Singapore, A Great City

  Singapore, Singapore
Tuesday, November 11, 2008

This is Steve:  and we are Singapore now in. Three words come to mind immediately. Heat, humidity and handsome. The heat here is amazing even at 1:30 when we land in Singapore.  When we first landed we went directly into the air conditioned terminal and it was beautiful and efficient. The terminal is clean, clean and clean besides being new.  Very nicely laid out with lots of room and people to help even early in the morning. We went directly to immigration and in a couple of minutes we were welcomed to Singapore. After picking up our luggage we cleared customs with no one even stopping us. We then went immediately to the place we were supposed to meet our ride to the hotel and surprise they were expecting us.  As we drove from the airport to the hotel I was impressed as to how handsome the city was. The roads are in excellent condition, wide and in most cases lined with beautiful trees and attractive landscaping. Even in the middle of the night it was attractive.
As we got to hotel we were efficiently greeted and sent on our way to our room. Ginger and I unpacked the essentials and then we went bed to catch some sleep at around 4:00AM. I woke up at about 8:00AM and found Ginger awake as well.  We decided to hit the city but knew we were probably not going to be able to go full speed all day. We took the MRT (subway) downtown from our hotel and visited the Asian Civilization Museum.  Ginger now:  This museum is very impressive - it's one of the oldest buildings in Singapore, built by convicts in 1864-1867 - and houses collections from the civilizations of East, Southeast, South and West Asia.  It's 3 levels with 11 galleries, each one more impressive than the last.  One of the wings faces the Singapore River, and the day we were there they had a festival with musicians, special food stalls and a puppet show.  Although it was a fascinating place and it broke my heart that I couldn't see it all, our jet lag got the best of us and we had to leave before we collapsed from exhaustion.  We got back to the hotel intending to take a quick nappies but instead slept through the rest of the day as well as dinner.  You know that we must have been tired if we missed a meal!  The next  day we felt much better and since the sun was shining a bit we decided to take a cable car up Mt. Faber to see the cityscape and harbor below.  Cable cars are one of those things that I take because it's the only way to get the view, but I always have a moment of terror when the cable car swings out over all that "nothingness" and it seems like death is imminent.  The harbor is HUGE  - oil tankers lined up as far as the eye can see, cruise ships coming and going, freighters waiting for their turn to unload their cargo and all sorts of other crafts.  It seemed like every ship in the world was using this harbor as its base.  Steve's choice for the next activity, and because it was so close - ha ha, was to tour the Tiger Beer Plant.  We watched how it is made, learned its history, and watched a silly 4-D film with special effects a la Disney World - all of this in order to have a free beer in their bar!  But the day was hot - when isn't it? And the beer was cold (33 degrees) so all was right with our world.  Gotta  get ready, here's Steven -
In the late afternoon we came back to the hotel and took a quick nap and in the evening we went to Chinatown and had dinner at Yum Cha (a famous dim sum restaurant). It was great. Steamed and fried shrimp and scallops, spring rolls and duck dumplings and pork buns. We then walked around Chinatown and went into a Chinese medicine shop. It's way more interesting than Walgreens. Ginger did a little bargaining .  Took a cab for the Hotel and Ginger bought me a beer because I have no wallet or money.
Monday, what a disaster. We had planned to go to Little India, the Zoo and the Night Safari. But it rained and rained and rained. Pouring sheets of water.  We had gone to Boat Quay to take a boat ride but decided we didn't want to be on the water while it thundered and stormed, so forgot about that. We  had tea and Kaya Toast (good tasting) and decided to swim back to the Hotel to wait for  the rain to stop. Finally in the afternoon the rain let up a little and we decided to go out to the Beach for seafood. We had Chili-crabs and peppered shrimp. We have some photos of us eating. Very good but what a mess. After that we watched people doing freestyle water-skiing in the rain. Last thing in the afternoon we visited Little India. I have never seen so many people on the sidewalks of any city. It was the Hindu holiday and the service at the Temple was very moving. It was then back to the hotel to pack.
Thoughts on Singapore: clean, prosperous, modern, interesting, stylish, smart, and very ethnically diverse. The food represents numerous influences from the Chinese, Malay, British and Indian cultures. We will definitely visit here in the future.
Ginger and I want to thank our friend Pearl, a Nashville Singaporean, for all of the hints and suggestions.