before phase 2 started, so much less crowded. Hopefully more adventures to come as the city reopens.
Nutmeggers in Singapore 