Places I've Been To: Merlion Park Singapore

(Photo from Personal Collection) I was in Singapore towards the second week of November 2013. Other than sampling scrumptuous cuisine, I got to watch Matchbox Twenty! But hey, that isn't what this blog post is about. This is about a quick trip I made to one of the most tourist-y places on the island, Merlion Park. A Merlion is a mythical creature with a head of a lion and the back end of a fish. The association of this mythical beast to Singapore is that Singapore had once been called Temasek, which translates to "sea town" in the Javanese language. The lion head part of the Merlion is also indicative of Singapore's original name- "Singapura". I recall visiting Merlion park one balmy afternoon. After wandering around taking pictures, a representative of the Singapore Tourism Board approached me and asked if I could accomplish a brief survey. I spoke to her and, much to my chagrin, I didn't qualify to get a 300 SGD stipend for my trip. My visit to Merlion Park reminded me that tourist-y places need not be bad. I mean, what I got that afternoon was a brilliant view of the bay, the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, and a statue that, with its ivory hue, was truly representative of Singapore- spic and span, towering above many other nations in terms of progress, potential for even more progress, and even more progress on top of that. I can't wait to return to Singapore by myself or with loved ones. Nietzsche got it a wee bit wrong. Sometimes, you don't necessarily need chaos to be able to "dance". MC