This bit of Singapore I’d like to show you is Chinatown. In the lead up to Chinese New Year (Gong Xi Fa Cai to you all by the way) it was decorated and crowded. It wasn’t quite as crowded in the early evening when we set out but it did get that way later on after tea. There was a massive amount of stalls lining both sides of the road and down the centre as well over 3 streets by 2 blocks at least. Most of the merchandise was pretty standard. There was some new type electronics stalls however I threw in a picture of a pair of ‘fashion’ shorts and also one of the cold meat for sale just for variety.
Our next stop was that futuristic Museum on the Promenade in front of the Marina Bay Sands. Accordingly I’ll start with the High-Tech Interactive display that really needs to be experienced rather than seen in pictures to get the real feeling of it. The first few pics are in a room saturated in floating flower designs and eerie music. (You really need to see some videos so I’ve provided 4 links at the end of this paragraph.) Then we proceeded to a room based around propaganda (by the WWF) about how the world will end and be flooded and we’ll all die or some b/s like that. The next 2 rooms were interactive displays where if you moved items or touched icons things around you changed. Lots of fun and laughter here. Then the best room in the house. This was a room of lights that lit up according to the music but also able to be controlled by ‘us’ via an Ipad. Absolutely brilliant. I could have played there for ages but Shane was getting motion sick so we had to move on.
https://youtu.be/FL3PIQKWjPg (The waterfall)
https://youtu.be/lD0aSRaOTWk (The flower room)
https://youtu.be/BdRB6GgGNEc (Wall icons)
https://youtu.be/jJGlegXfWL4 (Room of lights)
Walking right out of the Interactive display we moved to a NASA display on the America’s charge in the Global Space Race. It started with stories of visionaries like Jules Verne, H G Wells and other luminaries. It then chronologically takes you through the U.S. space program step by step. It even had a few Russian pieces thrown in for good measure. A very interesting display.
The third and final display was a fantastic artworks display by renown artist M.C.Escher. I know you’ll have seen his work as it and copies of his style are everywhere, even including record album covers (like Pink Floyd). I won’t go on about this (phew I can hear you say). However take the time to study each picture (I’ve posted less than 1/4 of those we took). The genius of Escher is very evident in each one. He was either a brilliant genius or a very tortured man.
That’s not it for Singapore. Not by a long shot. The best is in the next post so don’t miss it when I post it very soon.
Cheers
Garry & Shane