Bukit Timah/Durian/Food Republic Beer Garden

Some highlights from my 3rd week in Singapore:

Bukit Timah Train Station Closing 06/30/2011— The Bukit Timah Railway Station was a passing loop railway station in Bukit Timah, Singapore, and owned by Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM), the main railway operator in Malaysia. It opened as a railway station on the dismantled Tank Road mainline in 1903 (rebuilt on the current Singapore–Johor Bahru part of the present KTM Intercity mainline in 1932) until the Jurong Line shut down and it became a passing loop station in the late 1940s to today. The station was also a freight interchange for the now defunct Jurong Line from 1965 to the early 1990s. This station is no longer open for passenger embarkation and disembarkation and freight loading services, and trains do not stop here but instead pass by.  As of 1 July 2011, train services on this route ceased permanently, following a historic land-swop agreement between the Singapore and Malaysia governments.

Tasting my First Durian-- Durian Fruit can best be described as having a succulent, creamy filling but smelling like stinky socks. My labmate, Corrine, bought a Durian seed of the highest quality for me to try. I think my expression in the picture below will tell you what I thought of the fruit….The worst part is that taste just lingers in your mouth for hours and the smell just doesn’t go away—you are not actually allowed to bring these fruits in public places.

Food Republic Beer Garden—Friday night a bunch of the EAPSI fellows went to check out VivoCity in the Harborfront area in Singapore. We ate at the Food Republic Beer Garden. Here I ordered BBQ Sting ray. Sounds weird, but it was absolutely delicious—one of the best things I’ve had here in Singapore so far.

Manual Signal System at Bukit Timah Station

Signal Diagram at Bukit Timah

Conductor in the KTM railway train engine

Phone system in the Bukit Timah Station

Train Bridge from the Bukit Timah Station

Durian Seed

Thinking...I can't believe you eat this--it smells like rotting fruit

Ok you totally lied..Durian is not better when you get past the horrible smell--it tastes like a combination of creamy rotting fruit and dirty gym socks...people really eat this enough to acquire a taste for it???

Vivocity, located at the Harbourfront area, is the largest shopping mall in Singapore

Food Republic Beer Garden is a hawker center close to Vivocity

BBQ sting ray...yummy :-)

Me and Gitt in front of the BBQ Sting Ray stall in the Beer Garden (notice my Gucci purse from KL :-)

National Day Parade Preview

On Saturday July 2nd, I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to attend the Singapore National Day Parade (NDP) Preview. Singapore National Day (like our 4th of July) takes place on August 9th and in celebration of it’s Independence, Singapore puts on this elaborate show called the National Day Parade. Tickets to this event are free, but are incredibly difficult to get. In fact, most Singaporean’s have never attended the event themselves because tickets are handed out by a balloting system. In order to allow more people to see the show though, they open the dress rehearsal (the Preview show) to the public. I was fortunate enough that one of my collegues at BTI got some tickets to the Preview and I just happened to be around when he was talking about how he was going.

How to describe the pure awesomness of this event? I would say it is on par with elaborate nature of any Disney show/parade or I would even go so far as to liken it to an Olympic Opening ceremony--complete with a F16 flyover, cannon solute to the Singapore president, beautiful costumes, and of course fireworks.  My photos do not truly capture how amazing the NDP is.  The show was organized as a 5 act musical describing the present, birth, growth, progress and spirit (Majulah) of Singapore. The Red Lions sky diving team kicked off the show by flying to the stage in perfect formation. Then all of Singapore’s armed forces paraded onto the stage and displayed their tanks, helicopters, trucks, boats, etc etc—there were pyrotechnique special effects throughout this portion. After the Armed forces parade, the show turned more into a musical with beautiful puppets, floats and costumes that lit up as the Sun set. The show concluded with lots of confetti and briliant fireworks which incorporated the Marina bay skyline backdrop--- AMAZING NIGHT for Sure! I can't tell you how fortunate I am to have experienced it in person!

NDP Stage with the Marina Bay as the backdrop. To the left you see the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and to the Right is the Downtown Singapore Skyline

Me and one of my Colleagues from BTI, Frank.  At the NDP you are encouraged to wear Red and White.  I didn't have anything Red so my boss at BTI, Muriel, bought me an I <3 SG shirt--She's the best!!!

Crowd Waving the Singaporean Flag from their Fun Pack

Red Lions skydiving to the stage

One of the Red Lion landing on the stage

Armed forces Parade

Armed Forces Parade

Helicopter flyover with the Singaporean Flag  

F16 Flyby

Act II:  The Birth

Lighted Floats in Act II--At the front of the Stage from the left you see a typewriter, Indian Elephant, and Dim Sum basket floats.

Pretty lighted sea-shells and costumes during Act III Growing up

Act IV: Progress:  This featured an clever song about the MRT system as well as some cool fireworks that included fireworks and lasers on the buildings in the Singapore Skyline

Act IV:  Majulah!  

The Finale

The Encore

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The weekend of 06/24/2011-06/26/2011, a bunch of the EAPSI fellows traveled to Kuala Lumpur, the capitol of Malaysia. KL, as it’s fondly called, is very progressive and cosmopolitan—it reminded me of a dirtier NYC. The short flight to KL was only ~1 hr from Singapore and we were able to return via bus in about 5 hours. While in KL, we stayed in the Capitol hotel in the Golden Triangle Area right off of Bukit Bintang—great area with lots of shopping, hotels, restaurants and night life. Some of the major sites of the city that we saw included: the Petronas Towers—Tallest twin towers in the world standing 1,483 ft tall; Batu Caves-- a limestone hill, which has a series of caves and cave temples and is one of the most popular Hindu Shrines outside of India; Thean Hou Temple—a Buddhist temple which is considered to be one of the largest and most visited holy places in Malaysia; Petaling Street—a night market in Chinatown where you bargain to get a designer purse for ~$10 USD, KL Tower—the tallest communication tower in the world standing 1,381 ft tall. We also tried mangostein for the first time (absolutely delicious) and had our first Asian Kareoke experience—the knock off 90’s music videos totally made the experience that much better. Overall great weekend!

Patrick, Nicole, Me, Ola, Gitt, and Evan in front of the Guan Yin Temple

One of the Statues in the Guan Yin Temple

Me in front of the Petronas Towers--Tallest Twin Towers in the World

Gitt, Me, Patrick, and Nicole paying Maccala at the Malaysian Tourism Center

Turtle Garden at the Thean Hou Temple

Tiny Pinapple nicknamed abortion pinapple because if you eat 3, it will cause you to have an abortion

Main shrine in the Thean Hou Temple

Entrance to the Thean Hou Temple

Me in front of the Mammouth Hindu Statue in front of the Batu Caves--something like 140 feet tall and is the tallest Hindu God statue in the world

245 Steps to get up into the Batu Caves

Inside the Batu Caves

Lots of monkeys in the Batu caves--this one stole a capris sun from a tourist and squirt it in his face when he was trying to drink it.

Why are you looking at me---I didn't steal this soda

Huge limestone in the Batu Caves

Me in front of one of the Hindu shrines in the Batu Caves

Batik Factory- applying the intricate wax designs on the fabric

Batik Factory--Applying the dye to the fabric 

KL Tower

Petaling Street in Chinatown--huge market where you can bargain cheap prices for Gucci, Prada, Burberry etc. (I bought way way to many purses/wallets here :-)