Exploring Downtown Singapore

Singapore has a pretty well established public transportation system, complete with at least 5 rail lines and a bajillion buses. I went exploring the city with another kid from our group, our goal was to go biking on the east coast of Singapore but we got lost en route and ended up at Clarke Quay in the downtown area.



Up close, the water is disgusting... its green and trashy and smells terrible. But somehow fish can survive inside it, I guess they eat the trash?



Clarke Quay is supposedly a huge touristy area, with a booming nightlife for expatriates (thats the pc way to say white people who aren't locals). But since we were there during the middle of the day, none of the bars or restaurants were open. We were a little surprised to find a Hooters in Singapore though Mark looks excited about it haha.



We walked downtown towards the crazy looking casino boat in the sky... but unfortunately that will not be open until June 23. So watch out for more updates on that in a few weeks :)



Here is the building up close. It has 3 tall towers that are like 60 stories high, and a huge patio across the top of the ship-like roof. Theres also supposedly an infinte pool that looks like you're about to swim off the edge of the building... can't wait to see what that is like!



On the way there, we passed a street of shops right on the water. It was some kind of boat quay that was built to look like the belly of a carp, apparently that is good luck for merchants. The restaurants were all a little pricey of course, but that is what you pay for sitting right next to the water.



And saw 5 kg crabs! These are the biggest crabs that I have ever seen, the guy working there said that they were from Australia.



Downtown Singapore is so westernized, with tall skyscrapers and cool architecture. Everything in singapore is so boxy, there aren't many slanted rooftops.



And since the number 8 is considered lucky in chinese culture, they do weird things like build octagon-shaped buildings.



And here is a statue of the famous Sir Raffles, who founded Singapore and turned it into a profitable British colony with a booming port between the East and the West.



We saw another statue of Sir Raffles outside the old opera house (at least I think it is the opera house).



There is a building downtown that looks like a durian! We tried durian pancakes and they were disgusting. They were basically thin little 6-in pancakes that had durian paste in the middle as a filling, and the taste and the smell of the durian was awful. I had one bite and that was enough for me!