Singapore - Tourist Guide

What to see in Singapore? In order of importance

a. Raffles Place & Boat Quay (Downtown)
b. Santosa
- Underwater world, Dolphin Show, Musical Fountain, Images of Singapore, Bird Show, Butterfly Park
c. Jurong Bird Park
d. Haw Par Villa (Tiger Balm Gardens)
e. Little India (Serangoon Road)
f. Orchard Road (for shopping)
g. Bukit Timah Natural Reserve (Natural Rain Forests)

In One day visit - See a, e, f
In Two day visit - See b, a, e, f
In Three day visit - See b, c, a, e, f

Singapore New Year Party

At 9:20 pm, we left our house and boarded MRT train to Tiong Bahru. Surprised to find, bus stop was overcrowded with people. One side, people were standing in a big queue and another side, people stood scattered without any knowledge of the presence of queue. Waited for nearly 30 minutes from 10:00 to 10:30 pm in the queue, but no Santosa resort bus was found in sight. Got a call from office that some file has not arrived. Frustrated and gave some answer to escape at that time. Felt pity on Andy Lee, who was sitting all alone in the office. Decided to leave the queue and take a public bus to WTC. At that time, 3 Santosa resort bus came. Like many others, avoided the Singapore or Bombay way of standing in queue and jumped towards the bus like other "n" number of people. Some how managed to get in. Bus is packed no less than a MTC Chennai bus.

When we entered Siloso Beach Resot, Tickets for foam party was sold out ALREADY. Singaporeans add an ALREADY now and then in whatever they talk, whether it is required or not. Luckily, we have booked earlier itself. Passed through Metal Detectors to enter the open area. We stood in queue to get a Peach juice drink. Lot of them, took Tiger Beer. Time was 11:50pm at that time. Pushed ourself into a crowd gathered there to welcome the new year. Within minutes, people started shouting 10, 9, 8 and a "HO......" at 12! New Year has arrived. We exchanged greetings with many. That time, we were standing on the parapet to foam party area. Entered the area, and a huge chunk of foam fell on one section of crowd including us. My partner to the party got afraid and felt little suffocation and decided to boycott foam party after that. While that person sat in front of huge giant size TV I entered the foam area. I received a cultural shock after seeing Singaporeans [chinese, malay and tamils] in terms of dress and erotic dance movements. Although Singapore is western in terms of facilities, modernization and way of dressing, it is eastern in terms of culture, family values etc. I am able to see a difference here. Moved through 10,000 crowd locked inside 50 X 50 Feet distance [Measurement may not be accurate]. Witnessed and enjoyed the events. Foam was falling all over. People shouted Foam, Foam... Falling foam, blinds people now and then, and everybody enjoy the moment. It gives more freedom for interesting actions...

I came out of foam-pool after 1 hour. Time was around 1:40 am. We relaxed for some more time in beach and came out around 2:45 am. No public transport available. All taxis were "On Call", so nothing stopped to pick us. Booked through mobile phone. Booking costs S$3.50. Mercedes Benz taxi and Toyota Corolla taxi costs the same. Happy to find a White Mercedes Benz taxi waiting for us. That itself gave an indication, this year is going to be a great year!!! Reached Home around 4:00 am.

This trip was another example proving the population problem was the root cause of all problems in developing countries.
- Although, developed countries, regulating crowd or providing enough/extra public transport was not seen as a priority for Government there. We can definitely expect better management in India, although crowd is matter of everyday.