SINGAPORE

We arrived in the beautiful busy port of Singapore in sunshine, high humidity and temperatures. Doug and I and Mary Anne and Harry decided to see the city by the Hop On and Hop Off bus. We had been here three times previously and just wanted to show Mary Anne and Harry a brief overview of this busy clean city.

We took the shuttle to the duty free store and picked up the bus. We decided to sit up on top of the bus so we could get a great view of the many sights of Singapore. There was a running commentary while we were onboard the bus which was very helpful. We got off the Arab District to look around and saw Baghdad Street and Kandahur Street. While we walked around, a teacher approached us to hear his students sing and we were asked to rate them. We had no clue what they were singing but gave them 10/10. They were so sweet. When we were passing through Little India, we could distinctly smell the strong spices in the air. Singapore also has a large Chinatown. Singapore is made up of a diverse blend of cultures, Chinese, Malaysian, East Indian, and expats. It is no wonder that Singapore is called the "Crossroads of the East."

Along the way we could see many old colonial buildings and many new modern buildings. Construction was everywhere. The British founder of modern-day Singapore was Sir Stamford Raffles who came up with the Singapore Sling drink. The Raffles Hotel was built from his original bungalow with many add ons.

We came upon the Singapore Flyer which is the highest observation wheel in the world. Many of the other sights were: The Esplanade which is supposed to look like two microphones, Clark Quay on the Singapore River, high rises with laundry hanging out of the kitchen windows, old temples, mosques, and churches, huge construction sites, tall tall city buildings such as Suntec City, Orchard Road with all the high end stores and the canopy trees overhanging the wide city streets, and the world's busiest port.

We also came to the Botanic Gardens and decided to have a sit down drink and a bite to eat. Birds were chirping everywhere and fountains splashing water while we sat in the somewhat cool shade.It is here that the first rubber trees were planted and smuggled from Brazil. The manicured gardens with palm trees and 60,000 orchids was a sight to behold. We loved strolling through this huge area in the middle of the city. We were in awe of all the greenery and the beautiful flowers and orchids. The climate is perfect for the thousands of orchids to grow outside.

We arrived back at the ship and then got ready for the tour entitled Singapore by Night. We boarded a bus that took us to Clark Quay which has beautiful restaurants on the sides of the Singapore River. We boarded a bumboat (as seen in the photo) and saw all the waterfront's colourful restaurants, shops, wine bars and entertainment hotspots. Wednesday was ladies night so the bars were a hopping.

Next we boarded a trishaw, a three-wheeled pedicab that took us down the street to Little India, past shops, an Indian temple, the famous Sultan mosque to the world famous Raffles Hotel. There were at least 30 in our party and we each had a trishaw. Some trishaws had boom boxes blaring all sorts of music from Abba to Michael Jackson and these trishaws would be 3 deep blaring their music yelling out the sites in broken English and laughing and we would be closing our ears and laughing at the sight of it all. The drivers were so sweet and accommodating.

The Raffles hotel is one of the finest in the world with its colonial architecture reflecting the British Rule of 1819-1963. We drank our Singapore Sling (cost of $23 US) in the Long Bar where the drink was invented in 1915.

The next day, the four of us decided to take the cable car that was running right above our ship to the island of Sentosa. We first of all went up to the top of the mountain which overlooked the popular island resort. We have great views of the busy port, the city of Singapore and our ship amongst other ships in port. We then took the cable car down to the island. We decided to go to the aquarium which did a great job of displaying all the sea life in the surrounding waters. We took the moving pedway in the tunnel with the fish swimming overhead just like the one in Auckland, NZ. I took many photos of all the sealife. We also touched the stingrays who came gliding by to take food out of our hands. We then went to the 3D theatre and walked around the island and decided to come back to the ship. We were exhausted from the high temperatures and the very high humidity.

We were very impressed with the cleanliness of this city. Singapore does not seem to be suffering in this global economy for there was construction everywhere. The photo you see in the blog of the huge construction site will be the site of 2 new hotels, Universal Studios and a casino. Work was going on 24 hours a day in most of the sites. A very busy city.

We were happy to be in an English speaking country. We are now on our way to Thailand.