Day 3 in Singapore: Chinatown and the Singapore National Museum

So today we went over to Chinatown in Singapore and did some shopping and exploring. We took a taxi over to the Chinatown area and then walked and rode the MRT (their subway or metro) around the rest of the day. This picture to the left shows the entrance to the MRT. There were a lot of cute little shops along the streets in Chinatown, with typical souvenir items that are fun to buy. We walked around and shopped for most of the morning.

Love the Chinese Lanterns!

Entrance to the temple.

One of the Hindu Indian temples called Sri Mariamman Temple is located in Chinatown, so we took a few minutes to look around inside. It was really interesting to see the people inside practicing their beliefs. There were also a lot of intricate statues all over the temple.


Of course we had to take our shoes off to go inside, so we left those in the pile outside with everyone else's haha.

No Shoes!

Main entrance area.

Burning incense.  

 After visiting the temple, we walked around some more and saw some of the crafty areas of Singapore (I figured Bridget and Denise would like to see where some of the locals get their fabric from!) and we also visited what is called the Wet Market. Here a lot of the locals sell produce and fish (as well as other strange creatures from the sea) so you can imagine the lovely aroma of the area. Yeah, I wouldn't be sad if that was the only time in my life I get to see that part of China town haha...

Really cute flower shop!

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After touring the Wet Market, we walked out to one of the Chinese Buddhist Temples. On our way we saw these really cute men playing a game, just hanging out on a typical Friday afternoon. 

The temple itself was huge, and since we were going into a place of reverence, we had to cover our shoulders. They had little shaws that we could borrow while we were there.

Pratice's zodiac sign - The Monkey

Worship Service

Footprints of Buddha

Part of the museum portion of the temple.

 For lunch, we went to this little American restaurant called The Loft. We were super excited that they had chips and salsa, because I eat that pretty much every day and definitely was having some withdrawals!


We really loved this little place, it was upstairs and had a great view of the street below. It reminded me a lot of the unique restaurants in Austin. I kept thinking that Adam and Ashley would love to eat here!

So the salsa was definitely seven Singapore dollars, so the size was a little disappointing when we got it! Still tasty though!

Panini, Salad and Chips and a Coke Light!

 After lunch we did some more shopping and saw some interesting things here and there...

Jackie Chan action figures!

So apparently we found where the Singapore flight attendants buy their outfits!

Umm yes I totally bought these! Haha silly things...

MRT station underground.

The MRT is interesting, it is set up very well and very clean, but the people on the MRT are very quiet and not extremely polite. People just push their way on and off and don't really follow typical social formalities we are used to. Men don't get up and their seats to women or elderly people. It is just strange because we get used to certain social norms and they are very different here!

One of the MANY escalators in Singapore! 

 After Chinatown, we walked over to the Singapore National Museum and took a tour. The tour was great because it gave us a decent understanding of Singapore's history from the beginning with Stamford Raffles from Britain to Japan taking over in World War 2 to Singapore becoming it's own territory and country.

Super Cool head sets for the self guided walking tour.

Patrice had some problems with her headset...

Interesting fact: Japanese invaded Singapore on bicycles crossing over the causeway.

 After the museum, we walked over to Clarke Quay, which is one of the places with a lot of restaurants and where a lot of people go to enjoy the night life.


This area was really neat because it was on the river. It had a similar feel to the San Antonio river walk but obviously on a much larger scale and much nicer!

From Clarke Quay, we walked to Robertson Quay and met Ernie (Patrice's husband, our sudo Dad) for dinner after work.

We choose to eat dinner at a restaurant called "Boomerang" which had some Australian food. It was nice eating on the water. Patrice, Kacey and I all had various pizzas. :0) Yum!

Picking out our meals!

 OK, I know this post was super long but we were SUPER busy today! Hope you enjoyed reading about what we did and looking at the pictures! I am off to bed and I am sure you guys are getting started with your day!