River fun

Who knew Singapore could be so much fun ? Sorry but I did leave 18 years ago & way back then, there weren't outdoor concerts, late nights at the museums nor river festivals. I like that organisers here are trying to replicate what is very common in Europe - the summer festivals.

Randomly trawling the internet brought me to the Singapore River Festival website. Free ice cream. Great. Free entrance to the museum. Great. Free cuban jazz concert. Wow. Free mojitos. I'm so going there.


As we made our way there, there were street performers trying to entice people to the events. The Girl enjoyed watching them but was too shy to have a picture taken with them.

The lawn in front of the Asian Civilisations Museum was transformed into a big lounge area with picnic mats & cushions. I thought it was also pretty cool with the skyscrappers in the background. So we made ourselves comfortable as we watched dance performances by local dance groups. Pity I didn't have the foresight to prepare a picnic basket. There were stands selling food but nothing seemed interesting so we headed over to Indochine for a bowl of pho bo.

As part of the festivities, the Asian Civilisations Museum is offering free entry from 5 pm to midnight on Friday evenings. A good reason to check out the Kangxi exhibit which has been extended (probably because of this). Want more reasons to go there ? Free ice cream & free mojitos (you have to collect the stickers & tags when you enter the gallery).

Since Singaporeans can always sniff out freebies, be sure to go early cos it can get really crowded & then they start controlling the numbers going into the gallery.

Throughout the night, the museum would be lighted up & the walls outside become the canvas for an amazing light show.


Bacardi, the sponsor of the free mojitos, is launching their 1st Mojito Fiesta. We were lucky we got our mojitos early cos by 9.30, they were already out of mojitos. The free mojitos were limited to 1 per person but you could still buy them at $10 a pop & we were quite willing to do so cos they were yummy. Not quite like the ones we make but still yummy. After dinner when we asked, they had already run out (bad planning) & they were only serving rum & coke.

With our cuba libres, we sat outside on the lawn as beautifully lighted bum boats sail by & enjoy the music of the Cuban band. The Girl was dancing away to the salsa beats & I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

That was a great sundown party. If only I could end the work week like that every Friday.