Aha, it’s finally done. Behold, one of the largest updates to the photo galleries in a long time. The university photo gallery has been online for sometime since early this year, but I’ve not actually found time to update anything nor caption any of the photos till my breather time this summer holidays.

Thankfully for that done now, though I actually take quite some musings in updating the galleries than actually seeing it as a chore :]. This post serves as a bookmark and table of content in logging all these album entries before I go about revisiting my travel dairies for each of the individual trips in detail with their own respective blog posts each, going more in depth of the photos in the galleries itself. There are also additional photo stitch panoramas which I am still in the midst of compiling, so I guess that’s something to look forward here under the travel section!

Glad I had one of these many chores looming over my head cleared before term starts in a month’s time. In the meantime, do check out the various new galleries I have listed. You can also access it directly by clicking on “university” on the links on the left under the gallery section.

Musings in London, with time to spare!

London for a walk!

Natural history museum

Sights along the Thames!

These photos in the first section encompasses random photos I take on my regular trips to London, which is not too far off where I stay in Cambridge. The city is always buzzing with events and parades, let be meeting up with friends studying in the various city colleges there as well. London is a relatively safe world class city with an ethnic melting pot and many things to see, their museums are no exception either.

Cardiff wales and Christmas with Aunt Jenny

Cardiff castle

Christmas stayover!

1207 Oaiham castles

These next photos are taken last winter during my trip to Cardiff in wales followed by a Christmas stay over at at an old family friend’s place for a Christmas dinner. It’s also the first time I get to stay with a British family, so it was quite an eye opener for me.

Trip to Alton towers.

There is no roller coaster too scary for me! much to the others on the trip too who never quite saw the thrills you get from the fantastic coasters alton towers have to offer. Alton is widely know to be a pioneer in few of their roller coasters still in operation today, like be the first diving, inverted and flying coasters (That includes the first corkscrew coaster in the world too, now defunct)

Nemesis rocks!

Oblivion

Flying on Air!

The Lake District

Ambleside beaches

Steamer in Ullswater

Mountains of Keswick

The lake district is one of the most scenic sights in the whole of Britain, possibly said to be the “yellowstone of UK”, the views offered in the vicinity are breathtaking given the number of lakes and mountains around the area, providing endless opportunities for mountain goers and trekkers alike.

That is not all, you can view all of them and more at the university photo gallery.

Upon my return back to Singapore for the summer holidays, the Marina bay sands resort is one of my few places must visit places before I head back to the UK for my next university term. I remembered passing by the ECP from the airport ogling at the newly glass-cladded monstrosities, standing on a once large undeveloped piece of reclaimed prime land, which never quite saw the light of development until the conceiving of the IR and construction more than 3 years ago.

It’s one to brag about too, the Marina Bay Sands in a nutshell is an integrated resort (IR) fronting Marina Bay in Singapore. Developed by Las Vegas Sands, it is billed as the world’s most expensive standalone casino property at S$8 billion (US$5.7 billion), including cost of the reclaimed prime land.

A good way to get started off the Sands is to arrive offsite, let be taking public transport such as the MRT to the Promenade MRT Station on the Circle Line or parking around the flyer/millennia walk area and taking a short walk over to the resort- where you can really appreciate the sights along the way to your destination. The resort will be served by the Bayfront Station on the Downtown Line in 2013.

The helix bridge link

Peeks of the IR through the Helix

CBD from the Bridge

You will see yourself hitting the Youth Olympics park, presumably not a one-off item created for the games but I believe a place marked in stone as the venue of the world’s first Youth Olympics. The Helical bridge, widely known by engineers as one of the most structurally stable designs conceived from nature is flaunted in full glory over the marina bay. A dedicated road bridge runs parallel and serves the IR directly together with few active bus services.

You will have the option of the main entrance to the shopping complex or the bay-side pavilion at the end of the bridge. A 120,000 square meter, convention center resides adjacent to the shopping complex. There is also an Art & Science museum, the iconic Lotus shaped amphitheatre, sands theatres, complimented by two floating pavilions and six “celebrity chef” restaurants.

Impressive and large was the shopping area on first impression only to be greeted disappointingly, largely by unfinished works despite it’s official opening nearly 2 months ago. The shopping centre is still largely under renovation, with half of it only open and accessible to shoppers.

Convention center, shops & casino

Inside the main building

The casino entrance

I guess Sands might have their operational objectives in place. With the casino and convention center possibly being the biggest revenue draws, it’s not surprising to see them all primed and operational in stark contrast to the sawdust still around most of the other less important attractions.

Humorously, a small “river” spans the width of the shopping area, which could be mistaken for a fountain/canal. Unlike most Casinos in Vegas, I was still torn to finding a theme for the Marina Sands resort. It’s not quite Venice with the boats but not in any way “Singaporean” in any way too with a few Asian themed boats to add to the “oriental feel”. With a casino nearby, I guess the stores around the area have quite a fight to share for when punters.

The Casino is undeniably the major highlight of the attraction, let be exclaimed to be one of the
a casino with 500 tables and 1,600 slot machines. Given strict gambling rules in Singapore, the design of the Sands resort involves having the casino as a separate isolated entity as with the hotel and the convention center.

The iconic hotel blocks

Hotel front facade

The tower interior

In contrast, I remembered the Casino gaming grounds in Vegas notorious for being just about everywhere, even a simple trip to the restaurant, hotel or lifts involves cutting through lines of jackpot machines and dealer tables, passing by most of the Casino at a go. You can either love or hate this.

I’ve not personally been into the Marina Sands Casino, despite the many recommendations from people I know we’ve been in there, citing that it as a once in a lifetime-experience, even if you do not gamble in there. It looks big, with one of the most modern gambling facilities I’ve seen to date, but I think I have better uses for the $100 Singaporean entrance fee.

Come to think about it, if I were to have any affiliation with a Casino, chances are I will be working for them, knowing the science and workings of Casinos myself. It’s an interesting subject combining the musings of mathematics, probabilities, psychology (human greed) & business elements such as gaming/jackpot revenue optimisation, beats actually throwing my money on the floors. I personally do not gamble on the grounds of the odds, the Casino is just a novelty here.

Looks awfully similar to Mandarin hotel

The Rise Cafe

The CBD from the shops

The hotel blocks across the road is one of it’s kind weighing in with 2,560 rooms spanning over 3 towers each 55 floors high, all topped by a 340m-long sky park with their trademarked infinity swimming pool, which spans half the total length of the sky park itself. The sky park have capacity of 3,900 people and is too home to the world’s largest public cantilevered platform, with an overhang of 67m from the north (third) tower.

Interestingly, I remembered a remark from one of the engineers who designed the platform on the vibration analysis of the cantilever itself- despite it’s capacity to take on an excess of 1000 people dancing and stomping on it at a go (the cantilever is heavily counter-weighed on the other end of the tower 3). They even tested crowd vibration resonance tuned to various contemporary songs itself which can be played in a gig, and yes, there is actually a song blacklist for DJs.

The main hotel entrance and atrium is located at Tower 1. The atrium forms a long continuous span at ground level linking all three tower blocks through a glass covered walkway which tapers downwards towards tower 3. The cavernous open spaces in the Tower 1 lobby looks almost like that in Marina Mandarin, (which noticeably is just a few blocks away). Food-wise, there are 2 notable restaurants in the hotel itself, serving Chinese & international cuisines respectively. The latter located within the hotel’s main atrium café (rise) offers an impressive international buffet spread at $80 per head. It is so packed, the restaurant have a stand against reservations. No wine is served, unlike that at Ritz Carton with a better ambience a finer spread with a rate not too far off either.

Helical bridge all lit

Fireworks!

The IR at night

The views offered from the bay area are ones you will never see yourself getting sick of. Guests staying in the hotel will be treated to fantastic views of the Singapore skyline, whether you are on the north facing block towards the CBD or the south side overlooking the barrage, sea and the gardens by the bay. There are also occasional fireworks displays, coupled with a synchronised CBD light show.

That’s all I have of my first trip to the Sands Resort, I guess I might be back possibly next year for another peek where everything is nearing completion, not to mention also checking out the Sentosa resort as well. Cheers.

More photos of the Marina bay sands

A HD video I got compiled from last Monday’s celebration of the national day parade 2010. Celebrating Singapore’s 45 years of independence.

The video essentially starts after the National anthem and lasts through the whole 5 minute firework show, ending with the president’s leave from the Padang.

Happy 45th birthday Singapore! And so, I was at the national day parade (NDP) tonight. I was fortunate to be invited to watch it today at a rather short notice thanks to an ex-classmate of mine who knew I was around town and happened to have an additional ticket at the last minute. :3

This was of course contrary to my initial plan to just spend the long weekend at home watching it, seems the unexpected kind honours of attending this year’s parade at the Padang itself came very much impromptu!

Getting there was not much of a problem, with the exception of the rather packed MRT stations. The tube is in fact one of the few best ways to get there with all the crowds above ground and contrary to the bus route I taken (which actually made diversions further than what I’ve expected from the venue itself). Nonetheless I arrived on time at the venue with a good selection of grandstand seats to choose from.

Found a good seat, now wave your flags!

The bad goodie bag pile

The Durian & Sands IR from the Padang

Prior to being seated there were of course security checks and the distribution of famed goodie bags. I was not surprised that my bag items and funbox were all damaged, with their faces dented & corners ripped, considering how the logistics have them all piled up in mountains. Guess my box is not that lucky in the handling department despite it’s serial number ending with 0888 . On a bright side, thankfully there was ample food for always-hungry people like me, not to mention enough drinks in the packs to last the whole parade proper.

Having toured some parts of the marina bay since I returned to Singapore, I was initially puzzled by the fact that both the Padang and the floating platform had performing stages decked on them, so I thought there were going to be 2 concurrent venues for this year’s event. Later do I know from some of my contacts on the YOG that the floating platform was actually used for the opening ceremony the day before. In other words, given the smaller seating capacity at the Padang this year, there are actually much fewer tickets and thus more exclusivity to this year’s parade as I was told.

Overview of the flag flypast.

Neat shot of the F15 flyover

Great views with the fantastic CBD skyline

Looking back, the last time I’ve attended a live NDP parade in person was more than 10 years ago, in 1997 to be exact where I participated as a performer in the combined school choir- something which I never actually see myself doing but got to understanding and appreciating the workings into bringing about a successful NDP performance. I’ve been much of an NDP critic over the last few years then, with a benchmark of the next always being better than the last. This is also particularly true towards the NDP songs, which are always notoriously known to be too cheesy for their own good. The ones over the last year including this present one are commendable indeed.

The mobile column

Midshow fireworks

Night lighting

The parade was rather short in my opinion, lasting about 2 hours tops. I remembered past NDPs being slightly longer, or maybe the considering of the mobile column segment eating considerably into some performance time, therefore fewer performances this year.

With the exception of one band parade member fainting, performances are good, the floats this year are at least proper ones too and not some “pick up truck convert”. The lighting throughout the performances were nice as well, with the exception of those situated in front of the green grandstand, where 2 sets of coloured floodlights were constantly on blinding all the audiences sitting on the yellow grandstand.

Noticeably is the animated projection on the city hall which I last saw at the Cambridge University’s 800th Anniversary courtesy of Projection Studio London, wondered if they are responsible for the ones at this NDP too.

Forming the flag

Some of the performance pieces

The finale fireworks

The ending fireworks lasted about 5 minutes, not the longest NDP fireworks to date, but one of the most diverse with new launch points on top of buildings as well as whole new sights of the central business district and the marina bay sands. Crowd control after the event was well managed too, with everyone moved on steadily out of the venue. Humorously a looping audio reel constantly playing the background reminds you of the respective MRT station directions to head to from the event, with smooth calming instrumental jazz music.

In all a great event, fitting for Singapore’s 45 years of independence.