Two days in Singapore

Two days in Singapore, March 24, 25

Marina Bay Sands Hotel
over right shoulder

We arrive in Singapore after a two-night voyage from Vietnam. I was here 55 years ago as a young sailor and I remember we had quite a difficult time finding any taverns. I think the same applies today. It is an extremely clean city/state/country. It is all the above! It is the largest port in Southeast Asia and one of the busiest in the world. It was once a British colony but seceded to become an independent state in 1965. It is known for its multi-cultural society, with four official languages: English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil.

Rain Tree with War
Memorial "Chopsticks"
in background

Street scene from bus

Only 5% of residents have a private residential home. 10% live in condos and 90% live I n public housing (high-rise). It was voted the world’s best place to live in 2015. Today, it is one of the worlds most densely populated cities with more than 3 million people living in 600 square kilometers (about 232 square miles).

The government wants to discourage car ownership and promote public transportation, so they require residents who want to purchase a car to apply for a COE, Certificate of Entitlement. This, when approved, entitles you to purchase a vehicle. It costs upwards of US$75,000! Just for the right to buy a car. Can you imagine if they would try something like this in the U.S.?

When we left the ship, we were given our passports back as we had to carry them with us here. Going through security was the most intense we had seen so far. First, we had to put our possessions through an xray scanner like in airports, then we had to insert our passports in a scanning machine, then we had to be photographed, and our thumb print scanned!

Sue waiting to be scanned.

Good grief! This was just to get out of the terminal. Who knows where all this personal information goes from here. We often have to scan our bags when returning to the ship but this is the first time we were required to do it when leaving.

This is one of the major on/off ports for the Queen Anne. We will say goodbye to around 1,000 guests and say hello to a similar amount. The ship will offload your luggage from your stateroom if you wish and I took a photo of the offloaded bags as we came down the escalator.

Offloaded baggage

After boarding our bus finally, our first stop on day one was at the National Orchid Gardens.

It is a wonderful place full of flowers and plants, mainly orchids but much else. It even had an enclosed “cool house” that housed orchids and other flowers that prefer the higher elevation and cooler temperatures. It would be an orchid lover’s paradise.

We toured around the city and were allowed free time to shop at a market area. The weather had been threatening rain and we often had to find shelter to keep from getting soaked, but the showers never lasted more than 5 or 10 minutes.

Sue wanted to check out a temple that I had no interest in, so she left, and I shopped around the market area for a while then it started to rain again. I found a place that sold beer, and I purchased a 20oz, Tiger and it cost nearly US$9! This is part of their “sin tax” to discourage alcohol consumption.

Singapore has a low crime rate somewhat due to their mandatory caning law that is still in effect for 35 different crimes. Convicted criminals of these offences undergo the cruel, humiliating act of being struck by specially prepared bamboo sticks that take from a week to a month to recover from. Some of you may remember and incident from 1994 when an American teen, Michael Fay, was convicted of a vandalism act in Singapore and was sentenced to imprisonment and caning. It became an international event that made world- wide news.

Street scene with shops

The tour took us to several areas that gave us some photo ops of the area but overall, it was a disappointing day because of the weather and what we thought was a below average tour guide.

Video, Singapore at night from the Queen: https://photos.google.com/u/0/photo/AF1QipMx1jcs9piGmrjPkYPylRZBbyCmIGbJkhqdOAjC

March 25, 2025

Today’s forecast is better than yesterdays, so hopefully we will stay dry. Our first hour is a city tour which takes us by the Raffles Hotel, famous for the origination of the alcoholic drink “Singapore Sling”.

Raffles Hotel

It was invented int 1917 for the benefit of the ladies, who at the time were only allowed tea or fruit juices. So a guy by the name of Ngiam Tong Boon, invented this alcoholic drink that looked like a fruit drink. The ladies were happy. If you care to purchase one there today, it will cost you US$26!

Desalination Plant

Our bus than took us to a large reservoir formed by damning up the Singapore River before it drains to the sea. Singapore has a problem of providing enough fresh water for their millions and this was one answer. In sight of the reservoir was a huge desalination plant that is one of five that they have on the island to help provide fresh water.

Looking up at the 56th floor
observation deck of the Marina Bay
Sands Casino Hotel

Next stop was the Marina Bay Sands Casino Hotel, built with Law Vegas money and is one of Sinapore’s landmarks. It consists of three towers connected on top by what looks like shallow boat. (See opening picture above.)

Sue with checking out the harbor

Visitors like us can take the elevator in tower three to the 56^th floor and go out on the observation deck for a nice view of the city.

Built in 2010, the $7 Billion dollar hotel has 2,200 rooms which I am told are almost always 100% booked. There is also an iconic infinity pool located on the SkyPark, available to guests only. There are four floors of casino entertainment of all kinds.

2nd level of observation deck, the portion that
bends out has the Infinity Pool

Singapore Flyer, it seems like every
harbor city has one

Locals have to pay an entry fee of SD$150 to gamble. Another effort by the government to discourage gambling. A tower #4 construction has started indicating the success of this project.

Green area is Gardens by the Bay,
our next stop, the two glass domes
is where we will be visiting.
Notice the ships in the harbor

Video atop Tower#3:

https://photos.google.com/u/0/search/CgZWaWRlb3MiCBIGCgQqAggBKNKTy9ndMg%3D%3D/photo/AF1QipPAukr4tIYkP9-mbcCGRNIw3ZDWvATpl_Wq_3VL

Our last stop of the day took us to Gardens by the Bay. A major tourist attraction that was voted 8^th best attraction in the world by Traveler’s Choice. It has ten areas that tickets can be purchased for, and our time and tickets limited us to just two, the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. I doubt it all could be seen in one day. I’ll let the pictures give you an idea but needless to say it was impressive what little we did see. They are open until 9PM and the nighttime, colored lighting is spectacular from pictures I have seen.