Exploring SG Sights: Chinatown + 味香园desserts & SportsHub at Night

Just two places I went during the previous semester which I really really like and wanna share here :D

Chinatown -- Experience Chinese Heritage and festivities   

The beginning of the semester was kinda suffering, coz CNY is still so far away and work was piling up. So much to do and so many assessments to prepare for, there was barely any PreCNY excitement. What is CNY you tell me??? 

Anyways finally there's one free night for me to go have a lil taste of CNY at Chinatown. I was here also in 2014's CNY but it was day time. At night, the whole Chinatown was pretty much roaring with life. People doing festive shopping at the CNY goods market, crowds savoring delicious local dishes at the food street, audiences enjoying special Chinese Opera performance at the Kreta Ayer Square, love the atmosphere! I wonder if Petaling Street feels the same back at home. 

Apart from enjoying the CNY atmosphere, you can go sampling all the cookies, jellies, mochi, mushrooms and much more. (sue me for being a cheapskate hahahahha) The shops in Chinatown has lots to offer as well, like cute CNY decorations and pretty bags and clothes at affordable price, What's more, the area was brightly lit up with decorative lanterns in shades of gold and red. The excitement and joy of celebration is up in the air and it feels good to be part of it. :) 

At the corridors of the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

At night, the rows of red lanterns were all lit up while the colorful wind wheel spins quietly on the side. Gives a very happy yet serene scene.  

 

People Mountain People Sea

Time for another idiom: Car Water Horse Dragon 

牛车水还真的是车水马龙

The street all lit up with coins above and lanterns in the form of goats on the side to celebrate the Goat year. 

Looking magical and It's like how they lit up Orchard during Christmas!

Anyways we added some desserts to sweeten the night woohoo!
Gosh this shop is super crowded and it took us some time to get a table despite having 3 shoplots.
 (And I was told that there's an unwritten rule for customers to quickly finish their food so that others can enter) That simply signals good food righhtttttt :D

MeiHeongYuan 味香园
Dessert joint that sells many of our favorite traditional tongsui and pudding which most chinese families are familiar with. They also have the popular shaved ice in various flavors as well.

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芝麻雪花冰 Sesame Snow Ice -- S$5.00

usually when it comes to dessert, cakes will pop up in my head. But cakes and many other western desserts may be too heavy due to all the butter, flour and cream. Which is why I really love flavored shaved ice because the ice gives a cool and smooth texture and carries all the delicious natural flavor of the sesame. The aroma of sesame is just heavenly...the redbeans give the right amount of natural sweetness.  

榴莲雪花冰 Durian Snow Ice -- S$5.00

Again, all the smooth ice carrying the durian flavor just melts on your tongue and the rich durian goodness escapes and fills up your whole mouth. Well real durians are better of course, but there are times where I don't really feel like having the heaty and sticky durian fruit. So I suppose shaved ice is another way for you to get your dose of less intense durian flavor.  

芋泥 Yam Paste -- S$ 3.00

It was my first time trying this!

Another yam product checked haha

I don't like eating yam (probably because of the texture) but I love any yam flavored items like 芋角，芋头酥, Yam bubble tea etc and today the list extends to this Orh Nee!!

The paste is kinda chewy and packed with all the yam-starchy flavor. Love the sweetness from yam.  

will be there again next CNY!

Mei Heong Yuan 味香园

No. 63 - 67

Temple Street 

(Can go from Chinatown MRT)

Singapore 058611

Contact number: +65 6221 1156

Check out the locations of other MeiHeongYuan outlets at their website:
http://www.meiheongyuendessert.com.sg/index.php/location

Also, do check out Chinatown Festivals' website which details about special activities at Chinatown during Chinese Festive season like CNY and Midautmn Festival.
http://chinatownfestivals.sg/

And finally, find out anything you wanna know about Chinatown at http://www.chinatown.sg/

Okay next is 

SportsHub -- Venue for healthy and fun lifestyle, with a peaceful view of the city center. 

Well I was lucky enough to have a chance to attend an event held at the Stadium Riverside Walk 

I have never really know of anything about Sportshub before, all I know that it's a stadium for the SEA games. But turns out this place has more to offer! They didn't put the HUB word in the name for no reason. I have limited photos here but I'll just briefly describe what I saw over there.

First, there's a MRT station exclusively for this place, so traveling is not an issue here and the moment we ascend from the MRT escalators, we were greeted by various buildings which turns out to be different stadiums and sports center. The architecture is AWESOME. (Sorry, I wish I knew better words to describe about architecture haha) As in it has a very majestic aura to the whole place. And it won't take long for you to feel the pulse of this place, lots of people jogging around and parents strolling around with their children. Then the next thing I saw was a mall. Forgive my suagu-ness but OHmyyyy there's a shopping mall in the middle of all the sporting facilities?!!! Haha I couldn't resist and we entered the mall, and that mall is not just a basic kind of shopping mall, you have brands like H&M and UNIQLO over there. I bought myself a top at Cotton ON that day haha... anyways yep just find it amazing and as we exit the mall, we found the exact venue of our event. And it's right beside the river with a beautiful city skyline as backdrop.  

You can see the Singapore Flyer and the side view of MBS from here!

I didn't bother to edit the photo but my phone's camera didn't do justice to the view. Compared to sights at the Marina Bay area, observing the city skyline over here gives a very serene and blissful view. Probably because of the much calmer waters and the amount of greens over here. I suppose this is where you see a picture of  Garden City. 

Sorry forgive my LQ photo again

But the view at night is also amazing! Love how the waters mirrors the lights from the skyscrapers. The buildings are far away so the lights looked similar to twinkle lights, giving a fantasy-like view. I could stare at it and watch the world goes by if I were allowed to.

Hehe thankiuu dear yiyong's photos, which captured a clearer backdrop.

Never forget to snap a photo over there :D 

This was taken at the entrance of the National Stadium

which gives you another spectacular scenery from a higher location. 

with the WWD bunch :)

Will tell you guys more about the nature of the event in another post. But I'm grateful for this opportunity to attend this event coz it was one awesome night with good food, loads of good food, beautiful view and awesome company. 

Photo source: SingaporeWorldWaterDay
Here's a photo of the National stadium's dome during the event night which showed the tagline of WWD. So cool!!

Anyways, I can't wait to go back SportsHub again coz I just love the atmosphere of the place. It would have been awesome to have a walk around the area while enjoying the whole landscape. Plus I could shop after that haha...You might even get to watch your fave artist's concert here!
Ohmy, just found out that there's a museum and a library as well. Definitely a place where you can surely find something to do,

I shall try checking out the sports facilities next time.
Please visit SportsHub's official website to find out more about the facilities offered:
http://www.sportshub.com.sg/venues/Pages/Home.aspx