Merry Christmas! And some Christmas pics from Singapore... ^_^

Dec 25, 2006 01:27

Merry Christmas everyone!

I had the greatest time in Singapore (cheers to my Singaporean friends renovak and peiyu--it's a beautiful city, really), but since I only logged in to post a Christmas message, here are some Christmas in Singapore pictures as a prelude to the actual trip commentary. solidark, I mailed you a postcard from Singapore as well, but considering ( Read more... )

christmas, photos, singapore

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Comments 32

solidark December 24 2006, 18:03:27 UTC
Waaah, these pictures are sooo pretty! *_* I wish I could have a tropical Christmas again! ^_^

And thanks for the postcard, I'm looking forward to it!

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irian December 24 2006, 18:11:34 UTC
Hmmm. Apparently something went wrong with my html. If the pictures were stretched out when you viewed them, try having a look again now. They should be showing properly now.

Orchard Road is the best. For window shopping, at least. And the Kinokuniya there is HUGE. Too bad the exchange rate was better at the Kinokuniya in Malaysia though.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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solidark December 24 2006, 19:24:44 UTC
Well, yes, most of them look better now ^^.

We don't even have a Kinokuniya T_T. But, yeah, exchange rates can be frustrating sometimes. Though at the moment I can't complain about the Euro-US$ exchange rate XD.

Merry Christmas to you too! *hugs*

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irian December 25 2006, 05:27:25 UTC
Oh well. At least you don't have to go through the agony of knowing that all of your closest neighboring countries (Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, and maybe Hong Kong) have a Kinokuniya and there's literally a zero chance of one opening in your country because the market is considered too small. *cries* T_T

*mustthinkhappythoughtscozit'schristmasmustthinkhappythoughtscozit'schristmasmustthinkhappythoughtscozit'schristmas*

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_rabia_ December 24 2006, 18:31:55 UTC
Nice pics. It's slightly surreal to look at your photos and actually recognize the places in them. Heh. Great to hear you're having a good time.

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irian December 25 2006, 04:48:26 UTC
Hehe. Orchard Road must be one of the most famous shopping streets in Asia, but if I'm not mistaken Ginza should be the oldest. Still, since the Singaporean government rakes in a lot more tourist money from Orchard than the Japanese government does from Ginza, I'd say they're more likely to go over-the-top with the Christmas decor than the Japanese. Lol.

I'm actually back home already. Spending Christmas in Singapore would be a lonely affair, plus, the person whose apartment we were crashing in (our company president's daughter) was coming home for good, so we couldn't exactly extend our stay after she'd gone, right? ^__^;;

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raelanenillusia December 24 2006, 19:19:47 UTC
They look really lovely, esp. the one of the giant Christmas tree with the gold stars. Thanks for sharing!

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irian December 25 2006, 04:53:10 UTC
Hee. Thanks. I'm especially happy with the composition for that picture. Anyway, Merry Christmas!

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psychopompos December 24 2006, 20:43:56 UTC
Wow. I wish Seattle would be more festive, but all we have is the Macy's Star on 4th Ave and the Christmas Tree at Westlake. I am not going anywhere near the malls today - there's been so much going on. I mean, I went earlier this week and I almost got ploughed over by high school girls.

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irian December 25 2006, 05:01:54 UTC
*sympathizes*

Christmas rush? I know what you mean. Read your latest entry btw, and if it makes you feel any better, had you been living in my country, the landlord could boot you out within a month's notice, no repercussions whatsoever... Housing laws here are primitive.

And see my comment to _rabia_ for the reason behind the over-the-top Christmas lights. ^_^

Merry Christmas.

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psychopompos December 25 2006, 06:17:23 UTC
Merry Christmas to you too, hope you are having a good one. :)

It's kind of like this in Taiwan too - the big Christmas lights, the big trees, the hanging stuff in the middle of the streets. A lot of tourist money, plus they just like...well, the commercial aspect of it, I guess.

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irian December 25 2006, 06:35:06 UTC
Considering that only less than 10% of the population in Taiwan is actually Christian, I can understand the emphasis on the glitzy Christmas lights. I bet you don't see any huge nativity scene dioramas outside office and commercial buildings like what we have over here. Didn't see any in Singapore either, for that matter.

And yes, Christmas is great, albeit a bit sleepy, considering that all I've done for today is pack for our yearly trip to Baguio tomorrow. Already opened my presents from my friends before Christmas Eve because they insisted on it. And since the family's not big on celebrating Christmas, all we did was an abbreviated Christmas dinner. No Christmas spread or gifts under the tree here, but I don't think we're allowed to this year because the mourning period for my grandfather won't be over until next year. Chinese traditions, meh.

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renovak December 24 2006, 23:58:33 UTC
Hey! I'm glad you had a good time - and drat that I wasn't around to meet up with you and have some coffee or something! Merry Christmas!

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irian December 25 2006, 05:14:59 UTC
Oh well. From what I gather, this meeting in Singapore is *supposed* to be a yearly thing (I think they skipped 2005 though), so maybe next year?

You might find it interesting to hear that nobody in Singapore will believe that I'm of pure Chinese descent. Apparently my facial structure is classified as "Malay", and add to that the fact that I was going around the whole time with a group of people who look obviously Pinoy/Malay and speak to me in Tagalog...

So when I start talking Hokkien to taxi drivers (not that I can claim to understand half of what they're saying, because the Singlish does get mixed in sometimes, and their accents start to get funky then), they always invariably say something like "Oh, you Chinese la? Thought you Indonesian/Filipino/insert other Malay race here." Lol.

The Malaysian Chinese who joined the meeting thought the same thing as well, and the Indonesians and the Thais said I could pass for one of them if I went to their countries.

*scratches head*

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irian December 25 2006, 05:22:28 UTC
Oh, and Merry Christmas to you too!

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