Singapore Trip: Chinese Temple in old China Town

I have always believed that in every city, if there is one place that never fails to give an impression of the town’s history and culture that would be the church or temple or mosque. This is the reason why every time I find myself in a new city, most often than not, the very first stop would be a church, aside from the fact that this is also an influence of my mom. For me, this practice is like hitting two birds with one stone, first, I get to see the evolution of the place’s ethos and second, I get the chance to pray.



Singapore is no exception, this is why I was so thrilled when our tour guide took us to one of the oldest temples in China town. I can’t help but be amazed by the details on the ceiling and columns of the temple. There are several altars within the temple and she explained that people pray to each of them for various reasons. There were two lions (well, I think they were lion) on each side of the entrance and our tour guide explained that all Chinese temple has them and they serve as guards. Upon entering the main entrance is a place where people light their incense. At the top of the roof were two very intricate dragons. Our tour guide explained that a certain number of dragons (it escapes me at the moment how many exactly) can only be used to signify the emperor.


There’s no doubt about it, this temple is truly a mirror of Singapore’s history and culture. From the plasters on the ceiling to the elaborate mouldings on the walls to the ornate design of the roof to the detailed carvings of each gods and goddesses, there is no denying how rich the culture of Singaporeans is.

Random Stuff

Ever since I got back from Singapore, things haven’t settled down yet adding to that is the fact that it took me a while to get back in synch with Amsterdam time. These are my excuses for not responding to Niko’s tag sooner. So today, I’m taking a breather from posting another Singapore entry and would like to share 8 random things about myself.

1) I’m all about purple, violet, indigo, lilac, lavender, anything that is in that shade really tickles my attention. Other people say that it’s a sad colour but I see them as elegant and sophisticated.

2) My first home away from home is in Dubai. I’ve lived there for two years and I found it to be a great city to get to live in. I have lots of fond memories of this city, I have friends still living there and I would want to come back and visit one of these days.

3) I’m completely useless when it comes to directions (haha). Honey’s always worried if I need to travel by myself coz he knows that I’m not good when it comes to navigating in a new place. Surprisingly, in spite of my freakishly short term memory when it comes to directions, I have never been lost, I always manage to find my way, thank God.

4) Honey and I collect DVDs, I would sometimes deliberately side step a DVD shop coz I know that I would end up buying more DVDs than I would manage to watch. In our collection of DVDs, my favourites would be Friends (entire collection), Alley McBeal (entire collection), Ever After, Harry Potter (all the sequels), among others. There are also a couple of DVDs in our collection that I haven’t watched.

5) I love, love, love to shop BUT contrary to what other people think, I am not at all brand conscious, in fact, I find great satisfaction each time that I score an outfit, or a pair of shoes, or a bag that is of very good quality and at very reasonable prices. Honey’s never afraid to let me loose inside a shopping mall coz he knows I’m a very reasonable buyer. (Haha)

6) I never dreamed of being a CPA, when I was a kid I wanted to be a journalist and a lawyer but when I was already applying for college, my papa encouraged me to take accountancy instead telling me that it’s the most reasonable platform to launch a career in law. However, after passing the board exams, my intentions of furthering my studies in the field of law was clouded by my intent to establish an audit career.

7) Looking back on my college days, the activities that I miss the most would have to be basketball and debate. I was a part of the women’s basketball team and have been actively participating in debate competitions in and out of the campus during my entire college life. Both of these activities trigger a rush of adrenaline that I sorely miss.

8) If I have to choose the next city that I want honey to take me to, that would have to be Venice, Italy (Honey… hint, hint!). I have always loved Italian food, apart from that this city, in my view, is one of the most romantic cities in the world and it has always been a dream to go there.

I had fun responding to this tag, thanks Niko, it’s not everyday that you get an opportunity to reveal some tidbits about yourself.

Now, I’m tagging anyone of you who is interested to share some trivia about yourself.

The rules:

1 - Each participant starts with eight random fact/habits about themselves.
2 - People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3 - At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their name.
4 - Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and to read your blog.

And another small thing, if you decide to participate, I would love for you to link back here in the comments section so that I could learn a little bit more about you!

Singapore: The Lion City

Warm and humid air welcomed our group as we stepped out of the Changi Airport a little after two in the afternoon, much, much warmer than the 5 degree Celsius gasps of wind that we left behind in Amsterdam. Our group proceeded to the Mercure Roxy Hotel in Parkway Parade, which served as our home for the next five days before we transfer to the Stamford Hotel (which was much closer to the city centre) at the end of our trip here in Singapore.

The moment I inhaled the warm breeze of Singapore, I can’t help but feel closer to home. Although Singapore is much cleaner and organized than Manila, the tall buildings, the traffic, the warm people and the abundance of shopping malls simply made it all too familiar to me. I can’t help but get excited every time I see something so familiar like 7-eleven, Bread Talk, gravy being served in KFC (I know, I shouldn’t have eaten KFC, I was in Singapore for heavens sakes, but I got too excited about the gravy!), mangosteen (some of which I took with me back here in Amsterdam), The Coffee Bean, shops opened after six pm and so much more! It was like being in Manila, but then again not being in Manila.

Our second day in Singapore was devoted entirely for exploring the city. The very first stop of our tour was the famous Merlion. According to our very nice tour guide, Merlion is an imaginary creature with the head of a lion and body of a fish which symbolizes the fishing village that Singapore once was and Singapore’s original name “Singapura” which means lion city.



Our tour went on and our tour guide pointed several streets that are historic and buildings which are landmarks in Singapore. We also went to Little India, and quite timely, a couple days before our visit, they have celebrated Deepavali or the festival of lights, so a lot of streets and corners are still decorated with beautiful light displays.

We really had fun during the tour and I have to say, although Singapore is a very small country, it holds a lot of treasure to be discovered and it has a lot to offer. I agree with one of the posters we saw in the city which says “In Singapore if you’re bored, it’s not our fault.” True enough it would one’s own fault if he finds himself with nothing to do in this very exciting city.