On the outside looking in . . .

We have been looking forward to August 9th for a while.  It is National Day in Singapore.  That's right, it is Singapore's birthday. (As you can imagine, 4th of July is pretty quiet around here since it is an American holiday.)  Singapore looks good for 46!  That is right, Singapore has been on it's own for 46 years (it was previously occupied by the British, Japanese and Malays at various points.)  The last month, the Singapore flag has been flying everywhere.  The red and white of the Singapore flag is showing proudly.  It is difficult when you are in another country to know about the customs on holidays like this.  What we gather is that the place to be is Marina Bay, especially for the fireworks in the evening. 

So since we have tried to see many things in Singapore, we figure that we have to go celebrate Singapore's birthday.  We, of course, are joining a million or so other people who also have the same plan to celebrate at Marina Bay.  The MRT, cabs, and buses are over-crowded and the streets are grid-locked at the end of the evening.  So, we decide to walk it.  We head straight down the Riverwalk and after walking, sweating, walking, sweating, walking and sweating, walking, sweating (you get my drift), we arrive at Marina Bay.  We arrive, very sweaty and tired but we arrive, nonetheless.  Hurray for National Day! 

Here is my patriotic family at Marina Bay dressed in their red! 

There are people everywhere.  We decide we want to get to the water in the Bay so we head over there.  We go one way, but blocked.  Yellow fence.  No entry. 

Go left and walk, turn, blocked, yellow fence.  No entry.

We keep walking, we are so close to the Bay.  Walk and turn, another yellow fence.

I am beginning to really dislike this yellow fence.  We can see the people inside.  So close.

Like a kid with their faces pressed up to the glass of the candy store, we continue on . . . we want in!

Finally, after walking and walking, we make it inside.  Wow, there are a lot of people in here!  We are hungry and there are not many choices in the fishbowl we have now entered.  So I snap a picture of the floating stadium to show you the mass of people there in red and white.  There are performances going on all day in the stadium too.  This was right across from the picture above. 

After we get some dinner, we know we have to find a spot to watch the fireworks.  M is our navigator.  We know where we want to be, now we just have to get there quickly since they should be starting soon, very soon!  We cut through a mall to avoid the crowd from where we came from, we walk out and turn left, walk, turn, right, walk, turn left.  M has the map on his phone that he is using for navigation.  There is hardly anyone on these streets.  That seems funny.  We walk and turn.  It is hot and it is hard to imagine, but I am sweating even more.  Umm, M are you sure we are going in the right direction?  Of course, he is sure, he is M!  There are high-rise buildings everywhere so we can't get our bearings to see the Bay.  Then we realize that we are right back where we started.  That is right, M pulled a J.  Instead of taking an hour (like me) to walk in a circle, M only took 30 minutes though.  He walks fast.  So he had that going for him.  Although, we have the growing pressure of the fireworks starting any minute so now we are trotting through the streets frantically trying to find any place that we can see fireworks.  I know, that invokes a pretty site, doesn't it? 

So fireworks were starting between 7:30 and 8 p.m.  We are near 8:00 now.  UGH.  Finally, we see the Fullerton Hotel and get our bearings.  We can make it and we did.  The fireworks were awesome!   Our spot was great too.  We had the main show in front of us and there were other buildings behind us that were lighting fireworks from their roofs so it was fireworks all around.

Happy Birthday Singapore!