Singapore, Singapore 94f
I was excited to visit Singapore. This is my first time and with a 2 day stop I had some plans in place. We arrived to a cloudy sky with promises of rain and both days had some sun, some clouds and some rain but always hot. We docked about 25 min outside of the main tourist area. We could see the three tower Sands by the Marina, the Singapore Flyer (ferris wheel) that was unfortunately out of service and way to the left, the Gardens by the Bay. More to come on all of that.
The Republic of Singapore is an island country consisting of 63 islands with a land mass of approximately 270 square miles. With a population of around 6 million, it is considered to have the second highest population density of any country in the world. On the largest island, Pulau Ubin is located the capital city Singapore. Odd to have the state and capital city the same name like the capital city of Denmark, is Denmark.
It is believed that Singapore was inhabited from about the 1400’s but existed in relative obscurity until the 1800’s. Stamford Raffles, a British governor arrived in Singapore in Jan 1819 to establish a British trading post which eventually led to Singapore becoming part of the British Empire in 1824. During this time period Singapore greatly increased the population with influx of Chinese, Malaysia and Indian immigrants.
Singapore was unaffected by WWI but was occupied by the Japanese during WW II in 1942 after the British lost the Battle of Singapore to Japan. At that time Churchill called that battle the worst disaster in British history due to the enormous amount of British solider causalities. With the Japan’s surrender in 1945, Singapore was no longer convinced of Britain’s ability to defend the island resulting in Singapore becoming a separate Crown Colony in 1946.
Due to an increasing concern over Chinese communist activity, Britain allowed Singapore to merge with Malay into the Federation of Malayisa along with Borneo and other British holdings. That merger was short lived as Singapore and Malay differences in politics, economy etc resulted in the expulsion of Singapore from the Federation in 1965, leaving Singapore as a newly independent country.
The People’s Action Party founded the new government and has remained in control of the country through today. The Prime Minister is considered the executive leader of the country and is appointed by the president for many years. Since 1965 (59 years) there have been 3 PMs appointed with approx. 40 of those years ruled by a father and son.
Singapore is another southeast asia country that understanding there are no natural resources, turned to the citizens as the best resources for success. Singapore is recognized for high tech and financial dealings that continue to place the country in the top performers in the world. There is no available land for agriculture and tourism has increased as part of the economy over the years. It is generally in the top 2-3 most expensive cities to live in as well.
Singapore is considered a very safe city. As I traveled around the city, I was struck by a decidedly lack of traffic for 6 million people. While public transportation is excellent, I thought there would be more traffic especially around rush hour. The streets were spotless, and no one ever offered to sell me anything for $2. I did not see any panhandlers or homeless. Of course, it became a point of discussion to see if I just wasn’t seeing things or how was this happening?
I was told that Singapore is a ‘fine’ city. A little tongue in cheek that indeed Singapore is a fine or nice city but do anything wrong and there are stiff fines to pay. At first I thought it was maybe like the ‘Aldi phenomena’ where it apparently only takes the return of 25 cents to make Americans return the grocery cart to the store instead of leaving it in the parking lot but, it runs a little deeper. Here are some examples shared with me – hopefully I have the details in order.
On the ship we were given instructions not to take any vaping or tobacco products ashore and leave all gum on the ship. Being in possession of such could cause large fines or imprisonment. The people I spoke with laughed and said the ship was not correct. No one gets fined or arrested for smoking or chewing gum. But there are fines if you don’t dispose of butts properly or spit gum out on the ground. Same thing with littering.
Caning and the death sentence are acceptable punishments for crimes. CCTV cameras are all over Singapore to the point that people know if they do something, they will be caught and punished swiftly. Cameras are not only in downtown or business areas but all housing areas are heavily watched as well.
If you want to buy a car, you must first purchase a COE or certificate of entitlement. Only so many are available so it is an auction, and the price of the certificate is minimally 100% of the car purchase price and can go much, much higher.-like 2-3 times the cost of the car. This certificate only allows you to have that car for 10 years. At the end of 10 years, you must sell the car or stop driving it and if you want a new one, start the process all over again. You can buy a used car without the certificate but the prices is still so high based the total original purchase price + the COE. Same rules apply to scooters. In other southeast asia countries scooters seemed more prevalent than cars but not in Singapore.
Because of the ethnic groups that comprise Singapore and the ethnic / political issues they had in the 50s, while Singapore clearly welcomes ethnic integration, there are more rules. Available housing is in crisis as is the cost of such. Land is a premium. Most of the population (rich and poor) live in government built housing (apartments) that people are allowed to purchase. The government holds strict controls over the ethnic population of each area so as examples, there are no Chinese or Indian neighborhoods/buildings. Each housing building contains a set percentage of each ethnicity based upon the population figures. If Singapore's population is 70% Chinese, then each building is required to sell 70% of the units to Chinese ethnicity buyers. Once you buy your unit, it is yours to sell. But you can only sell it to a family of your ethnicity so the ethnic percentages are kept in place.
Housing is so in demand that the first hurdle is to get on a limited waiting list for the government built housing. Once on the list, your building will be assigned and then built – in about 5 years is the current wait. As a first time home buyer, the price is heavily subsidized by the government to promote home ownership. However, if something happens that you need to remove your name from the list, you will never be considered a first time home buyer again and no subsidized housing for you. You can buy an existing home on your own but expect to pay 3 – 4 times more than following the rules.
Singaporeans have freedom of speech – they can say whatever they want. However, if you want to protest anything you must obtain a permit, disclose what you are going to say, who will participate, and you will be assigned a day/time at Speakers Point (small public park downtown). Go outside those rules and there is a fine for that and probably some caning as well.
I would suggest that you don’t need to tell people what to do if you create the rules of what to do in such a manner that anything except following the rules is very painful.
I asked how various people felt about all the rules. It seems the People’s Action Party is losing some of their appeal. There will be a fourth PM decided by the president next year and they are in the “devil you know vs the devil you don’t”. But everyone I spoke to said that while the rules were restrictive, the outcome was generally good and as long as that continued, the good outweighs the bad.
Singapore is another country where the birth rate has declined to the point below the death rate. This is thought to be due to the absolute focus of people succeeding in education, business etc for the good of the country. The pressure from your family to be the best can be crushing. During one of my discussions, it was offered that the pressure is so great on young people to excel in education, that in one of the best known private schools, great care is taken during the end of year testing. When the grades are released and these grades determine the next steps in your higher education, teachers are sent to patrol the school roof top to avoid distraught students doing something life ending.
Let’s lighten the mood and move on to pictures and fun things. Singapore has been called the Lion City. Here is the Merlion statue that is frequently a logo of Singapore. The head of a female lion with the body of a fish.
Immigration again took a while to complete, so it was late morning before I was on my way to the Gardens by the Bay. This is a 250 acre nature park opened in 2014 to support Singapore’s aim of raising the quality of life by increasing green spaces in the city. I had seen a documentary on this endeavor a few years ago and it is quite fascinating.
First all of the land that the Gardens encompasses had to be reclaimed from the sea. The country is truly out of land. They have imported so much sand for land reclamation efforts that the countries surrounding Singapore have made it illegal to export their sand to Singapore. Since the sand for reclamation needs to come from rivers or lakes, not beaches, there was a lot of finger pointing about black market sand and stealing.
Once the land existed then many architectural and functional issues had to be solved. There are multiple outside gardens but the main attractions are 2 green houses and super trees. The Flower Dome is the largest outside greenhouse (3 acres), has no interior support columns and contains multiple garden areas for arid and mediterranean climates. The Cloud Dome is smaller (2 acres) but taller to accommodate the second highest inside waterfall and contains the tropical gardens – again no interior support columns. Some of the most interesting information in the documentary were the issues of functionality – keeping the areas cooled or heated appropriately especially under the hot sun and how to support those needs being environmentally sustainable. Sometimes what you don’t see requires the most planning.
The Super Trees are really exhaust heating and cooling structures that have been architecturally constructed to be covered in plants and be part of the garden. Seeing the elements as explained in the documentary was quite fascinating.
Here are some pictures from that time. It is very difficult to visualize the whole park from the ground so later in my visit I visited the Sands by the Marina for their fine vantage point of the city. Here you can see most of the park with the 2 greenhouses and some of the super tree structures.
Inside the domes were different gardens or areas. For example, their current rotating garden display was the cherry blossoms or Sakura. This rotating display changes every couple of months while the rest of the gardens were the same.
Sakura display
African garden with Baoboa trees. The tunk expands with all the water the roots can find. Then as drought occurs, the tree absorbs the water in the trunk and it shrinks in size.
Some interior shots hopefully to show some of the structure
One of the super trees or exhaust towers.
It’s time to eat! Once again, I met up with a guide to help me navigate the food scene. My request for this experience was to sample authentic dishes of ethnicities that comprise Singapore – Chinese, Indian and Malaysian. We went to 2 different hawker centers – various food stalls under 1 roof – like a food court. It was quite large to require a directory on the left and was full of locals, some tourists. Oh - there was a fine if you did not clear your table before leaving!
At the first stop we had Carrot Cake and Singapore Spring roll. Interestingly the Carrot Cake was not a cake and there are no carrots in that dish. It is a stir fried dish of daikon radish, onion, egg and other stuff I forget. Quite tasty.
The Singapore Spring roll was surprising – the inside was the normal vegetable filling, but the outside was like a crepe!. Spring rolls can get a little boring, but this was really good.
Don't forget to save your 'touting' for Speakers Corner. Everyone appreciates a peaceful meal.
We walked around China town to reach the second hawker center and had a Malaysian based dish and an Indian dish. I have completely forgotten the names. The Malaysian dish was short noodles with vegetables in a sauce with an egg on top. The Indian dish had this great bread that was used to dip into the various curries. Nothing to complain about with these dishes either.
I spent the night at a hotel located on Orchard Road which is their shopping street downtown. Every fashion house and store I could never afford to shop at was there. There was a metro stop practically outside the door to the hotel so I could easily go wherever I wanted. For rush hour, the traffic is pretty slim.
Breakfast was a small selection of dishes, fruit, juices etc. I loaded up on dumplings and buns and some crispy bacon. I’d given up on the ships bacon as it is never cooked beyond floppy. The chef came out to talk with me as the food signs weren’t helpful to understand what each item was. He wanted me to try the serving of rice noodles (very thin almost like a pancake) on the left as a common breakfast item. He fixed it properly meaning he added coconut sugar, some peanuts and I forget what the red stuff was, but it was sweet as well. They even had a baked bun in addition to my favorite bao bun. Plus a new steamed bun that was filled with a yummy green coconut center. It was all really good.
After that breakfast I was ready to join my driver/guide for the day. We stayed within the downtown and more historical districts. There wasn’t time to explore any of the government built housing areas as those were 45 minutes one way out of the city. I also discovered he occasionally worked for Grab which is the southeast asia answer to Uber. The 2 apps looked and acted very similar. I asked about that, and he said that Uber was the first ride app in Singapore. However, Grab was created in asia and backed by the Singapore government. Not surprisingly Uber was bought out and Grab is the only ride app available.
First up was the botanical gardens before it started to rain. A very large park and I concentrated on the outside orchid garden as one cannot see everything in one day. Just a few pictures mainly not of orchids - there were so many that I wanted to show other features. Weird I know.
Various orchids in a fountain setting
Charming zen filled paths
These 2 roosters where in the middle of a disagreement. They ran out from the brush, all fluffed out, did a stare down, leapt at each other about 2 ft in the air and ran off.
Orchids growing in trees as they would grow in the wild.
The ethnic areas from the 1950's have been preserved - Muslim, China Town and India Town. Now more tourist stops with shops and restaurants then residences but the original buildings - shop houses have remained. The areas are relatively small maybe 6 blocks but each has a different architecture, colors, restaurants and businesses.
The muslim area contained a mosque and very colorful shophouses.
In addition to ornate buildings, this area had the most colorful street art.
We were back in China Town to visit the Buddha’s Tooth Relic Temple and look around during the day. First this is from the evening dining experience. Note the group of people on the right.
This was described as the neighborhood senior center. Older gentleman would come every day into the evening to read the paper, play games and visit.
Located in China Town is the Buddha's Tooth Relic Temple and museum. A very large 4 story complex of temple, educational center and museum supposedly displays a fragment of the Buddha's tooth found in a burial stupa. The fragment is longer than a human tooth but perhaps believing in something is more important than that physical item.
The 1000 Dragon hall - the main worship and education center. Sorry - no pictures of the tooth relic was allowed.
India Town was complete with a Hindu temple built in 1827 - no inside pictures due to the always present rule requiring shoe removal.
In the same area is the statue honoring Raffles for settling Singapore
The ArtScience building, designed to resemble a lotus flower.
From SkyPark on top of the Sands at the Marina, it was easier to see a comprehensive picture as in reality with only 240 sq miles in the country, thing are pretty close in the downtown core.
Looking across the Raffles Harbor or Quay, the Merlion statue is in the middle by the water and across the white bridge to the building with the clock tower is the site of the Raffles statue.
A more comprehensive picture of the Gardens by the Bay. The 2 greenhouses and the super trees are the round disks sticking up in 2 different locations
Theaters on the Bay used for performances of all types. People suggest they look like fly eyes or the outside of Durian fruit.
The ArtScience building from above
A small portion of the skyline. Looking past the immediate skyscrapers, notice the densely packed buildings for as far as one can see.
Once again it was time to head back to the boat. There is certainly more to discover in this city / country! I know there is more to Singapore, but I also think it would be very interesting not only to see residential areas but also to understand what rural life outside this vibrant and affluent city, looks like.
Vanakkam !!
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