Life On A Tiny Red Dot - Countries of the World

Countries of the World
Life On A Tiny Red Dot

Welcome to Singapore - A Tiny Red Dot

Intro To This Red Dot...

Life in a tiny red dot like Singapore. You might think that this might be terribly boring and there would be no fun in such a place but actually, there are loads of surprises around the corner! There are lots of lovely parks and beaches for all to enjoy. There are also the two zoological gardens that we are famous for but first, you might not have seen a Singapore flag before so here is a picture of it taken from Wikipedia on top. The red symbolises "universal brotherhood and equality of man" while the white represents "pervading and everlasting purity and virtue". The waxing crescent moon represents "a young nation on the ascendant" while the five stars represents "the nation's ideals of democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality".

So hop on board and learn about the "dot" I live in!

Map Of Singapore

Oops, I forgot to tell you just how small Singapore is. Still, a picture paints a thousand words and seeing is believing so here it is: A map of the world in contrast to Singapore(the continent Singapore is in).

Legend Of Ancient Singapore

This is a legend of how Singapore was actually found... ...

Once, there was a prince of Sumatra named Sang Nila Utama. He wanted to find a suitable place to build a city so he set sail from a city in Jakarta named Palembang with a few other ships. Soon, they reached Riau Island and were being greeted by the local queen.

A few days later, the prince went hunting with his men on the nearby islands. While hunting, he spotted a deer and started chasing it. Soon, he came to a large rock and decided to climb in the hope that the deer might be hiding behind it. However, there was no deer in sight but this brought an island over the sea into view. He inquired with his men about the island and found out that it was called Temasek. The prince thought that it might be a good place to build a city and left for the island.

However, a storm was brewing and no sooner was the ship taking in water. The prince and his men could not do anything but to throw any heavy objects on the ship overboard. Still, the situation did not improve. In desperation, the prince threw his heavy crown overboard. This calmed the storm immediately and the ship did not capsize. Then, one of the prince's man spotted an animal that resembled a lion. He thought that this was a good omen and thought that this country will flourish.

Picture: http://library.thinkquest.org/10414/sang.html

Founding of Modern Singapore

You must now be doubting what I said about Singapore having two zoological gardens and everything in my intro after that legend above. Relax, that was in the 1800s. Besides, there have been many changes to Singapore since its ancient founding. However, if I were to write all of that down into the blog, you will close this window at once and cry that you will never read this blog again. I wouldn't blame you then because it is really like a history lesson(I've been through it). All I'll say is that a very handsome man named Raffles dropped by Singapore and colonised and put us under British rule. However, the Japanese came and we were being captured in World War II. It was two and a half years of pure suffering. Our ancestors were always living in fear of being shot by a gun or beheaded. Luckily, they realised that they had to surrender due to food shortage and a host of other difficulties so the Brits came back but they couldn't restore confidence in our ancestors due to their inability to defend us from the Japanese so we became independent and went under our neighbour, Malaysia's rule. However, a few years later, we were independent again.

This is Raffles if you must know how handsome he is and the place where he landed and came to have a look at Singapore:

Picture: http://www.wilson.demon.co.uk/Singapore/pages/Raffles-Statue.htm

Housing In Singapore

As we all know, Singapore is very scarce in land and land here is always expensive compared to other countries. Thus, less people own terraces or bungalows. Still, most Singaporeans including me, prefer to live in flats. They are houses ranging from one-storey one-room flats to two-storey mansionettes(the ones I live in). They are built into buildings so that on the same piece of land, more people can live in a 14 storey building compared to having only one terrace and only a few people living in it. This provides more houses for all of us.

However, there are pros and cons to living in such flats. The pros are that you will be able to have neighbours. This gives you a lot of friends and when you are bored, you can always hop over to your neighbours house to play with the other children. You can also learn more about their religion if theirs is different from yours and even learn how to cook different kinds of food from them. Still, this is where the trouble comes. Some people are very insensitive to their surroundings and do very inconsiderate things like throwing litter over their 14th storey apartment or say hurtful things to their neighbours. This causes a lot of misunderstandings and sometimes, these fights turn violent. If people are more willing to accept each other's diffrences, these would not happen. Luckily, we are very kind and loving people and not these cases don't happen often. If not, the police will be terribly busy!

If you ask me, these flats are really cool because if you live in landed property, you will have limited friends unlike living in flats where you can have loads of friends up, down and around you. I have many classmates living around me too so if I ever need help in homework, I can always go to my friends' houses. This also allows us to hang easily as many flats have playgrounds and we can always go out to play there.
This is a picture of a block of HDB flats:

Picture: wikipedia.org

Picture: Wikipedia

This is a flat's typical corridor where we interact with our neighbours. We can even plant our plants there as long it does not obstruct others...

My School

In Singapore, all children are required by the government to go to school. School. A prison you might think. However, it is a lot of fun because we get to learn a lot of new stuff as well as get to know more friends. Here, most of us love this one lesson and that is P.E. which stands for physical education. It is synonymous to the word fun. We get to learn how to play basketball, soccer, Frisbee, badminton and more. We have lots of fun playing all these interesting games. Still, when there is fun, there is always suffering and that is the N.A.P.H.A test. Basically, it is an examination to make sure that your body in is tip-top shape. However, if your body is not in its best condition, get ready to suffer. You will have to pull-ups, sit-ups, shuttle run a hundred metres, jump a certain distance and run a gruelling mile. Those who do not meet the standards of these examinations will have to go for remedial classes to do some funny obstacle course and than fo for a retest. It was a nightmare as these remedials and retests would be conducted during recess and this was when we ate our breakfasts and played a round of football or basketball. Thus, we were all very scared of it.

The worst thing of all is that there are technical errors along the way and I was wronged of failing my one mile run and was forced to take remedial and a retest. I would never forget those "dark times".

Anyway, there is still something even nicer for us and that will be the computer lab lessons where we get to learn more on how to use certain software on a computer in the school. It was a lot of fun because once, we were asked to make an E-book on crocodiles. We had to do research and type them onto the E-book. How fun is that! We even got to make web pages of World War 2. These lessons were definitely very enriching.

Still, without teachers, there would be no school. Thus, teachers play a very important role in our education. We have many dedicated teachers teaching and guiding us along the way. They make lessons fun and interesting by using technology to engage us in the activities.

Picture: http://www.phpps.moe.edu.sg/

A Green Singapore

A garden city. This is a comment remark from tourists who come to Singapore. The first thing that greets them are the roads and they would've realised that the road dividers of expressways have bougainvillea or some other kind of plant planted on them and that there are always trees along the road sides. Then, you must be wondering how these trees grow so well. Well, there is a special organisation that takes care of all these plants and it is called the National Parks or Nparks. It is actually a government agency and it ensures that those plants and many others in parks are well maintained.

Wait a minute, parks? Yep, you did not see wrong. Parks. They manage parks to and it is no small task considering how many parks and expressways there are in Singapore. Still, they do a good job at it and this keeps people going to the parks to exercise and to picnic there. We can even watch concerts at the parks too. An example will be the Botanical Garden. Sounds scientific? Well, there is absolutely no science to it. Anyway, there is slope called the "Heliconia Valley" and at the bottom of it, a huge man-made pond surrounding a stadium only accessible using a bridge. People who have picnics there in the evening at certain dates will be in for a treat as there might be an orchestra playing there for free and you will be able to watch it while munching on sandwich, something you can't do in a theatre. Then, there might be a question and answer time when the orchestra prepare for their next performance. That means winning something nice for answering the question right. I have gone up that stage before in front everyone to answer the question. It was quite nice to do so on the big stage in front of so many people unless of course you have stage fright.

In singapore, we have nature reserves too like the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve which surrounds the Bukit Timah Hill. It is the tallest hill and the highest natural point in Singapore at an altitude of 163.63 metres (537 ft.). It is just a stones throw away from my house so I can walk to it and climb up the hill whenever I like but usually, I climb it on Sundays. There is also the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve where we can see mudskippers and birds that are not native to this country. This is because this mangrove swamp is a stopover for migratory birds leaving for some other country. there are two peak seasons in the year when they come to rest. However, I went there once during an excursion with the school but it was not the peak season and all that was there were pieces of bare land with only an occasional bird or two to spot. Anyway, this is a "rare glimpse" of a komodo dragon that I took a picture of when it was basking in the Sun:

Places Of Historical Value In Singapore

There are many places in Singapore that carry huge historical value such as the Old Ford Factory. It has been on the very same spot and has not been moved one inch ever since the British used it as the meeting place to surrender Singapore to the Japanese. This building was actually a real car factory but it did not produce too many cars as shortly after it was built, it was taken over by the Japanese Imperial Army and used as its military headquarters. Although most of the factory has been demolished for development, the main building where the surrender took place has remained untouched.

As you enter the carpark, a path is seen leading to a garden where some wartime crops grow on a small plot of land. The main entrance is covered in darkness and as you enter the main exhibits through a tunnel, you can hear a interviews of people who lived to tell the tale of how terrible the Japanese Occupation was and you start to feel very solemn as you enter the main exhibits. What lies in front will be the boardroom where the actual surrender took place. It contains a clock that was adjusted to the actual time of the surrender and a replica of the actual table used in the surrender. Replicas of the people involved in the surrender surround the table. Glass panels surround the whole boardroom to preserve it and there are panels around them to show the actual conversation that took place in the boardroom. Continue through the room and you will find that there are many artefacts donated by people such as old bicycles used as transport, old passports and passes needed by the public to walk around and prove that they were not traitors. Then, there are the "banana notes" used by people then to buy food. It is said that because too many of them were circulated, their value decreased and soon they were almost of no value at all. Then, there are news clippings of newspapers then.

As you step out of the museum, you will be able to see a calligraphic symbol of the Chinese word 和平 (sorry if it appears as a huge chunk of unreadable words) or "peace" in English signifying that war does not pay!

Picture: wikipedia.org

Sentosa: An Island Of Its Kind

It is a very beautiful island with very wonderful beaches. However, above all, there are loads of wonderful attractions that don the island. They include a Merlion that is a lot larger than the original one at the Marina Bay. Then, there is the Sentosa Luge and Skyride where people are able to use the force of gravity to slide down Imbiah Lookout, a hill on Sentosa and come up again using the Skyride, a bottomless cable car. Drooling? Want to know more? Then hop on board... ...

Picture: wikipedia.org

First, there is the Merlion. It is 37 metres high and in it, there are exhibits about the ancient founding of Singapore. There will be mercubs and mythical creatures following you all through the exhibits. Then, you can go up to the ninth storey where you will be treated to a 360 degree view of the whole of Sentosa. You might even be able to see Singapore's famous city skyline.

Next, on top of Mount Imbiah is a luge station where visitors can take a go-kart that is powered by gravity. Then, you can take the Skyride up the mountain back to the station. I have only taken the Skyride before and if you are wearing slippers, hold on! The slippers may fall of and drop into the vast greenery of the mountain. When I took the ride, I was very lucky because it was at night and I could watch at the performance Songs of the Sea. While slowly descending from the hill and into the Palawan beach station.

After that, you can relax and take a stroll in Fort Siloso, A fort used by Singapore to defend itself when the Japanese attacked us. There are many cannons that have been left untouched ever since the war while others have been replaced due to their bad condition. Still, don't even think of firing any cannon balls left in the cannon. There won't be any left!

Apart from the attractions, there are loads more stuff on this teeny weeny island such as the beaches and a resort currently under construction. There also many other interesting things on the island listing them out would be insane. That would take me a whole day. Still, going to Sentosa is fun in itself. There are cable cars that carry people to and from Sentosa at the higher levels of a mall and office building, HarbourFront Centre. Then, there is also the monorail whose track starts at Vivocity, Singapore's biggest mall and right beside HarbourFront Centre where you can take it into Sentosa's many stations such as the Imbiah or Palawan station. If not, driving a car over through the Sentosa gateway is also great. Well, have fun!

Marina Bay

This is a bay that sits at the mouth of the Singapore River. It has the Esplanade: Theatres on the Bay for people of great talent in the performing arts from all over the world to hold performances. It has a very queer structure. It resembles that of a durian due to the "spikes" that cover the whole building. They are actually aluminium sun shades that don the the roofs of the two blocks of this building. There are many theatres where performances take place and visual-arts galleries that are there for artists to present their art installations for everyone to see. There is also an area just behind it where performances by bands take place free of charge (the ones indoors come with tickets). There is also a very beautiful view of the city skyline and the structure of a Merlion especially at night. It also overlooks the mouth of the Singapore River where Raffles entered Singapore. There is also another great feature about Esplanade and that is a library. Yup, a library in a place dedicated to the arts. However, there is another surprise installed for you: you can borrow DVDs home to watch. How nice is that!

There are also many spectacular things on the bay such as the floating stadium. It was actually meant as a temporary stage to host Singapore's annual National Day where we mark the day we gained independence. This is due to the reconstruction of the National Stadium into a sports hub where more kinds of sport can be played at. It is actually a floating platform with water underneath and so to ensure that it does not get flooded when there is high tide, it is built to rise and fall with the tides. Thus, it is always rising and falling. I was a spectator of the preview of the parade's first National Day preview. It was a spectacular performance. There were many surprises in the performance. One of them was how the performers got on to stage without entering through the main entrances on to the stadium. That was when I finally caught a glimpse of it in day that I found a few entrances on the stage itself, offering an almost seamless transition from one performance to another.

There is also another attraction at the bay and that is the Marina Barrage. This means that there is a dam at the very end of tip of the Singapore River. The reason for building it was because the houses and roads sometimes get flooded due to monsoon rain that comes when the year draws to a close. This is because too much water is flowing into the river through monsoon drains. Thus, this dam allows water to rush into the sea before flooding takes place. There is also a gallery there that teaches us why this dam was built and even a scaled down replica of the dam that can simulate what the dam would do when there is too much water behind the dam. It can even simulate rain!

What I loved most was the part where we could create postcards with our pictures on it and send it using email to ourselves as a souvenir or to other friends and family. There is also a place where you can take a picture of yourself or with your family and the picture will travel down a hall of screens to show that you have taken a pledge to save water!

Another attraction will be the biggest Ferris wheel in the world: the Singapore Flyer. It is a very big wheel with capsules that can sit up to 28 people. It promises views of the very beautiful city skyline especially when the city lights up!

Picture: Panaramio

Singapore And Its Ethnic Neighbourhoods

Although in Singapore, there is racial and religious harmony between all races, Singapore still preserves the four ethnic neighbourhoods that were created by Raffles in a plan called the Jackson Plan. This was because he was displeased with the layout of houses at that time. This led to the creation of Chinatown, Chulia Kampong currently known as Little India, Kampong Glam and the European Town which together with Raffles Place is now known as the Downtown Core. I will only be describing one of the neighbourhoods; Chinatown.

Chinatown. To me, it is synonymous with a crowd. This is due to the fact that it is a tradition for Chinese to go there with their families to shop for new year goodies. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Chinese New Year is celebrated here in Singapore. It is festival with two days of holidays and the start of the new year on the lunar calender. In China, it marks the end of winter and the start of spring too. At Chinatown, we are able find all sorts of things there such as qi pao which are traditional Chinese skirts and all kinds of traditional clothing. There are also many nice sweets and love letters and even octagon containers that are split into eight where eight different kinds of sweets are put in them. Then, there will be the dried persimmons which are very sweet. When we are there, we will make it a point to buy it and we open them when we reach home to enjoy. We will also buy a pussy willow is very beautiful when we put it in our vases as decor. There is also a shop selling aloe vera as food. Yup, it is that sharp plant that has spiky leaves. These leaves are very special and have a kind of jelly in it that can be eaten with honey. Tasty.

However, there are cons to going there as well, especially during the festive season. This is because there will always be a crowd there and for people who drive there, finding a parking lot is like finding a needle in a haystack when you are late. Then, walking through the crowd of never ending people well sure get hot and sweaty. Then, you have to struggle not to get separated from your parents. Then, finding what you need is very difficult because it is usually quite hard to find the goods that you need as you will have to scour the whole labyrinth of shops before finally getting all the things you need. That is why I never found it a great joy to be able to go there.

Still, I hear someone asking what Chinatown looks after the festive season. Well, it becomes very bare. This is because there will not be anyone who will go there after Chinese new year so there will not be anybody setting up stalls there to sell their goods.

Picture: Wikipedia

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Picture: http://www.yorku.ca/dkwilson/under-construction_animated.gif

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Life On A Tiny Red Dot (Countries of the World) - Author : JY - Singapore

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last update : 2011-07-13

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