We went to take a look at the bazaar – perhaps it’s before the peak buying season, but it’s a tad disappointing this year. There’s a lot of shops selling random stuff like screen protectors, durians, cloths, seaweed etc and it’s only along Smith Street and Trengganu Street. There’s a couple of stalls pushing credit cards and insurance too.

There’s even some stalls which have yet to be rented out

Nonetheless, we had a good time finding all the rats which have overrun Chinatown!

We did see a small number of CNY stalls which helped to contribute to the little mood there is… dried persimmons, peanuts and ham. Didn’t get to take a pic of the titbits as the stallholder stared at me!

Took a quick video of a short portion of the bazaar!

There’s many places to go during Chinese New Year. Places we will be going this year include…

• Chinatown Bazaar
• River Angpow
• Gardens by the Bay
• Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre
• JB shopping for Chinese New Year
• Smaller bazaars in Singapore

Do check out the Chinese New Year festivities last year!

• Small CNY Bazaar in Singapore
• Feb 2019 Monthly Spread!
• Garden By the Bay – Dahlia Dreams
• Chinatown Bazaar and River Ang Pow

Stay tuned for more updates!

We went for the members’ preview at the Gardens by the Bay! It’s supposedly put together by some very prominent designers…

First, directions via public transport. Now, Gardens by the Bay is not the most convenient of places to get to. Alight at Bayfront MRT station (yellow line) and look out for the huge signboards! At some point, you should see a long corridor (both sides are mirrors) and you should walk all the way to the end and turn left. If you feel healthy, pls take the stairs, but I normally take the lift. 😛😛Upon exiting the lift,  walk in the direction of the Floral Fantasy display. Do not walk towards the flower dome or cross the bridge over the dragonfly lake!

But first, the exterior. We saw the eggs again and then found the #futuretogether exhibition. You can see the many animal shapes made of flowers along the exterior. If you are going in the evening (which I recommend, so you don’t have a long wait before seeing the outdoor exhibits), take photos with these first!

Upon entering the exhibition area (free for Singaporeans, chargeable for everyone else), you will see some write ups and also some graphics of Singapore and the world. I particularly like the image of Singapore made up of all the pretty flowers!

Moving on, you will enter a huge maze like area (made more complicated with mirrors). Thankfully, the staff are on hand to guide us around. In this area, you can take photos of animals made up of flowers. Unfortunately, it’s quite dark, so it’s best to take the photos outside of the exhibition area. Most of our selfies didn’t quite turn out.

After finding the exit from the animals area, you will be in a calligraphy area. This area also houses a teahouse. The tea is quite interesting – it shows a evolving flower inside the teacup and the petals scatter once you move the cup. While we found the projector (obviously there had to be one), we couldn’t quite figure out how it projects only onto the water and then later, the scattering of the petals. There’s 2 types of drinks, hot teh terik and cold green tea with yuzu. The hot drink produces yellow flowers (warm colours) while the cold drink produces pink and purple flowers. The drinks are chargeable (preferential rates for locals).

The final scene is one made up of fractals – supposedly the patterns will never repeat. This is the pattern we saw-you probably will see something different. The bright areas represent sunrise and the dark areas represent sunset (or something like that).

Also took some videos (compilation below).

Since you are already at the Gardens by the Bay, why not visit the attractions nearby or have a meal there?

• • Gardens by the Bay only
  • Gardens by the Bay + OCBC Skywalk
  • Christmas Wonderland
  • Secrets of the Bay Tour
  • Art Science Museum
  • Marina Bay Sands Skypark
  • Supertree Food Hall
  • Majestic Bay Seafood
  • Satay by the Bay + Majestic Bay Seafood
  • Satay by the Bay

Do visit the official website of #futuretogether for more details! I must admit I’m not arty enough to do justice to the exhibition, but we did have fun there!

We were on the way from elsewhere, so we dropped off at the bus stop opposite City Square Mall (near Exit A) to check out the we bare bears display!

From afar, we saw the huge figurines (totally selfie/wefie-able)! The three adorable bears were busy playing in the snow and setting up the christmas tree and decorations!

Moving into the mall itself, we saw 2 sets of the bears (Pro-tip: take the escalators to view the displays from different angles!). They are engaged in various activities, like dancing, baking, selfie-ing and even DJ-ing!

Psst… I discovered something new about the bears! Now, if you move back to the very first picture, you may see the 3 bears taking a wefie with the snowman they decapitated. While wandering around, we discovered that panda only took a selfie!

Are you in the area? Highly recommended to check it out with a friend or 2 (please be nice to be on santa’s list – make sure your wefie includes everyone!)

Hungry? Check out Old town coffee , Wok Master and Liho, both within the building! Alternatively, Muthu’s Curry just nearby at Exit C!

Psst… Not yet a member of Klook? Can’t get the deals above? Sign up with my discount code to get HK25 (approximately S$4) off your purchase!

I decided to renew my membership for the Gardens by the Bay, taking advantage of the promotion on now (half price!) and visited the Flower Dome while collecting my card 🙂 It’s now showing a Nordic Christmas, featuring Poinsettias!

First off, directions via public transport. Now, Gardens by the Bay is not the most convenient of places to get to. Alight at Bayfront MRT station (yellow line) and look out for the huge signboards! At some point, you should see a long corridor (both sides are mirrors) and you should walk all the way to the end and turn left. If you feel healthy, pls take the stairs, but I normally take the lift 😛

When you exit the MRT station, walk right ahead and you will see a lake (the white thingies are usually not there, but there’s some futuristic exhibition going on now). Turn left again and walk along the road until you see an escalator on your left. Go up the escalator and you will see the Marina Bay Sands and some tall supertrees. Walk towards the trees and you will cross the river and enter the park, passing by chinese and indian themed gardens! If you are not sure, ask your way to the flower dome (there’s usually loads of people and carts there).

Entering the flower dome, the Christmas mood was strong!

This photo was taken from a secret corner of level 2! Moving down to level 1, more cute stuff await!

The staff are on hand not just to do crowd control…. if you happen to see one who isn’t trying to manage the queue, grab them to take one (or two) photos for you. Spending so much time there, they are usually pretty good with angles 🙂

When you exit the exhibition area, do turn left to see a little surprise fireplace and a festive lizard (erm…) before heading off… where you will see loads of people taking photos of a really adorable elf choir!

And short video to cap off 🙂

Finally, do grab some food before leaving the area, for you will need to walk back to the MRT! Good options include

• Majestic Bay Seafood
• Super Tree Food Hall
• Satay By the Bay
• Macdonalds
• Texas Chicken!

Other nearby attractions include

• • Marina Bay Sands Skypark (go in the late afternoon and stay till night!)
  • Marina Bay Mini Segway

Psst… Not yet a member of Klook? Can’t get the deals above? Sign up with my discount code to get HK25 (approximately S$4) off your purchase!

We accidentally arrived at Bedok Mall and saw this! Line Friends went to Russia!

It’s probably not too hard to guess that I really love the rabbit as a Russian Doll… I didn’t find much to do, but my friend found this huge claw catchers place!

Psst… Not yet a member of Klook? Can’t get the deals above? Sign up with my discount code to get HK25 (approximately S$4) off your purchase!

We had signed up to go for the bicentennial as a family, but we felt unwell that weekend. So when a buddy asked if I was keen, I said yes!

Pro-tip: Check out the shuttle bus timings from Dhoby Ghaut MRT (on the side facing the Citibank) and City Hall MRT (near the new Shanghai Tang). It’s a lot of steps to climb otherwise.

We went last Saturday and it wasn’t too crowded. The check in process was quite simple – get your entry email ready and the staff will provide you a sticker (A, B, C or D) which tells you which session you are in. In the meantime, you can either watch the cartoons or take a look at the exhibits. Shown below are the exhibits (kala armlet and a layout of the exhibition area).

The first act is called “Beginnings” – loads of symbolism with the water flowing upwards to symbolise travelling back in time. We were given some background (a little too deep, personally) on the forces of trade and everything else for the past 700 years (or at least, the first 500 years).

Act 2 is about arrival. There’s real humans (I think) acting in front of the animated shorts. Didn’t take many photos as there was someone standing right in front of me… zzz… After he moved away, I took some videos. Talks about sang nila utama and his contemporaries.

Act 3 is about connectivity. Sit near the centre for this as you are on a rotating platform and the screen closes halfway – you will be too near the screen then. The rotating platform took a little getting used to. This scene talks about the pioneers in Singapore , starting with Raffles and Farquar and going forward a little in time (e.g. Tan Kim Seng, Tan Tock Seng, Munshi Abdullah and Narayana Pillai). It also talks about the challenges Singapore faced, such as opium, prostitution etc.

Act 4 was about the Japanese Occupation, which was mainly oral with some animations. This part has one segment totally in the dark, so do be prepared for that.

Act 5 is about Singapore’s Destiny, describing Singapore’s route to independence and its more recent achievements. Our political leaders, athletes and others who have brought glory to Singapore are featured here. You will be given an umbrella as there will be rain drops coming from the ceiling. Note: Not all umbrellas work equally well, for some reason. Do test them before going too far

And then finally, you will be asked to vote on what makes Singapore Singapore (I think). I voted for multiculturalism! The tour obviously did its job as most visitors voted for self-determination (hey, you just told people how we were colonised and occupied and then how we went independent, yes?)

The tour technically ends here, but there is an open area with exhibits you can enjoy too! The first stop has some AR of the trade objects (replicas) that you can try. You probably can’t tell, but the last picture has this guy dancing with a kris. Quite interesting.

And at the end, what’s my feel of the exhibition?

We have invested a lot of money into this (remember the shuttle bus, animations and real-life actors?) and it gives an overview of Singapore’s history while sweeping some not so platable parts under the carpet (the confrontasi, communism, hock lee bus riot, little india riot, just to give some examples). And despite having some interest in Singapore’s history, I had some challenges following some of the historical parts at the beginning (what did Ayutthaya have to do with Singapore?). Having said that, for what probably lasted 45 min, it was a fairly decent overview of the good times and attempted to raise the morale through the experience of standing in the rain, albeit with umbrellas!

I took some short videos and put together the clip below!

Psst… Not yet a member of Klook? Can’t get the deals above? Sign up with my discount code to get HK25 (approximately S$4) off your purchase!

I prefer to take a bus home (simply as there’s seats and I can play pokemon go!) We had our lunch at Plaza Singapura, and as we were leaving, we saw something interesting! Spend $45 in one receipt and you get to play in the dessert zone!

We didn’t spend that much for lunch and I didn’t shop much either, so I can only take photos from way above!, but we could see 5 zones (and one more for registration) – donut , candy canes, ice cream, rainbow candy and what looked like a shower zone… Should be fun if you have stuff you need to get!

Walked past the cathay and it’s already getting ready for Halloween… There were more, but I was chased by this Joker and so I ran away. No prizes for guessing where I’ll be come Halloween night (and the nights before), but do comment below if you have good suggestions!

Finally managed to board my bus and it went through Little India, which is all decked up for Deepavali in late October!

Enlarge the photos and you can see peacocks on the left and parrots on the right! Can’t wait to see it at night 🙂