A Singapore Fling

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Good morning from Singapore.  It is 8:00 a.m. Sunday morning in Singapore, 7:00 p.m. Saturday back home.  We have both been up since 5:00 a.m.  Yes, even Lynda.  We are having trouble getting our bodies used to the 13 hour time difference.

Singapore is a beautiful, vibrant city.  It has done an excellent job of combining sleek, modern architecure with the older, traditional styles.  It is a clean, safe city and we have seen no sign of homeless people nor any panhandlers. Until 1965 it was a British colony so, not surprisingly, English is the official international language of Singapore and everyone speaks English and most signs are in English. They even drive on the "wrong side of the road".  We were surprised to learn the that Chinese people make up 75% of the population of Singapore. We have been captivated by Singapore.  Too bad it is a 20 hour flight from Detroit.

We left Detroit Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. flying non-stop to Tokyo, arriving in Tokyo about 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Tokyo time.  An aside to Tim's golf buddies: we flew over at least a dozen golf courses in our short approach to the Tokyo airport. Most were 9 hole tracts. Our connecting flight to Singapore was to leave at 6:00p.m.  Unfortunately, the plane arrived an hour and a half late. We were told this was due to the "big snow problem in the U.S."  Our departure was further delayed by a minor mechanical problem involving lights of some sort. Unbelievably, the Tokyo crew had to take pictures of the pnroblem, fax or e-mail them to Delta headquarters in Atlanta and wait for a return fax or e-mail in order to fix said problem.  The problem was eventually fixed but resulted in us arriving at our hotel in Singapore at 6:00 a.m. Friday, Singapore time. We had reserved our room for Thursday night thinking we would arrive around 1:00 a.m. Friday.  We both had four hour naps before showering and getting on with our day.

We have discovered a company called Viator that books tours worldwide. Even on a cruise we, at times, will book a shore excursion through Viator. The excursion will be half the cost of a similar excursion booked with the cruise ship. Before leaving home, we arranged for tours both Friday and Saturday afternoons.  The first stop Friday was the Asian Civilisation(sic.) Museum.  It was a short stop but gave us a good thumbnail sketch of the history of Singapore.  The next stop was the Raffles Hotel.  This hotel was built by two Persian brothers in 1887 and named after Ramfort Raffles, a British citizen who was the  founder of modern Singapore. Raffles Hotel was closed in 1989 for a complete refurbishment and reopened in1991 in its original splendor. Its main claim to fame is the invention of the Singapore Sling in its bar.  In the early 1900's it was frowned upon for women to drink in public. Several enterprising women had the bartender at Raffles invent a fruit drink in which copius amounts of alchol could be hidden so the women could drink undetected.  Hence, the Singapore Sling.  As always, our responsibility to our loyal blog readers forced us to sample one. After careful and thorough research we can report that it was delicious. Our last stop was a 45 minute boat ride on the Singapore River.  While not a major river by any stretch of the imagination (it is only 4 kilometers long!) it is the reason for Singapore's existence. This enjoyable cruise gave us an up close view of both the old and modern Singapore. After an early dinner (no forks!) we returned to our hotel and called it a day.

We subscribe to a travel magazine called Conde Nast.  In addition to a monthly magazine, we get almost daily e-mails on our phones. As luck would have it, Friday's e-mail included a slide show entitled 10 reasons to visit an old neighborhood in Singapore.  Saturday morning we took a local bus to the Tiong Bahru area of Singapore.  First, we visited a wonderful local market. The first floor was made up of a number of fruit, vegetable and meat stands. We saw many fruits and veggies that we could not identify.  All of the fish and seafood appeared to be fresh caught. There were also stalls selling cheap clothing.  The second floor of the market was what we would call a food court. There was a central seating area with a number of tiny restaurants surrounding the area. These restaurants were basicly a 12'x12' stall that served a few dinner items of food. You would go from stall to stall picking out what you wanted to eat and then sit down in the central area. Not having breakfast before leaving the hotel we sampled delicious little custard pies. We have visited many markets like this in our travels and never cease to be entertained by them.  After leaving the market we walked down a street with a varied collection of little shops. Of particular interest was a delightful bookshop, the likes of which you seldom find any more in the states.  Thank you Barnes and Noble!

In the afternoon we took a city tour. We began the tour at the Marina Bay where we were given a few minutes for a photo op with the famous Merlion statue.  The merlion, a lion's head on the body of a mermaid is the symbol of Singpore. This large statue is a fountain with a stream of water shooting out of the lion's mouth into the bay.  While here we also had an excellent view of the magnificent Marina Bay Sands Hotel.  For those of you who watch "The Amazing Race" on TV, this hotel was featured in the last season.  It is beyond description.  We will try to include a picture. The next stop was a temple in the Chinatown area of Singapore. This temple represents three different religions: Buddism, Hinduism, and Confucianism. Like most of the eastern religion temples we have visited this one was stunning. From Chinatown we were taken to a gem factory. In this factory semi-precious stones were used to not only make jewelry but also works of art. While not our style we did find them quite amazing; i.e. Jil and Jeff - we didn't spend more of your inheritance. Our next stop was the National Orchid Garden.  We only had about 30 minutes here and would have loved more time. It also occured to us that as much as we enjoy visits to orchid displays we don't have an orchid plant in our house. That problem may be remedied when we get home. Finally, we went on the Singapore Flyer. The Singapore Flyer is a giant ferris wheel with gondolas that can hold 10 people. There are benches in the center of the gondola but most people move about the gondola taking pictures of the spectacular views. It takes 37 minute to make a complete circle on the Flyer. It is situated right on the Marina Bay. Our guide was quick to point out that, while similar to the London Eye, the Singapore Flyer is older and larger.

Also located on Marina Bay is a large garden cleverly called Gardens on the Bay.  One of the displays in the garden is called "The grove of supertrees".  These super trees are 17 metal structures ranging in height from 82 to 160 feet. There are plants on each tree from the base to the top. We took a taxi upon leaving the Singapore Flyer to the garden to watch the light show in the supertree grove that occurs at dusk every night. There is a walkway between three of the trees that is probably 50 feet above the ground.  We were able to watch the light show from this walkway.  It was a pretty cool way to finish our day.

Today we are hanging out in our room. We will check out of the hotel at noon and take a taxi to our cruise ship. The rest of the day will be spent on board the ship, unpacking, getting to know the ship, life boat drill, etc. We don't actually leave Singapore until tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. Depending on tomorrow's weather we have a couple of different ideas of things to see.  You'll just have to check our next blog to see where we went.  How's that for a teaser.

On a more serious note.  We understand that Michigan is in for a major snowstorm this weekend.  To our family and friends in Michigan: be careful and be safe.