Singapore: Day 5 - Chinatown, F1 Friday (Charice, Seungri and GD&TOP concerts)

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!)

Pedestrian overbridge New Bridge road Singapore — I took the MRT and got off at Clarke Quay station, which is housed under Central Mall

New Bridge road Clarke Quay Singapore — New Bridge Road, Clarke Quay is walking distance from here

Central Mall Clarke Quay Singapore mobile photo — Crossed over to the other side

Central Shopping Mall office building Singapore panorama — Central Mall is pretty huge

Hong Kong street Singapore — The hostel I needed to get to was on this street

Hong Kong street hostels Singapore CBD — Quite a few other hostels in the area (The above were all taken on my phone)

Rucksack Inn River City hostel stairs building entrance — I arrived at the building which houses River City Inn… and I had been warned it’s a few flight of stairs up

Stairs to Rucksack Inn River City Inn Singapore — You pass another hostel – Rucksack Inn, which is very popular

Rucksack Inn hostel walls Singapore — 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.

River City Inn Rucksack hostel building Singapore — The yellow building on the right is where River City & Rucksack Inn are housed

City Backpackers hostel Clarke Quay Singapore — Bang opposite is another hostel — City Backpackers

City centre backpackers hostel Singapore — Another one

Central shopping mall Singapore — Given you have a large shopping mall and an MRT station a short walk away, the location isn’t bad at all

Gamehaven building Singapore — Went around the block

Rucksack Inn 2 Hongkong street Singapore — Rucksack Inn has another branch in another lane

Pavement South Bridge road Singapore — I was on my way to the Gate 4 entrance of the F1 circuit

Clarke Quay South Bridge road Singapore — Cross the road and you get to Boat Quay, in just 5 minutes from the hostel

Singapore river Clarke Quay afternoon — Down the river is Clarke Quay

Singapore river cruise boat afternoon — One of the River Cruise boats

Singapore parliament road — Passed by the Singapore parliament

Singapore school girls walking cbd — I walked towards the Gate 4 entrance, which was a right turn from up ahead

Queue Gate 4 Singapore GP Friday afternoon — It was only 2pm, and gates weren’t going to open until 3… so I sat and waited

Friday queue Singapore F1 gate 4 entrance — There was a reason why the queue was this long an hour before the gates opened

St. Andrews cathedral Singapore lawn — 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!

Singapore F1 concert stage friday Padang grounds — 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

Padang lawn Friday afternoon Singapore GP — 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)

Padang grounds Singapore gp Friday — Phew, well worth coming early for — but now I needed to grab something to eat

Singapore F1 Friday Padang tents — 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!

Padang stage Singapore F1 Swissotel Stamford tower — It was past 3pm and I hadn’t eaten yet

Singapore GP Padang grounds way out — I went in search of food

The Cenotaph war memorial Singapore — The Cenotaph War Memorial

Hawker food stalls Singapore F1 grounds — Ahhh, food!

Shawarma doner kebab Singapore F1 food stall — 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)

Official F1 merchandise stalls Singapore Grand Prix — Checked out the booths

Official merchandise Fanvision stall Singapore GP — Plenty of official merchandise on sale

Singtel booth Singapore GP — SingTel is the title sponsor of the Singapore F1, so they had a massive booth

dbl 0 bar stall Singapore gp — Make-shift lounge bars

Tan Kim Seng fountain Padang Singapore — Tan Kim Seng fountain

Esplanade drive bridge Marina Bay Sands — You can walk under this bridge to get to the Theatres by the Bay

Esplanade Drive Singapore — Esplanade Drive is a part of the F1 track — and thus closed from public use for an entire week

Classic Alfa Romeo drivers parade cars Singapore F1 — 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

Classic Mercedes drivers parade cars display Singapore GP — Very classy line-up

Classic Triumph car display Singapore Grand Prix — They mention which car is assigned to which driver

Singapore gp zone 4 photographers platform F1 Friday — Ah, my people

Singapore GP BMW safety car F1 Friday — It was nearing 4:30pm, the Porsche Cup Asia practice session was about to start

Maybank UOB Capitaland hq buildings Singapore — I took out my 70-200mm zoom lens

BMW safety car start of Friday race Singapore F1 — The safety cars were doing the rounds

Photographers F1 Friday zone 4 Singapore gp — The cameras were ready as the sound of the car engines grew louder

Porsche Carrera cup Asia practice session Friday Singapore — Here they come!

Porsche Carrera cup Asia practice Friday Singapore F1 — I decided to walk to another viewing point

Porsche Carrera Cup practice lap Fullerton Hotel Friday Singapore gp — Mind you, I was still behind barricades. You can’t simply walk closer to the circuit.

Singapore gp security briefing panorama — I had enough of cars zipping past, so I moved on

Asian civilizations museum gate 5 exit Singapore gp — I exited the circuit area

Walking out of F1 circuit Singapore — I was going to meet my friend Aimee now

Steps Uob building lobby Singapore — I waited for Aimee at the UOB building

Singapore blue sky cloud UOB building — Remarkably, I got sunshine today!

Aimee Marie cheek Singapore — After catching up with Aimee, a visit to the ATM

Society bar CBD Singapore — We set off on our walk

Great Eastern building Singapore — Great Eastern building

Walking to Chinatown Singapore — Aimee was going to take me to Chinatown

Indian temple Pagoda street Chinatown Singapore — Even in Chinatown, there’s an Indian temple and a mosque

Chinatown food street Singapore — Chinatown food street

Chinatown classic architecture old buildings Singapore — Like Little India, and Kampong Glam, Chinatown has its share of retro architecture

Buddha Tooth Relic temple Singapore Chinatown — Aimee took me to this temple, the most famous in Chinatown it seems

Buddha tooth relic temple entrance Singapore — The name of this temple? Buddha Tooth Relic temple

Aimee Marie buddha tooth relic temple door Singapore — Seemed like a nice place to take photos of Aimee

Aimee Marie Buddha tooth relic temple incense Singapore — There is a dress code, so they give shawls at the entrance to cover up

Buddha Tooth Relic temple main prayer hall Singapore Chinatown — Inside, it was rather impressive

Buddha tooth relic temple prayer hall god Singapore — Go read up on the ‘Sacred Relic of the tooth of Buddha’ — it’s quite an interesting story

Buddha Tooth Relic temple prayer hall Buddha wall Singapore — Very impressive design

Buddha tooth relic temple prayer hall Singapore — This temple is in fact a newly built one, opened only in 2007

Buddha teeth relic temple back exit Singapore — We left the temple

Chinatown market stalls Singapore — Aime and I then walked through the Chinatown bazaar

Chinatown market Singapore — We had the urge to have some ice cream — bread ice cream in particular

Water chestnut juice vendor Singapore — 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.

Aimee Marie freezing Singapore bus — It was very cold inside the bus

Bridge road evening traffic Singapore — 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.

Boat quay inner road evening Singapore — It was 7:30pm

Boat quay friday night restaurants Singapore — It was Friday night

Boat quay friday night crowds bars Singapore — The bankers and officer goers of Marina Bay were all out filling up the bars and eateries

Singapore river at night boat quay — We sat by boat quay

Mithun Divakaran Singapore river boat quay — Look, Mithun!

Bread ice cream vendor Boat Quay Singapore river — And we finally got bread ice cream!

Bread ice cream boat quay Singapore — I had durian flavoured ice cream

Aimee Mariee bread ice cream boat quay Singapore — Yay

Boat quay pier Singapore at night — Kids jumping in?

Boat quay pier boys jumping into river statue Singapore — Not really

Fullerton hotel Singapore river bridge at night — I still had some time before I needed to get back inside

Aimee Marie peace sign Singapore — So we goofed off in front of the camera

Aimee Marie Singapore skyline at night — 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.

Gate 5 tunnel underpass Singapore F1 — I went back to the circuit

JK Racing practice Friday night race Singapore F1 Fullerton — The JK Racing practice session was going on

JK Racing Friday practice lap Singapore GP — Nothing exciting, until…

JK Racing car crash Singapore grand prix — … this guy crashed!

Singapore gp racing crash F1 circuit — Didn’t see the others cars race past until this car was lifted off the circuit and all the debris cleared

Singapore gp food court crowds Friday — I walked past the many hungry attendees

Singapore F1 concert Padang grounds Friday — The concerts on the main stage were about to begin, and lot of people had already gathered

Singapore F1 crash on screen — But since I already collected my FanZone band, I could walk straight up close to the stage!

Charice band playing Singapore F1 — As the noise from the JK Racing series subsided, a band began to play

Cameras recording Charice concert Singapore F1 — Who was it for?

Charice stage Singapore F1 Friday concert — Philippine songstress Charice!

Charice singing Singapore F1 Friday concert — The many Filipinos in attendance surely showed the Glee-star some love

Charice singing Singapore F1 concert — She belted out her hits “Pyramid” and “One Day,” and even sang her (then) upcoming new single “Louder”

Charice band dancing dougie Singapore F1 concert — Charice and her band even took a dance break to do the “Dougie”

Charice performing on stage Singapore F1 Friday concert — Charice also sang covers of other popular hits like Jessie J’s “Price Tag”

Charice powerful singing Singapore F1 Friday circuit — She maybe pint-sized, but her voice packs in quite a punch!

Charice on stage Singapore F1 circuit — Amazing singer — and a good show by her!

Singapore grand prix Friday race Jumbotron — After Charice’s performance, the Friday practice lap took place

GD&Top concert crowd Singapore F1 — 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!

Stage rig lights Singapore F1 concert — The lights were ready

GD&Top balloons Singapore grand prix concert — The balloons were ready

GD Top fan sign Singapore concert — The fans… you get the idea

YG Entertainment DJ GD&TOP Seungri concert warmup Singapore F1 — 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…

Seungri dancers Singapore F1 Friday concert — … and VIPs screamed as loud as they could when Seungri hit the stage!

Seungri Big Bang performing Singapore concert — Seungri kicked off his performance with “VVIP,” from his debut EP of the same name

Seungri singing Singapore F1 concert — Seungri obviously didn’t have too much material as his solo effort had just came out earlier in the year

Seungri perfomance Singapore gp concert — But he still performed his best

Seungri back up dancers performing Singapore F1 concert — Seungri ended his brief set with his big solo hit “What Can I Do”

Seungri sweating Singapore concert F1 Friday — Imagine dressed up in a suit and dancing under the stage lights in Singapore humidity!

Seungri funny face Singapore F1 concert — Feel free to caption this. Only thing I could think of was “Pew, pew.”

Seungri VIP crown light Big Bang Singapore F1 concert — 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 kpop concert F1 Friday Singapore GP — GD & TOP leaped on to the stage and began their set with “Intro,” the first song on their album

GD & Top korean pop Singapore F1 concert — 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 Big Bang member Singapore Formula 1 concert — T.O.P, the really good looking member of BIG BANG

G-Dragon Singapore F1 concert — G-Dragon, the talented song writer and composer of BIG BANG — and one of the richest idols in S. Korea!

GD and T.O.P dancers Singapore concert F1 Friday — 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 Big Bang member formula 1 concert Singapore — T.O.P on the other hand wasn’t too hyperactive

G-Dragon YG dancers Singapore F1 concert — They performed other great songs from their album like “Knock Out” and “Oh Yeah”

G-Dragon T.O.P Big Bang Singapore Formula 1 concert — The boys spoke to the audience briefly before ending their set with everybody’s favourite “High, High”!

G-Dragon T.O.P Singapore concert formula one — Eventually a sweaty G-Dragon took off his overcoat and sunglasses

Seungri T.O.P Big Bang members Singapore F1 concert — 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.

Clarke Quay at night river bridge Singapore — I left the Padang grounds and walked back to the hostel

MICA building at night window colours Singapore — 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.