New Years 2017 – Day 22

Today is the Chinese New Year and since the Chinese have a large majority in Singapore, this is a really big deal for the next two days.  New Years Day is the major holiday for the Chinese people and everything connected with the Chinese will be shut down tomorrow and tonight it is either home time or party time or both we have been told.

After sleeping in a little and having breakfast, we head to the Bird Farm in Singapore that we had heard a lot about.  It turned out to be one of the great spots in Singapore to visit.  The cab ride would have been a ½ hour and expensive so we took the subway and bus for about 10% of the cost of a taxi.  It took about an hour and it was a fun experience getting there.

We spent a couple of hours there walking on their paths seeing an amazing display of birds.  They had a number of huge, huge areas where you actually cold walk in and you were inside where all of the birds were and the birds would be just flying all around you.  One of the areas was all filled with parrots. We were close enough to touch them but if you got to within an inch, they would move or fly away.  It was a neat place to visit.

Then we took a cab to the Zoo and a portion of it called the River Safari.  The cab was a Toyota 6 passenger van and it was a van that we do not have in the United Sates.  It was a beautify luxury van and the driver owned it himself and the total cost, including taxes and license fees was $160,00 US dollars!!

They had a huge display of jungle animals and also a couple of boat rides around and in the park.  It was fun, but not as much fun as the bird zoo.

When we left the zoo area, the wait for a cab was over an hour and it was already 6:00pm and we wanted to get back to the Marriott, eat, change and go to Chinatown for the fireworks.   After just missing the last available limo which would have cost us $50, Barb spotted a lady behind a desk who just happened to have an express bus coming that would take us to the subway station and we got on it.  It was so out of the way that with dozens waiting for a cab, we were the only people on this huge bus.  The driver was so nice he gave us water and acted as a tour guide during the 20 minute bus ride.  Then we took the subway to the hotel and arrived just before they were stopping serving food for the evening.  The costs to get to the Marriott by cab would have been $25, by limo $50 and this only cost us $10 and we had a lot of fun!!

After eating we took a friend we had met on the cruise from Philly on the subway to Chinatown and wow, what an experience.  If we looked back at all of the places we have been to and watched fireworks on the fourth of July, this crowd was more intense.  The streets were packed!!  Wait till you see the videos.

Chinatown is about a 12 square block area and every street was filled with street vendors and packed with people.  We had fun walking around until about 10:30pm when we went to the main street to find a place to watch the fireworks.

We met a man from the production crew and he tried to get us close to the stage but the Fire Marshall had just closed off the area because of too many people.  He did show us a great place to stand so that we could see the fireworks above us.

There are no open places in Chinatown so the fireworks were shot from the top of a building.  When you see the video there is a lot of firecracker noise.  The noise was so loud that we had to use earplugs.  The actual fireworks in the sky were less than we have in the United States.  We figured out that it was because of the potential of fire from the residue falling directly below on the buildings.  All-in-all though it was a fun display.

We then walked a little with the crowds and then took a cab back to the hotel.

Night from our second day in Singapore – tomorrow will be our last and as all of the Chinese areas are closed for the holidays, we will spend the day in the India and Arab areas of town – should be fun.

The view from our hotel room on the 23rd floor

Old and new - no shoes, a wrap for a skirt and an iPhone

At the entrance to the Bird Farm

Inside the Parrot cage

A walkway inside a bird cage

The men's restroom with an outside area and a waterfall

The Toyota Van

Inside the River Safari

Our own bus and driver!!

A panorama of one of the street displays for the Year of the Tiger