SINGAPORE SNAPSHOT-12 MID AUTUMN FESTIVAL

In my last blog piece I had mentioned about the mid-autumn festival in brief and that this was also the time famous for consuming moon cakes. What I'll do here is keep the information brief and let the pictures do the talking. Mid-autumn festival is a Chinese festival. So, this is celebrated wherever Chinese people live, mainland China especially. Singapore has a strong Chinese origin population, hence the hungry ghost and mid-autumn festivals and so on.

(Musicians entertaining the crowd at Clarke Quay)

The festival revolves around the moon or rather stories built around the moon, it being the biggest brightest object in the night skies (when it's not raining, and it is raining a lot these days in Singapore!). Essentially a harvest festival as it started in China. The China town section of Singapore is specially decked up with lanterns, huge and innovative ones. Not ot be left behind, the Clarke Quay area next to the Singapore river is also lined up with such colorful lanterns, adding a bit of music to the festivities. Moon cakes from all the big name hotels are found in stalls, in many malls across the Island. My focus this time was the lanterns near the Singapore river. Enjoy the pictures, click on them to get full size.









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AMAZING FLIGHT

We had this recent shake up in Singapore last week, resulting from the massive under sea earthquake near Indonesia, the first of which measured 8.4 on the Richter scale. Since the local news was slow in breaking the news and since I was convinced that the rocking back and forth experience was due to a tremor and not my whiskey that i had just started on, I began searching for data on the United States Geological Survey for verification. They had the earthquake located and detailed on their website instantly it seemed. I had not visited the USGS website in a while and this time, it was something else that caught my eye other than the earthquake and it was titled "Bird completes epic flight across the pacific".

I was under the impression that USGS website contained only geological survey material. Turns out I was wrong and they have several projects going on including a joint study on the migratory pattern of certain birds. They have teamed up with researchers using various private and Government grants, to install tiny radio transmitters (via satellite) that would give the position of the birds in flight. This story was about a particular species, a land bird actually, called the Bar-Tailed Godwit. While they have radio tagged many Godwits, it was one called as E7 that got the scientific community in a tizzy. This female completed what can only be termed as an amazing flight non stop across the water (The Pacific) from Alaska to New Zealand. They determined that she was flying non stop because of the constant forward speed recorded by the radio satellite tag.

I cannot write better than what they have done on the USGS website and I encourage all bird lovers to take a look for themselves. Here is one paragraph of the journey that I felt overwhelmed about and I quote: "The last leg of E7's journey is the most extraordinary, entailing a non-stop flight of more than eight days and a distance of 7,200 miles, the equivalent of making a round trip flight between New York and San Francisco, and then flying back again to San Francisco without ever touching down."

I know aviators including myself who would marvel at this achievement because it is a bit beyond human capability at this time unless you strap on a huge gas tank and make a lot of noise and we'd still need advanced avionics to tell us where we are headed. What got the attention of the researchers is that E7 flew a route back from Alaska that is not commonly used and is perhaps the only bird recorded to have done this route. When going through the information on the USGS website, I'd encourage the reader to look at and pay attention to the maps provided highlighting the route that E7 took and you'll realize too that this is one amazing bird on a really amazing flight. Hail the Godwit!

USGS website: http://www.usgs.gov/
Link to the story: http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1774

SINGAPORE SNAPSHOT - 11 HUNGRY GHOSTS

Singapore is a multi-cultural society as everyone knows. I sampled a part of it last night; this culture is particular to the Singaporean Chinese. The end of the 7th month of the Chinese calendar is upon us now but the entire month had festivities to honor and “entertain” the dead. Did you read that right? Of course you did. During the 7th month, it is known by the Chinese that the gates of Hades (or hell) are thrown open to the dead and they come down to the land of the living. They are known as the hungry ghosts. I’d be hungry too, if they had me locked up in hell for a year. So, the month is known as “hungry ghost’s month”. This festival is also big in Hong Kong and Taiwan except that in Singapore it has a twist.

(Getai-sound stage before performance)

During this month it is common to see Chinese origin people burning joss sticks, incense and conducting prayers for the returning dead. In order to provide entertainment to the returning dead, Singaporeans went one step further and organized singing concerts on stage. This is known as a Getai (sound stage) performance. Such performances are held throughout the island and this has become quite big in recent years. The Getai singers dress up in pretty skimpy outfits (yup you read that right as well) and perform for the hungry ghosts. I’d be hungry too if I returned to such entertainment, indeed. A live band accompanies the singers/performers. The front row has candles lit on them and no one is allowed to sit there, no mortals I mean. They are meant for the returning dead!

(Front row of seats with the lights-not for mortals!)

The songs are all in Chinese and such events throughout the month also attract overseas singers/performers from Taiwan. This year’s biggest local movie hit in Singapore has been the movie called “881”. In Mandarin, 881 sounds like Papaya (Pa Pa Yaw). The movie is based on the Getai culture of Singapore, all the songs in the movie are in original Hokkien and the movie runs with English sub-titles. The two main protagonists in the movie are called as the Papaya sisters and they are challenged by the Durian sisters in a Getai duel! Yours truly went to see the movie and then went on to see live Getai performances shown (in the photos) in this blog piece. For those who don’t understand the language, that’s OK, the melodies sound haunting (literally) and I loved the performances.

(click on pictures for bigger format-getai performers)


I would have liked to see more participation from other cultures in Singapore, just to learn, appreciate and integrate. It’s all in good fun. However, to my dismay, I was the only “Indian” in the movie hall and also in the crowd at the live performance. The next big event is the mid-autumn festival that is going on now, also Chinese origin culture where paper lamps of various hues and designs are lit all over Singapore. This is also the best time to tuck into very local “moon cakes” made from lotus seeds and consumed during the mid-autumn festival. All this talk of food, I’m hungry already lah, got to reach for that moon cake. Ta till next time.

SNAPSHOT – 10 SINGAPORE RHYTHMS

I’ve been away again hence the slowness in blogging. In Singapore, as I had mentioned last time, there’s way too many things happening. I’ll try and give an insight into the music, theatre, performances scene here this time. Singapore is trying to position itself as a entertainment hub (this word "hub" has been over-used) and is promoting all kinds of visual arts, music and theatre performances.

There are various venues around Singapore where performances are held, the best of all being the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay. As the name suggests, it is by the bay and is Singapore’s answer to Sydney’s opera house. Architecturally different, named unofficially but affectionately as the Durian, it stands at the Marina Bay water front on a sprawling complex. The Durian is a local spiny covered fruit, it tastes like meat and smells really bad. The smell is so string that it is banned on all public transport, cannot even carry a piece of this fruit on an MRT or bus. I'm sure the local populace would differ with me and call it their king of fruits but let me say it is an acquired taste. It looks like a jackfruit, but beware, it aint jackfruit for sure.

(The durian shaped Esplanade in the background)

A number of theatres indoors and outdoors around the Esplanade area compete with each other in hosting performances of various kinds. The last performance I went to last year was the West Side Story, played by the original Broadway cast. The “King and I” is presently playing and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” is coming soon. The calendar is packed and one can take a look at the Esplanade website to check out what’s up next: www.esplanade.com
If you don't drive and take the MRT instead, get off at City Hall MRT and walk through the underground CityLink Mall to the Esplanade.

(The stage for Baybeats 2007)

The music scene here is also varied and the itinerary somewhat packed. To give an example, there was Christina Aguilera a few weeks back followed by Gwen Stefani and now Engelbert Humperdinck. I probably missed mentioning a few more as I have been in and out on my travels. To keep people amused, Singapore hosts the annual Indie Rock festival outdoors near the Esplanade and that is free for the public. The event was called Baybeats 2007 between 2nd and 5th August and included local as well as invited International bands. I took in the rock sounds of a Sydney based group called Intone and enjoyed it, this being my genre of music (I’m a Linkin’ Park fan BTW, for rock fans, I’d also suggest “Send away the tigers” a new album from Manic Street Preachers).

(Intone lead singer)

So, the next time when you are in Singapore, check out the Esplanade for performances and check out the local newspaper listings to see what’s going on. The hungry ghost festival is going on now and that is a Singaporean event mostly reflecting the culture and music of the Getai singers and performers who perform at various places in the heartlands. A movie based on this has been released called 881 (Pa Pa Yaw) in Chinese with English Subtitles. I’ll watch it and then post something on it. I may have to do a separate write up on the Hungry Ghost month. Singapore also had it’s National Day celebrations recently and there was the NDP parade and performances and for the first time this was done on the waterfront on the World’s largest floating platform. That’s another post as well.

(Intone in motion)

REGIONAL AIRLINES UPDATE FROM INDIA

One and a half years ago, January 13th 2006 precisely, I wrote a piece on my blog (http://mymysore72.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_archive.html) titled "wake up airline investors..." and that was about how the hinterland in India was largely unserviced by any Airline or operator in India. I had predicted that new investments were required from private players to tap this market. I had also predicted that the boom in aviation in future woukd come from the hinterlands.

Why am I rehashing old stuff? Well, news from India that I am following on the net these days suggests that the Ministry of Civil Aviation is paving the way for new "regional airline" operators to connect hitherto unconnected airports, using "regional" aircraft. There are some riders attached to the policy to ensure that regional routes are the primary business of the operators and to ensure that new licenses given for an airline does not violate the reduced norms of the Government.

The policy of encouraging new entrants to service the regional sectors is a good one. I am sure that feasibility of operating to smaller towns is not going to be a factor and I predict that the revenue yield per seat is going to be much above what "national" airlines are getting for their trunk routes. The new policy also allows existing operators to have regional subsidiaries but the license given will be in a different category. The Government has also offered lots of sops for companies willing to operate on these sectors, just to give them a jumpstart. I hope that new operators take this gauntlet tossed to them by the Ministry and turn this into profitable ventures. I say again, in my opinion, the hinterland in India is where the next boom is, for sure.

I guess this comes a little late, but better late than never, says an old cliche'. I have been shouting hoarse for a while on this subject. I don't believe for a second that the Aviation Minister read my blog of a year and half back although that would be flattering if he did! Only my fanciful thinking! I had to do this piece, felt good to be writing about aviation again.

SINGAPORE SNAPSHOT - 9 EXTREME SPORTS

I am not sure why they call stunts and acrobatics performed on bicycles, in-line skates and skate boarding as extreme sports, but they are called as such. Singapore is not left behind in the world of extreme sports and last weekend saw an extreme sports challenge take place right in the heart of down town. There is an area next to the Somerset MRT (train) station that has been designated as a graffiti area and for people to enjoy practicing their “extreme” sports. I have been watching young chaps accompanied by their doting girlfriends do their thing at the skate part (for lack of a better word). Skate boarding is a fun thing to do, for me at least, inline skating and stunt biking is not the thing for me although I’d watch people doing it.




So, yours truly had a weekend off, well almost the whole weekend, and what better way to spend the morning and a part of the afternoon but hang out at an extreme sports event? So, there I went, being among the oldest looking chaps at the place, in shorts, scrawny legs and all, gawking at youngsters ability to throw themselves and get hurt in as many ways as the imagination can stretch!


The event was well organized and that is one of the things that I have said in the past and perhaps I sound like a broken record now, everything happens in Singapore the way it is supposed to happen. That said, the event had rock music and sponsored by various sponsors of extreme sports equipment, the Singapore Sports promotion people, a local radio station that plays the latest music including my favorite genre (rock) and other sponsors.


The morning session was dominated by the bicycle stunts participants and by noon the inline skaters had done their thing followed by the skate boarders. Young Singaporeans have taken to the sport, although not in huge numbers and they had their colorful spectators to cheer them on and the locals were joined by some expats as well, especially in the skateboarding part of it. Can’t say that I saw any of my fellow Indians there though, conspicuously missing as usual, perhaps at home or perhaps doing typically sedentary activities on a lazy Saturday, even watching extreme sport can be too tiring for some!


For those of you who have watched these events on T.V. I’d say that being there is better, the spills and thrills are better to watch from up-close except that I never managed to take any pictures of mid-air acrobatics and there were some of them who looped their bikes and skates. Since the options were unlimited on the day and since I was tempted to pack more things on my off-day, I wandered off to the annual rock concert that takes place in Singapore and is free to the public. That’s going in my next post along with a preview of the flying displays that I watched and took pictures of, in preparation of the National Day Parade. Singapore is celebrating its 42nd Birthday on the 9th of August and I’ll tyr and put in some information after the celebrations.

RETURN TO THE DRAGON

This trip to Macao was interesting because I managed to visit the Southern Island of Coloane’ (pronounced as colo anne). In my previous blog titled “Macao” published on April 21st and “More of Macao” on April 28th of this year, I had written about Macao peninsula mostly and in the second part I had mentioned about making a visit to the countryside of Macao. Fortune favored me and I was able to visit briefly an island called Taipa on which the International Airport is located and is also a residential island. Taipa hosts many schools and has some open spaces.

(Macau streets along the main casino belt)


I went on my usual wanderings around Macao peninsula close to the casinos and it took me a while to locate the bus stop that takes one to Taipa, continuing on to Coloane’. The bus stop is behind the new Hotel Lisboa. Bus number 25, 26A or 21 can take one to these places. The bus route takes one over the new bridge that connects Taipa with Macao and the vista is magnificent. The weather this time was better in terms of visibility but hot and humid in terms of temperature and sweat factor-not an easy combination to have when one is on a field trip of sorts involving lots of walking. I stayed on the bus as it went around Taipa, having nothing much to see there at the moment and continued on towards Coloane picking up some loud, boisterous North American kids in school uniforms. Looking at Taipa one felt that the American invasion of Macao had taken place. I assumed that their folks perhaps worked at the numerous casinos or involved in building them. As I had said in my last post on Macao, this country/S.A.R of china has overtaken Las Vegas in the casino business.

It is unbelievable to see that there is no real “sea” between Taipa and Coloane like I had expected. They have filled it up and the area is rapidly being developed to accommodate more casinos. Some of them like “The Venetian” looked complete to me, a shiny new edifice with a lot of undeveloped dirt areas surrounding it. This strip that has been reclaimed from the sea is known as the Cotai strip and this is going to presumable make Las Vegas look small.

(Quite Coloane)

Moving further south to Coloane’, the “island” if it can be called that presently, appears quiet and pleasing. It is hilly and green and as the road winds up and down the hill side, one cannot but appreciate the abundance of nature, a short ride away from the upcoming bustling metropolis of Cotai.

The American kids and their Chinese look-a-likes got off at what looked like expensive bungalows by the sea. It pays to be an expatriate working on a casino project for sure. I sat in the bus till the last stop at a beach, getting off to walk around a bit and watch those who were running in and out of the surf. Not adequately equipped for a frolic in the sea, I avoided a dip but noticed that the facilities like fresh water showers and well maintained toilets were easily accessible, something that beaches in India (although more spectacular than these in Coloane”) lack. Heck, people lack these amenities such as clean public toilets even in large cities in India, forget beaches.

Coloane beechside, bungalows in background)

I ventured back on another bus, they all retrace the route back to Macao and it was easy to get off in the middle of Coloane’ where the main village is located. It is a quiet sleepy village, neat and tidy and with loads of history and has a distinctly Portuguese influence in its architecture and general feel. I was famished and thought that I’d need an energy drink and ordered a Banana milk shake. Vegetarians need not worry, this place called Lord Stowe’s Garden restaurant has a nice selection of pure veggie food and I settled for a Veggie Lasagna. It was really good, I was impressed. Staff speak good English, not strange because I guess the local village economy thrives from tourists. I did not find hoards of tourists though and I liked that immensely.

(Bus stop opposite Lord Stowe's with a Fanta Bottle!)

Lord Stowe’s is located at the Villa Coloane square, as one comes out the main door, turning right will tale you to where people live. Turning left takes one to a mini roundabout where the road meanders around to the sea and splits up with one branch going to the left and the other to the right. Both roads hug the shore. The tide was low and I figured one could have walked over to the neighboring island (part of mainland china).

(Road leading to sea-coloane')

I took the road going left and left again near the shore, a short walk brought me to St Francis Xavier, a figure who left a mark on the lives of South East Asians in the 1540-1550 A. D. This church is fairly new built in 1928 but dedicated to the saint who did a lot of work around these parts in the 1500’s. Further there is a “large” square dedicated to a victory over pirates. This part of the World has seen pirate activities since ages, since there was shipping I guess. Coloane’ was supposed to have been a pirate base till 1910 A.D. when they were finally driven out to sea. This square commemorates the event.

(Church of St. Francis Xavier)

Walking further along the shore, I saw dehydrated young people struggling to find the strength and in various states of distress due to the heat and humidity. Tourists for sure, made me think that youngsters these days are not as tough outside their air-conditioned environment. This fool (your truly) kept going on, and reached a point that serves as a dead end where there is a Chinese temple called Tam Kung, a Taoist sea faring god who looks after sea farers welfare. The notable thing here is a whale bone carving of a dragon boat and their crew. There are short trees with not much foliage along the shore and the walk balk to Lord Stowe’s feels longish at 2:00PM. That’s why the tour guide book recommends visits during summer during early morning or late evening time. For those like me who cannot acquire any more tan that we are born with, and with some rough backpacking experience, the time does not matter not does the heat.

(Tam Kung Temple)

Lord Stowe’s has a bakery on the corner near the roundabout and I ran into an Indian looking guy who gave me a smile. I stopped to have a small chat and that made him happy, not seeing “his kind” in great numbers in Macao and that too in desolate Coloane’. He was from the Southern Indian state of Kerala and was serving as a baker at Lord Stowe’s.

I walked around the little roundabout, pleased with the surroundings, enjoying the peace and quiet and ended up at the bus stop that has a large Fanta next to it. One does not have to wait for long as busses are frequent. I was back in Macao and spent the evening at the fisherman’s walk that I had mentioned in my last posts on Macao, along the outer harbor, watching helicopters coming in and out. A sudden downpour drove everyone in and while I was sitting and sipping my Hoegaarden brew, I was entertained for free, by a group of Americans who were as usual loud, boisterous and funny. I didn’t mind that, after all they did bring out a laugh out of me with their various antics. The invasion is complete, Macao is full of them.

(Fishermans Wharf Macau)

ASIAN CIVILIZATIONS MUSEUM-SNAPSHOT 8

ACM as it is popularly known as in acronym loving Singapore is a relatively new museum, opening its doors in 1997. However, the original building was first constructed in the middle part of the 1860’s apparently using convict labor. It was always a Government Building and was known as such until the early 20th Century and at that time the name was changed to Empress Place. That was to commemorate Queen Victoria.

(looking towards Boat Quay)

A few Singaporeans still remember the building used to be a ‘one stop shop’ Government office looking after birth and death registry, immigration department, citizen’s registry and also marriage registry. It began its new avatar as a museum in 1997 hosting a series of exhibitions from China.

(Asian Civilizations Museum)

There are events going on all the time at the museum and I believe a visit is well worth it because of the building itself, beautifully maintained heritage structure that it is and also to spend time in the museum’s surroundings. Currently “Beauty in Asia” is an exhibit featuring more than 300 pieces of art and art forms collected from all over Asia from 200 BCE to date.

(ACM from across the river)

The ACM is situated right next to the Singapore River, a favorite place of mine in Singapore. The river is lined with restaurants and boutique watering holes along a stretch called as Boat Quay and Clarke Quay. These are places where, in the past, trading boats sailed up river to the warehouses (godowns as they were known as in British India and Malaya) for storage and for traders to sell their wares. The old buildings are still there, being used these days as brew pubs, restaurants and bars.

(Sir Stamford Raffles)

Surrounding the ACM are metal sculptures depicting life as it is was on the river in the early days of Singapore. Right next to the ACM is the place where the legendary (but real) chap called Stamford Raffles landed in Singapore and reportedly changed the sleepy fishing village that it was, into a modern trading outpost of the British Empire. There are many structures bearing his name. He was knighted suitably of course.

(Plaque commemorating Sir Raffles landing site in Singapore)


(Sculpture depicting trade in the old days)


(Sculpture depicting an indian chettiar money lender and chinese trader)


(The art museum next door)


(View across river-Boat Quay)


(ACM from near the statue of Sir Raffles)

I’d suggest a walk around the area, crossing old heritage bridges that are for pedestrian only. The nice broad walkways, light breeze coming off the river, the lights, the ambience of Boat Quay and Clarke Quay can entice many a weary traveler to sit down for the evening and dip his moustache (or the area around the upper lip for the non-moustache types) into a pint of cold draft and tuck into some indigenous food or a selection of many cuisines from around the World.

Cheers!

SNAPSHOT-7 'MOLLY AND I'

I have been fond of animals and wildlife since I was a child but my interest in monitor lizards started when I came upon many that live around my home airport. Seletar Airport is like a wilderness area. Most Singaporeans have never explored the vast area that surrounds the airport except for the two golf courses situated there. Driving around, they usually get lost and I have bailed out a few with directions! Taxi drivers inevitably get lost going to any other area of the airport except a few of them who only know how to get to the main passenger terminal.

The vast grassy areas, shady trees and water hazard created for the golf courses and the Seletar reservoir itself has provided ideal conditions for the Asian monitor lizards to live. That’s where I met a fair share of them, either basking around or lazily taking an early morning walk on the golf links. My fascination for these creatures prompted me to look for them in Sungei Buloh, about which I wrote earlier. We were sharing the same space, the monitors and us, but I did not for a minute think that I’d have the privilege of a close encounter.

It so happened that one day I spotted a baby monitor lizard just outside my office, on the grassy area, probably foraging for food. The lizard was fairly small and I had to go up close, really slow so as to not upset the creature, to be absolutely sure that what I was seeing was a monitor lizard and not something else. It was obviously a baby and I then stopped to look around and make sure mama wasn’t around to bite me in the backside while I stalked her baby. My colleagues kept a watch as well, how nice of them, they'd have run away if they'd spotted mama for sure.

Many days went by and the baby monitor still stayed around the same area and we never saw the mother, if at all she was around. We decided that she was going to be our mascot(I think she’s a female because she’s so cute). She did not seem to be perturbed by being so close to humans and she endeared herself to us even more by her proximity. I decided that she be named Molly. I just took the first half of Monitor and first part of Lizard resulting in MO-LI, a little corruption of that word resulted in ‘Molly’ a perfectly girly name at that.

One day, we were returning from lunch and found her inexplicable stuck behind our air conditioning compressor. Whacking myself on the back of my head for not having my camera handy, I had to quickly dig out the mobile phone to take some pictures of Molly from up-close. The phone provided poor quality pictures but something is better than nothing. I had done a bit of research on the net about the way molly lives and their general behavior. When approached at close quarters by other species that seem like predators to them, the monitors are known to puff their head, puff their necks (like a sack hanging from the throat) and emit a hissing sound. They are also known to use their long whip like tail to lash out. Well, that’s what molly did to me when I got too close to her from under the aircon compressor. She did all of the above and then turned her backside and whipped me so hard that I had her tail indentation on my fingers for a while! It felt like a leather whip to be exact. My close encounter left me completely thrilled and elated.
The puffed up throat!

I’d never been whipped by an animal before, not unless you count the swipe a leopard took and the ‘Mrs’ joyfully (another animal aficionado) took pictures of that, with the paw midair and me with a silly grin dodging it! Since that animal wasn’t a wild one and the swipe had not connected to any part of me, I guess I can’t count that one as close encounters of the third kind (sorry Spielberg). But let’s not get sidetracked here. Molly left a deep impression on me (literally) and my respect for all species other than our own was reinforced.
Molly

Molly was the inspiration for me to go and look for more of them in Sungei Buloh. I saw Molly yesterday, she’s grown a bit more and she was lazily walking on the grass. When we stopped the car to see her, she stopped in her tracks to look back at us before sauntering away. I hope she hangs around here for a long time, becomes 7 feet long and continues to be our mascot.

SNAPSHOT-6: PIRATES OF SINGAPORE

Recently the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean” was released, for those who have watched the series this was another fun movie and features what is supposed to be medieval Singapore. That was fiction but Singapore celebrated the pirate theme by organizing a River Raft Race on the Singapore River at Clarke Quay with some of the participants dressed up like pirates and flying the “skull flag”.



The event is basically to race free-style hand made rafts that are all not sea (or river) worthy and they are built by various groups of people supported and sponsored by the Singapore Polytechnic. The rafts were made from bamboo, recycled water cans, tires, drums and pretty much whatever material that can stay afloat-although a lot of them that were designed to float actually didn’t and ended up soaking the participants. The race was only on a 100 meter stretch of water. The idea was to have fun, raise funds for charity and spread awareness (more on that later) and that’s what everyone did, the participants and the onlookers.


Organizers and saftey canoes before the race


The river raft event has been going on for the last 19 years and it was originally conceived as an awareness campaign for keeping the Singapore River clean and navigable. The atmosphere was that of a carnival, accompanied by music and DJ’s from local radio stations providing interesting tit bits of information and live commentary of the race.


A "poor" pirates' raft for sure

People had gathered in large numbers to either participate or to encourage those who were participating and it was great fun to hear remarks from by-standers who were desperately cheering on some of the teams that were half submerged and trying desperately to find movement, other than going around in circles. There was no shortage of imagination when it came to raft building and the participant’s sense of humor. To cap it all, the day turned out to be beautiful, nice, clear, sunny, after days of rainfall and cloudy weather.


Will this float? Will this win? asking questions...

Rafts lined up


These Viking pirates needed to be towed..


A painting competition was organized for kids of various age groups and many of the budding artists sat by the riverside drawing and painting the raft race as they saw it. There was rock climbing events on a simulated rock wall of course, netball competitions and food and heritage tours as part of the event.


Kids at the river side 'drawing' the race


Rafts at the starting grid


I thought you'd find hippos in rivers, here's a rhino though!



Ferrari's got more competition than from just Lewis Hamilton!



Jaws-this one went in circles and almost sank!

I’d like to add that As fund-raising is very much a part of Raft Race, a sum of $83,724 was collected for this year's beneficiaries - Autism Children's Centre, The Salvation Army Haven Children's Home, Clementi Student Service Centre and Singapore Polytechnic's Overseas Community Service Program.