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Chinese New Year in Singapore (3rd Day)

It’s the third day of Chinese New Year. People are coming out from their homes like ants from their hill. I have gone in to a couple of bistros and decided to leave, because they failed to serve me after 10 minutes. Can’t really blame them – it’s the crowd that has really put me off.

Although this efficiently built concrete country in the city has one of the most affordable and reliable public transport system, limited land in Singapore has also restricted the residents here in terms of places to visit especially on holidays and weekends. In fact what it has to offer, are all sorts of shopping mall. Almost every shopping mall provides the need for international labels (DKNY, Gucci, etc), international food (Starbucks, McDonald’s, etc), and international entertainment (Cineplex with large number of theatres). Culturally, in human society, it is a good thing to be able to get access to international products.

So where can the residents go on a day off like this? The shopping mall, of course! So prepare for crowd, queues, noise and body odour due to close contact. I finally found a bistro that is not crowded, had some breakfast, and wrote this. Just when I thought I can have some peace for the rest of the afternoon, this Chinese man next to me started to yak on the mobile phone on the top of his lungs. Next, some attention grabbing young adults at another table as usual, screaming for no reason. Even my full-blasted music cannot conceal it. I gave up and headed home.On my way home, I came across this peculiar crowd outside of the Singapore Istana (The Palace). There is a long, zig-zag queue at the main gate. Reason: unknown. But you can take a look at the photos I managed to take with my humble, little mobile phone. (Note: the red arrow points to a long queue that is not captured by the viewfinder. And I apologise for the rather poor quality, as I do not own a high end camera phone.)

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