Midnight trip around Singapore

The school organised a night trip (31st Aug to 1st Sep) around Singapore as a part of celebration cum learning journey for Teachers' Day this year. It was not compulsory but Dass and I decided to join after looking through the itinerary. The trip was supposed to start from 10:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. on the next morning, covering Clarke Quay, Chinatown, Fort Canning Park, Little India, Jurong Fishery Port and Changi Village. I was actually only looking forward to the trip at the Jurong Fishery Port.

Anyway, we were supposed to leave the school at 10:30 p.m. But somehow, the key personnel was late, 2 team leaders were even later, and we had to wait till they finished their briefing and when we left, it was about a little after 11 p.m.

If I remembered correctly, the following were the places we went, in sequence :

Chinatown - The bus just drove through the area and stopped outside the Thian Hock Keng temple and the Sri Mariamman temple while the tour guide explained the histories to us. We also went past the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple & Museum and the Armenian Church. Do you still remember what you had learnt in your Social Studies lessons about these local places of worship?

Singapore River - Looked at all the statues along the Singapore River while the tour guide did the explnations about each of them. Along the way, one teacher mentioned that she couldn't remember the last time she took such a leisurely stroll along the Singapore River. I had to agree with her. I guess most of us were so busy dividing our time between work and family that we couldn't find any to take another look around our little island.

Up till this point of time, I realised that although it sounded exciting to be out at night, with the advantage of the cooler weather and smaller crowds at places of interest, photography was a big problem. I didn't have any big and expensive professional camera with me, so I could only managed a few miserable attempts at the beautiful night scenes.

Anyway, the tour guide also took us on a walk through Clarke Quay, passing through all the pubs, and to have a look at Singapore's night life. There were so many different pubs and restaurants in Clarke Quay that a customer would be spoilt for choice.

Fort Canning Park - The bus stopped just outside the R.O.M. building and the tour guide asked if we would like to take a walk through the park or just have a slow drive past. Someone said to walk and got a protests of a few because of the supernatural stories of the place and also now being the lunar seventh month.

We got off the bus and started out a little cautiously, with repeated warnings to those with the cameras not to take any shots, in case of some "things" appearing in the photos. However, the cautiousness was short-lived. Some started snapping photos as the tour guide explained about the history of the park to us.

Lau Pa Sat - The time is about 1:30 a.m. when we stopped to have some supper. A few of the teachers were starting to resemble half-awake zombies. But most of us were looking forward to this break and majority took coffee and all had something to fill the tummies.

After that, Dass entertained us with his funny "Muthu" jokes on the way to Jurong. I managed to catch a power nap of about 15 to 20 minutes when Dass finally ran out of this jokes. Haha.

Jurong Fishery Port - I think this is one of the most looked-forward place of visit for most of us. We were all excited as we made our way through the security check-point of the fishery port. The security was tight as visitors had to exchanged their ICs for a pass.

The time was about 3:30 a.m. or so but the place was bustling with activity. As the place was for all seafood freshly caught from the sea, it didn't have much of a smell. It was a huge area and most of the workers were male. Some of them were catching up on sleep in their lorries parked outside the market area, some were unloading their fresh catch from their vehicles, and others were busy doing business with the other fishmongers from our neighbourhood wet markets.

As we walked through the narrow walkway, flanked on both sides by seafood wholesalers, we started to feel a little out of place. To the outsiders, it seemed like the place is noisy, messy and chaotic, but to the people working there, they are already used to it and all have their own rules and working sequences.

Maybe I was being over-sensitive. But somehow, I felt that the people working there didn't really like visitors in their midst. Many didn't even spare us a look, and for those who did, somehow gave us the "evil eye", like "What the hell are you all doing here?" kind of look. I guess it was because we were quite a big group, and as we walked along the narrow walkway, we were more of an obstacle to those who were pushing their trolleys of seafood from one end to the other end of the market. The people didn't bother with politeness. They just gave a shout to us to make way. Before we could properly stepped out of the way, they had already pushed their trolleys past us, not caring whether the trolley wheels barely missed our toes, or that the sides had knocked against our ankles. To them, time is everything. They need to get the seafood as fresh as they can be, so that they can make more money.

Anyway, this trip to the port made me realised that, while we were all comfortably tucked in bed dreaming away, these people are already up and working hard, to ensure we have a good supply of seafood on our tables the next day.

Mustafa Centre - Some more teachers were appearing to be in the half-asleep state as we made our way to Little India's Mustafa Centre. But a little game of teamwork made all of us wide-awake again.

Each team had to get as many things as possible, from two different departments in the Mustafa Centre, with a budget of $10 within 20 minutes. The team who gets the most number of items by maximising the budget in the shortest time, wins the game. Our team didn't win it, but we all had fun. After that, we all took a break and had the famous iced Milo with whipped cream at the Mustafa cafe.

Anyway, I was also surprised by the number of shoppers in Mustafa Centre at about 4:45 a.m. in the morning. There were at least a handful of shoppers at each level. And there were even more at the food section. As we took a leisure stroll after our iced Milo, I saw people shopping for electronics, groceries, and even buying watches. They can be couples, with friends, and even the whole family, with kids not older than 12.

I guess maybe these shoppers find it easier to shop at the wee hours so as to avoid the crowd, with the advantage of time to look through stuffs to buy. Or maybe they were tourists suffering from jetlag, and decided to spend time at this 24-hour shopping centre.

Changi Village - Our final stop for the trip. It was about 6 a.m. when we got there. This time, no more "Muthu" jokes during the journey. Everyone tried to grab some sleep. And surprisingly, I was feeling quite refreshed after the short nap. I didn't expect to be feeling awake after a night of touring around Singapore. But I did.

Anyway, we made our way to the Changi Village food centre for breakfast. Some ate heartily while others were still feeling the aftermath from the cup of iced Milo at Mustafa cafe. Then it was the viewing of sun rise at the beach. However, the sky had already brightened up by the time we made our way to the beach.

I managed to catch a few photos of the early morning sky, with the light from the Sun, but with the Moon still hanging around.

Afterthoughts on the trip : This was an interesting and unique trip. Besides getting to see some of Singapore's places of interest under the night sky, it also let us see what was happening on the streets in the wee hours. It reminded me that it had been a long long time since I had the leisure of going on an excursion, and to act like a tourist in our own homeland. However, not many photographs could be taken under the moonlight, and most of the places of interest we visited were closed. I would like a tour in the temples and churches, rather than to sit in the bus and stared out at the closed doors while the tour guide went on and on about the histories of the places.