National Stadium

When we started noticing slightly unusual traffic on Nicoll Highway:

Hmm…

..kind of looks like… tanks?!

…yep…definitely tanks.

You ask why there are tanks driving around downtown Singapore on a sunny Saturday afternoon? Singapore is turning 50 this year. As every year, the Singapore Armed Forces will put up a great show at the National Day Parade (NDP). Except this year it will be bigger. Much, much bigger. So there rehearsals now every Saturday until August 9th.

Everything is taken from the baracks and shown off.

Impressive!

Also part of the show: small boats…

…and slightly bigger boats.

A couple of hours later we’ve moved on to a different location to watch the sunset on this beautiful day:

View towards the Central Business District

When the Singapore Air Force also started their rehearsal:

The flag being carried by a Chinook

Flying past Marina Bay

Followed by a couple of Apaches

Next up: the RSAF Black Knights (F-16s) along with a squadron of F-16s

F-16s

Flying past us

Close-up of a Black Knight (RSAF aerobatics team)

C-130 along with two Fokker 50s

Last flypast: KC-135R with a G550 behind it, escorted by F-5S Interceptors

Flying off into the sunset

It will sure be an impressive show on National Day! There will be more rehearsals, so try and catch some of the action!

View limited by the Haze – PSI around 300

For comparison, this is a normal day:

Looking towards the Central Business District from the East

Needless to say, a few minutes later a massive storm hit. I could have sworn that there was even hail hitting the windows!

This week I watched the rehearsal from a different angle. And while the weather was not good, I still thought that some of the photos are worth sharing:

Looking towards the Central Business District from the East

Chinook carrying the flag…

…while being passed by the F-16 squadron.

F-16 squadron

The Black Knights

Another set of helicopters passing by Marina Bay Sands…

…and the CBD…

…followed by another flypast on their way back.

The final flypast – unfortunately this week without a gorgeous sunset.

While the weather certainly could have been better, I did not mind too much since I ran the Sundown Half-Marathon that night and was happy about the slightly cooler temperatures. It made for quite a unique scene as around 11pm several thousand runners were headed from the MRT station to the starting line of the race while being passed by tanks returning from the rehearsal.

And I was not disappointed. While not super long, the show did not disappoint. Below just a few of the highlights:

The National Stadium before the fireworks. They even arranged for a spectacular moonrise.

The Indoor Stadium next to it.

Here we go!

Beautiful

And the torch has been lit up!