Singapore (Day 2)

We have two walking tours planned for today, Little India in the morning, and Marina Bay in the afternoon.  We tried to get an earlier start, but wasn't on the bus until after 10 AM.  We were pretty happy a double decker bus picked us up.  We love headed upstairs and grabbing the front seat.

We arrived in Little India just before 10:30 AM.  The bus stop just happened to be in front of Tekka Market that has fresh foods for sale and hawker stalls.

Since we didn't eat breakfast we decided to check it out and find something to eat.  Tim found his Chicken and Rice.  I figured since we are in Little India I should find some Indian food.  It took me a bit of walking around to find a place that had a vegetarian set.  I had to add the Palak Paneer to the set since it is one of my favorite Indian dishes.  The pita was made fresh in a clay oven.

After lunch we went upstairs in the market where they sold clothes.  Tim wanted to try this outfit on, but it didn't come in his size.

Back outside we walked around Little India.  We came across this mural along Race Course Road that used to have a horse racing track that opened in 1873.

This colorful building in Little India is Tan Teng Niah house.  Although the house was built in 1900, the colors weren't added until it was restored in the 1980s.

We continued to walk around for the next hour or so and take in the colorful and lively scenes in Little India.

The last stop on the tour was Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple, one of the oldest Hindu Temples in Singapore.  There were many people around the temple and many shoes lying outside, so I ventured in to see what was going on.

There was so many people and so many things going on inside, I just stood to the side and watched.  People were getting ashes rubbed on their foreheads by big, bare chested priests, others were lying facedown on the floor touching their forehead and cheeks to the ground, and others were just sitting around on the floor talking and discussing.  It was quite the scene inside an elaborately designed temple.

We finished the Little India just after noon and caught a bus to the start of the Marina Bay walking tour.  We arrived at Raffles Place just before 1 PM.  The square was tightly surrounded by many tall, beautiful buildings, but see that sun...it was beating down on us.  It was so hot and humid so we headed inside to find a place to relax in air conditioning for a little bit. 

We settled on a Starbucks that I know in the United States lets you hang out without purchasing anything.  We were sitting there for a bit and wondered if the rule was the same here.  To not take a chance, I bought an iced herbal mint tea and we relaxed for about an hour before heading back outside to start the walking tour.

I think this steer likes the smell of my mint iced tea.

The first stop on the tour was to see the Merlion fountain.  I guess a Merlion is a half mermaid and half lion?  For some reason it is a mascot of Singapore.  Somehow I didn't capture it in the photos, but there were a lot of tourists hanging out around Merlion.  Maybe the most tourists we have seen since being here in Singapore.

The tour is taking us around the Singapore Reservoir and across the water to that building that looks like a durian.  It is The Esplanade and contains a theater.  

To get there we walked over the pedestrican Jubilee Bridge that was built in 2015 to celebrate Singapore's 50th year of independance.

Once on the other side we had nice view of the other iconic buildings on the skyline, especially Marina Bay Sands.

We had one more cool bridge to cross, the Helix Bridge modeled after the DNA double helix.

In front of the Marina Bay Sands is a very nice shopping mall that we just had to stop in to enjoy the air conditioning, but we also enjoyed the sights.

OK...maybe we are a bit hungry, so we went down tot check out the food court.  Tim had...you guessed it...chicken.  I found an awesome place that makes fresh fishballs and fishcakes daily.  I ordered the Fish cake and noodles dry, which I guess means that they put the soup broth on the side.  It was really good.

We went back outside after lunch and had the awesome view in front of us.  There are supposedly otters in this lilly pad area, but unfortunately we didn't see any.

This has to be one of the coolest Apple Stores in the world.  Instead of being inside the mall, it is a ball floating on the water...what?!?

Here is Tim looking out at the sailboats from inside the Apple ball.

And let another view of the skyline in front of us.

Here is a well located SG (Singapore) sign.  I actually like that it wasn't the typical I ♥️ SG.

Look what we found.  This is Level 33 Brewery and they are the highest urban brewery in the world.  I guess they have to preface the urban point since we have been to the higher elevation breweries in Colorado.

we passed a beer truck as we were n the way to Level 33 Brewery, so we stopped in there to have a beer before heading home.

We grabbed the beers then found a comfortable bench along the reservoir to enjoy it.  We almost stayed long enough to see the sunset, but after all the walking we did today, and the couple of beers, we were beat, so I took some final photos of the amazing buildings around us and headed to the bus stop.

OK...One more sunset-ish photo out the window of the bus as we passed by Helix Bridge.

We arrived back to the apartment around 8 PM to a puddle of water under the air conditioneer on the floor of the bedroom.  By the time we showered, texted the owner who sent the handyman to fix it, and wash the clothes that happen to be sitting under the air conditioner, it was almost 11 PM and we were exhausted.  

Tomorrow is our last day in Singapore and we have too many things to still do.  Maybe we will get an early start?  We shall see...