Singapore, Republic of Singapore (day 27 - Feb. 2, 2023)
Here is a link to my previous blog which covers the first few weeks of my trip: https://jwworldtour2023.blogspot.com/
Singapore Art Museum
Cloudy with a chance of showers
Still catching up on sleep, I left the hotel around 10:30. Making my way north-east, I stopped for breakfast and a coffee. Had some pancakes (I know, very adventurous, but I was getting quite hangry at this point).
Pancake Cafe belle-ville, Bugis Junction
There were a few places of worship I wanted to go by out this direction, the first being St. Joseph’s Church (a Roman Catholic church with a copper dome). Another I visited was Our Lady of Lourdes Church, another Roman Catholic church just down the street from the previous one.
Next up was a mosque, Sultan Mosque. This mosque is in the center of an Arabic neighborhood. Lots of colorful buildings and narrow alleyways to see there. Felt like I was right back in Turkey with the restaurant greeters trying to usher you in, whether you wanted to or not :D
Making my way back in the direction of the hotel, I took a slightly different route and stumbled into the National Museum, a university campus, an art museum, and more colorful buildings. It was quite a beautiful little area of the city.
Just across from my hotel is an older building, Central Fire Station. From what I can tell, part of it is a museum, and a newer section is still in operation today.
From the hotel area I made my way east towards the place I had been the afternoon before. I had booked a ticket to get to the top of the building I had sketched yesterday (Marina Bay Sands Singapore, a hotel). There is an observation platform at the top with a view of the city. As I made my way, I stopped at the new parliament building and took a quick look inside. They have a very small area visitors can stop by with a bit of information on how Singapore declared its independence from Malaysia and how their government operates. While I was there, dark clouds had blown in, and it started to rain. The morning had been quite nice, with lighter clouds and even patches of blue in the sky.
By the time I had crossed over the Helix Bridge to the area surrounding Marina Bay Sands Hotel, the rain had started to come down quite heavily. Next to the flower shaped museum there is a mall. Spent some time ducking in and out of the rain in that area, just seeing what there was to see.
By the time I made my way over to the entrance for the observation deck the rain had increased some more. Flashes of lighting and thunder filled the sky. Because of the thunder storm, the observation deck was not open until the storm was over. I decided to keep moving along, there is a garden right next door I wanted to check out anyways. I didn’t spend a whole lot of time in the gardens because of the weather and the daylight was quickly growing dimmer. After a speed tour of the garden, I started on my way back to my hotel for the night. But not before the rain increased even more, it was insane. Buckets of steady rain fell, drenching everything, and it would not let up for the next few hours. I walked back as the entire ground was covered in at least a 1/4” of water because it didn’t have enough time to run off before more water quickly followed. People huddled under shelters or umbrellas, while a few brave souls continued through the storm. The temperature was still in the mid 80s, so even if you got wet, it was at least very warm.
I wasn’t going to wait around for the rain to stop. As I crossed the Helix Bridge and went down the steps of the other side, I saw a man who had been jogging, but now carried his shoes in his hands. I smiled at him, he was one of the brave ones, so I reached out to give him a fist bump as we crossed paths. We started talking and stood there getting showered on by the rain together for the next 15 minutes. It was a really great conversation, we are always exactly where God intends for us to be. One of those moments where everything lines up perfectly. If I had spent 20 more seconds on the bridge taking photos, we would not have met. Philip is the name of the wise jogger, he is 52 years old and from Singapore. He shared with me some of the things he struggles with and has been going through in his life, and fittingly they are very similar to my own struggles. He voiced a lot of the same thoughts that I have been having over the last few years. Eventually we finished our chat and he offered to show me some of the sites and grab some food together with me. I told if I was here a few more days I might have taken him up on that.
Somehow I ended up walking a total of 10 miles today and also got pretty burnt from the sun earlier on in the day. It probably would be smart if I used taxis more here, but I am pretty content just walking around as I feel, just taking it slow :)
