Halfway through Singapore now! I started off Tuesday morning by waking up at 6 am to catch the sunrise at 7:02 am at Merlion Park. That way, I get to see the majestic sun rising behind the Marina Bay Sands as the Merlion spouts water. The Merlion is Singapore’s official mascot. The Merlion comes from a legend that a shipwrecked Malay prince ran aground at Temasek and encountered a lion, a rare animal not found in this part of the world. The Malay prince renamed it Temasek to “Singapura”, Singa being lion in Sanskrit. The legend of the lion was later merged with Singapore’s fishing village roots by Fraser Brunner when the Singaporean government was looking to create an iconic mascot in the 1960s. This became the Merlion.
After watching the sunrise, I continued my Crazy Rich Asians filming locations hunt. I then went to Esplanade Park to the exact spot Constance Wu was sitting at in the movie.
Subsequently, I hit CHIJMES, a deconsecrated Catholic covenant that is now a dining complex. CHIJMES was also featured as the filming location of the big wedding in the Crazy Rich Asians movie.
My last spot in the morning was the famous Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel, the birthplace of the world renowned Singapore Sling!
After briefly returning to my room, I ventured out to the north of the Botanic Gardens for Cluny Hill in search of the mansion that was Awkwafina’s in the movie. After looking on Google maps satellite view and scouring the internet for information since there was not an exact address, I found it after ten minutes. It was about a 15 minute walk from the Botanic Gardens station and it sure looked gilded much like in the movie. Though, the owners have repainted parts of the building since its days as a movie set in 2017.
On Sunday, I walked around the Fort Canning area. Fort Canning is a former palace turned military fort turned park. Today, it is a national park with preserved landmarks from its British colonial days and beautiful gardens that is much like New York’s Central Park. In fact, it was named Central Park briefly before being renamed to Fort Canning National Park in 1981. Nearby was the Clarke Quay shopping complex that surrounds the Singapore River, offering boat tours to the Marina Bay and back.
