Singapore Arts Festival 2009

May 15th, 2009

All rite u gotta excuse me for forgetting the names of some places.

I'm writing this close to 1 yr since my visit to Singapore..nevertheless ppl say a single picture is worth thousand memory.

Here are some of the events that happen during my visit and some interesting shots i would like to share.

This is the outside of Armenian Church. Few graves, tomb stones and statues.

The church building itself is just a humble single storey building for worship.

I had some unexplainable weird feeling inside that place.

Not far from here, Fort Canning Park.

Its a really nice and big recreational site situated around a reservoir hill.  

Even jogging or taking a stroll in the middle of the day can be enjoyable

since the park is literally covered by forest.

Within the park itself there is a club, botanical garden, spice garden, jogging paths, archaelogical site, few historical structure like the Gothic gates, and a WWII bunker which is opened into a musuem called

the Battle Box.

The Battle Box was a bunker built by the British in the hill of current Fort Canning Park during WWII.

It was formidable to withstand any external onslaught, land or air.

Eventually the "Godzilla Japs" overpowered the British colony and they were forced to abandon the bunker.

In addition to the moving mannequin robots, there is background dialogue and sound effect that serves to reanimate the tense moments during the Japs attack.

Next stop, Singapore Arts Festival 2009 opening day at Marina Barrage, Marina Bay.

Marina Barrage is a dam built accross the Marina Channel,

another 1 of Singapore's state-of-the-art modern infrastructures.

It serves as the country's new source of water supply, flood control, and recreational attractions.

Also houses a gallery cum museum that promotes "Sustainable environment" theme. 

Living up to its billing as Singapore's proud artistic modern infrastructure,

its only sensical for Marina Barrage to be the perfect venue for the festival opening event...

HELIOS II

HELIOS II 

dwells around the story of the contruction of the sun god.

Don't get it? Its okay,

just enjoy the spectacular procession of circus artists, performances, music and pyrotechnic displays..

Brought to you by French urban theatre extraordinaires

La Compagnie Malabar

 

It started off with a pack of circus performers bounching around on jumping sticks,

making way for a creature that personifies a praying mantis.

...It looked like "Baja Hitam"

Smokes and colourful bright flash lights and the theme music livened the atmosphere,

 as the Monster and its "groupies" circled around Marina Barrage before taking centre-stage. 

The Monster has parked. The circus performers carried out their formation.

The music was a mix of fast tempo at times eerie tune, with serene new age fusion.

Together with the changing array of colourful lights and its theme music, 

the performance created a mesmerizing and surreal experience

which instantly hook the audiences into its story-telling.

The monster's head split opened, and a female circus performers hangs on a hoop.

The contruction of Singapore's future casino complex @ Marina Bay.

View from top of Marina Barrage.

Even from a distant you could hear the noisy and tiredless construction sound.

Back to Helios II, sorry i got distracted a bit :-p.

The performers at their tricks again, after the juggling, now the shaolin sticks.

They didn't awed us somemore by hitting each other though..

If u noticed, the body of the Mantis dismantled itself into a mini platform for the live band.

The music was flawless and i thought they probably were just playing in sync.

Awesome gymnastic display from a "white angel" hanging from a ribbon.

The story telling ended with colourful fireworks shooting into Singapore's night sky..

and henceforth the sun god creation..

..still don't make any sense? Its oookaaayyy  :-)

Btw, the next day this event of the night came out on the front page of Singapore's leading dailies.

The Singapore flyer, with Marina Centre and Suntec City at its background.

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On a different matter, this is the inside of

Prince of Wales backpacker hostel.

Its SD 18 a night, clean dorm rooms wif ac, free breakfast jz to last u the morning,

micro brewery beer and live music at night.

Recommended by Lonely Planet.

Friendly staff, they were supposed to have a dog, how come i never asked about it.

On the side wall there's painting of the city of Prince of Wales in Australia.

This is Prince of Wales backpacker hostel where i bunked.

Its at Dunlop Street in Little India.

India is famous for its mangoes, esp Alfonso mango.

Here in Little India, u can find alot of them, imported ones.

Typical indian street

At night, if it weren't for the lights, this street would be pitch black..

U kno what i mean..hehe..:-p

All righty, whats Singapore without its Chinatown?

Not a fan of temples meself but just for completion sake of my visit,

we shall go there tomorrow to snap snap few pictures.

Good nite then, thzx for following~