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 MallNew Bridge Road, Clarke Quay is walking distance from hereCrossed over to the other sideCentral Mall is pretty hugeThe hostel I needed to get to was on this streetQuite 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 upYou pass another hostel – Rucksack Inn, which is very popularAbove 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 housedBang opposite is another hostel — City BackpackersAnother oneGiven you have a large shopping mall and an MRT station a short walk away, the location isn’t bad at allWent around the blockRucksack Inn has another branch in another lane
I was on my way to the Gate 4 entrance of the F1 circuitCross the road and you get to Boat Quay, in just 5 minutes from the hostel
Down the river is Clarke QuayOne of the River Cruise boats
Passed by the Singapore parliament
I walked towards the Gate 4 entrance, which was a right turn from up aheadIt was only 2pm, and gates weren’t going to open until 3… so I sat and waitedThere was a reason why the queue was this long an hour before the gates openedI 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 stageLuckily 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 eatI 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 yetI went in search of foodThe Cenotaph War MemorialAhhh, 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 boothsPlenty of official merchandise on saleSingTel 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 BayEsplanade Drive is a part of the F1 track — and thus closed from public use for an entire weekOn 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 raceVery classy line-upThey mention which car is assigned to which driver
Ah, my peopleIt was nearing 4:30pm, the Porsche Cup Asia practice session was about to startI took out my 70-200mm zoom lensThe safety cars were doing the roundsThe cameras were ready as the sound of the car engines grew louderHere they come!
I decided to walk to another viewing pointMind 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 areaI was going to meet my friend Aimee now
I waited for Aimee at the UOB buildingRemarkably, I got sunshine today!
After catching up with Aimee, a visit to the ATMWe set off on our walkGreat Eastern buildingAimee was going to take me to Chinatown
Even in Chinatown, there’s an Indian temple and a mosque
Chinatown food streetLike Little India, and Kampong Glam, Chinatown has its share of retro architectureAimee took me to this temple, the most famous in Chinatown it seemsThe name of this temple? Buddha Tooth Relic templeSeemed 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 impressiveGo read up on the ‘Sacred Relic of the tooth of Buddha’ — it’s quite an interesting storyVery impressive designThis 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 busEven 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 nightThe bankers and officer goers of Marina Bay were all out filling up the bars and eateriesWe sat by boat quayLook, Mithun!And we finally got bread ice cream!I had durian flavoured ice creamYayKids jumping in?Not reallyI still had some time before I needed to get back insideSo 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 onNothing 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 clearedI walked past the many hungry attendeesThe concerts on the main stage were about to begin, and lot of people had already gatheredBut 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 playWho was it for?Philippine songstress Charice!The many Filipinos in attendance surely showed the Glee-star some loveShe 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 readyThe balloons were readyThe fans… you get the ideaA 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 nameSeungri obviously didn’t have too much material as his solo effort had just came out earlier in the yearBut 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 albumFor 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 BANGG-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 hyperactiveThey 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 sunglassesSeungri 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 hostelIt 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
From September 19th to 26th, I visited Singapore for a second time. Here are a few photos:
First order of business, collect my Singapore GP ticket from the Swissôtel The StamfordI then walked all the way to the Merlion Park for the obligatory ‘Yes, I’m in Singapore’ shotSecond order of business – head to Funan IT mall to buy a camera backpack. There was a Gear of War 3 launch event going on as Singapore was going to get the game a few hours before the rest of the world did. A few hours early is a big deal to gamers when you go online dammit!
Day 1 went according to plan. Got my Kata Owl DL-272 from John 3:16 for SGD185, nearly Rs. 2000 cheaper.
Day 2, I decided to go to Jurong Bird Park, which I couldn’t do last yearUnfortunately, it began raining heavily (dark clouds and all). This was taken on my phone.But eventually the heavy rain subsided and I continued shooting. It wasn’t easy though. Holding my Canon 7D with the heavy 70-200mm lens in one hand and an umbrella in the other hand. I tried my best.
I was nearly done with the park when disaster struck. Because of the wet grounds, I slipped on a downward slope and fell on the ground. I tried to break my fall as I didn’t want to damage my camera… but …
Long story short, this is what my hand looked like at the end of the day. It hurt. But what hurt more was that the filter on my 70-200mm lens dented in so badly that nobody could remove it by hand. Eventually Canon service had to carefully drill two holes on the side without touching the main lens and remove it. Cost SGD130 though.
Day 2, obviously not according to plan then.
Day 3 was supposed to be Sentosa & Universal Studios but with my 70-200mm lens still at the service center, so I couldn’t go there without it. So instead, I hopped on a bus and see where it would take me.I basically wanted to see the inner parts of Singapore and the more residential areas. Not just the usual commercial areas every tourist sees.The weather looked gloomy today as wellIn the afternoon, ended up going to the Botanic gardens because I told myself I can’t justify this trip unless I take a lot of photos!Even though such places aren’t really my thing, I ended up liking the gardens a lotThen ended up clicking quite a lot of photos once inside the Orchid Park. Really worth the SG$5 fee!Left the gardens and met my friend Aimee on Orchard Road. She’s no angel, that’s just Photoshop.
Day 4, I got my lens back and decided to go to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel & Casino. Played $65 at the casino — and lost it all Photography isn’t allowed inside the casino, so I have no photos, but take my word for it — it was impressive!
After the casino, went up to the skybridgeThe views from up here… worth the $20 fee! The Marina Bay Sands Skypark is even higher than the Singapore Flyer.Didn’t feel like going to the Singapore Flyer after thisFrom up here, you can see why Singapore Port is one of the busiest in the world. Oh, they’re also constructing more attractions at Marina Bay.The famous pool at the hotel. Hopefully one day I can afford to stay in this hotel, just so I can use the swimming pool
Day 5, met up with Aimee again as she showed me around Chinatown.
Last year, myself & Loiyumba only strolled through Chinatown at night, so I didn’t even know about this Buddhist templeFinally had bread ice cream by the Quay. Durian flavoured ice cream that too!Oprah loved her, David Foster promoted her and ‘Glee’ made her even more famous. It was Pinoy fever as Charice kicked off the concerts on Friday night. What a voice she has!Then I got my K-pop fix with Seungri first taking the stageAnd later, fellow BIG BANG members GD&TOP ended the night with a stellar (albeit short) performance
Day 6, had lunch at Boat Quay and had my first taste of Singapore Chili Crab.
BeforeAfter (Disclaimer/just saying: There were three of us at the table)I was in no rush to enter the gates when it opened at 3pm just to get fanzone passes to be closer to the stage today. But I still ended up getting them at 3:30pm.Waited for this man to perform at the Marina Bay stage. Yes, Rick Astley. He still sounds great!He was also quite funny. Drenched in sweat (like the rest of us) he asked for some chilled beer for him and his band. The organizers handed him one bottle of beer, to which he pointed out that it looked like something else Rick Astley was later joined by racing supremo Eddie Jordan on drumsMithun Divakaran, officially ‘Rick-Rolled’Next up, the incredibly sexy, talented Shakira. But all her writhing about and moaning got a bit annoying for me after a while.Four lucky Singaporean girls got a chance to shake their hips with Shakira as wellThey also flew in a Brazilian samba dance troupe. Never seen hips being shaken so violently before! I don’t know how they do it, but I hope to see the Rio Carnival in person one day.Finally, closing out Saturday’s entertainment…wait for it…“Singapore! Remember me?…. No? Aw, come on!…”I didn’t bother staying too long for Shaggy’s set. As with all rap/reggae/urban artists, half the time it was instructions: “throw your hands in the air!” “say woahhh” “do this, do that!” -_-“Oh just give it up Shaggy”
Day 7 was the big race on Sunday.
Sunday’s entertainment for me began with the off-broadway show Forbidden Broadway. A musical spoofing pretty much every popular hit broadway show from The Lion King to Wicked and more. Pretty funny, if you got the jokes that is!They mostly made fun of Disney’s infiltration of broadway with their properties and how Disney fool people into thinking everything from The Little Mermaid to Mary Poppins (both of which they also spoofed) are any good on live theatre.Watched a bit of the race from the corners where I could manage to take a few decent snapsBut I headed back to the concert stage so I could get close enough to see the main reason why I booked my tickets in May itself: Linkin Park!Chester actually had a cast on his arm but performed on stage without it. Needless to say, he was his screaming best. What an incredible vocalist!This is why I can’t do without my 70-200mm lens. Hardly did any adjustments to make this photo look any better.
After feeling great about getting my SGD138 worth of entertainment, I took the last train to Marina Bay to go see The Chemical Brothers perform at the Avalon Club.
After dancing for more than hour to hits like “Star Guitar” “Don’t Think” and “Do it Again,” I kept wondering why the smoke machine was on until Boy George began his set. Made me question if The Chemical Brothers were even there! I felt cheated in some ways.
Day 8, I went to IKEA for some shopping before heading to the airport at 5:30pm.
Finally had lunch from an IKEA and tasted their famed Swedish meatballs
Anyway, there’s a lot more to say and hundreds more photographs to put up. I will begin this Singapore series once I complete my Philippines series.
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.
Photography isn’t allowed inside the casino, so I have no photos, but take my word for it — it was impressive!
