Sunday, March 5, 2023
Busy Harbor
What impressed us as we neared Singapore was the massive number of ships all around us. It is the largest port in Southeast Asia, and one of the busiest in the world. Multitudes of container ships waited in the harbor for their turn to dock and unload. They were everywhere we could see. In fact, as we neared the port, we wondered how the ship would make it through the maze of container ships.
Incredible Beauty of the City
We knew that Singapore had an amazing skyline of incredible architecture and modern buildings, but we had no idea how lush and green the city is. There are trees, flowers, exotic plants, and gardens everywhere. Although the buildings and housing are exceptionally dense, the city has been created in such a way that you are surrounded by nature.
Huge frangipani trees were everywhere in Singapore. Vines with thick trunks and gorgeous orange flowers were growing over the long roofs covering walkways throughout the city. You could see that the lush, thick greenery was very intentional and well cared for. In one area of the city, the huge limbs of one type of tree were curved, twisted, and looped, almost resembling gigantic boa constrictors draped from the trees.
We would love to spend more time in Singapore, learning about the different trees, flowers and birds. The city seemed even more dense with trees than the Atlanta, Georgia, known as the city in the forest, because it has more tree canopy in its city limits than any other in the United States.
Mount Faber
Through our excursion, we visited Mt. Faber, one of the oldest parks in Singapore, which has beautiful overlooks of the city, and is covered by a secondary rain forest. From the top of Mt. Faber, you can take an impressive cable car ride to Sentosa Island. In the evening, you can have dinner inside the cable car, and it is a favorite place for folks to propose to each other.
The Botanical Garden and National Orchid Garden
We did not have enough time to see the 80 acre Singapore Botanic Gardens. Hewn out of the jungle, is one of the best in the world, with over 3,000 species of tropical and subtropical plants and 500,000 preserved plans in the herbarium. Eleven acres of the original jungle have been preserved in their natural state. The gardens were used for experimentation with native and imported plants, to determine what might be most appropriate for export, but also to learn what would thrive the most on an island with little fertile land.
While in Singapore, we did not get to see any of the native macaque, the nocturnal tailless lemur called the loris, or the scaly anteater. We heard many birds while touring the National Orchid Garden, but wish we could have seen the Indian mynah bird and Brahmin kite, or even some lizards. However, we were grateful not to see any cobras.
Inside the Botanical Gardens is the National Orchid Garden, which was the focus of our tour. We have been to orchid gardens before, but nothing like the one in Singapore. It was filled with little waterfalls, ponds, fountains, arches over the walkways that were covered in orchids or bromeliads, and the most dense orchid gardens, going as far as you could see in every direction.
It rained lightly the entire time, and at one point, there was heavy, drenching rain and everyone got soaked. Cliff and I wore disposable ponchos and carried umbrellas, but the rain went right through my lightweight athletic shoes, and completely soaked my socks.
I loved the little orchid garden gift shop, where I quickly bought a few little items, as we had such a short time to visit the gardens, and only five minutes left to get to the bus.
Orchard Road
After visiting Mt. Faber, we were driven down Orchard Road, which is the shopping and entertainment hub of the city. It is called orchard road, because that area was once full of orchards. Block after block of the most high end shopping stores and malls beckoned to us. The streets were vibrant and crowded with shoppers. To us, it definitely exceeded the Miracle Mile in Chicago and maybe even Rodeo drive in Los Angeles, and New York City shopping districts. It was massive. The stores themselves were massive. For example, the Adidas store looked like it was at lest the size of Macy’s in Sarasota.
We rode past the Presidential Palace, a variety of embassies, the world-famous Raffles House, the Parliament House, and Shenton Way, which is the “Wall Street of Southeast Asia.” We also drove by the Sri Mariamman Hindu Temple built in 1827.
China Town
We did not get to spend as much time in China Town as we liked — just a little over 30 minutes — or even visit the temple. It took us 2.5 hours to get through Customs, and then when we visited the orchid gardens, an elderly woman did not return to the bus, and our tour guide had to spend 20 minutes looking for her. It was very old and dense. I enjoyed seeing the Chophouses, which are two or three story historic buildings, with a restaurant or shop on the first level, and living quarters above. I hurriedly bought a couple of souvenirs before we headed back to the bus.
So Much to See and So Little Time
We were able to see only a small fraction of the city. There were so many things we wanted to see and do, and I wish we could have been here at least four days. I would love to return!
Additionally, it was very difficult to snap any good photos during our visit because it was raining most of the time. In the orchid garden, it was tricky holding an umbrella and trying to take photos at the same time, and our phones kept getting wet. The bus windows were covered in rain droplets, so taking photos from the bus was a complete failure. From the ship, it was overcast the entire day, which also makes for fairly poor photos of the skyline.
The Supertree Grove was just a little over a mile away from the ship, but we were wet and had gone from breakfast at 8:00 AM to 3:30 PM without a meal. The only thing we had was a candy bar and a few nuts that we bought at Mount Faber. We had to go back through customs again to get on the ship, showing our passports before going into the building, getting in line again, and placing our passports on a scanner again; then the machine wouldn’t recognize my thumb prints that they had taken on the way in, so I was taken to another station to be processed, where they confiscated my passport for a few minutes and double checked my thumbprints. They also had to scan our bags again. Going through customs was such a nightmare, that we didn’t want to go back out and face it again.
We felt that it was very unfair that the ship’s employees, who only had three or four hours of leave off the ship, were made to stand in the long lines for over two hours to get through customs, so that they had only an hour of time to visit Singapore. Some just gave up and went back to the ship. We feel strongly that the employees should be allowed to leave the ship first, before any cruisers disembark.
Some of the many places we wanted to go included:
Gardens by the Bay and the Cloud Forest
Vivocity Mall
Singapore Maritime Gallery
The Supertree Grove
The Helix Bridge
A River Cruse
The Sands Skylark Observation Deck
Raffles Hotel (massive), where the Singapore Sling was first concocted
Jurong Bird Park
Orchard Road Shopping District
Little India and the Sultan Mosque
Singapore Zoo
A Treat on the Island Princess
After returning to the ship, eating dinner and having a warm shower, we enjoyed an amazing show in the Princess Theater. Dancers from three main cultures of Singapore — Malay, Chinese, and Indian — dressed in traditional costumes, performed an incredible show for us. It was absolutely phenomenal, and only made us want to return to Singapore even more.
After the show, we went out on the top deck, and were treated to a laser show at the Supertree Grove. We then watched a huge Asian cruise ship as it eased out of the dock and exited the harbor, all lit up, with people partying on the upper decks.
Back in our room, we stood on the balcony to watch our ship gently ease away from the dramatically designed cruise port and quietly head out of the harbor. Multitudes of container ships were everywhere arounds us. We watched until the city faded in the distance and the darkness of the night gave way only to the occasional blinking red marker.
A Clean City with Unusual Laws
You will find that the metropolis of Singapore is one of the cleanest cities in the world. Striving to keep the city beautiful is one of the reasons that chewing gum is banned. You cannot sell chewing gum or bring it into the country. Doing so can result in very high fines.
Other things that are illegal and/or forbidden in Singapore include the following:
Walking naked in your own home ($2,000 fine or up to 3 months in prison)
Smoking just about everywhere except perhaps in your own home or special smoking rooms
Failing to flush the toilet in a public restroom
Using another person’s wifi
Jaywalking ( you can be arrested)
Homosexuality
Littering (you can be arrested)
Spitting in public compounds (sidewalks, etc.) can result in a stiff fine
Graffiti (result in a sentence of caning)
Feeding the pigeons
Drug related activity (can even result in the death penalty)
Drinking alcohol and partying between 10:30 PM and 7:00 AM
You can be caned for very serious offenses, such as drug trafficking, robbery, rape and vandalism. In 1994, American Michael Fay was caned in Singapore for theft of road signs and vandalizing 18 cars over a ten day period.
Some Interesting History and Geography
The Republic of Singapore is a sovereign island country and city-state at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, in Southeast Asia. It is separated from the Peninsular Malaysia by Johor Strait to the north. To the south, is the Singapore Strait.
Singapore is not a part of China or Malaysia. It is made of of The population of over 5.5 million is multi-ethic, with four main category groups: Chinese, Malay, Indian and others. The Malay are considered the indigenous community; however, 76% of the country is Chinese. Together Malays and Indians comprise 15%.
Singapore originally was inhabited by fishermen and pirates, with Javanese and Chinese records dating to the end of the 14th century. In 1819, Sir Stamford Raffles of the English East India Company, landed at Singapore, finding only a few Chinese planters, some aborigines, and Malays. There is quite a bit of interesting history about the colonization of the island, and you will see many buildings are areas named Raffles in Singapore.
The name of the city means the Lion City, and statues and fountains featuring its apparent mascot, the “Merlion” (head of a lion and bod of a fish) can be seen through Singapore.
About 85 miles north of the Equator, Singapore consists of the main island, which is shaped roughly like a diamond. It also comprises about 60 very small islands, which combined are only about 18 square miles. Most of the main island is less than 50 feet above sea level. The highest point, Timah Hill, is only 531 feet high. Because it is located in the monsoon region of Southeast Asia, rain falls somewhere on the island almost every day.
Once a British Colony and still a member of the Commonwealth, Singapore is a young country, only becaming independent in 1965. The country has very few natural resources, but vegetables, fruits and poultry are raised for local consumption. Local fishing and aquaculture are supplemented with offshore fishing. Almost everything else, including fuel, is imported. Their major exports are orchids and aquarium fish. The country has been gradually moving from textile production to electronics, precision equipment and oil refining.
Most of the soil is highly infertile and degraded by erosion. You would never guess this by traveling around the city, because it is covered in trees, flowers and exotic plants. However, we learned that not much of the original animal and plant life remain. There are a few thousand acres of evergreen rain forest that have been preserved and mangroves on the northwest side of the island still survive.
Our guide told us that much of Singapore is comprised of reclaimed land, which means that rocks, soil, cement and other materials are added to areas of water, and submerged wetlands drained. Since 1965, 22 percent of Singapore’s total ground area has been reclaimed from the sea. Spaces built on such land include the Changi Airport, Jurying Island, and Tuas Port.
Currently, the 280 square mile country is still reclaiming land, because it is scarce, resulting in a high cost of living and high building density. There is a masterplan for building roads (tunnels) and other infrastructure underground to preserve land, and Singapore is striving to become a green city.
Singapore is one of the highest cost of living indexes in the entire world. Public housing high rise apartment communities are integrated among private housing buildings, and are inhabited by people with a variety of incomes. There are only a few traditional Malay kampong stilt house settlements left along the rural shoreline areas.
Comments