My wife and I went to Tampines 1 last night to have dinner at Manpuku. There’s a stall there called Hokkaido Aoba Ramen that’s really, really good! We always get the Sho-yu Cha-shu Ramen and a side of wafu gyoza.
Anyhow, on the way in we noticed that the field by Tampines 1 and the MRT station was filled with a stage area and the round-about area where the Giants / Courts shuttle bus usually picks people up was filled with floats. After a little walking around I saw a sign announcing that it was for the Chingay Fiesta Tampines parade.
There were quite a few people there, and after my experience with the crowds at New Year’s Eve and Chinese New Year’s Eve, I wasn’t in the mood to try to put up with it again, especially on an empty stomach.
So, I did the next best thing. I took a look at the floats, snapped some photos, enjoyed part of the show on the stage area and then went to dinner! I didn’t have my camera with me unfortunately, so I just used my iPhone, but the pictures came out pretty well anyway.
Have a look:
I was really impressed with how much effort went into the floats. As we were getting ready to leave we saw a woman show up in what appeared to be traditional Indian garb. I think she was going to accompany the float that had the big head (pictured above) on foot.
What impressed me more is that this much effort was put into a regional parade, considering that the official Chingay parade had already taken place. If you’d like to see some really good shots of the actual Chingay 2010 parade, please click HERE to see a beautiful Flickr set. The following photo is a sample from the set:
Bradley Farless 