Last week, I had the chance to check out the colorful exhibit down at Raffles Place for Archifest 2016. It was surprisingly an oasis of calm in the heart of the downtown area, where people were lying on hammocks, pumping air into a huge smiley face, and of course taking photos. There are always fun things happening here in Singapore!
Tag: singapore
Exploring Arab Street & Rochor Centre
On Saturday, my photographer friends and I ventured to the sunny streets in order to get some good photos! Even though we were tempted to keep our outing indoors due to the hot sun, we persevered and managed to get some good shots. The Rochor Centre buildings are coming down soon and I was really excited to get some shots of these colorful buildings before they would just be a faint memory of Singapore’s past. Our route ended up looking like this:
1) A.R.C. Coffee (29 Sultan Street) – We need food/drinks before a good photo walk of course! Plus, they have really cool wall art outside the building.
2) Arab Street- We walked towards Haji Lane and saw the Mosque and fun restaurants, cafes and stores along the way.
3) Rocher Centre-It’s near Bugis MRT Station. Make sure you check it out before the buildings come down…
4) Curious Palette (64 Prinsep Street)- We ended our photo walk with more food and drinks of course at this hipster cafe. 
future world exhibit: where art meets science
There are always a few worthwhile exhibits to see at the Arts & Science museum. Checking out the future world exhibit with my bestie from NY made this exhibit even more memorable in my mind. We went on a Sunday afternoon, which meant crowds and a lot of kids. However, we still had fun and managed to get some good shots in the Instagram-worthy room of lights. We made sure to reserve tickets beforehand because on the Saturday before, we were unable to go inside because it was fully booked.
This was definitely a kid friendly exhibit, so families with young kids should definitely go. All the exhibits were very interactive. I resisted the temptation to go down the slide, because I think it was meant for kids. However, I did go inside the area with the lit up bouncy balls and played around for a minute or so. I would recommend that if you are going without kids, probably the week night would be less crowded.
My final tip, be patient and wait for the lights to change. Make sure to go through the room of lights slowly. It’s a one-way exhibit.
i Light part 2
So I got a chance last week to go back to the i Light exhibit by Marina Bay to check out the rest of the exhibits! Love that my friends are into this kind of stuff and so willing to accompany me. Here are some more photos from our night. You will never get bored in this small city-state, because there is always something going on. 🙂
lights will guide you home
Last week, I checked out the light art festival at Marina Bay Sands, which is happening until March 27th from 7:30-11pm. You should definitely head down there and check out all the different light exhibits they have. I love how there are always so many different events happening in this city. We only got to see maybe half of the exhibits because we ran out of time. I will try to go back again before it ends and catch the rest of the exhibits that I missed. Shooting at night was definitely a bit more challenging and a lot of my pictures didn’t turn out as I wanted. However, it’s always fun being behind the camera and being with other enthusiastic photographers and models! Thanks friends for joining us. 🙂
a saturday @ hort park
When I arrived (a bit late) in the morning to Hort Park, I was in awe of the beauty of the lucious greens, tall trees, and open grass field. Where was I? How come this was the first time I’ve actually ventured inside. I had only passed by Hort Park at the start of the southern ridges trail. As I was trying to figure out if I was in the right place and then I heard the worship music echoing from downstairs. I just followed the music down the spiral stairs to the multi-purpose hall. I saw some random people watching from outside through the glass walls as well. I was greeted by 200+ women of all ages and different backgrounds singing together in unison; a beautiful site.
Someone asked me afterwards if the retreat met my expectations. And I simply said that I didn’t really have any expectations. It was our first women’s retreat as a church, and I was definitely excited beforehand, but I wasn’t sure what to expect. The excellence that I saw in how the women of our church planned, prepared, and facilitated was an encouragement to me. Of course the decorations, food, and music were on point, considering the talented ladies that are part of my church!
It ended up being a Saturday well spent. It was a time of encouragement, worship, teaching, and fellowship. I felt so grateful for the women that organized and planned the retreat. I could see their love and heart for the women of the church and the Gospel throughout the day. A few key points that have stuck with me are:
- We are free to live out the Gospel.
- Our Christian life is about taking small steps forward.
- Set your mind on what the Spirit desires.
- Christians should be characterized by your waiting.
- We are groaning for the new life to come.
exploring singapore’s coney island
One of the things on my to do list for my vacation was to visit the newly opened Coney Island Park here in Singapore. Unsurprisingly, this Coney Island bears very little resemblance to the famous Coney Island amusement park and beach in Brooklyn, New York. It was actually the original intent of this island when bought by an Indian businessman in the 1950s to be an amusement park like the one in NY(according to this blog post).
I quickly found out that Coney Island park is an oasis located in the far north eastern part of Singapore, where most don’t travel to unless they live there. I admit it was my first time in punggol! Getting there wasn’t too difficult, as we took the purple line to punggol and then bus 84 to Punggol point/Punggol settlement. It was much closer than I imagined. The island has a few paths, but the whole length of the main walk of Coney Island is about 2.4km from one end to the other. Luckily we went during a weekday morning, so it was quiet, peaceful, and serene, which was much needed. Despite not finding the cow (there’s one cow that lives on Coney Island, which you shouldn’t disturb if you encounter), we enjoyed the peaceful nature walk and took a lot of photos along the way. There are bikes available to rent in Punggol if you prefer to explore the island that way.
Coney Island park is definitely worth visiting at least once, and it can only take up a few hours to explore most of the island. Make sure to catch the Punggol waterways at the end of the trip, which connects easily to Coney Island. Here are some of the photos from our explorations. I like the few shots of me taking photos and what I was taking a photo of! Thanks to James for those unexpected candid photos! 
