Bart Bear's Blog

Here are some photos taken from the balcony of our hotel room in SingyPaw. The thing that impressed me was the huge number of ships of all sorts and sizes that were anchored offshore in what is called the Singapore Roads. That name sounds strange to me; I expect roads to be full of cars, not ships. Anyhow, all along the south coast of Singapore, as far as you can see, there are ships. If you look carefully at the bottom photo (click on it to make it bigger) you can see right across the roads to one of the islands of Indonesia! The area that the photos show is actually land created by dredging the old harbour. When we were there last year work was almost complete on the last sections of 101 hectares of gardens, called "Gardens By The Bay". This is something that I have to see when we are next in SingyPaw, because there are some things that are very interesting and different. At the left of the bottom photo you can see something that looks like a giant glass armadillo. It is in fact one of a pair of huge cooled conservatories. One conservatory is called the Flower Dome and holds plants from mild, dry climates and the other one, the Cloud Forest, has plants from high, cool areas of the world. The tall red constructions are called Supertrees. They have exotic plants growing on them, but they also light up at night in a spectacular light and music show. Actually, some of them are also the air intakes and exhausts from the conservatories' air-con systems. Lots of things to keep a small bear busy on our next visit.

Labels: boats, gardens, Singapore

Probably the most impressive building in SingyPaw is the Marina Bay Sands hotel, which Dad calls the "cricket stumps" building. Across the top of the three towers is a fantastic thing called the Skypark. This is an area of big swimming pools and gardens. Unfortunately, you can't get into the main park unless you are staying in the hotel. Fortunately, you can go up to the public observation deck at what looks like the bow of the boat-shaped Skypark. Mum and I always take Dad up to high observation areas because he is not really comfortable with heights. Anyhow, the view of Singapore from the deck is spectacular. You can see that it is much higher than the Singapore Flyer, and that is the biggest Ferris Wheel in the world. I would like to try my parachute from there, but the deck is surrounded by high glass walls and anyway the Oldies wouldn't let me jump.

Labels: Singapore

Singapore at night is a magical place, all lit up. I think that buildings and monuments look their best like this, so here's a building and a monument all aglow. The building is the Marina Bay Sands Resort. Dad calls it the "cricket stumps" building because with its three towers and the Skypark across the top it does look like wickets and bails. We stayed on the other side of the marina and this photo was taken from our balcony. Actually, Mum got so excited filming a light show one night that she accidentally locked Dad outside and it was a while before she remembered him :) The bottom photo is the Merlion, the symbol of Singapore. He really glows when the light is on him. The great thing about Singapore at night is that it is a bit cooler and the humidity is a bit lower, so lots of people are out and about, making the city buzz. When these photos were taken it was only 30 degrees Celsius and 85% humidity, and that is a tad better than daytime. I am looking forward to our next Singapore stopover; I have done lots of homework and found lots of extra things to see.

Labels: buildings, Singapore

I love statues. They mostly have lots of bumps and grooves that make them great climbing frames for small bears. This statue was in the foyer of our hotel in SingyPaw. It is of a man called Confucius. He was a famous Chinese philosopher who lived about 2,500 years ago. His teachings advocated family loyalty, ancestor worship and respect for elders. Of course, I totally respect my Oldies; I just don't take much notice of them when they try to stop me doing interesting things. Well, Confucius' statue was great to climb on. When Dad found me there he told me  "Confucius, he say: small bear who climbs wooden statue is blockhead". Somehow, I don't think Confucius ever said anything of the sort.

Labels: Singapore

The most important thing that you have to take overseas with you is lots of money, and it has to be money of the country you are staying in. So here I am, all set for shopping in SingyPaw and DoBuy. My stack of Aussie dollars has been turned into Singapore dollars and UAE dirhams. If you check back through the postings you can see my Aussie dollar pile and the results of my shopping. Overseas trips are great, you see lots of very different things and learn lots. Everybody should travel overseas sometime. Aussie is great and we do travel as much of it as we can, but overseas extends what you know and makes small bears even smarter.

Labels: Dubai, Singapore

Labels: Singapore

Here's another couple of photos of the SingyPaw Flyer. In the top one I am about half-way up the rising side of the wheel, looking along the Singapore River. The river is blocked by a barrage at its mouth now, but years ago it was packed with ships and small boats. Most of the people in Singapore live in high-rise apartment blocks. Large population and small land area makes this the sensible way to live, but the people have also made sure that there are lots of trees and gardens as well. The bottom photo was the "official tourist" photo taken by the operators of the Flyer, just to prove that we were there. Just look at Mum, she is mostly not there, almost a ghost. What happened to her? Well, she was wearing a green dress. The photographer takes your photo in front of a green screen and puts anything not green in your photo onto the standard image of the flyer. So most of Mum's part of the image disappeared, turning her into a cute ghost. Just another experience at the world's biggest Ferris wheel.

Labels: Singapore

This is the tallest Ferris Wheel in the world. It is in SingyPaw (bear-speak for Singapore) and I have ridden it! It is called Singapore Flyer and it was being built when the Oldies were last in Singapore back in 2007. At the top, you are 42 stories high; that's 165 m or 451 ft. That's 30 m taller than the London Eye. It looks a long way up when you are in a gondola that looks like a big glass barrel. You get great views of the city from the Flyer. At the top you see for 45 km on a clear day (only about half that on the day we were there). One funny thing is that the wheel used to revolve in the other direction when it first started but some Feng-Shui gurus said it would be better running the other way so the direction of rotation was reversed. The makers obviously had small bears in mind because the gondolas have a rail just below the windows at the right spacing for my-size bears to ride on. I am looking out over Marina Bay to the port area where thousands of ships per week dock. The picture of the wheel was actually taken from the observation deck of the building you can see in the left of the bottom photo (more about that one later).

Labels: Singapore

Hi everybody, I am back from our overseas trip to SingyPaw and DoBuy. It has been a great couple of weeks and the Oldies took 3400 photos (don't worry, they won't all be shown on the blog). We flew Singapore Airlines. They offer the best deals on flights out of Australia and reasonably cheap stopovers in Singapore (that's SingyPaw to small bears). We flew in an Airbus A.380 on the Australia-Singapore legs of the trip. What a great aircraft. Lots more space than on other aeroplanes and very, very quiet. In fact the only disturbing noise was a Malay kid who screamed during most of the climb and letdown on the Dubai to SingyPaw flight. If small bears weren't so peaceable, I would have throttled him. The Oldies planned ahead and booked the exit rows on the flights, so we had plenty of leg-room and space to stand up and bounce around in. What I specially liked was the pop-up TV screens that I could watch movies on and check out the 'plane's position. Flying is fun, although it does tend to be a bit of a bind on the long stretches. That's where small bears have the advantage; we can sleep in small places, like Mum's cabin bag, while the Oldies have to try sleeping in the seats.

Labels: aircraft, Emirates, Singapore

Only two sleeps to go, then we are off overseas! I am going to places with names that sound like Singy Paw and Do Buy. I will be flying on the biggest airliner in the world, the Airbus A380. I am getting really excited. The only way I can sleep is to remember that the time until we go is measured in sleeps. The Oldies have their suitcases packed and we are busy getting the paperwork sorted and into our backpacks with the other things we need in the aircraft cabin. My backpack is a lot smaller than the Oldies'. That's because I use their iPods and Kindles and Mum's iPad so I don't have to carry any of that big stuff. The biggest problem I have is carrying my money. For ages now I have been collecting all the gold coins that the Oldies leave around the place and have been storing them in my Cash Cow. The pile is too big for my pack, so tomorrow we are going to the bank and getting the pile turned into notes. Why do I have such a hoard? It's to buy Mum pretty things in the Duty Free shops. Back with lots of pictures in a few weeks.

Labels: aircraft, Dubai, Singapore, trips