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 :)

Singapore Flyer

The Singapore Flyer costs $29.50 for adults, but my mum had a one-for-one deal so we made our way there on Friday.

For the sake of the two older folks, we took a bus 1-stop from City Hall to just outside Millenia Walk and made our way on foot from there. I wish the experience walking to the Flyer would be improved though. I’d been there once more than 2 years ago and nothing much has changed since then – it’s still a walk along pavements with the heavy traffic zooming past, with no proper signage informing us whether we should cross the road at this crossing, or if there’ll be another one down the road.

But anyway we managed to reach there in one piece – its frankly a bit scary being a pedestrian on the pavement with cars going past non-stop on three sides, as it was at one point in time – and in time to catch the “restaurant capsule” go past:

i tried my hardest not to take non-discreet photos, but the people dining in there must have felt like animals in the zoo as more than a few camera flashes went off.

the colour changes that the Flyer goes through are nicer up close – i find it insufficiently bright from a distance:

i’ve been told that the 30 minute ride is good as just a one-time experience, with the first 10min being spent in excitement and the rest in boredom. i didn’t think it as bad as that however, as time passed by quickly enough.

perhaps taking lots of photos is the trick, like i did, with my attempts to capture the crowd that had gathered below for the Chingay Parade. See how sharp they look? There’re suspicions that the glass magnifies images:

trying to take a picture where all the lines below are lit took awhile too – i actually do quite like the large 春 that was put up to celebrate Chinese New Year:

Marina Bay Sands, of course, was the focus of many photos too. The building of the new downtown has definitely added lots of iconic structures that make the view from the Flyer more interesting.

It’s quite amazing how bright Singapore is at night – Malaysia is a lot less lit up, as is very apparent when viewed from a plane.

i wished i had a better camera, as it was difficult trying to catch Fullerton Hotel. It was either too blurry or would have looked better if i had a wider angle on my camera.

The first of 6 performance area for Chingay, with the ticketed seats on the right and the carpark on the left.

the lights from the floating platform where River Hongbao is held were a little too bright, and the Esplanade seems a lot less obvious at night.

Apparently some say that the Singapore Flyer experience is the best of its kind in the world, beating others like the London Eye or the Eiffel Tower.While I haven’t been on the former (it was way too dear at £15, back when £1 = SGD3) i really liked the latter as i could feel the wind in my air. It’s for the same reason that i love the Umeda Sky Building in Osaka.

I think Singapore’s skyline at night is different from Paris’ too. Singapore’s charm is in the juxtaposition of buildings of different heights. There’s a layered effect to the skyline and the URA has done an excellent job of lighting up the city. Paris, however, had a beautiful night view due to the sheer number of historical, architecturally buildings that are visible like a spotlight at night. The more important ones even have a long, lit boulevard that seems to radiate from the Eiffel Tower right up to it, drawing your attention to all its glory.

I’m not sure I’d say that this is nicer than Paris’ view, but it is pretty darn nice.

you just need a better camera than mine, and steadier hands..

the end.

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'.