Singapore - Chinatown

Singapore's Chinatown is home to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum.  Along with housing some of the precious remaining relics of Buddha, this temple and museum also serves as a place of worship, education, and supports different welfare organizations and services that assist the sick, poor and needy (regardless of race or religion).  As mentioned in a previous post, I am drawn to places of religion and worship and am forever fascinated with structures and statues dedicated for this purpose.  The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum is a four story building and open to the public at no cost, although donations are always appreciated.  Upon entering the temple, I was simply speechless at the size of the statues in the center of the room on the ground floor.  The walls are covered with hundreds of Buddha statues, all brightly painted gold and making a room with no windows seem filled with sunlight.  The details of the statues are absolutely amazing.  I was so captivated by the structure and the statues that quite often I forgot that I had my camera in hand and didn't take as many pictures I would have liked.  (Some floors and rooms do not allow photographs to be taken.)  Here are some of my pictures from my visit to this temple.

exterior shot

main room on the ground floor

a wall on the ground floor, full of statues of Buddha, each one unique

the back room, on the ground floor

a very large Buddha statue

a close up of the face on one of the statues

another Buddha statues, there were literally hundreds of them

After visiting the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum, we took a walk through Chinatown...  

and picked up a few souvenirs along the way.

I thought all the hanging masks that were actually lights were pretty cool.  

Love the way this building is painted.

Who doesn't love Tin Tin and his dog, Snowy?

Paper boxes with paintings of different animals covered the support poles of a bridge overpass.  Great idea!

I have no idea what kind of meat they are selling in this shop but  the fact that they sold the meat in "sheets" was something I found rather interesting.  

Love the painting on the exterior wall of this spa in Chinatown.

Although this was on a building in Chinatown, it reminds me a Mexican wrestling mask.

Singapore - Architecture

One of the major reasons my husband and I visited Singapore was to see the amazing architecture.  Most days we found ourselves walking around the city, pointing out interesting buildings to each other and snapping photos.  We found the city to be extremely clean, quiet, safe and the people there very friendly.  Singapore does have a mass transit system, but we enjoyed walking about the city, stumbling upon little parks and unique statues and buildings all along the way.

As I travel, I am perpetually fascinated with buildings that are a place of worship.  Built with similar intentions, the various religions, cultural influences, and available building materials make each structure unique and special.  The Chijmes, originally a Catholic convent school, this church now sits within a complex of restaurants and shops.  When we first found this place, there was a wedding taking place in the church.  I'm not sure if there is a regularly scheduled mass here or if it is just an event venue now, but the place was absolutely gorgeous.  Located right across the street from our hotel (the Carlton), we ate a few dinners in some of the restaurants in this complex.  Not only was the location convenient for us, but there were a multitude of restaurants that cater to almost any palette.  Our Christmas dinner at the Spanish tapas restaurant, located in this complex, was one of our favorite meals while in Singapore.  Never thought I would be eating at a restaurant in the backyard of a church, but then again there is a first time for everything, right?    

Also located near our hotel was the largest cathedral in all of Singapore, St. Andrew's Cathedral.  The pristine white steeple could be seen for blocks and is what initially drew me to this building.  (I couldn't get a good picture of the entire Cathedral due to all the trees growing around it and a guard who was keeping a close eye on us to make sure we didn't walk on the grass.)

Along with the beautiful cathedrals, many of the residential and commercial buildings caught my eye and keep my camera busy.  Here are some of my favorites. 

I just love the colorful shutters on this building.  It is the same along the back side of the building, too.

This was a sculpture in front of the building with the colorful shutters.  There is a bus stop nearby and I wonder if this sculpture is suppose to be people waiting for the bus.  

These two pictures show the front (left picture) and the back (right picture) of this apartment complex.  I love all the plants and trees growing on the balconies of the different floors.  Singapore has and continues to make a tremendous effort to develop a city that is environmentally conscience.  In my humble opinion, they are doing an outstanding job!

This is the building next to the one pictured above.  It also has multiple levels of balconies with plants and tree growing.  I would love to live in either of these buildings.

Another building that I couldn't take my eyes off of.  It looks like it could fall over at any moment but it keeps standing.  I love architecture that makes me stop, scratch my head, and think, "how did they do that?"

This is a fire station that we spotted along one of our walks through the city.  Probably one of the most interesting looking fire stations I have ever seen.  Above the left seven arched doorways runs a second story balcony.  At the far left end of the balcony was a sculpture of a firefighter.  Even the fire station integrates art into its design, LOVE IT!   

 

London as "The Eye" and Singapore as "The Flyer".  Although The Flyer gives riders a great view of the city, we opted for a visit to some other locations (Supertrees in the Gardens by the Bay & the observation desk of the Marina Bay Sands hotel) that would offer us a view of the city from high above.

The smaller, white structure in the foreground in the Art Science Museum, which housed the Lego exhibit that I blogged about in a previous post. (To read more about my visit to the Art Science Museum, read Singapore Art Science Museum.)  The building was designed to look like a lotus blossom opening up, yet some believe that it is a hand with the fingers stretching towards the sky.  Towering behind the museum, the three-tower complex with the large ship stretched across the top is the Marina Bay Sands hotel.  This complex is not only is a hotel, but a high end shopping mall, a movie theater, and has a roof top swimming pool and observation deck.  We visited the observation deck and were able to get some fantastic pictures of the city of Singapore.

In order to get to the Art Science Museum and Marina Bay Sands hotel, you cross over a waterway using The Helix, a bridge that is truly a piece of art.  It is the world's first curved bridge and looks like the structure of DNA.  (The third picture in this trio is an aerial shot of the bridge from the observation deck of the Marina Bay Sands hotel.)

Beautiful Singapore!

Just love that there is a soccer field in the water.  I guess when the ball goes out of bounds, it's "out!"

...and with that, I am "out"!  Thanks for reading.

Singapore - ArtScience Museum

Another museum that we visited while in Singapore was the ArtScience Museum.  This museum is located along the Marina Bay waterfront, near the Gardens by the Bay (see previous post about the Gardens by the Bay).  The concept behind this museum is to explore "the creative processes at the heart of art and science and how they shape society" (museum website) and hosts international traveling exhibitions.  At the time of our visit, a Legos exhibit featuring lawyer turned artist Nathan Sawaya titled "The Art of the Brick" was there.  All of the artwork in this exhibit was done completely in Legos and was a must-see for the two of us.  As kids, we grew up playing with these little colorful bricks and could not wait to see what this guy created.  Needless to say, we were blown away...more than impressed...at times speechless...and by the end, wishing we had been so creative.  After this visit, I will never look at Legos the same...and can't wait to get my hands on a bucket of those bricks!  Here are some of my favorite Lego creations from this exhibit.  (I put the title and number of Lego bricks used for each piece in the caption.)

Exterior of the Art Science Museum with the Marina Bay Sands hotel in the background.
(Yes that is a boat on top of the hotel.)  

Yellow - 11,014 bricks

Open Heart - 1,856 bricks

Peaces - 3,720 bricks

Blue Guy Sitting - 21,054 bricks + two chairs and ME

An artist's View - 11,561 bricks

untitled - 11,274 bricks

Square Torso (blue) - 9,957 bricks
Triangle Torso (yellow) - 9,147 bricks
Circle Torso (red) - 10,305 bricks

Doorway - 6,988 bricks

Thinker (inspired by Rodin) - 1,047 bricks

Janis - 1,070 bricks

Jimi - 1,203 bricks

Al - 2,154 bricks

Bob - 1,180 bricks

Sing - 8,189 bricks

Overcome - 7,434 bricks

Pencil Fun - 9,800 bricks 

Parthenon - 30,210 bricks

Writer - 3,210 bricks

Fingertips - 1,520 bricks

Red Skull - 3,111 bricks
(There was also a yellow skull, green skull and blue skull.
Each of the four skulls used 3,111 bricks.)

Trapped - 3,423 bricks

Mask - 18,509 bricks

Ascension - 7,124 bricks

Underneath - 12,116 bricks

Grasp - 17,356 bricks

"Underneath" in the center with "Yellow Skull" and "Ascension" in the background.

Dinosaur Skeleton - 80, 020 bricks
Probably the most amazing use of Legos I've ever seen!

A close up of the dinosaur face.

ArtScience Museum - 15,999 bricks

At the end of the exhibition, there was a hands-on section...or in this case, a feet-on, that encouraged you to touch and interact with the Legos.

In the lobby of the museum was this beautiful Christmas tree made from Legos.