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Showing posts with the label Singapore

Travel in the Time of Corona, Week 4

Four weeks after Governor Newsom announced the stay-at-home order for California, the corona virus is still taking a toll on Californians and the rest of the world. Physical distancing may have played a big role in capping the number of cases but we are not out of the woods yet. It looks like we’re home bound for a few more weeks. I don’t mind this at all because I know that it will help flatten the curve and set us free to live a “normal” life again. If there’s one thing I’ve learned during this period of self isolation, it is that I should never take anything for granted, especially traveling.  Champs Elysées, Paris, France Singapore Lauterbrunnen Valley, Switzerland Tlaquepaque,  Guadalajara, Mexico Malmö, Sweden Lake Tahoe, Nevada The Sphinx, Giza, Egypt ***** Images by TravelswithCharie 

Singapore's Chinatown

Earlier this year, I had an unscheduled visit to Singapore. With about 3 hours to explore the city, I decided to check out Chinatown which is a short walk from the Clarke Quay neighborhood where I was ensconced at the Novotel. It was a week before Chinese New Year, the Year of the Snake, so Chinatown was festooned with colorful lanterns and streamers to welcome the arrival of the lunar new year.  Painted Ladies The shophouses that line the streets of Chinatown were built in the style of the painted ladies (Victorian architecture painted in three or more colors) and restored in recent years. These buildings are painted predominantly in pastel and the windows are highlighted in darker hues providing a rich contrast of colors. Beef jerky Nowhere is food more celebrated than in Chinatown especially during the new year. I couldn’t help but stop and stare at these neatly arranged, paper thin beef jerkys and be satisfied with the come hither aroma that pervaded the air.

12 Hours in Singapore

Including a few hours of sleep, I was in Singapore for 12 hours. It was a good decision to stay at Clarke Quay as it is a short walk to Chinatown. With the Year of the Water Snake about to unfold, Chinatown was decked out in festive colors and lucky charms were prominently displayed in the stalls between beautifully restored buildings. Lanterns hung above the traffic lights across the neighborhood in the undulating movement of a snake. From my hotel room balcony, I had this commanding view of the Singapore River as it meandered through the urban landscape. *  *  * Images by Charie

Little India

My flight itinerary from Siem Reap to Manila required an overnight stopover in Singapore . I had only enough time to explore one area of the city so I decided to check out Little India because I can still remember a temple we visited several years ago that had hundreds of figures covering its façade and I wanted to see more. Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple Sri Veeramakaliamman is a Hindu temple dedicated to the goddess Kali. It's on Serangoon Road, a main thoroughfare lined with shops and a few flower stalls.   Bright orange and yellow leis hang from one of the stalls across from the temple. Worshippers wash their feet first before they enter the temple. Although I did see a couple of men who washed their feet after they came out of the temple. Could it be because they had to walk on bare feet inside the temple? Here's where you wash your feet I arrived in Singapore days after the Diwali Festival or the Festival of Lights so many of the streets in Little India still ported

I didn't do my homework

It was late evening when I arrived at Changi Airport in Singapore and all I wanted to do was go to the hotel and rest, rest, rest. I found the taxi line and waited for my turn to hail one. A young woman behind me asked me if I wanted to take the waiting black car on the parking lot and I told her I couldn’t because there were two people ahead of me. She argued with me that those people didn’t want the taxi so if I wasn’t interested, she would take it. That got me going to the waving and liveried driver. Sanctuary area at Changi Airport I had earlier asked the tourist information office what it would cost to travel by taxi from the airport to my hotel and they told me that it would be around $20 ( Singapore dollars). When we got to the hotel, I checked the meter and it was around $21.00. But to my surprise the driver charged me $34 which is $13 over the metered price. I asked him why and he showed me the chart for the surcharge. I was anticipating a surcharge for arrival after mid