Hi Friends,
One of the very unique holiday experience in Singapore is that you have a chance to taste different cultures, the India, Malay, Chinese and Others.
I would suggest you a simple 1 day DIY tour of Singapore to places that you should not miss.
In the morning, you can visit the Little India, located at Serangoon Road - a district which embodies the vibrant and colourful culture of the Indian community in Singapore. You can watch the intricate weaving of jasmine garlands using banana tree fibre, pick up a packet of curry powder or spices, or let a parakeet tell your fortune. The best time to visit is morning 8-9am. You can enjoy a nice morning breakfast with roti-prata (indian pancake) and teh-talek(Indian 'pour-from-high' tea). To go to Little India, you can take the MRT and alight at the "Little India" Station.
Have an lazy afternoon at the Arab Street ( this is just next to our seminar venue, Parkview Square) and have a peek into another world; a little community jammed with crumbling architecture, carpet sellers and little eateries. Walk into the small lance, you will think you are not in Singapore anymore. There are many interesting eating place like the Alaturka at 16 Bussorah St. where you eat kebabs and smoke shisha.
At night, you can visit the Chinatown– the original site where Chinese immigrants lived, worked and played. Much of Chinatown has recently been renovated, but their traditions and much of the architecture have survived the test of time. You can join walking around Chinatown or join a walking tour to reveal Chinatown's rich heritage & colourful history. To go there take MRT and alight at "Chinatown" station.
After Chinatown, you can head to Clarke Quay (at Clarke Quay MRT station) and have a go at the Reverse Bungy Jump. Feel your heart drop to your feet as you are flung up at great speeds and then jerked back down to earth. This experience is certainly not for the faint-hearted! Or head direct to one of the many night clubs there, such as the Ministry of Sound from London are very popular.
The above are for my friends not coming from our nearby countries like Malaysia or Indonesia where you have these cultures in your country as well. A good suggestion for you is to go shopping! The biggest shopping centre now in Singapore is the Vivo city, located at "HarbourFront" MRT station. Next to Vivo city is the Powerhouse at St James Power Station which open til 4am for 'pop house' music and food! From Vivo city, you can also go to Sentosa by Sentosa express.
Near our seminar venue, you can go to Sim Lim Square( the most popular PC mall in Asia) to buy all your electronic products. Next to Sim Lim Square is the Bugis Street and opposite to it is the Parco Bugis Junction shopping centre.Singapore Tourist Promotion Board's website.
Wishing you a great stay in Singapore and learn alot at the UYMG!
See you there!
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Facts about Singapore
I would like to share with you some of the facts about my homeland, Singapore:-
1. Singapore consists only of one main island and 63 other tiny islands. Most of these islands are uninhabited. The most famous island is SENTOSA, it is one of the tourist attractions in Singapore.
2. Singapore is among the 20 smallest countries in the world, with a total land area of only 682.7 square kilometres. It may be still be growing as the government is actively reclaiming land. The USA is about 15,000 times bigger.
3. Apart from Monaco, Singapore is the most densely populated country in the world, with 6,430 people per square kilometre.
4. Singapore became the 117th member of the United Nations on 21 September 1965.
5. Symbolism of the National Flag: Red symbolises universal brotherhood and equality of man while white signifies purity and virtue. The crescent moon represents a young nation on the rise and the five stars signify the ideals of democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality.
6. The national flower of Singapore is Orchid, named Vanda Miss Joaquim, was first discovered in 1893 by Agnes Joaquim, an Armenian. The orchid is a natural hybrid between V. teres and V. hookeriana.
7. The Merlion, a half-fish, half-lion beast, is a fitting symbol of Singapore. The "Singa" or lion represents the animal that a Sumatran prince saw which resembled a lion, and the fish is a tribute to Singapore's history as "Temasek", the ancient sea town.
8. Singlish, a Singaporean patois mixing English with the odd phrase of Chinese, Malay and even Tamil, has two entries - lah and sinseh - in the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary.
9. Although English is the official working language and the most widely used language in Singapore, the national anthem 'Majulah Singapura' is actually sung in Malay. English is the working language for all but not the mother language for most.
10. The flying fox, the world's largest bat with a wingspan of up to 1.5 metres, can be found on Pulau Ubin, one of the islands off mainland Singapore.
11. Singapore is a stopover point for thousands of migratory birds travelling the East Asian Flyway.
12. The world's first night zoo, The Night Safari, is located in Singapore. This is an attraction that all visitor should not miss.
13. Despite being largely urbanised, Singapore is the largest exporter of ornamental fish (25% of the world market).
14. The Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in Singapore contains more species of trees than the entire North American continent.
15. The highest natural point in Singapore is Bukit Timah Hill, which is only 164 metres high (Singapore has a very flat terrain).
16. Buildings in Singapore cannot be higher than 280 metres. There are presently three buildings of that height: OUB Centre, UOB Plaza and Republic Plaza.
17. The world's highest man-made waterfall, standing at 30 metres, is located at the Jurong BirdPark.
18. The largest fountain in the world is located in Singapore at Suntec City. Made of cast bronze, it cost an estimated US$6 million to build in 1997.
19. The buildings of Suntec City have been built in the shape of a palm of a hand symbolising good "feng shui".
20. In 2003, Singapore's Changi Airport won the award for "Best Airport Worldwide" for the 16th consecutive year from the UK/Europe edition of the Business Traveller magazine.
21. The Guinness book record for the longest human domino chain was set in Singapore on 30th September 2000. Formed by 9,234 students, it measured 4.2km.
22. The world domino topple record (303,621 men) was set in Singapore on 18th August 2003 by a 24-year-old woman from China.
23. The record for the biggest ever game of pass-the-parcel was set in Singapore on 28 February 1998. It involved 3,918 students removing 2,200 wrappers from a 1.5 x 1.5 x 0.5 m parcel.
24. The record for the most number of people participating in line dancing was set in Singapore in May 2002 with 11,967 dancers.
25. The Great Singapore Duck Race, an annual event that raises funds for charity, set a new world record in 2002 when more than 123,000 toy ducks took to the Singapore River.
26. Russell Lee, a pseudonym for a team of ghost-writers, is the hottest-selling local author in Singapore. His 11 volumes of True Singapore Ghost Stories have sold more than 600,000 copies to date.
27. The fastest selling book of all time in Singapore is Hello Chok Tong, Goodbye Kuan Yew: The Untold Story. Written and drawn by political cartoonist George Nonis, it sold 40,000 copies in two months.
28. The highest grossing movie of all time in Singapore is Titanic, raking in S$6.65 million in 1997.
29. The highest grossing locally made movie of all time is Money No Enough, raking in S$6.02 million in 1998.
30. The first Singaporean film to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival was director Eric Khoo's 12 Storeys in 1997.
31. British pop violinist Vanessa Mae Nicholson was born in Singapore and moved to England when she was four.
32. More Singaporean babies are born in the dragon year according to the Chinese that is the most auspicious zodiac sign.
33. The first population census taken in 1824 revealed that the total population was 10,683. The 2000 census showed that the population of Singapore is 4.2 million.
34. Nearly 9 out of 10 Singaporeans live in public housing flats.
35. The most common Chinese surnames in Singapore are Tan, Lim and Lee.
36. Singapore has more than 3,000 kilometres of roads. Stretched end to end, they can cover the distance from Singapore to Hong Kong.
37. 8 in 10 people in Singapore own cell phones. In fact, telecom companies issue new numbers at the rate of 30,000 to 40,000 per month.
38. Singapore's best showing in the Olympic Games ever was a silver medal won by weightlifter Tan Howe Liang in Rome in 1960.
39. Swimmer Ang Peng Siong was ranked world number one in the 50m Freestyle in 1982.
40. The Singapore Sling was first served in 1915 at the Long Bar of the Raffles Hotel. The ingredients are gin, Cointreau, cherry brandy, Dom Benedictine, pineapple juice, Grenadine, Angoustura bitters and limes.
This information are extracted from www.visitsingapore.com
1. Singapore consists only of one main island and 63 other tiny islands. Most of these islands are uninhabited. The most famous island is SENTOSA, it is one of the tourist attractions in Singapore.
2. Singapore is among the 20 smallest countries in the world, with a total land area of only 682.7 square kilometres. It may be still be growing as the government is actively reclaiming land. The USA is about 15,000 times bigger.
3. Apart from Monaco, Singapore is the most densely populated country in the world, with 6,430 people per square kilometre.
4. Singapore became the 117th member of the United Nations on 21 September 1965.
5. Symbolism of the National Flag: Red symbolises universal brotherhood and equality of man while white signifies purity and virtue. The crescent moon represents a young nation on the rise and the five stars signify the ideals of democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality.
6. The national flower of Singapore is Orchid, named Vanda Miss Joaquim, was first discovered in 1893 by Agnes Joaquim, an Armenian. The orchid is a natural hybrid between V. teres and V. hookeriana.
7. The Merlion, a half-fish, half-lion beast, is a fitting symbol of Singapore. The "Singa" or lion represents the animal that a Sumatran prince saw which resembled a lion, and the fish is a tribute to Singapore's history as "Temasek", the ancient sea town.
8. Singlish, a Singaporean patois mixing English with the odd phrase of Chinese, Malay and even Tamil, has two entries - lah and sinseh - in the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary.
9. Although English is the official working language and the most widely used language in Singapore, the national anthem 'Majulah Singapura' is actually sung in Malay. English is the working language for all but not the mother language for most.
10. The flying fox, the world's largest bat with a wingspan of up to 1.5 metres, can be found on Pulau Ubin, one of the islands off mainland Singapore.
11. Singapore is a stopover point for thousands of migratory birds travelling the East Asian Flyway.
12. The world's first night zoo, The Night Safari, is located in Singapore. This is an attraction that all visitor should not miss.
13. Despite being largely urbanised, Singapore is the largest exporter of ornamental fish (25% of the world market).
14. The Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in Singapore contains more species of trees than the entire North American continent.
15. The highest natural point in Singapore is Bukit Timah Hill, which is only 164 metres high (Singapore has a very flat terrain).
16. Buildings in Singapore cannot be higher than 280 metres. There are presently three buildings of that height: OUB Centre, UOB Plaza and Republic Plaza.
17. The world's highest man-made waterfall, standing at 30 metres, is located at the Jurong BirdPark.
18. The largest fountain in the world is located in Singapore at Suntec City. Made of cast bronze, it cost an estimated US$6 million to build in 1997.
19. The buildings of Suntec City have been built in the shape of a palm of a hand symbolising good "feng shui".
20. In 2003, Singapore's Changi Airport won the award for "Best Airport Worldwide" for the 16th consecutive year from the UK/Europe edition of the Business Traveller magazine.
21. The Guinness book record for the longest human domino chain was set in Singapore on 30th September 2000. Formed by 9,234 students, it measured 4.2km.
22. The world domino topple record (303,621 men) was set in Singapore on 18th August 2003 by a 24-year-old woman from China.
23. The record for the biggest ever game of pass-the-parcel was set in Singapore on 28 February 1998. It involved 3,918 students removing 2,200 wrappers from a 1.5 x 1.5 x 0.5 m parcel.
24. The record for the most number of people participating in line dancing was set in Singapore in May 2002 with 11,967 dancers.
25. The Great Singapore Duck Race, an annual event that raises funds for charity, set a new world record in 2002 when more than 123,000 toy ducks took to the Singapore River.
26. Russell Lee, a pseudonym for a team of ghost-writers, is the hottest-selling local author in Singapore. His 11 volumes of True Singapore Ghost Stories have sold more than 600,000 copies to date.
27. The fastest selling book of all time in Singapore is Hello Chok Tong, Goodbye Kuan Yew: The Untold Story. Written and drawn by political cartoonist George Nonis, it sold 40,000 copies in two months.
28. The highest grossing movie of all time in Singapore is Titanic, raking in S$6.65 million in 1997.
29. The highest grossing locally made movie of all time is Money No Enough, raking in S$6.02 million in 1998.
30. The first Singaporean film to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival was director Eric Khoo's 12 Storeys in 1997.
31. British pop violinist Vanessa Mae Nicholson was born in Singapore and moved to England when she was four.
32. More Singaporean babies are born in the dragon year according to the Chinese that is the most auspicious zodiac sign.
33. The first population census taken in 1824 revealed that the total population was 10,683. The 2000 census showed that the population of Singapore is 4.2 million.
34. Nearly 9 out of 10 Singaporeans live in public housing flats.
35. The most common Chinese surnames in Singapore are Tan, Lim and Lee.
36. Singapore has more than 3,000 kilometres of roads. Stretched end to end, they can cover the distance from Singapore to Hong Kong.
37. 8 in 10 people in Singapore own cell phones. In fact, telecom companies issue new numbers at the rate of 30,000 to 40,000 per month.
38. Singapore's best showing in the Olympic Games ever was a silver medal won by weightlifter Tan Howe Liang in Rome in 1960.
39. Swimmer Ang Peng Siong was ranked world number one in the 50m Freestyle in 1982.
40. The Singapore Sling was first served in 1915 at the Long Bar of the Raffles Hotel. The ingredients are gin, Cointreau, cherry brandy, Dom Benedictine, pineapple juice, Grenadine, Angoustura bitters and limes.
This information are extracted from www.visitsingapore.com
Welcome to Visiting Singapore
This blog is specially created for all my friends who is coming to THE UYMG seminar in Singapore!
Wishing you a wonderful time in Singapore!
这部落是特地为我的UYMG朋友写的。
欢迎大家来到美丽的新加坡！
Wishing you a wonderful time in Singapore!
这部落是特地为我的UYMG朋友写的。
欢迎大家来到美丽的新加坡！
Roti Prata
Ingredients
1 kg plain flour, sifted in a large bowl
16 oz (2 cups) water
80 g ghee (clarified butter)
3 tbsp sugar
2 - 3 tbsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
Method
Mix water, sugar and salt. Add 40g ghee, stir and add liquid mixture to the flour and knead till dough is soft, smooth and firm. Rest 20 minutes, shape 50g of dough into a ball, coat with ghee to prevent sticking. Repeat with remaining dough and stack the balls into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap for four hours or more. Put a griddle on medium heat. Flatten each piece of dough on a greased surface by stretching outwards and finally by tossing in the air, till you get a paper-thin dough. Fold sides inwards to form a square, put on hot griddle, folded side down and fry till golden brown. Turn over and fry till browned. Repeat with all the dough. Make the prata fluffy by clapping each one between your hands. Serve with meat curry or with a sprinkling of sugar.
1 kg plain flour, sifted in a large bowl
16 oz (2 cups) water
80 g ghee (clarified butter)
3 tbsp sugar
2 - 3 tbsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
Method
Mix water, sugar and salt. Add 40g ghee, stir and add liquid mixture to the flour and knead till dough is soft, smooth and firm. Rest 20 minutes, shape 50g of dough into a ball, coat with ghee to prevent sticking. Repeat with remaining dough and stack the balls into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap for four hours or more. Put a griddle on medium heat. Flatten each piece of dough on a greased surface by stretching outwards and finally by tossing in the air, till you get a paper-thin dough. Fold sides inwards to form a square, put on hot griddle, folded side down and fry till golden brown. Turn over and fry till browned. Repeat with all the dough. Make the prata fluffy by clapping each one between your hands. Serve with meat curry or with a sprinkling of sugar.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)