Formula One Night Race 2012 in Singapore!

I was really lucky to have won tickets to the Formula One this year. Granted it’s just the practice session, but the cars are the same, the VROOOMs are the same, and to be honest I’m most curious about what it’s like to be there on the track itself – mainly because I don’t follow F1.

I was lucky as I won’t be participating in the ballot next year, and also because if I hadn’t fallen sick I’ll be in Guangxi, China at the moment with only Sunday’s tickets to ballot for (and a lesser quantity available than today as well). It’s also the reason why these pictures aren’t on Facebook – out of consideration for my colleague (and boss) who had to do my work instead cos I wasn’t well to travel :S

I went with my mum for the first practice session – ironically it’s not “night” yet:

The skyline of Singapore is beautiful from the Bay Grandstand, with a gorgeous view of Marina Bay. It had poured earlier in the afternoon and threatened to rain still:

The cars are all a blur from where we were. Actually our seats were for much higher up, but there were so many empty seats available so we just plonked ourselves down. We are also not allowed to stand near the railings to take photos, and the ushers have to constantly remind people to return to their seats:

Red Bull is easy to spot:

It’s obvious why people aren’t allowed at the railings when you’re trying to take pictures from your seat, but it’s really annoying when you want a good shot!

The view of the background got much better as the sky darkened:

I managed to get shots with cars in them too :)

I hated this red ribbon barrier, had no idea what it was for and tried but failed to take the section of that band off:

I managed to take a long video with quite a lot of the cars, to hear the VROOOOM. The engines were very loud (deafeningly so if you were next to the barriers), but the foam ear plugs we bought onsite were of some help. Ear plugs are a MUST.

I pity those crew right next to the track. I hope they have industrial strength ear protection, though it seems like not all of them do. Just walking down to the exit resulted in literally ringing ear drums as the cars went past:

I got restless and took short walk to the edge of the stand – so gorgeous from here, with a view of another very empty stand:

Compare the number of people there to mine, which got increasingly crowded as the evening wore on:

A look at one of the merchandise booths:

We ambled over to the walkabout section, where I took this shorter video:

We left shortly after, as we had enough of vroom vrooms and neither of us were that keen on the fringe entertainment events. Besides, I didn’t have much sleep last night and was rather tired by then.

And a parting shot:

My Formula One curiosity sated :)

Marina Bay Sands (MBS), Singapore

I had a complimentary stay at MBS thanks to my mum’s friend, but unfortunately I left concluding that MBS is a hotel that’s not worth paying for.

The room itself is nice enough – we added an extra bed as there were 3 of us – it’s very spacious as the space from the door to room is quite long. Unfortunately I’m not one to appreciate space in a room – as long as there’s enough space for everyone to move around and put the luggage, I’m ok with a cosy room. So many of the people staying at MBS are there for the casinos anyway and have little need for such a big room.

Bear in mind also that this room we have goes for about $400 per person per night – not cheap hor! There wasn’t even any view to speak of from our balcony – the Singapore Flyer was not visible from where we were, and the Singapore River was on side of the rooms across the corridor.

At least they give TWG tea I suppose?

The bathroom was nice enough, but I felt it was unnecessarily big and overly spacious, with slightly poor design – there was nowhere to hang the hand towels from.

The room’s design was really something I had to quibble with.

Take for example the shower stall. It was large enough to put a bathtub, yet there was no tub – who pays $400 a night (and no breakfast included) for a room without a tub?

Moreover, the glass panel seen above didn’t extend far enough to prevent water from splashing out when showering. The only way to mitigate that is to angle the showerhead towards the wall – but then you’ll be uncomfortably close to the wall and the ledge for toiletries.

There also was only one immovable showerhead – any hotel which doesn’t have a detachable showerhead gets an automatic strikeout from me, as I like being being able to hold it in my hand, plus it costs next to nothing for the hotel to have such a feature!

The poor design of the room also extends to the location of power outlets – I think the below exemplifies it well. How dangerous to have the wire stretching across the sole passage to the toilet, and how awkward that the wire was just barely long enough to reach the mirror! There were no power outlets for hairdryers in the bathroom, and the mirror you see in below was the ONLY mirror outside the bathroom – most 4 star hotels have at least one more at the alcove (seen to the right below) where the minibar and food are located.

As said, I wouldn’t recommend any tourists to stay at MBS unless it’s free, they really want to gamble or they’re ok with the price they’re paying despite the various inadequacies of the room.

Singapore - from a foreigner’s perspective

A friend whom I’d met on JET is in town, and it has been great having a familiar face visit. Since he arrived on Thursday afternoon, he has been telling me time and again how peaceful, civilised and quiet Singapore seems to be.

I’m pretty sure that’s because he has been in China for too long. Prior to this, he’d spent 6 weeks in Shanghai, and had come to Singapore straight from a few days in Hong Kong.

When walking around, he kept noting how Singapore is less dense than Hong Kong and that the buildings are built further apart. He finds Singapore quieter, as people don’t talk at the top of their voices and there’s the absence of horns blaring. He thought that Singapore’s drivers are civilised, as cars don’t cut lanes and scooters don’t try to drive past you on the pavements with just a hair’s breath between. He also feels that Singapore lacks the frenzied, fast-paced, stressful feel of Hong Kong and China, as it gets noticeably quieter at night, there aren’t people rushing around this way and that, and no one tries to cut between the two inches between us as we walk around. Oh – apparently Singapore isn’t as hot as Hong Kong either.

haha.

It’s crazy that he’s saying all these, as I’m sure he’ll be singing the opposite tune if he’d come straight from the US, for example. China and Hong Kong are quite hard to beat in terms of population and land density. I suppose, however, that Singapore does have really nice places like the Singapore River and the Marina Bay waterfront that are rather relaxing with their wide, open spaces.

We went to see the Merlion, and walking there had a glimpse of the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) and the Art Science Museum:

As well as the Esplanade Theatres and the Singapore Flyer:

We then reached the Merlion – the boy had missed out on the Merlion as it coincided with the construction of the Merlion Hotel as part of the Singapore Biennale, so I took some pictures on my phone to send to him too.

I like the small Merlion better than its larger cousin, while my friend felt that the Merlion is a strange creature, although he doesn’t dislike it – I’m not surprised:

I think the Art Science Museum looks very striking next to MBS – I think like it or hate it, there’s no denying that they both rather iconic structures:

We went walking along the Marina Bay waterfront. It was my first time doing so since it was developed, and was surprised to discover that the Fullerton Bay Hotel exists – and is way more posh than the Fullerton Hotel. There were also other nice buildings, and people shooting a commercial for Double A paper:

Customs House, which was indeed as its name suggests:

There’s also the Marina Bay City Gallery – set up to showcase and explain to visitors the new developments in the area. It’s actually very informative and rather slick – my friend found the miniature model of the area’s buildings as well as the displays and videos rather cool.

It was very nice walking beneath the Sail and seeing the buildings at Raffles Place all lit up. I feel like I need to go back, take more photos and enjoy the view – hopefully with a better camera next time:

Art Science Museum @ Marina Bay Sands

The special exhibition on the Silk Road at the Art Science Museum was ending its run, so I decided to visit it yesterday, before only the Genghi Khan and Shipwrecked Treasures exhibitions were left.

The verdict? Do not, absolutely do NOT visit the Art Science Museum unless the $30 (incl. booking fee) admission fee is worth the special exhibitions you’re intending to see.

The special exhibitions were good, but the permanent exhibits at the museum are virtually non-existent. Excerpts from the the website’s description include:

“The permanent exhibition..takes visitors on a journey inside the creative process across three unique spaces: Curiosity, Inspiration and Expression.

Curiosity is an arrival gallery that encourages guests to ponder the very nature of how we define art and science, what it means to us, and how it influences our world.

Inspiration is an interactive gallery that celebrates the flashpoint of ingenuity powering the worlds of both art and science.

Expression is a dynamic multi media gallery providing an emotional, impassioned demonstration of the power of human beings to harness inspiration to make the world a better place.

• 3 galleries spanning two levels with nearly 800 square meters of exhibition space
• Your journey begins along a meditative path of Floating Stairs which invites you to question the relationships between art and science”

What all this really means is this: the Curiosity Gallery is just the lift landing. Inspiration is essentially a large room with several computer terminals with touch screens for visitors to ‘play’ with. It will occupy visitors for maybe 15 minutes at best. Expression is where visitors watch a video featuring famous scientists who were also artists and vice versa, such as Leonardo da Vinci. One of the two levels is the staircase – and nothing but a staircase, save for a few pictures of past inventors whom few would recognise anyway.

The uninspiring ‘Inspiration’ gallery.

Whatever examples the museum listed to illustrate the relationship between Art and Science were poor, with da Vinci being one of few relevant examples. For example, how are the Kung Ming lanterns considered art? Furthermore, the museum fails to put forth a convincing argument for how art and science are related –the interactive media simply tell visitors of the scientific aspects of the examples given without linking the science back to the art. Probably mainly because the art-science relationship in those examples were non-existent and highly tenuous at best.

And they used American-English. Tsk.

Frankly, I was impressed by the museum until I reached the permanent exhibit levels, as I’d started with the special exhibits. Even the museum shop didn’t belie the true quality of the museum as it had some interesting things on sale:

Warhol-esque mint boxes and astronaut pens. One is clearly representative of art and the other of science. So that they’re in the same shop is representative of art-science?

It’s a pity the museum content is such a disappointment, as it’s an architecturally interesting building which I’d be quite happy to pitch to visitors and locals alike.

The interesting thing about the falling water was that one could get wet sitting outside, depending on the wind direction.

The surroundings of the Art Science Museum are great too. It started out a bit hazy. 

But cleared up as the day progressed.

Note the waves on the water’s surface

Check out the reflection of Fullerton Hotel and the surrounding buildings

I love the way the stairs look