Bum Boats!

Bum boats. "Bum boats? Josh, whatever is a bum boat?"

Well, I'm glad you asked, anonymous-voice-person-who-conveniently-asks-me things-that-relate-to-the-topic-of-my-blog, and I would be happy to elaborate. A bum boat, you see, is a sort of small, funky looking craft that was originally used by the Chinese settlers who came to Singapore. These boats were later adapted into small river-cruising craft intended to ferry tourists and whoever else owns a ticket up and down the Singapore river. But before we move on, let's look at some pictures of some bum boat kiosks!

Kiosk.

KIOSK.

KIOOOSK!

So as I said, bum boats are these little boats that you can ride around in to look at stuff.

For a while, they used the original Chinese bum boats, but they recently upgraded their fleet into these fancy varnished contraptions with crazy futuristic technology like televisions and tire armor.

The future.

The inside of the bum boat I rode on.

I saw some pretty crazy architecture during the cruise, but I'm going to save those pictures for a later blog that will focus exclusively on Singaporean architecture.

Also, what do you readers think about the design of my blog? Are the colours off? Should I change the font, change the layout, add a new background, etc. I'm completely open to suggestion.

Boat Quay and some Historical Stuff

Boat Quay (pronounced Boat Kee) is an excellent strip of restaurants and food stalls along the Singapore river. I have now eaten lunch there twice, both times at this neat little sandwich shop.

A part of Boat Quay

The rear of Boat Quay. These people like their air conditioners

The place where I ate lunch

Strangely enough, the Quay is also right beside the Singapore business district, which, in comparison to something like the Toronto business district, is surprisingly clean and pretty. A certain amount of class is also added by the various sculptures that litter the area.

I don't know what this is supposed to represent, but it scares me.

This is intended to warn visitors about the incredibly muscular pigeons that inhabit Singapore.

This sculpture depicts a few people talking about stuff.

Just across the river is a collection of a bunch of different historical buildings, including the Museum of Asian Civilizations. I didn't really take any pictures, partly because I didn't know if pictures were allowed, and partly because looking at pictures of Museum exhibits isn't terribly interesting. However, the special exhibit was about the Chinese Terracotta Warriors, which are worth reading about if you have some extra time.

In case you're blind, this is the Asian Civilizations Museum

In the same area as the museum was an art gallery of sorts. Aside from housing some rather expensive, fancy restaurants, they displayed a collection of art done by primary school students, as well as a selection of animated LED art.

The art gallery houses a 7m tall, 325kg chandelier

I apologize for my delay in getting this post up, so you can expect another post within the next 36 hours or so.

Sim Lim and the SMRT (<<< band name)

Yesterday I went to Sim Lim Square. My various other relatives who had been to Singapore before had already mentioned this place to me, so I was excited to go. For all you uncultured dullards who have never been to Singapore before, Sim Lim Square is an epic-sized 6-story conglomeration of electronics retailers. It's amazing. But more on Sim Lim later.

Outside of Sim Lim Square

During my first few days in Singapore, I was made aware of the Singapore Mass Rabbit Transit (or MRT for short), which provides a way to cheaply navigate oneself to many interesting parts of the city. However, having only ever used the bus transit system in Waterloo, Ontario, the task of understanding this entirely foreign system was rather daunting. Luckily, my Aunt Sheryl decided to work from home that day, and she took some time to show me how to use the MRT.

I was shocked. The whole system makes so much sense; there are maps everywhere, the inside of the train-thingies display light-up maps showing where the next stop is, and it's cheap. So yeah, I was very pleased at how well executed the MRT was, and will probably continue to use it as my primary means of distance movement throughout Singapore.

Inside the Novena MRT

Map of the Singapore MRT system

Back to Sim Lim Square. It's awesome. Quite. After Aunt Sheryl showed me how to use the public transit, she left me to explore the shops and get back home on my own (independence!). First thing I noticed about the mall: cameras are hugely popular. Second in distribution only to laptops, the amount of cameras of every kind was bonkers. Problem was, I didn't need a camera. I had been excited to go to Sim Lim to scout out potential headphones, as I currently lack an adequate system to listen to the music in my iPod Touch. I'll plan on going back there some time to further compare prices and name brands. I'll let you know how that goes.

Part of the inside of Sim Lim Square

I also noticed that Apple products seem more popular here than they due in Canada. At least half the computer outlets also sold Macs, but only a handful of those were actually "Authorized Resellers."

So that was my adventure in the biggest electronics mall I'd ever been in. I plan on checking out some historical buildings later today; there will be a relevant blog post in a few days.

P.S. - Due to a combination of technical difficulties and laziness, pictures will be added later.

The Plane Ride

So, I am now in Singapore. After flying for ~22 hours, I am now on the other side of the world. And the necessary plane rides weren't actually that bad.

We left on the first plane at around 3:30 pm on Friday. In a nigh-miraculous turn of events, I was able to snag myself a row of three seats, upon which I was able to lie down and sleep on top of. Though the seats were kind of lumpy, I was able to sleep for about five straight hours throughout which I was routinely woken up by unimportant announcements about such things as "turbulence" and "seat belts." I also watched Inception for the first time, which probably wasn't a great idea, because my musings on what happened at the end prevented me from sleeping for at least half an hour afterward.

The plan was that after our plane stopped in Hong Kong, we'd have at least 50 minutes to find our way to the plane that was then supposed to transport us to Singapore. However, the first plane was 30 minutes late, so our 50 minutes turned into a bunch of nutty scurrying as we frantically followed this little woman in red who was supposed to show us from our first flight to our second one (we even took the airport train to speed up our progress. It had a train).

Our second flight was worse in almost every way. The seats were smaller, there weren't any cup-holders or legroom, you couldn't watch movies on demand, etc. And my little food-lap-table thingy kept springing up, so I couldn't really put anything on it. That turned out to not be a problem, as I was fed up with airplane food by that point and didn't eat anything anyway.

And then we landed without incident.

Welcome - The Plan So Far

Hello all, and welcome to my travel blog.

Earlier this year I was invited by my relatives to come stay with them for a month or two in Singapore. Those same relatives are currently enjoying some time with the rest of my Dad's side of the family at a Christian family camp in Ontario called Fair Havens. On the 22nd, I will board a plane (I don't know what airline) and fly for at least 24 hours (I don't know where or when the stops are).

Stay tuned for more posts after I arrive.