28-2-2010-- Corrections
Chinese New Year
[ Weds, Feb 17 ] This past weekend was a national holiday for Singapore, Chinese New Year, which provided Elaine with two days of holiday-- a four day weekend. Coincidentally, CNY and Valentine's Day were on the same day this year, February 14, both of which are celebrated here. CNY is bigger event than Christmas in western countries, and is a time of hopeful prosperity, eating, and celebration. The celebration goes on for quite a while-- it starts in late January, and will end on Feb 28.
This year is the year of the tiger, and there are many tigers to be seen about town. (Pictures and costumes, not the real thing) Many businesses are closed, some for a full week. (We are forced to take a break from the furniture excursions). Of course for many of the global retailers and restaurants-- Starbucks, Burger King, it was business as usual. CNY is also a time when many people take holiday retreats in Malaysia or Indonesia-- Bali or such. And for those living in the surrounding region, Singapore is not a bad place to come visit during this holiday season, so there are a lot of tourists in town at this time. Consequently for us, travel for the long weekend was pretty well booked and not feasible. It would have required some a priori planning and reservations, which we didn't do (oh well!).
This year is the year of the tiger, and there are many tigers to be seen about town. (Pictures and costumes, not the real thing) Many businesses are closed, some for a full week. (We are forced to take a break from the furniture excursions). Of course for many of the global retailers and restaurants-- Starbucks, Burger King, it was business as usual. CNY is also a time when many people take holiday retreats in Malaysia or Indonesia-- Bali or such. And for those living in the surrounding region, Singapore is not a bad place to come visit during this holiday season, so there are a lot of tourists in town at this time. Consequently for us, travel for the long weekend was pretty well booked and not feasible. It would have required some a priori planning and reservations, which we didn't do (oh well!).
One big event that occurred very close to us was the opening of the Resorts World Sentosa-- their first big holiday weekend for bookings, although the resort is quite a ways from being completed. The resort is the first of two entries in the "IR industry" (Integrated Resort). IR's are the destination vacation resorts that have a little bit of everything for everybody-- a theme park, spas, restaurants, shopping... and a casino. This follows the lead of Las Vegas with their alluring destination resorts. In this case Resorts World Sentosa will have a Universal Studios theme park, which has yet to open. However the casino has. This will be a high class establishment-- entry to the casino requires a fee of S$100 for S'poreans, which has been quite a controversial discussion in the editorials.
