pictures from singapor national day

soooo people finally the pictures from national day parade...

lunch at a "hawker center"

parachutes :)

helicopters brougth refreshment...

and afterwards showing off their flag

air filled boats were floating over the river...

and of course final fireworks after singing the national anthem (don´t ask me WHAT they sang...)

happy 44th anniversary singapore :)

Today is national day of Singapore. Everything was somehow performed by the army though. They had high speed bootes & jets and an army parade... seemed a bit weird to me, but was definitely something different :) pictures are following another day - have to get out, it´s way too hot to stay in my room... Whatever you are doing in Singapore, you will always be looking forward to the next shower; feeling that your fingers stick together, you are covered with dust that sticks to your sweaty skin... bah!

btw: commenting is now free for everyone. found out how to change the settings ;)

thursday

After ladies night on Wednesday we slept quiet long ;) After having a very late breakfast of fresh fruits and papaya milkshake we headed to Sentosa Beach. We had an amazing, eehhm, evening... Guess the pictures tell itself :)

Petra and me

sunset...

We stayed right in front of Cafe del Mar, where they played their wonderful Cafel del Mar albums... Recognized all of them from CDs I own...

We had dinner at Mc Donalds. Quiet western you might think, but actually its a lot different. "Double Wasabi Filet-O-Fish" and "Seaweed Fries" definitely were tasty! Plus they have a Cornetto chocolate chip McFlurry - Yammy!!

Their adds are a bit weird sometimes...

Alright, this exciting day somehow tired me out. I hope I can stop sweating (its incredible hot and never cools down...) and finally fall asleep... Good night :)

wednesday

Well Wednesday was a great day. Since school didn't start yet (rumors are that they want to watch people with fever first, to eliminate swine flus..) we slept long. After egg&coconut jam and fresh papaya for breakfast we head out for the Singapore Flyer. Egg&coconut doesn´t taste as bad as you might think it would, not to good neither... It comes in green and brown, haven´t found out the difference yet, but i´ll keep you updated!

They claim Singapore Flyer being "the biggest observation wheel in the world". Well, i will check on that one day... It was still nice seeing the city from up there and I took some great shot. Check them out:

Singapore Flyer

a cabin of Singapore Flyer

a gigantic golf course!! I´d right away believe if they say this was the biggest inner city course in the world...

a gigantic water fountain with lights...

coming back down...

A ride on the ferris wheel takes about 30 minutes. After coming back down we went for food at a Hawker Center, a place with tons of small food kiosks. I had a delicious sea food soup. Still wondering why they put that much spaghetti in there though... After dinner we walked towards Clarks Quay, a common meeting point for international students. Wednesday is ladies night in town! We got free entry into doubleO and free drinks all night, anything we wanted! We definitely had a great evening :)

this is one of my favorites...

In Singapore there is laws for anything, and incredible fines on a lot of random things... A 1000 S$ equals 500 €!!

it looks like an opera house, but its only a hotel...

this was the weirdest tree i´ve ever seen in my life...

tuesday

Yesterday I registered for school. So ladies & gentlemen: I am an official NUS student by now. And yes i feel proud saying that :) Still have to work on my Visa next week though...
After registration I got lost in science complex with Christian. I you ask me, the whole campus is too much designed for cars, but not for pedestrians. This is why you can´t really walk straight to science faculty, but have to take the shuttle bus around campus... There is two shuttle busses going in circles around campus, one in each direction. There´s also two other shuttle busses, one of them called "Science shuttle" - did not find out where exactly it´s going. Shuttle busses are for free.

Lateron Christian, Petra and me went downtown. We seemed a bit lost, but all in all it was really interesting. The skyline was impressive, eventhough you can´t quite compare it to Manhattan downtown ;) Really interesting was the mixture of hightech with tropical vegetation. Singapore is a truly beautiful and damn clean city!

Petra, me and Christian heading downtown

skyline as seen from marina promenade

Christian hugging the safety cat (well he claims it´s a bear...)

All this is going to be a huge casino. I´ve never seen as many cranes in one construction site in my life! (They probably had around 50!)

In Germany (and most other "normal" countries) we have homeless people sleeping under the bridge. In Singapore they built Starbucks there... And no, I haven´t seen any homeless in the whole city so far...

the famous "merlion" (A mixture of mermaid and lion..)

[Wikipedia says: "The Merlion is an imaginary creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish. Its name combines "mer" meaning the sea and "lion". The fish body comes from Singapore's ancient name back when it was a fishing village — Temasek — meaning "sea town" in Javanese. The lion head represents Singapore's original name — Singapura — meaning "lion city" or "kota singa" in Sanskrit and Malay."]

Petra posing in front of the merlion

Sunset by the river. In Singapore sun sets in only a few minutes around 8 p.m. already, leaving behind the glow of the city at night...

Airconditioning is very much appreciated. It´s about 30 °C / 86 F all day long, not really cooling down at night.

They have the cleanest subway tunnels i´ve ever seen! You can almost reflect yourself in the floor and ceiling...

by the river...

After walking around downtown we had dinner at some Hawker center in chinatown. The food is incredible cheap and really good if you pick the right one... Singapore also has a national fruit, called Durian fruit. As wikipedia describes it:

"Widely known and revered in southeast Asia as the "king of fruits", the durian is distinctive for its large size, unique odour, and formidable thorn-covered husk"
and: "The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust. The odour has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia."
On MRT (mass rapid transit) fine for bringing Durian fruit is up to 1000 SGD (Singapore Dollars). We also tried some Durian, and I have to admit, that this definitely is not one of my favorites! Its consistence is of mixed banana. Afterwards a taste of fried onions lays in your mouth you can´t get rid off. Weird...

Petra and me followed the two girls to Arab street for Shisha. We ordered a jasmin one, absolutely delicious!

Arab street area with its tiny houses

smoking forbidden...

yep, cockroaches...

we called it a night late... good night Singapore!