Chinese New Year in Singapore

We spent one week in Singapore for the Chinese New Year break, enjoying the tropical warmth of the city; a short reprieve from Beijing's winter!

We stayed at the Park Royal on Kitchener Road, right in the heart of Little India. Arriving on the Sunday, we experienced the crowded streets; single Indian men enjoying their one day off a week! During the week it was much quieter, but still a very active area, full of cheap restaurants with authentic Indian food that Thyson just loved, but I got a little tired of after a few days!
We spent our first day around the Marina Bay area; I've always wanted to visit Gardens by the Bay. To get there, we walked through the very impressive Marina Sands Hotel with it's ship-like structure on its top. I know there is an amazing infinity pool on top, but unfortunately it was for guests only! We strolled around the Gardens by the Bay and enjoyed the views from the Board Walk. Afterwards, we crossed over a bridge into the Colonial Precinct, enjoying the gorgeous architecture, including that of the iconic Raffles Hotel.

The following day, Thyson went to meet a friend to do a spot of fishing (we can't go anywhere without his trusty fishing rod!) while I explored the Chinese Precinct and then the Arab Quarter. The Chinese area was full of stalls selling all things associated with Chinese New Year (all very red!) and extremely crowded, so I didn't hang around there too long. The streets of the Arab Quarter were charming, full of fabric shops and shops selling exquisite Turkish rugs and glass lanterns. I stoped in at a Turkish restaurant and had a delicious eggplant dip with some fresh Turkish bread. Yum!

We spent the next day out at the Singapore Zoo with its reputation as being one of the best zoos in the world. It was really nicely set up with most enclosures providing pleasant conditions for the animals, but I think the zoos in Australia equal, if not exceed the quality of this zoo.

What we did find an amazing experience was the Night Safari which is another zoo next to the Singapore Zoo that opens at 7pm and has a range of nocturnal animals on show. The crowds were unbelievable and by the time we got through the gates there was a 40 minute wait for the jeep ride around the park, so started off wandering along the walking paths. They were lit up but you still felt like you were walking through the jungle along tracks, seeing beautiful creatures from many places around the world. At around 10pm when we had finished the walking trails and the queue for the jeeps was only about 15 minutes, we drove around the park listening to the commentary. At some parts there were no fences and some of the animals were grazing so close to us. Other enclosures only had a ditch around them instead of fences and it felt like there was little between you and the animals. We loved it!

The Singapore Botanical Gardens was beautiful, and we spent a few hours walking along the paths, stopping off to feed the turtles and arriving at the Orchid Garden which had the most beautiful display of all types of gorgeous flowers. This was probably my favourite place in all of Singapore!

After another day of Thyson fishing and myself sitting by the hotel pool enjoying a great book, we spent our last day visiting the Changi WW2 Museum which was full of many interesting exhibits showing what life was like not only for the POWs but also for the locals during the Japanese Occupation. It was a very moving place. We then walked along the Quays soaking up the atmosphere and cool breezes of this beautiful city.

Winter in China - Brrrr!

Well, winter here is in full force, but it's actually not as bad as I expected it to be (I write that as I sit comfortably in our very warm apartment!). Because it's so dry here and there's usually not much wind, it doesn't seem that cold. But in saying that, at 7.00 in the morning when I leave for the subway, it's still dark and around -4 degrees. It takes about 15 minutes to walk to the subway, and then another 20 minutes from the subway to school. By the time I get there, half of my face feels frozen! It's only about 4 degrees coming home from school so I can't complain about that! On the couple of days that it has been overcast, it has snowed, but not heavy or long enough to leave a white cityscape.

Leaving Beijing last week about 2 hours to the north was another story! The photos below are of White River in Hairou/Miyun Districts. A friend from work and I went on a 12km hike along the iced river and had a hilarious time! The scenery was gorgeous, but the fun part was each time we became complacent with our steps, a foot would slip out from under you, accompanied by a gasp and a fit of laughter! The biggest laugh was falling through a part of the ice - luckily it was only crossing a shallow section!

Shanghai

We flew on to Shanghai and walked down to the Bund, the waterfront promenade lined with beautiful English colonial buildings on one side, and skyscrapers on the other. We also visited the old section of town with meandering alleyways jam-packed with visitors. The enormous number of people visiting Shanghai over the October break was beyond belief, and it was a struggle in some places to move without getting stuck in the crowds.

Zhouzhiang is a beautiful ancient canal village about one hour away from Shanghai. The old architecture and romantic looking stone bridges were just beautiful! Unfortunately, half of Shanghai decided to join us and we spent the day fighting to get through the masses of crowds and were unable to really stop and admire where we were!