Gong Xi Fa Cai! Since I arrived in Singapore, there has been tons of pre-Chinese New Year Festivals. The very day I arrived, I had gone down to Chinatown to watch a small street performance, admire the decorations (huge glowing lantern horses everywhere), and firecrackers in honor of pre-Chinese New Year. ----------------> Even in class, our professors have gotten in the spirit. My Strategic Management professor brought us CNY treats to eat during his lecture. He brought Pineapple tarts and love letters. -------------------> Yesterday was Chinese New Years Eve, in which classes were not allowed to be held past 6pm at NUS. I had class until 5pm but our professor let us out at 4pm. I met up with a group of friends at 5 to take the MRT down to Chinatown to experience the ambiance of Chinatown during festival times. Our group started with 15-20 or so people but we quickly got split up at the Hawker Center (food court) when some people sat to eat while others wanted to start exploring already! At the Hawker Center, I got the BEST bubble tea I have EVER had..the tapioca balls were still hot and melted in my mouth with each drink. -------------------------> The Chinatown MRT station is right across the path from the Hawker Center and the amount of people that were trapped in these areas was unbelievable. It was like a crazy maze trying to get anywhere! Finally we made it out to Pagoda street which is where all the main happenings were. There was a huge Festival Street Bazaar that filled the streets with stands of shops and people selling all kinds of goods. The number of people in the streets was crazy! ------------------------> The whole area was decorated with streams of lanterns and colorful decorations everywhere, including pineapple decorations which represent good luck. Also, the color red is supposed to be good luck. As we walked through the festival streets, I kept falling behind because I wanted to look at everything! -----------> After making it to the dead end and having regained our big group during the process, we went back to the MRT station and went to Marina Bay. It was fun meandering through all the people excited about the festivities and excited to be there! |
Marina Bay was beautiful. I was there last night with Danielle and Yi Zhen, so my pictures from here are combined from both nights. There was the "Floats at Marina Bay" which consisted of a big set up for CNY including a stage for awesome performances, and lots of food stands. From Bayfront, you can see the floats, the helix bridge, the Marina Bay hotel (the tall buildings with the boat going across the top), and the entire downtown business district skyline, the science museum that looks like a lotus flower, and the Singapore flyer. It is quite a remarkable area. I was even so lucky as to see two amazing fireworks shows over the water as well as a really cool light show. We saw the light show and walked through the floats. I got some Pad Thai to eat (2 nights in a row!) after I watched the lady make a huge batch of it and each portion is wrapped in a thin later of omelet.
Group photos to come...they weren't taken on my camera!! |
After our time at Marina Bay and Bayfront area, we actually got back on the MRT to go back to Chinatown. There was supposed to be a parade at 10pm that we wanted to see. As we got off the MRT, we had to queue in line to get out of the station because of all the people! It was sooo crowded!! There wasn't much of a parade, more of a stage with some people singing and talking. We stayed for a while, taking in the experience of being packed in Chinatown by thousands of people. In certain areas where people no longer packed in, it looked like a tornado had swept through by the amount of rubbish and chaos left behind. I think it was so cool to be here in a country that celebrates Chinese New Year and to be apart of the festivities! After Chinatown round 2, we went back to Marina Bay for round 2! It was a little after 11pm by the time we made it to the big stadium full of seats that overlook the bay. We gladly sat as we had been walking around for the last 6 hours. Ha, the night was great. The people that stuck around in our group were a perfect match for the night's activities. As midnight approached, the crowd began to count down in Chinese and at the stroke of midnight, the most amazing fireworks show I have ever seen took place. While my camera cannot begin to do it justice, here is the second part of the fireworks show. So intense...We could feel the fireworks as we sat. |
I feel so blessed to have spent the evening in Singapore celebrating Chinese New Year with some amazing friends in such a vibrant place. Such a cool experience! Gong Xi Fa Cai!