Singapore Post #3-Christmas Lights, Chinatown, random stuff

Ok, this is the last post on Singapore.  Where was I?  Oh yes, it is awesome.

Shopping and Lights
Another national pastime is shopping, and Singapore has Orchard Street-sort of like 5th Avenue but glitzier.  It had a lot of really high end shops, but also Christmas lights and music.  It really put me in the spirit (yes it seems Christmas=commercialization).  So here are some nice shots of the beautiful Christmas lights.

Nice lit tree

This is a great shot of Orchard Street.

Another great shot

Beautiful, but apparently dangerous!

No Christmas decorations are complete without men on stilts.

Chinatown

The pictures below are from Chinatown.  It had the best food and was also where we stayed.  I should also mention it is the one place we saw a person peeing on the street.  There are hefty fines for this, but I can't say I blame the person we saw-it was a three year old boy who just couldn't hold it anymore, so his mom whipped down his pants and he peed right there.  

There are lots of what is called Buddha's Tooth Temple, which purports to have a piece of Buddha's tooth, but I am skeptical.

The outside of the temple

It had walls and walls of Buddha statues.

Inside the temple.

Street view of Chinatown-see how clean!

Our hotel from outside

 Inside the hotel lobby

Our hotel from inside by the room-see how Alice in Wonderland it is!

Randomness
The last set of pictures are random shots from around the city that either don't fall easily into a bucket, show something interesting or different, or are just funny!

I took this picture for dad who loves Dunkin' Donuts.

I took this picture for mom in case she ever wants to open a restaurant in Singapore-she already has a sign.

I took this picture for all who remember our old lamps in the house.  Still ugly in Singapore.

Thanks for the warning.

This is Netball, which we saw in a random park. It is basically basketball without a backboard basically.  It is like ultimate Frisbee in that you can only take 2 steps after catching the ball.  Also if you are shooting, the defenders are not allowed in your face.
 

 

Sandip contemplating Singapore from the escalator to a fort we visited.

 Me at the fort

 Me at the same escalator

 Mosque in Little Arabia

This is taken while standing on the spaceship-I can't believe I left this one out earlier!

Looking dapper.  See that strange white building in the back?

Inside the new performing arts theater (remember the fly eyes?)

This is the ad campaign urging people to give up metro seats to elderly and pregnant women.

Irony here is that we just walked down a back alley that was really hard to find, but had several "nail salons"

And my favorite-to cross the street, press for green man!