Weekend Update!

January 23, 2005 – Weekend Update
This weekend was a long one because of Hari Raya Haji – the “festival or the pilgrimage” or the “festival of the sacrifice”. During this holiday people of the Islamic faith celebrate the day of pilgrimage to Mecca by sacrificing a cow or goat and offering the food to the poor. Although I was out and out about I did not see any sacrifices but I did see many Muslim families dressed in their finest clothes.

Friday, January 21st, 2005
Friday, I took a train to Singapore’s downtown area with the mission of going up the Suisse Hotel to the 70th floor. Unfortunately for me, I was dressed in “short-pants” and did not meet the “long-pants and covered shoes” dress-code. The day was not a total loss because I took some pictures around the neighboring Raffles Hotel, and then toured the waterfront – including Singapore’s signature Esplanade theatres. The Esplanade theatres are architecturally unique and look much like durian – a local fruit that smells like rotting sewage.



Saturday, January 22nd, 2005 - East Coast Park
This past Saturday Cristel, another intern/student, and I ventured across the island to one of Singapore’s only beach areas – East Coast Park. East Coast Park is not the easiest place to get to (two hours trip including a bus, a train, and a taxi), but once we were there we didn’t see another tourist.

East Coast Park is actually reclaimed land and is in the process of becoming a beautiful beach. It has the classic East Asia water with light blue hues and welcoming temperature. What East Coast Park also has is a tremendous view of Singapore’s shipping traffic. As your eye travels from the beach to the horizon, you are rewarded with sand, water, swimmers, wind-surfers, sailboats, tug-boats, and container ships. What’s even more shocking is how all these elements interplay with each other, save the sand and the swimmers. These huge ships are never far away and there are tons of them. I counted 50 before I got tired of counting. It was quite the sight to see. I didn’t bring my camera because I wasn’t sure if it was a swimming trip or not. Next time . . .

Sunday, January 23, 2005 – Jurong Bird Park
Today I got up early (9:00AM on a Sunday) and went to the Jurong Bird Park with a group of other exchange students. Singapore has a climate such that they can host hundreds of species of birds without a problem. I would tell you the impressive species that I saw, but in truth there were far too many for me to take note of their names. What I can tell you is that we were presented with a lot of tropical birds with bright coloring, a few birds of prey (including the world’s largest bird of pray – the Andean Condor), penguins, and flamingos. Similar to the Night Safari, a lot of the birds are not in cages, but in big enclosures that you walk through. This gives you an up close look at a lot of really unique birds.