Date: September 23rd, 2011
Here we go, my F1 weekend begins! Oh wait… I had to shift hostels first.
I really enjoyed my stay at WoW hostel, and today I had second thoughts of checking out and moving to the other location I had chosen (to be much closer to the F1 circuit). But since it was too late to cancel the other reservation, I collected my deposit and they wished me well. I told them I would definitely stay at WoW Hostel again, if I were to return to Singapore. (I seriously would, I really liked the place!)
I took the MRT and got off at Clarke Quay station, which is housed under Central Mall
New Bridge Road, Clarke Quay is walking distance from here
Crossed over to the other side
Central mall is pretty huge
The hostel I needed to get to was on this street
Quite a few other hostels in the area (The above were all taken on my phone)
I arrived at the building which houses River City Inn... and I had been warned it's a few flight of stairs up
You pass another hostel - Rucksack Inn, which is very popular
Above Rucksack Inn, on the 4th floor, is where River City Inn is located
I was tired! The staff at River City Inn greeted me with a glass of water (I’m sure it’s a common gesture now, with each guest appearing tired upon first arrival). Footwear must be kept outside, which I did, and I then entered the hostel to check in. First impressions? Very nice! Looked new, clean and well maintained. I had reserved a single bed in the 24-bed mixed dorm room, which cost SG$32 (Rs. 1,261/$25/€19) a night.Yes, it cost way more than WoW Hostel, but you’re paying the location.
Other than that, the hostel looked nice and it was the usual facilities. Complimentary breakfast and wi-fi, two desktop machines in the ‘living room,’ a decent kitchen with all the requisite quick-meal facilities, a large screen TV, XBOX 360 — and pretty much all the furniture is IKEA! 
I would have shown you photographs of the interiors but the staff told me they didn’t allow anyone to take photos of the hostel. Oh well.
The yellow building on the right is where River City & Rucksack Inn are housed
Bang opposite is another hostel
Another one
Given you have a large shopping mall and an MRT station a short walk away, the location isn't bad at all
Went around the block
Rucksack Inn has another branch in another lane
I was on my way to the Gate 4 entrance of the F1 circuit
Cross the road and you get to Boat Quay, in just 5 minutes from the hostel
Down the river is Clarke Quay
One of the River Cruise boats
Passed by the Singapore parliament
I walked towards the Gate 4 entrance, which was a right turn from up ahead
It was only 2pm, and gates weren't going to open until 3... so I sat and waited
There was a reason why the queue was this long an hour before the gates opened
I patiently waited
At 3pm, the gates opened and people were slowly allowed in. First a security check. They saw my bag full of camera equipment and the staff asked me whether I was ‘Press’ — I said ‘no’. They still requested that I go up to the Press registration counter and sign a declaration saying I will not sell these photographs, to which I replied “sure”.
Once past the security check, I quickened my pace of walking. So did everybody else. Then as soon as I reached the Padang grounds, I ran — and so did the others!
You see, the reason why so many of us queued up so early is because they were handing out FanZone wristbands, so that we could get inside an enclosed section much closer to the main stage
Luckily I managed to get mine, and so did the others who queued early -- most of whom were VIPs* (I'll explain later, they're not *really* important people)
Phew, well worth coming early for -- but now I needed to grab something to eat
I tried looking for the 'Press' tent, but couldn't find it. Honestly, I wasn't even too bothered to look for it, I wasn't going to sell these images. Heck, I'm writing about a September 2011 event in January 2012!
It was past 3pm and I hadn't eaten yet
I went in search of food
The Cenotaph War Memorial
Ahhh, food!
Ahhh, shawarma!
It’s expected food and beverages inside such events were going to be pricey but what to do, I was hungry. So I paid the SG$10 (Rs. 390/$7/€6) for the roll — the most I ever paid for a shawarma in my life, ha ha! (I grew up in the Middle East, so I’m used to having paid only a tenth of that)
Checked out the booths
Plenty of official merchandise on sale
SingTel is the title sponsor of the Singapore F1, so they had a massive booth
Make-shift lounge bars
Tan Kim Seng fountain
You can walk under this bridge to get to the Theatres by the Bay
Esplanade Drive is a part of the F1 track -- and thus closed from public use for an entire week
On display were the classic cars the Formula 1 race drivers were going to be driven around the circuit for the Drivers Parade before Sunday's race
Very classy line-up
They mention which car is assigned to which driver
Ah, my people
It was nearing 4:30pm, the Porsche Cup Asia practice session was about to start
I took out my 70-200mm zoom lens
The safety cars were doing the rounds
The cameras were ready as the sound of the car engines grew louder
Here they come!
I decided to walk to another viewing point
Mind you, I was still behind barricades. You can't simply walk closer to the circuit.
I had enough of cars zipping past, so I moved on
I exited the circuit area
I was going to meet my friend Aimee now
I waited for Aimee at the UOB building
Remarkably, I got sunshine today!
After catching up with Aimee, a visit to the ATM
We set off on our walk
Great Eastern building
Aimee was going to take me to Chinatown
Even in Chinatown, there's an Indian temple and a mosque
Chinatown food street
Like Little India, and Kampong Glam, Chinatown has its share of retro architecture
Aimee took me to this temple, the most famous in Chinatown it seems
The name of this temple? Buddha Tooth Relic temple
Seemed like a nice place to take photos of Aimee
There is a dress code, so they give shawls at the entrance to cover up
Inside, it was rather impressive
Go read up on the 'Sacred Relic of the tooth of Buddha' -- it's quite an interesting story
Very impressive design
This temple is in fact a newly built one, opened only in 2007
We left the temple
Aime and I then walked through the Chinatown bazaar
We had the urge to have some ice cream -- bread ice cream in particular
Couldn't get the kind of ice cream we were looking for, so we just had juice. I chose water chestnut - because it sounded weird, and I never had it before. It tasted okay though.
Aimee and I took the bus back to Central mall, as I wanted to reduce the weight of my camera bag by offloading equipment I didn’t need.
It was very cold inside the bus
Even though the distance wasn't much, I experienced Singapore evening traffic today. It took some time to cover around a kilometre distance.
After giving our feet some rest at the hostel, we headed towards Boat Quay.
It was 7:30pm
It was Friday night
The bankers and officer goers of Marina Bay were all out filling up the bars and eateries
We sat by boat quay
Look, Mithun!
And we finally got bread ice cream!
I had durian flavoured ice cream
Yay
Kids jumping in?
Not really
I still had some time before I needed to get back inside
So we goofed off in front of the camera
One final shot against the backdrop of Singapore's famous skyline
Aimee and I said our goodbyes as she had to go meet her fiance and I had to head back to the Padang grounds.
I went back to the circuit
The JK Racing practice session was going on
Nothing exciting, until...
... this guy crashed!
Didn't see the others cars race past until this car was lifted off the circuit and all the debris cleared
I walked past the many hungry attendees
The concerts on the main stage were about to begin, and lot of people had already gathered
But since I already collected my FanZone band, I could walk straight up close to the stage!
As the noise from the JK Racing series subsided, a band began to play
Who was it for?
Philippine songstress Charice!
The many Filipinos in attendance surely showed the Glee-star some love
She belted out her hits "Pyramid" and "One Day," and even sang her (then) upcoming new single "Louder"
Charice and her band even took a dance break to do the "Dougie"
Charice also sang covers of other popular hits like Jessie J's "Price Tag"
She maybe pint-sized, but her voice packs in quite a punch!
Amazing singer --- and a good show by her!
After Charice's performance, the Friday practice lap took place
Plenty of fangirls (VIPs* mostly) were awaiting the main acts for Friday's concert. I didn't go too close to the stage as many had already stuffed themselves as close as possible and I didn't want to be in the midst of girls screaming their lungs out. Trust me, it's not fun!
The lights were ready
The balloons were ready
The fans... you get the idea
A DJ came on and began spinning some hip-hop jams, and then some 2NE1 -- so we knew it was YG** time!
Past 11pm, the lights dimmed and the DJ introduced the first BIG BANG member to hit the stage…
... and VIPs screamed as loud as they could when Seungri hit the stage!
Seungri kicked off his performance with "VVIP," from his debut EP of the same name
Seungri obviously didn't have too much material as his solo effort had just came out earlier in the year
But he still performed his best
Seungri ended his brief set with his big solo hit "What Can I Do"
Imagine dressed up in a suit and dancing under the stage lights in Singapore humidity!
Feel free to caption this. Only thing I could think of was "Pew, pew."
We were well warmed up for the next act!
And when those two other boys from BIG BANG hit the stage — oh man, the screams!
GD & TOP leaped on to the stage and began their set with "Intro," the first song on their album
For those who don't know: G-Dragon (Left) and T.O.P (Right) are two popular members of the hugely successful K-pop boyband BIG BANG, and as the sub-unit GD & TOP, released an impressive album in late 2010.
T.O.P, the really good looking member of BIG BANG
G-Dragon, the talented song writer and composer of BIG BANG -- and one of the richest idols in S. Korea!
For all his hip-hop swagger, I couldn't help but laugh when G-Dragon would speak to the crowd in his limited English by saying something like "... you want to make crazy?!" 
T.O.P on the other hand wasn't too hyperactive
They performed other great songs from their album like "Knock Out" and "Oh Yeah"
The boys spoke to the audience briefly before ending their set with everybody's favourite "High, High"!
Eventually a sweaty G-Dragon took off his overcoat and sunglasses
Seungri then joined his group mates to close out the show with (what I believe) was a Big Bang song
Given what a tumultuous year 2011 was for Big Bang – with Daesung’s involvement in the rather unfortunate car accident and G-Dragon’s drug ‘scandal’ – it was still quite a thrill for me that I got to see 3/5th of Big Bang. If only Taeyang could have been there as well, because the K-pop concert only lasted around 45 minutes in length — Seungri and GD&TOP’s performances included.
Oh well, in some ways I was glad it was over — I was completely drenched in sweat! I was so hot, and my arms were aching as I struggled to hold my heavy Canon 7D with the even heavier 70-200mm lens mounted. I took photos the best I could.
I also managed to record some video but if you plan on watching it, I suggest you turn down the volume…
The bass was just too damn loud! I wasn’t even that close to the stage or the speakers, but even from where I was standing, my rib cage was trembling with every thump! I looked up YouTube for other fancams and most of them weren’t any better.
I left the Padang grounds and walked back to the hostel
It was well past midnight
I initially thought about reading a fan account of the K-pop concert but my body was just so damn tired after the long walks today and the heat at the concert. I had dinner, took a nice bath and just laid in bed.
And to think this was just the first day of the F1 weekend!
*VIPs are what BIG BANG fans call themselves
**YG Entertainment is the company BIG BANG is under
Next post in this series:
Singapore 2011: Day 6 – F1 Saturday (Rick Astley, Shakira and Shaggy concerts)
Singapore 2011: Day 7 – Little India, F1 Sunday race, Linkin Park concert and Avalon Club
Leaving Singapore, and discovering certain truths about this famous city state
Previous posts in this series:
Singapore 2011: Day 4 – Marina Bay Sands Casino and views from the SkyPark observation deck
Singapore 2011: Day 3 – Bukit Timah and Singapore Botanic Gardens
Singapore 2011: Day 2 – Jurong Bird Park and… *ouch!*
Singapore 2011: Day 1 – Landing a second time; walking around CBD
