春'倒'(到)河畔 - Innovative logo!

I don’t recall visiting a River Hong Bao celebration with Catherine before, so this should be our first trip there. Traveling there had always been a problem due to the large crowd but since we were driving there this year, we thought the journey there would be a lot more convenient.

Indeed, it took us less than 30 minutes from Changi Airport Terminal 3 to arrive at Marina Square and park the car there. The mall was still opened to public, though most of the shops were closed except for the fast food outlets and restaurants. Interestingly, like that of Changi Airport, we realised that the Chinese New Year decorations had been reused from those used during Christmas; the airport had reused the red ornaments (those smaller ones which were scattered over the airport) while Marina Square made use of the same shiny purple/pink decorations, added with some flower decorations to give them a summer ambience. Guess this is all part and parcel of cost cutting. ^^

Exiting the mall, we could see the River Hong Bao celebrations going on across the road. What first caught our eyes was the amusement park set up by Uncle Ringo, where many thrilling rides were available to those who wish to get some ‘kick’ by getting spun high up in the air. Not for me though, as most likely I would puke after taking them. ^^|

Darius staring at the thrill rides

There was also an indoor section situated below the spectator seats in front of Marina Bay’s floating platform that was especially catered to the kids. Kiddy rides like boating, blown-up slides, merry-go-round were some of the many rides available there but Darius would be too young to get onto them himself. Morever, the noise level was exceedingly high as the new year’s festive music thundered into our ears via the loudspeakers.

Leaving the area and walking along the Singapore River, a large, beautiful gate unfolded before us, which acted as the entrance into the River Hong Bao 2010 event. There was quite a crowd but moving around with a stroller was not much of a problem. There were also stalls along the road featuring items and services provided by the Chengdu province of China, but none of them really caught our eyes. We took Darius out of the stroller and carried him all the way so he could see the sights better.

Definitely our first visit here with Darius

Following the signs, we headed towards the floating platform where numerous figures were being displayed, the most noticeable would be that of a mountain of tigers. Of course we were shutter happy and made sure we took photos with them, especially that of the tigers. Darius was happily chanting ‘Ah Der’ (his version of Tiger) many times when he spotted these favourite animals of his. His learning of the animal tiger was apt for this Year of the Tiger despite it being a coincidence that Catherine had touched on it when she introduced the topic ‘Jungle’ to Darius.

Next up, we came across a set of three figurines consisting of a huge vase, dragon and phoenix. From far, they just looked like any other ordinary statues but up close, we discovered that they were painstakingly crafted by combining hundreds of ceramics utensils/cultery, such as bowls, plates and spoons! What an amazing effort it must have been for the creator(s)!

Masterpiece!

Another piece of masterpiece!

Moving on, we walked by the display of the 12 animals representing the Chinese Zodiac, made up of latern-type materials. We started looking for the rat since Darius was born in the Year of Rat, and took a photo of him with the animal.

Darius and the Pink Rat

We then came across another dragon display made up by an unknown material, which looked somewhat like the candy we occasionally see at oriental events. Yet another eye opener!

The next display that caught our attention (and definitely of that of many others) was one of the popular celebrities for Chinese New Year (akin to Santa Clause during Christmas) — the Fortune God (财神爷). Under chinese folklore, it is believed that he will determine if one will be rich or in rags so some chinese worships him in hope that he will bring them fortune. The statue of the Fortune God was definitely the largest at the event, which I estimated to be several storeys high.

He is huge!

As we were leaving the floating platform after checking out the displays, we saw some floating laterns on the waters between the platform and the road. Nicely made displays too.

We later realised they do not light up at night. What a waste!

Reaching Marina Square, we had our dinner at Carls Jr while Catherine fed Darius his porridge. The burgers there were huge, though it came at a higher price compared to the other local fast food outlets. The free-flow beverage point was a plus point for thirsty patrons like us though. As for Darius, we had brought along his jaguar figurine so he was happily playing with it. We should have brought along his tiger figurine instead since he had just encountered so many displays of them at the event and he could easily co-relate with them.

After the meal, though we were already feeling tired and had thoughts of heading home, we decided to check out the event again to see how the lightings looked at night. When we made our way out of the mall, we saw the amusement park again, this time in full glory of its beautiful lightings.

Beautiful displays of light

Even the street lightings looked so different

We also went back to the platform area to see how the displays looked like at night. With all the lightings, they were indeed more beautiful but at the same time, it was more difficult to take photos with them due to the increased crowd and the low lighting (photos taken would be more likely to subject to blurriness or graininess). As such, we were glad we had already taken our photos earlier in the day. The Mountain of Tigers was the most popular exhibit and they were actually robotic at night. Smaller tigers were turning round a tunnel and turning their heads while the Huge Tiger was turning its head and moving some body parts. Darius was again so fascinated with them and kept staring and chanting his “Ah-Ders…”

One of the clearer shots we took during the night

Since we had already seen other exhibits and it was getting really hot inside the crowd of people, we headed home and had a good night’s rest. What a long but interesting day!

No related posts.