Cable Cars vs The Singapore Flyer

The Singapore Flyer may be the image etched into that classy cigarette lighter your bought (hopefully as a gag gift) in Chinatown but I'd like to argue that the cable cars from Mt Faber to Sentosa are a better experience.

The Singapore flyer does get you up to a height to see a view of downtown but it's just a really really really slow ferris wheel and you spend a lot of time with a view of the workings of the wheel itself. You also have to share a confined space with other people's ill behaved children.

The cable cars, on the other hand, swoop over Mt Faber park, down over the water and then across Sentosa so you have quite a cool view the entire time. You don't have to share a car with other people so it's 150% more romantic and if an ill behaved child spoils your time it's your own kid and not one you adopted for 45 minutes. Also you can get a round trip ticket on the cable cars which makes it seem like a better bang for your buck.

 

Prunus Trail at the MacRitchie Boardwalks

 

Today we did the walk around the lower boardwalks at the MacRitchie Reservoir Park. It's quite a beautiful and tranquil if you can get there when it's not full of people. I grew up around lakes and miss the sound of water lapping up against a dock and fish breaking the surface of the water in feeding frenzies. 

The most remarkable thing in this area of the park today was the huge group of monkeys hanging out on the shore. They were playing and somersaulting across the grass. Occasionally stopping and watching all the humans but mostly just carrying on their games oblivious.

National Orchid Garden

I finally managed to get into the orchid gardens at the Botanic Gardens last week. I go to the Botanic Gardens almost once a week but have never had the chance to really check out the orchids. Part of the problem is the orchids area closes as 7pm and I'm often in the gardens after 8pm. My mother, brother and I only made it there at 6pm so we didn't even get to see the whole thing but it was lovely to wander inside at dusk and be the only ones in there.

Changi Beach Park

For my brother's last day here we hemmed and hawed over where we should go. We'd done so many hawker centres, historical landmarks and shop house lined streets in the last two weeks... not to mention parks and gardens. The beach seemed like a good break in that and a more relaxing one at that. We took the MRT from Buona Vista station to Pasir Ris way up in the North East corner of Singapore. This part of the trip took about 45 minutes. Then we hailed a cab to the Changi Village which is a little collection of HDBs and hakwer centres right in the middle of the park.

 

The National Museum of Singapore

I took my mother and brother to the National Museum of Singapore today. What an amazing place! I can highly reccomend doing the tour of the history gallery. There is so much information to cover and so many twists and turns down there I'm very glad to have had a guide. Here are a few other highlights of our visit:

Neoclassical architecture in the lobby

The food gallery. A fascinating exhibit about hawker foods & traditions

The Film and Wayang Gallery was gorgeous

Lovely information design in the food gallery and around the museum

Penang travels and Canadian thoughts

See the whole album on flickr

You one would have guessed the rest of our Penang trip was spent eating. This is by far the biggest draw -- besides the historical walks and architecture -- to the city of George Town. The street meat, the hawker centres and sizzling grills in unmarked alleys and hole in the wall bare bones mom and pop shops. We sampled pretty much everything our local hosts pointed us toward and I couldn't recount it all if I tried. There's a blog devoted just to hawker food in Penang worth checking out to get an idea of what I'm talking about.

Today we flew home and as soon as I got back onto my computer a barrage of disturbing news of the riots in Vancouver piled into my inbox. It's a dark day when you are so humiliated by your country you'd rather not show your passport to anyone. I felt like this around the election too. In response I decided that I should modify my passport. Happy Friday everyone.

Penang Photo Album

Penang, Malaysia, a set on Flickr.

George Town, Penang Malaysia

My mother and brother returned to Singapore with us last week when we flew back from Victoria. After their first five days exploring the red dot we took a side trip to Penang. We flew in on Tiger Airways, which is cheaper than even buying the gas to get there. 

We lucked out in the accommodation department and scored a two bedroom apartment at the Straits Collection which is right in the UNESCO heritage area we came here to see. It's a row of converted shop houses which are now restored and full of antique furnishings and some modern amenities like a/c. 

Our first day took us around only half of the heritage walk suggested by our host. It was actually too hot for us to even walk outside after noon. I thought Singapore was hot but Penang takes the cake. I think it's the lack of foggy atmosphere and also the lack of trees and shelter along the streets because the temperature is supposed to be cooler than we are used to.