The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

While exploring Chinatown with my parents, we stumbled across the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.

It is a Buddhist temple and museum that was based on the Tang dynasty architectural style and built to house the tooth relic of the historical Buddha (or at least according to Wikipedia).  We thought that this temple had to have been 'old' (well 'old' by Singapore standards), but little did we know that it actually opened in 2007 and cost about $60million to build!  It fooled us!

There was a service going on while we were there, so we watched the rituals and chanting for a bit and then wandered around to look at the thousands of buddha statues that were on display.

Can't wait to find more gems like this here!

Sights Around My Apartment

All of these pictures were taken by my Pops...he went exploring the neighborhood and found:

Colored shutters on the Old Hill Street Police Station

The Hong San See Temple  

The Sri Thendayuthapani Temple that I can see from my apartment.  It was built in 1859 and is one of the most important Hindu temples in all of Singapore.

The Singapore River & Clarke Quay

The Parents Came To Visit!

Hi Everyone - sorry for not posting anything in a while but I had a good excuse...the parental unit made an appearance in Singapore!  They came for a little over a week with the intent on 'helping me get settled in' which really meant 'two trips to Ikea, hanging pictures, building furniture, finding a hardware store, etc' and in between all that being tourists in Singapore!

Some highlights of things that we did:

Night Safari

Fire Breather Show at the Safari

Eating the famous Singaporean seafood, Chilli Crab, with my co-workers at Jumbo.  I should have taken before and after pictures...it was quite a messy meal and you could definitely tell where the Americans sat at the end!

Drinks on the 57th floor of the Marina Bay Sands Casino before going to see a Cirque du Soleil Show:

The drink with the foam was the 'best drink my Mom has ever had'

Sentosa and the S.E.A Aquarium - my dad was really looking forward to the aquarium as it bills itself as the 'World's Largest Aquarium' but it wasn't any better than the Monterey Bay Aquarium or the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco!

Stroll through Chinatown:

Half of the 'snake' that was decorating one of the main streets in Chinatown for Chinese New Year

It was so hot, they had to stop for a beer

But I think our favorite thing to do was to grab a bottle of wine and sit up on my roof in the evenings and watch the sun set, and the lights of the Central Business District / Marina Bay Sands turn on.

By Day...

By Night...

The light show at Marina Bay Sands

It was so nice to have my parents here and I wish that they could have stayed longer!  Can't wait to see them again over the summer when I go home.

I miss them tremendously!!!  XOXO

Less than 24 hours in Bangkok

I travelled to Bangkok last week for a work conference.  I was only there for one night so I didn't get to see much of the city...and I didn't even get to eat Thai food as it was standard hotel conference fare =(  Such a shame!  

I've heard stories about Bangkok traffic to and from the airport where cars are stopped for hours and luckily we didn't have to experience that.  Getting back to the freeway though out of the hotel was interesting...traffic laws don't apply in Thailand.  I didn't take this picture, but you get the gist...

The hotel that we stayed in was very nice and there was a great shopping mall next attached to it.  In this mall was an amazing grocery store and the prices in Thailand were much cheaper compared to Singapore!  Too bad I couldn't take more food back, but I was able to find my favorite Mentos gum to stock up on (shhh...don't tell the Singapore police).

Some pictures of the mall:

Complementary dragon fruit in my hotel room...

Until next time Bangkok!

I'm all moved in!

Hi Everyone - sorry for not updating my blog for a while.  Last weekend I finally moved into my apartment and it's been great to be sleeping in my own bed and surrounded by my own stuff!  There were 4 movers who delivered my shipping crate and proceeded to unpack all of the boxes...I've decided that I'm never moving myself ever again after this experience!  There was only one thing that was broken (which was very minor) and considering the distance that the crate travelled, the movers in San Francisco did a great job wrapping everything.

Here's my living room pre furniture arriving:

Boxes upon boxes:

The movers assembled my TV stand and my dresser but I was left to tackle 3 bookcases on my own after they left.  Let's just say that they're still standing...

It took about a day and a half to get everything unpacked and organized where I wanted it.  I brought entirely too much clothing, but at least there is decent closet space here.  I'm waiting to put up pictures and get a dining room table until when my parents arrive next week, but here's the almost finished apartment now:

Here is a picture of the swimming pool...it's definitely a lot longer than the standard pool so swimming laps is a challenge!