Hi guys! I'm bach (oops, back!) again! Sorry for the hiatus.
In 2 weeks' time I'll be heading back Down Under, to begin yet another semester. And I've got quite a number of stuff to cover from this summer, even when I return Down Under. Oh well, I've gotta get used to life Down Under again.
Those aside, I'll start off with a trip to Paragon, Pan Pacific Hotel and Millenia Walk, shortly before Chinese New Year.
A sculpture in the main foyer of the Paragon shopping centre.
And bright orangey-red Chinese New Year decorations hanging from the ceiling.
Not too far from the Paragon, there was this water feature with curvy, yellow structures like this:
And there were lots of Chinese New Year decorations floating within the feature itself. There were Christmas decorations in December but I was away, unfortunately. This time I managed to capture the Chinese New Year decorations - finally!
And then I headed down to the Esplanade music library to return my piano book. Borrowed it for quite a while and decided not to wait till the last minute before returning it.
And here's a view of a pretty deserted subway station. It was rainy outside and the lunch crowd was just starting to clear.
Lunch was at Koufu (口福), a food court just next to Pan Pacific Hotel. Pan Pacific Hotel (affectionately known as Pan-Pac), is pretty close to the Esplanade.
And of course, I went for a colossal plate of Hokkien Mee. I'm going to miss all the local food when I leave! Whenever I see pictures of local food when studying Down Under, I get extremely hungry - even if I have eaten. Gosh, I should learn to cook Hokkien Mee!
By the time I finished lunch, dark clouds were starting to gather again. And Pan-Pac was just like 1 minute away, so it was a great place to hang out while it poured outside.
Here's the bubble lift outside the hotel. I remembered going to the highest floor for hunger satisfactions when I was young - since there was a food court there - but now the highest floor has been converted to a high class restaurant. Oh well...
Going up 37 floors in the bubble lift was really fun though! The minute I stepped in and pressed the number "37", the lift started ascending pretty quickly and I was like... "Uh oh, hopefully it doesn't get stuck in mid-air, or I'll be stranded 30-over floors above ground!" And the fact that it was an outdoor bubble lift, with nothing surrounding its walls and nothing below it - made it even more exciting.
And of course, the reward: A scenic view from 30 over storeys above ground. Oh, and it was raining really, really heavily in the suburbs...I mean HDB areas.
I decided not to re-enter the outdoor bubble lifts as there was a tempest brewing outside, and I won't be able to take any good shots anyways. So I decided to stay within the hotel, and while waiting for the rain to stop...
Yup, you guessed it! More pictures! I love the interior of the hotel too! And the guest rooms were clearly visible from where I was standing (the shopping gallery on the 4th floor of the hotel).
A more wide-angled shot of the hotel's interior, including more bubble lifts, and of course, Chinese New Year decorations hanging from 20 storeys above.
The actual lighting within the hotel.
I still prefer the exposure set by my camera though. Although the shutter speed was slower, I like the softer, warmer colour effects.
Had lots of fun capturing bubble lifts going up and down too. And here's one transporting guests up to their rooms...
"Home port" of the bubble lifts. The one on the far right (nearest to us) was like 20 storeys above the other 3 lifts.
Small fountains surrounding the bubble lifts.
The blinking lights on the lifts. They changed colour every few seconds or so.
I did take the bubble lifts, but was pretty much restricted to the first 4 floors since there were guest rooms above and I couldn't go there. Wasn't as exciting as the outdoor ones, but still fascinating and these were a good place to take pictures.
The spiral staircase nearby was also a pretty good photo-taking area:
I reckon the hotel staff must have been wondering what I was actually up to!
Anyways after that I headed down to Millenia Walk - a shopping centre/office area which was also very near Pan-Pac. Went through Koufu - the food court, in order to get there.
The famous water feature at Millenia Walk, where people could walk behind the cascading waters and relax behind the walls. I really, really wanted to go up close to this water feature - ever since I saw it from the bus, and this time I got my chance, at last!
Reflections from the (extremely) shallow waters surrounding the fountain, and from the rainwater on the pathway.
Last but not least - the all-famous Time Square within the Millenia Walk buildings.
Right, and that concludes the trip to Paragon, Pan-Pac and Millenia Walk.