Turtles, Turtles and More Turtles!

tower in the chinese garden

we arose after a great nights sleep in our dorm to a free breakfast provided by the hostel of over sweetened cereal and toast - a perfect meal for replenishing the energy lost in our previous days excursions. our food stood no chance and was demolished rapidly as we were keen to get out and explore some of the sights singapore has on offer. after a quick discussion of what the days activities should be we all decided that the chinese gardens and the har par villa ( aka tiger balm gardens) were places of interest and after getting apoximate directions for the china town information centre we headed off!  

feeding the turtles!

the MRT (train) system in singapore and public transport system in general is really top notch and we arrived at our first destination with ease. the chinese gardens is a really beautiful place with many oriental looking towers spread out across the small island on which the garden is situated. we strolled around the strangely empty grounds only passing a few pairs of tourists as we went. after much searching we stumbled across the thing that we had all been so eager to see - the live turtle and tortoise museum; home to the largest display of turtles and  tortoises with numbers of the creatures running into the thousands. in fact the place has actually won a guinness world record for the largest collection of live turtles and tortoises in the world! we paid our five singaporean dollars at the door and entered into what can only be described as a turtle lovers paradise. I myself have never seen anything like it, turtles and tortises were everyware in the small complex scattered across the ground and through the water in uncountable numbers. some lay sunning themselves on the boardwalk while others swam through the murky waters of their elaborate pond. the tortoises, being land animals, looked content grazing on vegetation around the waters edge and in the grassy spaces provided for them. this place was great and we entertained ourselves by taking photos with some of the larger animals. we noticed that there was an option to actually feed the turtles and so brought some of the pellets to have a go ourselves. as soon as the first few pellets hit the water turtles rushed into the pond from everyware with surprising speed. they formed a large mass in the water in front of us, all egar for a chance at a feed. when the pellets ran out and the excitement died down we went inside to view the rest of the turtle collection. overall it was a magical and enjoyable experience, one which im sure we will recall as a fond memory in time.

sinner being condemned to hell 

next stop was the har par villa otherwise know as the tiger balm gardens. id been to this extremely odd place before on my previous trip to singapore but the other two had no idea what to expect (besides the images they conjured up in their minds of my various descriptions of the place). as soon as we entered strange statues began to pop up all over the place. weasels in bloody battle with rabbits and gods of hell were a few of the first things that we saw. without the knowledge that this place was trying to explain through these creations the many different folk stories of chinese culture it would be very baffling and even still it was an unusual sight. we visited the hall of hell where grotesque statues acted out the punishments received in hell for various different crimes committed in life. there were many other statues in the garden some which were explained by stories inscribed on places next to their particular event. we left with alot of odd pictures and took the train back to the hostel where we rested up until later that evening.

marina bay hotel at night

before leaving to go to the marina bay hotel i wanted to give my girlfriend Emilie a quick call to update her on the happenings of our trip so far. to make that call i needed an international phone card and so i went off on a walk by myself through the city on a quest to find one. after much searching and almost getting lost several times I returned triumphant! after briefly talking to my beautiful girl we set off. the bay isnt very far from our hostel so we decided walking wasnt a problem. after paying our 20 fee to go to the observation deck we ascended to the top floor 57 stories in the air. the view of the city was stunning! the sky was lit up by the city lights provided a great photo taking opportunity for tourists such as ourselves. looking out behind the hotel and away from the city we could see the new development 'the garden by the bay' and were intrigued by its colourful lights and intricately designed towers rising up out of the surrounding trees. after some trouble we made our way across to the garden. it was a pleasant place as the temperature was lowering and the lights created a peaceful ambience. tired from a long days march around the city we began heading back to the hostel to rest. unfortunately due to lack of light we managed to get ourselves lost in the expansive city. after consulting with a friendly local we realised we had wondered far off our desired path and so hailed a taxi to take us home. glad to be back we all quickly had showers and were soon fast asleep in our beds.