The second stop on our (arguably) whirlwind tour of Singapore was Marina Bay, which is one of Urban districts of Singapore. This particular area borders on new development (as a redevelopment zone) as well as historical buildings as well.
Part of downtown Singapore. Remove the tropical setting, and it could be downtown anywhere:
The Victoria Theater and Concert Hall. Originally started in A.D. 1862, it was initially completed in A.D. 1909 and renovated from A.D. 2010-2014:
The Anderson Bridge, built A.D. 1908-1910. Crossing the Singapore River, it is part of the F1 circuit when the race is run in Singapore:
The Merlion is a symbol of Singapore. Although mythical sea creatures have been part of Malay, Chinese, and European history, there is no specific relation from any of those to this. It was originally designed in the A.D. 1960's for the tourism board. The merlion combines the fish, which symbolized Singapore's origins as a fishing village called Temasek, or "sea town", and the head of a lion, symbolizing Singapore's original name of Singapura, or "lion city". Interesting, the original was struck by lightning in A.D. 2009:
A view of The Marina Bay Sands, the world's most expensive casino valued at $6.9 billion. If you think that it looks like a ship built on top of the towers you would be right:
Another view of downtown:
An example of a water taxi:
Always enjoy these photographic reminders of your travels TB, Singapore is one of those names of faraway exotic places of mystery though with the Internet and air travel the world has shrunk.
ReplyDeleteNylon12 - I had not thought if that way, but you are completely right. It really was a place that sounded exotic and on the other side of the world (which, in fact, it was). Hard to wrap the mind around what used to take months and months of travel can now be accomplished in a day.
DeleteI have seen that casino before and it took me a minute to come up with where. I think it was in the movie "Crazy Rich Asians" and perhaps also an episode of "The Amazing Race".
ReplyDeleteEd, I would be it was in "Crazy Rich Asian". It looks far above what I would find remotely interesting, especially as I do not like to gamble.
DeleteI've seen backdrops of Singapore in movies and find it interesting that in our photos it seems a smaller city than I imagined. The merlion is interesting. A pretty clever idea to represent the city.
ReplyDeleteLeigh, the city (and state, sort of) is the 176th smallest country in the world apparently. And consists of a total of 63 islands.
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