We exchange our Asia airmiles for a ride with the new big wheel in the middle of Singapore. The recently placed Christmas decorations make the streets festive. We are quite lucky with the weather during our airtrip: it is not raining but there are dark clouds hanging around. Just before we enter the cabin of the wheel with 8-10 other visitors we get an audioguide that corresponds with a map and the area we can see with the most important buildings and higlights of Singapore.
Very slowly our cabin rises and we see the sea and the different area's. Singapore is the 'lion city' and the 'merlion' is the symbol of Singapore, a statue half mermaid and half lion. In the new harbour there are many buildings and works under construction. Interesting is the open air stadion where the tribunes are on the land and the football field is on a big pontoon in the water. We've heard that there is also a pontoon with tenniscourts that can replace the footballfield pontoon.
In the end we get a good sight on the 'dourians', the two new theatre complexes in Singapore. The dourian is a tropical fruit with a special scent (some say they stink) and special taste (some call it heavenly). With these special shape and look Singapore hopes to get attention to her theatres like the Opera House in Sydney and the Stopera in Amsterdam. The 'spikes' on the dourians are also very practical sunshades on the side and roof of the buildings.
