Bugis Village / Pasir Ris Beach Park

Bugis Village is a fun place to spend an afternoon people watching, snacking and shopping for trinkets. I always manage to find something interesting here. Last weekend and this weekend there is a dumpling festival. Who doesn't love dumplings?

This guy is new from the last time I was here.

There are food stalls on either side of the street with tables and umbrellas for shade. The trees lining the street keeps it much cooler here, nice place to stop for a treat.

Buying dumplings for later.

Flower stalls. I saw people were buying small bunches and bringing them to the temple across the street. 

Kwan Im temple 

These stores sell dried goods, mushrooms, shrimp, chilies, etc.

  

Quite a few psychics in Bugis Village, here is one.

Sri Krishnan temple

More dried goods.

There are always people at this stall standing around watching music videos and listening to music. CD's and DVD's for sale here, not the typical top 40 though - at least for me ;) 

This is a giant tent/building with fresh whole fruits or fresh fruit juices, snacks, clothes, trinkets, shoes, backpacks, etc. Big enough you can easily get lost in here. 

I went to Pasir Ris Beach Park earlier this week, here are a few shots that turned out pretty good.

Not the beach but a waterway off the beach going into the mangroves.

He is hard to see but there is a pretty big owl in the center of the picture. Someone on a bike pointed him out to us, we wouldn't have seen him otherwise. 

Very small beach but beautiful palm trees, nice breeze and a very nice park. Not a cloud in the sky!

These coconuts fell and are sprouting new trees.

Gorgeous!

Kids on school holiday, this really looks like fun!

The Great Singapore Sale

It is the 20th anniversary of The Great Singapore Sale. We are spoilt for choices when it comes to shopping. Local, up and coming designers, international brands or high end boutiques, Singapore has it all. Shopping is one of the national pastimes after all! The sale is from 31 May to 28 July, see you out there!

Pose for a picture on Orchard Road with your shopping bags. This is where you go when you want to do some serious, all day shopping with malls on both sides of the street for more than 2 km you can't go wrong. Of course you are never far from great shopping in Singapore!

Ngee Ann City is one of my favourites with an excellent bookstore, Kinokuniya.

Tangs still had some construction around it so it was difficult to get a good picture, but they had the best sale signs. 

Love these guys in front of Ion on Orchard Rd.

I think Singapore would be a great city to shoot a syfy movie, such cool buildings!

Plaza Singapura renovations are almost completed, there is a whole new section of the mall open. Still working on the older section where Carrefour used to be. 

This escalator was interesting with the lights changing colors.

Ceiling aquarium?? 

I managed to find a few items to bring home at this mall. 

Paragon had a three piece band to get you in the mood to spend lots of money! Everyone was stopping to take their picture.

Giant escalator for a giant mall. 

In honor of Vesak Day

Hi everyone,

Friday is a public holiday, Vesak Day, which is the commemoration of Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death. It is the most important day on the Buddhist calendar. I decided to go to the Buddha Tooth Relic Museum and Temple to take pictures since it seemed to be the most "tourist friendly" temple. All visitors are free to take photographs of most areas of the temple and there were plenty of cameras out so I felt pretty comfortable snapping away. The lighting is sort of odd, it is sort of dark and bright, at the same time, you'll see. I love that Singapore celebrates so many different holidays, Vesak Day, Hari Raya Puasa, Hari Raya Haji, Deepavali and Christmas to name a few. There are so many fun and exciting things to see, do, learn and explore that is very different from what I am used to in California.

The back of the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum.

The lanterns have names hanging from them. Some are families and some are companies.

Inside the courtyard in front of the temple.

The red square box to the right is where you can purchase incense to burn during your prayer and then place in the giant urn in the middle of the picture. 

For Vesak Day you can come into the temple and make a donation and then wash the Buddha. Washing of the Buddha is the single most common ritual on Vesak Day in Asia. According to legend when the Buddha was born he stood straight, took seven steps, raised one hand and declared "I alone am the world honored one" to indicate he would unite heaven and earth. There is a line of people waiting to wash the Buddha and another group of photographers taking pictures of everyone.

Gorgeous temple. The gold was super shiny and the rest of the room was sort of dark with areas of brighter spot lights so it was hard for a newbie photographer to get a good picture! This one turned out pretty good.

Here is the roof top garden with the Ten Thousand Buddha's Pagoda housing the Vairocana Buddha prayer wheel. 

The prayer wheel. It is large enough for about 15 people to walk around it together. Just happened to be empty when I was there. You hold on with one hand and walk slowly around chanting. 

Happy Vesak Day everyone! For more information about the temple, please visit: www.btrts.org.sg