currently-no-title: travel

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Sunday, June 06, 2010

It's Sun-day! City Harvest Church + Bukit Timah Serenity + Sexy Marina Bay ! Singapore Day 5 of 8

So it's 5th day in Lion City and...it's Sunday morning!

930am. It's considered quite early for us.

Pic from http://www1.free-clipart.net/cgi-bin/clipart/directory.cgi?direct=clipart/Religion/Churches_And_Crosses

"We're going to church!"

"Huh...You're Christian meh?"

"No lah, but not necessary a Christian only can go to church mah...and this church is quite unique...must go and have a look!"

So we went to EXPO.

Colourful EXPO, from google

Huge EXPO, from google

"Ehh...We are going to Church right??! BUT WHY ARE WE HEADING TO CONVENTION CENTRE??"

"Ya lor...some more...so far la"

YEAH, it is really far from A Beary Good Hostel!

MRT from Chinatown to EXPO (Far East, almost near Changi Airport, 2 interchange stations) took us about 40 minutes...

What to do? Sleeeeppp lah! Oink Oink

CITY HARVEST CHURCH ! Here we are!

CHC is the largest non-denominational church in Singapore. Founded by Kong Hee and the church bases its value on Charismatic and Pentecoastal teachings. Read more at the official website & recent news***.

We're late for 30 min...and once you stepped into the indoor stadium...

Awesome! Just feel the crowd!

Pastor Kong Hee was preaching charismatically on the stage, with estimated 7,000 people in the hall!

And we felt like in concert! The singers and live bands were just cool!

************

Oh yes...only Jin Yan, Beautrice and I went to the church.

What happened to Ting Yik???

~~He didn't want to go to church so pretended to be sick at hostel...~~

Haha...to know the real reason and his programs go to read his blog!

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MET XIAO SHU, NUS

After lunch at EXPO, we met Xiao Shu at Stadium new MRT Circle Line.

He fetched us with Darien (cousin bro), back from kayak-ing at Kallang for Scout training skills and Kara in the car.

kara beh, photographed by khim khim

Kara was very cute and shy. She kept silence along the way...wondering why suddenly papa got to fetch 2 jie jie and wei chean?

pic google

We visited National University of Singapore (NUS) where my Xiao Shu used to study there.

He drove us a round there and the campus was just...MODERN and BEAUTIFUL! It's very green and some of the buildings are very FUTURISTICS. Many buildings are like National Library style. *See my post Day 3 at Bugis

Subway, MCD, Burger King...all are inside the campus!

Malaysian local u students...can you imagine there's MCD at our hostel cafe?

No wonder it's Asia top 3. Good ambience, international exposure, quality lecturers and well management...

Memang betul no matter where you are in Singapore, you want to compare it with Malaysia. How to compare? Stark contarst!

from right, xiao shu, beautrice, kara, jin yan

Xiao Shu bought us Teo Chew kuih from East Coast. Teo Chew lang jiak teo chew kuih...

Kara, after some time mingled together...not shy anymore...haha

Together Kara and 2 jie jie went to swimming pool!

Kara, Xiao Shu & Me

Xiao Shu & Xiao Shen (she's a lovely singaporean)

The weather was real hot! So...the best thing to do would be swimmin...with Kara!

The Prettiest - Uglist - Largest - Crowdest - Spiciest - Chapter 4 of 8

It's DAY 4 !

Middle of the 8 days long trip, it's the most tiring time and actually we gotta charge energy ...

So we got the power from the BEH --- BEAR !

It's lovely when you see bears anywhere...in the Beary Good Hostel ! Surely will stay again if I visit SG!

LARGEST SHOPPING MALL - VIVOCITY

Chinatown is very strategic! Guess what? Just 5 min MRT from Vivo!

Vivocity is located opposite of Sentosa Island! You can see Resort World in the near horizon

Oh yes...I was very tired that day...my small enough jay chou rain ~~sexy~~ eyes became even smaller =P

Singapore Port at the other side!

Vivo Vivo ! Lots of shopping malls in Singapore!

Singapore is very smart!

Almost every shopping malls attract big crowds!

Vivocity, Bugis Junction, Iluma, Orchard, Suntec Mall & etc --- all well-connected by MRT !

If you want to pak tor or shopping there no need car, just take a MRT and you can go to a lot of happening & romantic places!

IMAGINE our KL LRT connects 1 U, Sunway Pyramid, Midvalley, Pavilion, KLCC all in the same line ?

Penang Monorail to bring you to Gurney Plaza, 1st Avenue, Timesquares & Queensbay ?

Memang syok-lah macam ni!

Vivocity is also connected to Singapore Cruise Centre.

Star Virgo to Hong Kong, anyone?

Wilson:" Singapore is really beautiful..."

Ting Yik:" Haha...yup! But not this! See the flowers? This is the 1st ugly design I see in Singapore!"

LMAO

Bread History, Rotiboy ---then--- Bread Talk!

See the KOPITIAM and BANQUET ?

Inside KOPITIAM got tu bak but BANQUET is 100% halal

Jacky Chan the best cook !

And I ordered my Fish Head Bee Hon --- yummy --- can fight with Cheras one

Jacky Chan Fish Soup won the President's award! No wonder tasted so nice! Shi Fu!

Cendol for dessert, for this time --- Penang cendol is better!

We walked and walked in the Vivocity ---and came across with this;

"What?! Earthquake in the bookstore???!!!"

Look at the design! So creative!

It's Page One @ Vivo and it's really nice

We spent about 4 hours + in Vivocity and yes we did explore every corner of it.

Since we got nothing else to buy and the gals wanna keep shopping, Ting Yik and I went to our next desti

------ LITTLE INDIA !

The unique smell pervading in the air welcomes you to Little India !

Majulah Singapura! A glimpse of city future Day 3 of 8

Walao eh! Still the same ar? So long! Thanks for reading it ~~impatiently~~ ! =D

The Strait of Johor separates 2 nations.

One is blessed with every possible natural resources you name it and another has nothing but a strategic port.

Few decades to come the world has evolved, Singapore today enjoys as the most livable place in Asia, 4th leading financial centre, most globalised country in the world, 2nd busiest ports after Shanghai, most competitive nation, GDP (nominal) per capital of $37,293 (year 2009) and the list goes on...

While we are trapped in the middle-income group the lion has moved forward.

Read the book, "From 3rd World to 1st" by Lee Kuan Yew and it's not hard to know why. I read through the book in my matriculation days and it impressed me!

And one cannot deny the contributions made by the late Dr Goh Keng Swee (6 October 1918 - 14 May 2010) in creating a modern economy that is so vibrant focused on industry, education and urban planning.

He played a vital role in the places we were going to visit.

The URA (Urban Redevelopment Authority) and Jurong. He was the master brain for Jurong Industrial Estate , once a laughing stock and now attracted billions of foreign investments into this city-state.

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Day 3

We're too lazy to wake up in the soft, comfortable mattress! Our first stop will be URA at Maxwell Road, actually just within 15 min walk from A Beary Good Hostel. As we walked along the street...we passed through

The famous Sri Mariamman Temple, SG's largest Hindu temple

Chinatown in the morning

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum

Our first destination of the day --- The URA Centre (Urban Redevelopment Authority) - Highly recommended by Xiao Shu and it's really, really worth the visit! =D

It was also my Xiao Shen working place for 10 years!

SMALL ISLAND BIG PLANS

URA is Singapore national land-use planning authority. It prepares long-termed strategic plans, as well as detailed local area plans, coordinates and guides efforts to bring these plans into reality.

Everyone of us knows Singapore is small!

But how small ?

It's only about 2.5 times Penang Island (293km2) as Singapore (710.2km2) has limited lands for a 5 million populations.

Every inch of the land counts! It has the highest population density in the world after Monaco yet the land use is so well planned!

Stepping into URA and trust me it's like a mini expo! If you like properties or real-estate it's your heaven!

Modern & beautiful office

A city to live, work ---and PLAY !

Plan, plan, plan!

Guess what, Singapore plans for the next 40 - 50 years ahead! Amazing huh?

The concept plan maps out vision for the next 4 to 5 decades to come, especially in land use and transportation plan.

The plan is put together with extensive public consultation through internet feedback, public dialogues and exhibition.

Master plan guides Singapore's development over the next 10 - 15 years, aligning to the Concept Plan big direction.

The good thing is everyone of us can know what our country or hometown is going to be!

Not only know, we can see through the real models and actually touch it! There's even a 3D video to showcase you what transformations will take place! Just imagine!

Erm...can somebody tell me what Penang is going to be? Over the next 40 years?

The entire CBD is displayed as 3D models. This is really cool!

The Pinnacle @ Duxton (see my coming post at day 7)

More homes will be built in the city to increase the live-in population from 3% to 7%. So the city centre is not just for work but also to live. This certainly can add more buzz into the city.

A smart plan! Over in Malaysia we have out planned township like Putrajaya and Cyberjaya as well! Can somebody tell me what happens when night falls?

Orchard Road - Can you spot ION Orchard & Ngee Ann City ?

URA plans street by street

Block by block, nothing is left out

Listen to Empires State of Mind by Jay-Z to feel what I felt

A city to have fun !

and of course --- live!

Lifestyle = Live it with style

List out how many % of land to be utilized in specific purposes

To be the best city - compete with London, New York, Paris, Tokyo, ~~Kuala Lumpur~~

Just in the case of public transport kl already failed !

Sky garden is the next hot thing! Is sky the limit to mankind ?

Transform the Jurong Lakeside

As you step into URA, you'll be welcome by this single large Jurong Lakeside model.

URA announced a masterplan in April 2008 to transform Jurong into the largest commercial hub outside city centre in the next 10 years.

No more just an industrial place

*New world-class science centre

*New lakeside village

*Enhanced Chinese Garden and Japanese Garden

*New Public Park

*JCube - New shopping mall with Olympic-size ice skating rink (ready in 2012)

Interesting right?

That's why! Singapore changes drastically every 3-5 years. New things are keep coming!

LUNCH @ famous MAXWELL FOODCOURT

It's just located opposite of URA.

Crowds at lunch time.

We tried chicken rice there. The chicken heads did grab our attentions! Creative

If you have no ideal what to eat, follow the crow! If a lot of people are queuing up means - Hok Chiak la!

The bak cham ke turned out to be really delicious! But just the rice is not soft enough!

Chicken rice for 4, $14

Guess where were we heading next ???

JURONG EAST

Yes, the "hot property location"!

~~We are going to seek any possible chances to invest in the real-estates~~

Haha! No-lah! No capital though. We are going to Science Centre!

We walked from maxwell hawker centre to Tanjong Pager MRT

Garden City - Singapore

Reached in 10min !

East West line from Tanjong Pagar to Jurong East (about 15 min)

It's just 10-15 min walk from Jurong East MRT to Science Centre, but Walao-eh! We couldn't stand the hot weather and tired, took bus.

It's our first time to board a bus in SG! Very fast! We didn't even have to wait for the bus to come!

Use our EZ- link card -- Di Di at the entrance gate electronic machine! Done!

Here we reached National Science Centre!

Big crowd, a lot of primary & secondary students.

Di Di card to enter.

The entry ticket + theater show combined $15.

In overall the National Science Museum is not bad, but I expected more than that. It's many times better than ours durian but personally I think private KLCC Science Discovery Centre is newer and more intersting!

But the fun thing is you can take many weird yet funny pics here ---

Beautrice the David Footballfield

K.O. ! Ryo vs Ken in Street Fighter

What so funny? Haha

Astro Gal!

Wanted, get him alive! $500,000 rewarded

JY in The Pirates of Carribean

~~Chow Run Fa~~ Ting Yik Saw :" Welcome to Singapore!"

Watch Pirates At World's End

After spending a whole afternoon at Science Centre, we moved to our next destination!

This time, we walked back to the MRT station.

We passed through Jurong Regional Library

Just a regional library! It made me so wanna go inside!

Jurong East MRT

BUGIS for the Night

20 min MRT to Bugis !

Bugis ! If Orchard Road ain't your place, come to Bugis!

I can assure you can get some nice bargains here!

Bugis has a long history where the Bugis people from Indonesia came here centuries ago. Read wikipedia for more.

National Library of Singapore

It's a must go place in Singapore! I was really amazed by this new library. Certainly I can spend my whole day there!

You feel like stepping into hotel lobby in the library itself!

The best time to visit the library is from 7pm - 9pm. ( It closes at 9pm) and you can see the city night view from the glass. The lightning and design make you comfortable, and relax.