My first 'Live' National Day Parade in Singapore

It was fascinating to watch my first 'live' National Day Parade
in Singapore, to see first hand, what I'd previously only watched on TV.

Since we were encouraged in dress in red and white,
I borrowed a red kebaya top from my mum and Kavin
fished out the red t-shirt he had in his suitcase.

On my way to NDP 07


Kavin and I, clutching our tickets, glistening from the
afternoon heat and humidity, walked with the throng of people
from Raffles City through the security checkpoints
and metal detectors and finally reached what has been touted
as the world's largest floating stage.

We were given goodie bags before entering the seating gallery.
Kavin got an orange bag and I got a red one and somewhere behind us,
a lady officer of the army was yelling at
people not to be picky about which colour of bag they received.
(besides red and orange, the bags also came in green, purple and yellow.)

We got seated in the yellow zone, and started examining our goodie bags.
Flashing star-shaped light, corn snacks flavoured in sour cream,
mini battery operated fan, cd of national day songs....

Singapore skyline on a humid afternoon


Having fun with the items in our goodie bag


The crowd cheerer chicken


The pre-show started soon after we got seated and familiar songs
began playing from the sound system, accompanied by various singers
and dancers jiving along.

'Chan Mali Chan', 'Five Stars Arising'...a whole medley
of old Singapore community songs that I last sang in Primary school.
It was a nice nostalgic moment.

Red lions parachuting from the sky


The parade portion was nice and it was stirring to see
the marching contingents, and to watch the parade commander
shouting commands to the contingents. And as he shouted the commands,
I couldn't help chiming along to the familiar commands
learnt from my NCC days "Dari Kiri Cepat Jalan!"

It was thrilling to see the Red Lions parachuting from the sky
and the 5 point plane formation and the various military aircraft
that flew pass. Kavin was pretty thrilled to see the military display
and started rattling off their names "That's an Apache!".


Plane formation in the skies

As the Singapore flag was flown past, hoisted by a couple of helicopters,
everyone started singing the 'Majullah Singapura' and it was nice to
be able to sing along. It reminded me of all those school day mornings,
with fellow students gathered on the parade ground of the school, singing
the national anthem and reciting the pledge.

Even Kavin, who's Malaysian, got into the swing of things
and enjoyed his first parade experience in Singapore.



Kavin and the flag


Showing off my mum's red kebaya


'Jellyfish' in the harbour


The final parade formation


Beautiful skyline at night.


Everyone stands at attention for the pledge


End of parade. See ya!


After the parade, we walked towards Raffles Plaza,
and we got caught in a huge 'people jam' at the citylink underpass.
There was just no getting through, and at one point in time,
everyone was absolutely squashed like sardines and no one moved an inch.

So we decided to exit the crowd by stopping at a Japanese restaurant
nearby. Famished, we tucked into dinner. yum.