Snakingly beautiful

Designers hope that the yellow snake, 300m long and made from 850 yellow sky lanterns hovering South Bridge Road, will set a record for the largest sculpture made from sky lanterns.

Snake squared

Made up of about 5,000 hand-crafted red cube lanterns, this red snake is a 108m-long figure stretches from Upper Cross Street to Teo Hong Road.

Sausages for Chinese New Year

Nice contrast in colour with yesterday's post!

Chinese New Year is slithering in

Welcoming the year of the snake.

Rainy day in Singapore

Chinatown, Sunday afternoon, still raining.

Singapore Buddha Tooth Relic Temple - Chinatown

Singapore Buddha Tooth Relic Temple - Chinatown

Offerings at the entrance of the temple.

Singapore Buddha Tooth Relic Temple - Chinatown

It is claimed that the relic of Buddha from which the temple gained its name was found in 1980 in a collapsed stupa in Myanmar.

Singapore Buddha Tooth Relic Temple - Chinatown

The construction of the temple was completed in 2007 at a cost of SGD 62mio. Its architecture is based on the Chinese Tang Dynasty style.

Singapore Buddah Tooth Relic Temple - Chinatown

The Buddha Tooth Relic temple is the largest Buddhist temple in Singapore. The temple is dedicated to Maitreya Buddha and it houses the sacred Buddha tooth relic.

Masjid Jamae (2)

D700 70-300mm @ 220 ISO200 f/11 1/125

A minaret of the Masjid Jamae.

Masjid Jamae (1)

D700 24mmPCE ISO200 f/11 1/100

Another of Singapore landmarks, the Masjid Jamae, is also called Chulia Mosque. It was build in 1826 by the Chulias, who were Tamil Muslim from South India. They came to Singapore as traders and money changers. The Masjid Jamae is now a National Monument.

Sri Mariamman Temple (4)

D700 70-300mm @ 70 ISO200 f/11 1/160

A last snapshot of this impressive temple before moving to other sites!

Sri Mariamman Temple (3)

D700 70-300mm @ 125 ISO200 f/9 1/160

The decorations of the temple are just breathtaking.

Sri Mariamman Temple (2)

D700 70-300mm @ 300 ISO800 f/5.6 1/8

An embarrassing fact: I could not remove the polarizing filter off the lens when I wanted to take the shot. It just got stock... So I had to use a very low shutter speed as the light was low in the temple... Lucky the VR helped and result was acceptable. Back in air-conditioning and with the help of a rubber band, it was later removed without difficulties... Lesson of the day: do not force on the filter when screwing it to the lens...

Sri Mariamman Temple (1)

D700 24mmPCE ISO200 f/9 1/200

Sri Mariamman Temple is Singapore's oldest Hindu temple. It was built in 1827, 8 years after the British East India Company established a trading settlement in the country. The temple serves mainly the South India Tamil Hindu and was gazetted as a National Monument.

Recently under renovation, the removal of the scaffolds revealed the stunningly impressive painting work. A great time for a visit with a camera.

Singapore Back Lanes (5)

D700 70-300mm @ 70 ISO200 f/11 1/125

"Primary colors with a twist" could be another title for this shot.

Singapore Back Lanes (4)

D700 70-300mm @ 102 ISO200 f/11 1/125

The star of the picture is the little plant that grows out of one the green glazed ceramic vents.

Singapore Back Lanes (2)

D700 70-300mm @ 122 ISO200 f/11 1/50

I just love spiral staircases. The morning light provided some soft pastel tones and back-lighted the handrail really nicely. The low shutter speed was required due to the usage of a polarizing filter. Not a problem with the efficient VR system on this lens.

Chinatown - A Spiritual Parenthesis

D700 60mm ISO800 f/3.2 1/15

The light was low but I could not resist taking a picture of this incense holder. I really liked the hazy purple stick forest with the curved dragon in the foreground. A spiritual parenthesis after depicting some rather commercial aspects of Chinatown.