Singapore - Colonial and Futuristic Architecture

In case there was any question about Singapore being a city of futuristic architecture, let me put your mind at ease right now. I'll get to that more in a minute.

From Singapore

We got in a few days ago at this point, in the middle of the night. The package from my parents was waiting for us at our hostel, dropped off by my Dad's coworker. We proceeded to spend our first two days in Singapore hanging out at our hostel, only venturing out to use the ATM and get meals. We really felt like we needed the rest and relaxation after our grueling past week, plus there was work to do setting up the new laptop: a used Sony P-Series "Lifestyle" PC running Linux.

While we're still struggling a bit to get everything working perfectly in Linux (most things just work out of the box, but the graphics drivers still aren't perfect, the GPS isn't supported, and Wine--the Windows emulator--can't seem to run anything more complicated than Notepad), we really like this new computer and it basically does do everything we need.

On our 3rd day, we headed to the Colonial District to see the cool buildings and monuments. The first we found was the memorial to the Singapore civilians who died under the Japanese occupation during WW2. It is known affectionately as the Chopsticks Monument.

From Singapore

Next up was the Esplanade, a distinctive building with a couple honeycomb looking domes. Now playing? "Chicago"

From Singapore

We enjoyed seeing the cleaning team repelling down it.

From Singapore

Hey look, it's the Eye of Singapore! Okay, as far as I know, that's not what anyone else calls it. But it reminded us of London.

From Singapore

Once we were out on the Esplanade Bridge, we were finally able to see the whole of this strange building. A giant ship sitting atop 3 skyscrapers? With palm trees growing on top? Seriously?

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The mix of old and new styles is a little jarring sometimes. Here are the old and new Supreme Court buildings. We enjoyed the irony of the new supreme court building looking like a rotating restaurant.

From Singapore

From Singapore

From Singapore

We quite enjoyed photographing St. Andrews. It looks so fairy-tail European! Well, at least in comparison.

From Singapore

From Singapore

From Singapore

All in all, it was a nice afternoon wandering around town. We were going to go to the Asian Civ Museum in the evening, but were tired and came back to our hostel instead. I guess we will go another day.

From Singapore