Chingay Parade 2011

i had no idea that the Chingay Parade now occurred on two day; it's been a while since the Parade was on my radar. still, it was fun to have caught part of the Parade by accident yesterday.

we had actually gone on the Singapore Flyer, and the Parade hadn't started for long when we disembarked. the first segment was people on stilts:

and then came the Star Wars contingent led by Darth Vader. i thought this was rather cool even though i'm not a Star Wars fan - imagine if there were in the National Day Parade! they would totally kick ass.

check out the crowd - I think this new Marina Bay and Marina Barrage area is a great place to hold the Chingay Parade. It's been nearly a decade since I saw Chingay live; that was in Orchard Road and it was so hot, crowded and stuffy. This wide, open air area along the sea is so much better.

I really liked this dragon float as it spit fire:

it's cute cos it has a Singapore Flyer on its side:

unfortunately i think the Flyer looks better in miniature than in reality - my main gripe is that the Flyer isn't brightly lit enough.

this was a colourful and fun float, led by the God of Longevity:

then came the Gods of Fortune and Prosperity:

The participants were mainly middle-aged men, but they were really cheerful and kept shouting "Huat Ah!" :)

And what is Chingay without the Lion and Dragon dances? here you have men balancing heavy flag poles on their foreheads and abdomens:

and then was the longest fire-cracker dragon in the world - it's hard to take pictures at Chingay, cos there're people about who're taller than i am and with bigger cameras than i have:

this was actually my first time being so close to firecrackers. i could actually feel the heat from the crackers!

it then got really smoky, and when fire-crackers go 'pop' there's actually something physical that pops out into the space around it. some of those things went popping into the crowd; one landed on my head. i can fully understand how firecrackers can be fire hazards now..

i haven't seen a lion dance in years either. this cute one fluttered its eyelashes in my direction.. :P

and of course the multi-cultural aspect is required:

i really loved this, as it was the most colourful display and the flowers were gorgeous. there was one with really pretty sunflowers too, but i'm sure the flowers would have been awful to the touch, as fake flowers usually are..

it was a very pretty peacock float too. there was a cute little boy on it, and he kept waving and going "Hello! Hello!"

some of the girls from the ballet studio i go to are in this segment. they had complained of long long waits for rehearsals - apparently if you're told to be there at 4pm, nothing will happen till 5.30 or 6pm.

i love the guy's protruding lotus headgear.. :P

and this is the last segment i caught, which was sponsored by Resorts World Sentosa. bubbles are always pretty, and they were sending showers of water into the crowd for 'good luck'.