Riding Around & Lighting Up The Town

A couple of weeks ago, we got the opportunity to check out the Christmas light-up in town from a different vantage point: the top of an open-top bus.

My dear sister was scheduled to take her pre-wedding photos this month and since she has always been a fan of streets dressed up in fairy lights, she decided that the Christmas light-up would be a perfect backdrop to her photos (no matter that, as my mother pointed out, her wedding is going to be in April and would have nothing to do with Christmas). To accomplish that, she and her fiance Francis (who is a total sweetheart and more often than not willingly accommodates her crazy ideas) decided to charter a whole 55-seater bus. And since there were plenty of spare seats, they invited friends and family along for the ride.

Our ride for the evening.

And our hosts!

Even though it has been a very wet December, my sis and Francis were extremely blessed by the fact that not a single drop of rain fell that day. God was very gracious and heard all our prayers! Right up to the day before, it had rained every single afternoon for more than a week. But the 9th of December brought only overcast skies and when it came time for all of us to board the bus, the weather was cool and breezy and perfect.

Noey was super thrilled to get on but we think the loud music being played on the bus threw him a little. He was a bit subdued to start, but soon warmed up after Papa carried him up and they attempted to smack the decorations hung overhead as we travelled under them.

Gleeful smiles!

This pic is a bit messy but you've got to admit the lights look more impressive from our vantage point.

We travelled round touring Orchard Road and Marina Bay for about 2 hours, during which we enjoyed our bento boxes of food prepared by my mum, sushi, a sausage, and a chicken pie and fruit tart that she made, and drank and made merry. I had only a sip of the pink champagne that was going around, sadly. And there were plenty of photos being taken of course, with my sis' friends being roped in both for group shots and as props!

One with my beautiful sister in her wedding finery.

Noey having a bit of fun with Uncle Francis and the bouquet!

As for the lights themselves, I thought they honestly weren't too impressive. The Marina Bay street decor was certainly nicer than the Orchard Road version. The building decorations themselves though were nothing like what they used to be in the yesteryears. I still recall way back when I was a kid, the shops used to pull out all the stops when it came to their Christmas decorations, with moving parts -- wheels going round and round and elves popping up and down -- music, and huge 3D displays. These days, things seem much more scaled down, with more "classic" designs usually involving a tree structure and simply plenty of lights. I guess the look is classy, but I miss the wow factor I used to get looking at the displays.

Still, travelling around on the bus sure beat being in a car craning our necks to view the light-up and was certainly better than walking around, especially in my current state! I think it's worth thinking about doing this again next year -- I just realised that FunVee conducts these Christmas light-up tours every year and it is more interesting and easier than driving around on our own. A bit extravagant, but it might be fun as a family once-a-year outing. Hmmm, maybe I should just try to convince my sis to rent a bus again!