The Car Game

Here we are again - in the most posh area of Singapore, this time at night. This place makes Americas wealthiest cities look like ghettos. Pictured behind dad and I are the buildings I blobbed about in times past. From left to right: Singapore Flyer, Museum, and the Marina Bay hotel and shopping center.

We decided to take a stroll towards the Hilton at Orchard. Keep in mind that in Singapore a Honda Fit fresh from the lot will cost you SG$87,000 - about CAN$67,000.

These pics are taken outside the Hilton Hotel. I was about to call a tow truck to remove the Audi and BMW750i li which were parked along behind this USD$183,000 Mercedes AMG SLS.

Next, was the Lambo Superleggera checking in at $560,000.
Moving on... to the Ferrari 458 Italia, not a bad car, with an MRSP of $580,000 - to be Chi Mei's next purchase.
Lambo SuperLeggara and Ferrari 458 Italia from the back; however, this is not the whole story...
From the top: Lambo, Lambo, Ferrari 458 Italia, Lambo SuperLeggara, Mercedes AMG SLS. But wait, we're missing one more Lambo.
There it is - just below the words "Singapore", parked on the opposite side.
The newest member of the Lamborghini club.
Ferrari California - MRSP <$200K. I didn't get a change to snap any shots of the Bentleys, Alfa Romeos, Rolls Royces, etc.
Last, and definitely the least. This is at Peter and Chi Mei's condo - a pretty sick Mits Lancer. This car has more gauges on the dash than a 747.
And again.

Sentosa, Orchard, and Chemical Engineering @ NTU

Dad was feeling sick on this day, so he didn't climb with me. This is at Sentosa Island (our second visit). It turns out that the Island was given its name via a contest. People were told to put forward their best choice. The son of the President put forward "Sentosa". Where did he get this name? From a private medical clinic called the "Sentosa Medical Clinic". The significance: the Sentosa Medical Clinic was given its name by its founder and operating doctor, Dr. Peter Wee, an elder in the Joo Chiat Assembly here in Singapore.

This is the Sentosa beach. Locals claim it is clean as opposed to the East Coast Beach which I swam at the other day. My opinion: they are both very clean compared to most beaches on PEI.
Those lines are a bunch of zip lines. The line begins at the platform at the top of the climbing wall above.
This is Orchard - a ridiculously expensive shopping destination. According to Wikipedia, there are 78 shopping malls in Singapore (which is 1/8 the size of PEI).
Po Po seem to travel in large groups.
This is the Center of Design and Media at NTU.
Scott wanted to see the Chem. Eng. building. This is the back side of it, and next are a couple of shots from the front.
It's about 7 or so levels high.
And makes any building from UNB look like it was built in the stone age.

East Coast Beach & China Town

Today Dad and I took two tours. The picture loader has seemed to load them backwards however. So the China Town pictures are first (although we toured it second). Kein Seng and his wife Carol are a young couple who graciously entertained us for the afternoon. They took us out for Chinese food first (duck, shrimp, chicken feet, pork ribs, carrot cake [which isn't carrot cake as we know it - it was a mix of fish and bacon... tasty though], etc.). Then we went to China Town (below).

Quite busy here. They say that at night it gets about 10 times as busy.
Ok, the building above calls for discussion:

To the average westerner this building represents a _________.

You answered a "Chinese Restaurant" right?

Actually, any building in Asia that takes on this form is a temple for the gods and for burning incense to them.

My theory is that this style was the norm in China/Asia until maybe 100 years ago when buildings began taking on the more western/european look. However, the this old style has been preserved by the religious temples - which often seem old-fashion.
As the Chinese Lunar New Year approaches there seems to be a massive amount of red and gold colored things around. Pictured here is Carol with Dad and I.
A little chinese boy dad decided to keep. Actually, his name is Able (his Chinese name means 'righteousness'), he is Kein Seng and Carol's boy.
The shops in China Town. Lot's of free samples.

Below is the vert section of the skate park at Singapore's East Coast beach.

$10/2hours to rent a stunt bike here. I can't wait. (Who is that guy on Chi Mei's bike? haha)
The cable park at the beach, right next to the skate park. I can't wait for this either. I was going to try it out today, but I went swimming instead.
The East Coast Beach. Quite a descriptive name. This beach is 3.5 kms from Peter and Chi Mei's place. We walked down here twice, and biked down today in about 15 min.

I talked to a local (he was about 90 years old) who said, "I swim here for last 20 years - no sharks. Watch bike, they steal wheels and seat." So I went swimming - while dad watched the bikes.

Not to many locals swim here. They claim it is dirty, but I thought it was quite clean in terms of seaweed/rocks/shells - in which there were none.
This body of water is the South China Sea. The water is about 26 C.

Universal Studios - Singapore

Today (the 19th), Dad and I went over to Sentosa Island. Sentosa Island is a tourist's playground. We only got as far as Universal Studios Singapore (USS) and decided to spend the day there. U.S.S. is extremely small compared to Canada's wonderland - you can walk around the whole park in less than 10 minutes. Dad and I took about 4 laps of the park. It is fairly new, so a lot of rides are not open yet. I did some rock climbing and cut my knee. We didn't take too many pictures either.

I was jumping to hold on to it's fingers - but dad said I'd better stop doing it because the whole thing was shaking.
This was a pretty funny show - Donkey from Shrek.
Egypt.
The entrance.

And below: Peter and Chi Mei take us out every night to try different food. Last night was Indian night. Indian food was quite good, but similar to our omlettes. So far, my favorite food is Malaysian or Chinese.

Marina Bay

This is the Singapore Flyer. It is a 165m tall ferris-wheel-type thing that gives one a half-hour ride. From it you can see most of the city. Some booths are just for observation and some are restaurants. Here we are at the apex of the wheel.

Off to the most expensive area in Singapore. Where the financial giants of the world gather. Where every major world bank has its headquarters. Where it costs $30 for two single hamburgers, and $30 for a plain pair of socks. Where most hotels round to about $1K per night...

Where arab teens hang out outside these hotels and lean against their lambos and ferraris.

This is one of those hotels (and casinos), it is the Marina Bay Sands hotel. It seems to have a massive boat on top of it.

Can you guess the shape of this bridge?
It is the coding of life. Deoxyribonucleic acid double helix. The bridge shape is a double helix - made of stainless steel.
All ships going from Europe to Asia must pass through Singapore's waters; therefore, since early times, Singapore was a popular trading area. Singapore has one of the five busiest ports in the world. At any time, there are over 800 ships waiting to enter the harbor.
The tall buildings on the upper right are the core downtown - where all the banks are headquartered. The white building on the lower right that looks like part of a blooming onion is going to be a museum. The large building next to it is the most expensive shopping mall I've ever been in - I thought Herrod's in London was pricey.

Check it out: http://www.marinabaysands.com/Shopping/The_Shoppes.aspx

Most stores have guards standing outside of them and keep the doors and windows closed.

Louis Vuitton, BVLGARI, Cartier, Prada, Rolex, Armani, Ferrari, Fendi, Gucci, Escada, Charlotte Ehinger-Schwartz, etc. to name a few.
This is an unfinished project. It will be the home to the Singapore Botanical Gardens. I haven't quite figured out the architecture yet, but seeing it from the top view looks as if they are trying to imitate a sea shell shape.

Lay of the land

Dad and I are just touring around getting the lay of the land.

This is the walk way across the roof of one of the buildings which is host to the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering - this building has 6 levels below it all for Mech. Engg. Nutso. We toured a robotics lab on our own accord and got some funny looks from a few grad students.

This is the School for Computer Engg. The School for Mechanical Engg. is an identical twin to this building and is right beside it.
The other wing of the Mech. and Aero. Engg. building.
This is the Joo Chiat Gospel hall (two upper floors, ground floor, and basement). It is owned by the Chinese Assembly (about 50 in fellowship) who shares it with the English assembly (about 80 in fellowship).

There are 18,600+ people per square mile here in Singapore - compare this to 9 people per square mile in Canada! So yes, the place is packed. This is the neighborhood just outside Peter and Chi Mei's condo - nice and very safe (besides traffic).

flight cancelled for 13 hours due to heavy snowfall....

... so the redbull redneck and I went snowmoblowing

There was an easy 20 inches of that fluffy stuff...

We got the cat stuck... 4 times to be exact.

See the woods? I put it into the woods twice - or more truthfully, since I couldn't figure out how to steer it, I got bucked into the woods twice.

Nathan - a.k.a. the redbull redneck.