Erik and i ventured up to Orchard Road on Saturday to stand at the sidelines and watch the Asia-famous Chingay Parade of Dreams! After arguing for 2 minutes about which way to go on Orchard, a couple approached us and asked us if we would like tickets for the parade – forgetting we were in Singapore and not in Bangkok, i immediately shook my hand, said no thank you and turned away. When they asked us again, we asked how much…to which they told us free. Now as a Scotsman i am in a very educated position to say that you don’t get cheaper than free…and who likes free stuff….ME!
Turns out that they had 4 tickets but that their daughters could not make it so they had 2 spare. Along the road we went and took our seats in the stands outside Takashimaya (one of the most famous shopping malls on Orchard with every expensive brand name you can think of inside it). We had to wait for an hour or so as they ran through rehearsals because it was being filmed live for screening throughout Asia and the President of Singapore would be attending!
It turns out that in fact the President was sitting across the road from us so the TV presenters were right in front of us the whole time. Because of this…all the floats and performers did their thing right in front of us so we had a perfect view while the commoners had to stand at the side lines and hope for a peek as the floats went down the road! hee hee
The parade was amazing…with anywhere from 10-200 performers for each float, all dressed in amazing costumes in all the colours of the rainbow and some more! The big finale was massive fireworks right behind us which seemed to come right out of Takashimaya shopping centre, which were litterally breathtaking!
When the parade was finished, the whole of Orchard Road turned into a street party with DJ’s playing and everyone down on the road dancing and having a good time. When we reached the road i stupidly stood and took some pictures of everyone partying and didn’t turn round until the President had already passed so missed the opportunity to meet him or shake his hand.
However, we did manage to ‘accidentally’ wander backstage and, due to Erik’s quick thinking, grabbed the two gorgeous TV presenters and got our photos taken with them! Nice one mate! All in all was an amazingly lucky and just plain amazing night!
