Singapore: Night (Chinese New Year)

As we travel through Life, sometimes it's possible to subscribe to a double blessing of good fortune and great luck. Not always, but when you do, it's usually when you least expect it, and treasure it all the more. Picking Singapore as a stop over destination (en-route to Australia) whilst the Chinese New Year was celebrated is one such occasion when this benediction takes place. 2008 is the Year of the Rat (my birth year, by all account - vintage 1972). The Chinese New Year Celebrations are on a par with those seen in Hong Kong and Beijing - certainly in terms of excitement, anticipation and enjoyment.

Singapore is a city divided into time zones: you have the day time and you have the night. The night is when everything seems to come alive. There are 24hour restaurants, bars, taxis and cafes. The heat of the day has gone, and although the high humidity remains in the night air, you are able to walk the streets and soak in the ultra modern city. Singapore is modernity personified, both in terms of design and thought. City skylines are uber chic, slick and sleek, clean cut and gleaming with a rainbow of coloured neon light shining all through the tropical darkness. The public transport system - buses, trains and monorails - are first class, state of the art, and highly efficient.


There are four main faiths that manage to live with each other harmoniously on this small island- Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity. Despite the near boiling point of temperatures here, relations between all seem relaxed. Temples of Peace & Goodwill bear testimony to this, with endorsments from clerics and leaders of each spiritual practice. Streets are safe, public transport is safe, there are no drunks wandering the streets and crime is low. Wandering the city streets late at night, no air of malice or concern follows you.

Exploring cities late at night opens up secret worlds to your existence. Chinatown seems to be one of those places that you feel can and will stay awake longer than you. With the Chinese New Year hours away, markets and streets were claustrophobic as people crushed their way into the narrow streets, lead on a merry current of people flowing through the labyrinth of stalls. The air cloying with thick smoke, humidity, the smells of cooking food and noise of people talking and shouting. Last minute shoppers and sellers bargained and bartered, food courts began to close and the New Year drew close.

The first firecrackers were heard in Chinatown at around 8pm (possibly having something to do with the Chinese time zone difference). At midnight the official celebrations got underway. Just a little further up from Chinatown, along the North Bridge Road and near the Boat Quay, the gigantic Esplanade Waterfront area was playing host to an estimated half a million people who had come to wander through the groves of lantern-lit walkways, outdoor food stalls, open-air musicians and singers, fortune tellers and water sellers - all pushing and shoving to get the best view points for when the real firework show lit up the sky at midnight.