Singapore

 Wednesday. March 16, we spent a day in Singapore which is absolutely beautiful, modern, clean, great streets, and we could learn a few things from the city administration.  Laws are stringent regarding littering, spitting, chewing gum, failing to flush a public toilet!, jaywalking, smoking in any public place but bars and designated places. or eating on the subway.  The subway system is clean, lots of escalators, easy directions (although we managed to get lost; well not exactly lost, but in the wrong place) and fast.  The government is involved in every aspect of Singaporean life, including housing.

Since the island is small (the size of  Chicago), there are few single level homes but rather thousands of high rise apartment/condo buildings.  Shopping centers, and they are gorgeous, go up rather than out and Orchard Road is probably as famous as Rodeo Drive in LA for designer clothes and luxury items.  Asians, Australians and Europeans go to Singapore for shopping, but there are several centers to choose from. 

The population is 77% Chinese, but since Singapore and Malay once formed a country, there are  14% Malays aand 8% Indian.  In Singapore itself there is an Arab quarter, Indian, Chinese, and English.

English colonial buildings have been beautifully preserved amongst all the new, modern skyscrapers.  The new ones on the left are curved and look like they are falling over.  We docked a block to the right of these building.

We first went on an orientation bus tour at 9:30 am, which I always like, to get the lay of the land.  The first place we went was up to the mountain for a 360 degree view of the city.  Then we went to a precious stone polishing and cutting gallery, where, of course, we exited through the sales room.   Then we went to the Botanical Gardens where we took 20 minutes to tour the orchid section which was absolutely fabulous.  I could have spent days in that garden alone.  We drove through the city, then Orchard Road and when we got to Chinatown, Theresa, Paul, Rick and I got off to have lunch, so we missed the tour of the Thian Hock Keng Temple.

After wandering down several streets and through a myriad of Chinese shops, we asked what was a good restaurant for dim sum which I was craving.  We were sent to Yum Chow and had 9 delicous dishes that were out of this world.  The girls at the table next to us were laughing at our trying to pick peanuts up with our chopsticks.  There was an American man with them from Kearney, Nebraska, who was an Anglican pastor in Singapore for 10 years, so we had a conversation with him.

We then, of course, had to go to Raffles Hotel, the home of the Singapore sling and got on the subway in China town and headed for Raffles City, thinking that must be where the Hotel was.  Well, it wasn't and a nice American gentleman sent us back the way we came, almost, and we found Raffles, the English colonial, red-tile-roofed and had a $30 Singapore sling!  It was not very good and had little alcohol in it.   I was tired by then so we took a taxi back to the ship around 5 pm but Thersa and Paul walked around the Marina.  We bought groceries in the shopping center at the Harbourfront (Vivo's was across the street), had a cheese sandwich and watched the cable cars, lit up like fireworks, cross over the harbor from Sentosa to downtown Singapore.

Dock time was 8:30 pm and we watched passengers board, 138 of them past dock time, including 2 professors and a couple of drunk students.  Apparently they were caught up in Immigration and won't be docked after all.  Several students were put off in Singapore but we don't know who.  A shower and bed!

Tuesday night before arrival in Singapore we had dinner with our 5 on board-kids and had pizza and ice cream cake with rocky road and vanilla ice cream,.  I couldn't believe how much cake (14") these kids can eat!  Pictured are Joan, Natalie, Kyle, Tom, Hannah, Brittany, Carla and Rick.

Friday, March 18, SAS announced that we would be going to Taiwan after Shanghai.  Poor Japan - we really wanted to go there but not now.  The radiation levels are increasing.