2005 Journey Recap - Spending Year End in Singapore

My parents are spending the last week of 2005 in Singapore, and there's only one main thing they do: shopping. They went to Orchard almost everyday during the weekday between 27 and 30 December 2005.

On the last day of the year (31 December 2005), we went to Bugis Junction and had lunch at the Swensen's Restaurant there. Inka and Irza are having a great time with their ice creams. As usual, Inka never wants the ice cream from the kids menu, and always want the one from the adult menu.

At night, we went to Esplanade to see the fireworks display. Inka was not feeling well, so she stayed at home with my wife. So only myself, Irza, Aki and Ene went to Esplanade. I recalled parking at Esplanade is very expensive, so I chose to park at Raffles City shopping centre instead. Luckily, we still can get a parking lot there. From there, we walked towards Esplanade.

Prior to the display, we visited the Esplanade itself and saw some of the artworks presented there. Irza and Ene is taking picture in front of one of the artworks (see left picture). After which, we went out to the Esplanade Bridge to find the right spot to view the fireworks display. Oh My God, the road, which was closed to traffic, was full of people. We couldn't even hardly move around. So we decided to just wait there and wait to watch the firework display.

The fireworks started just before midnight, not too sure why. Unfortunately, I was very busy watching the fireworks as well as carrying Irza (so he could see the display) so I didn't have the time to take pictures of the fireworks display. Last SMS with my friend Pras indicated that Pras and his wife, Riva and son, Ristyo, should be around there also somewhere, however I was unable to reach him by phone.

After the fireworks display ended, we walked back to Raffles City, and went directly into the carpark. Took us more than 20 minutes to leave the carpark due to the jam, and only after I almost reached the CTE tunnel entrance near Clarke Quay, then I managed to call Pras. I told him to wait at the bus stop along Hill Street, and then we fetched them and went straight to Bukit Timah.

We had our supper at the Al-Azhar coffee shop in Bukit Timah (opposite Beauty World Centre), amazingly both Irza and Ristyo were still awake despite spending quite some time there until around 3am in the morning. After finishing our supper, we sent Pras and family to their apartment in Bukit Batok, before we went home and called it off for the day.

Happy New Year 2006!