\n\nOur program for this trip was mainly social and food, mixed with some culture. \n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/01-2019-12-05-16.00.51.jpg\")
<\/a>Keong Saik Road with the Pinnacles (2009)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/02-2019-12-05-16.11.45.jpg\")
<\/a>Our hotel room<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n After some rest, we walked around in Chinatown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/03-2019-12-05-20.49.24.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nThe Keong Saik road has been beautifully renovated. Difficult to imagine that in the sixties of the last century this was Singapore’s red-light district!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/04-2019-12-05-21.08.32.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/05-2019-12-05-21.07.38.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nLater that night, our friend Beng Hooi picked us up from our hotel. He brought us to Toa Payoh Central, where we had Penang food and later Yam Bubble tea with him and a few of Aric’s diving friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/06-2019-12-05-21.32.42.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nOne reason for our visit, was to meet our friend ST Lee. In July 2018 I had visited him and stayed a few days in his Pearl Bank apartment, click here<\/a> for a report. He was recovering from flu, but feeling fit enough to have breakfast with us and Benny, another friend, in the Chinatown Complex, near to our hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/07-2019-12-07-09.58.00.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/08-2019-12-06-09.30.15.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nA few more nice buildings in Chinatown, near our hotel. The Jinrikisha Station was a station for rickshaw carts, carrying one passenger and pulled by one man, popular in those days. Kreta Ayer road , around the corner from our hotel was another street with brothels and prostitutes \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/42-2019-12-07-10.46.01.jpg\")
<\/a>Jinrikisha Station (1903)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/43-2019-12-07-10.53.47.jpg\")
<\/a>Kreta Ayer Road<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n Beng Hooi knows about Aric’s interest in laksa, he had found some interesting places and took us for lunch to a famous laksa stall, Sungei Road Laksa<\/a> at Jalan Besar. A long queue, delicious curry laksa, that is eaten with a spoon only, because the laksa has been cut into pieces already !<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/09-2019-12-06-13.05.30.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/10-2019-12-06-13.09.38.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nBefore Beng Hooi drove back to work, he took us to the Masjid Sultan, passing on our way two modern architectural buildings on Beach Road, the iconic Concourse and the brand-new City Gate complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/12-2019-12-06-13.56.52.jpg\")
<\/a>The Concourse (1994)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/11-2019-12-06-14.12.32.jpg\")
<\/a>City Gate (2018)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n The Sultan mosque was built in 1932 on the location of an earlier mosque in Kampong Glam, the center of the Malay community in Singapore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/13-2019-12-06-14.00.58.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/14-2019-12-06-14.00.15.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nPity that we could not enter the mosque because it was Friday. Must keep Kampong Glam<\/a> in mind for a next visit, it is an interesting, bustling neighbourhood, with a rich history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/15-2019-12-06-14.04.46.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/16-2019-12-06-14.07.24.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nBeng Hooi dropped us at the Fort Canning park<\/a>. During my last visit I had spent many hours exploring the hill, this time we only walked around a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/17-2019-12-06-15.14.51.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/18-2019-12-06-15.30.03.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/19-2019-12-06-14.51.44.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nAric was interested to take “artistic” pictures of a pedestrian underpass in Fort Canning, nicknamed the “Tunnel of Love”, but when we arrived, the name became clear, bridal couples were queueing for a photoshoot, so we gave up \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/20-2019-12-06-14.32.31.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nOn our way back to our hotel, we passed the impressive Majestic<\/a>, originally built in 1928 as the Majestic Theatre , a Cantonese Opera house. Almost back, Aric received a message from his Singapore uncle David, that he was having coffee in the Chinatown Complex. Of course we joined him, to make our visit even more social \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/21-2019-12-06-16.05.01.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/22-2019-12-06-16.22.37.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nAnd that was not yet the end of our socialising.. \ud83d\ude09 . ST Lee had asked us if we were interested to join him that evening to a performance of Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake in the Esplanade. We accepted his invitation gratefully and met him that evening in the Singapore Cricket Club for drinks and dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/23-2019-12-06-18.00.39.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/24-2019-12-06-18.46.52.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nAfter our dinner we walked from the Club to the Esplanade , enjoying the Singapore skyline and the many open-air activities taking place. Singapore is a vibrant city!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/25-2019-12-06-19.19.22.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/26-2019-12-06-19.37.53.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nTaking pictures during the performance is not allowed. Here one picture before the start and one taken after the finale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/27-2019-12-07-22.43.49.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/28-2019-12-06-22.52.54.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nWe enjoyed the ballet very much, actually more than I expected. I am a lover of modern ballet, see for example my blog Le Sacre du Printemps<\/a>, but had never seen a classical ballet! Here is one of the gems of Swan Lake, by the Royal Ballet. Captivating!<\/p>\n\n\n\n