Barbara's Travels

Singapore city tour

Picture one is from the Chinese temple in the Chinese Quarter of town and picture 2 two is a street scene from the Indian section.



 
 



 
 

Barbara in the orchid garden

I was surprised by how much open and green space there is in the city-state considering the large population (5.9 million) and the tiny size of the island. The city is mostly vertical as there is insufficient room to spread out. The vegetation of course was very tropical as we were only 1 degree north of the equator. The streets are clean and orderly - no trash. Everyone is well behaved and polite, no loud boom box music from passing cars. Most walkers seemed to be busy texting with their smart phones. Guess the USA isn't the only place people do this. 



 
 

Singapore Orchid Garden

Singapore is world famous for its orchids and has a botanical garden devoted only to them. Didn't know they came in so many different configurations and colors. It was very pleasant wandering through the garden even though it was already hot and humid.

And Singapore is the only place I've been where the street planter boxes are filled with orchids. Puts our local geraniums and petunias to shame.



 
 



 
 



 
 



 
 

By the way...

Our fancy hotel room had one of those rain showers and it was wonderful once I figured out the controls.

While we were in the Hong Kong airport a man came up to Bob and said he recognized him from long ago, doing SPSL sports! And in the Raffles City Mall we ran into 2 couples from Seattle (one of the men wore an old Edgar Martinez t-shirt) just off a 37 day cruise from Amsterdam on Holland America. It's a small world.

Singapore skyline at night

 
 



 
 

Singapore Skyline

The view from our hotel room was scenic. The green area is the Padang, which was the center of the colonial city with a British club house and cricket field. It is also used now for soccer. The interesting looking buildings with what appears to be a ship on top is the Marina Bay complex. There is lots of innovative architecture in Singapore. It was Chinese New Year and we could hear drums from somewhere long into the night.

Surprisingly the best part of our flight was the 15 hours across the north Pacific from San Francisco to Hong Kong. Comfortable seats, excellent food. It was dark all the way over and we were able to drowse part of the time even though it was too cold part of the way. Our Seattle to San Francisco flight was bad. We got bumped from our confirmed seating to the back of the plane and the seat pocket was full of dirty diapers left by a prior passenger. Whew. Hong Kong to Singapore was not much better. We got two breakfasts, one SF to HK and one HK to Singapore. At least we did not go hungry.

We changed some US$ into Singapore currency and had a small dinner at a neighborhood noodle shop. The hotel complex contained a 3 story enclosed mall with everything from food courts and markets for locals to Gucci stores. Turns out this is par for Singapore as every few blocks an apartment or commercial building will contain a mall. Except in old Chinatown and the Indian quarter we did not see any street level shops or separate malls.

We saw a dance and music troop show free in the food court area - definitely not first class. They were from Fukien in China. And so to bed.



 
 



 
 

Singapore Skyline

The view from our hotel room was scenic. The green area is the Padang, which was the center of the colonial city with a British club house and cricket field. It is also used now for soccer. The interesting looking buildings with what appears to be a ship on top is the Marina Bay complex. There is lots of innovative architecture in Singapore. It was Chinese New Year and we could hear drums from somewhere long into the night.

Surprisingly the best part of our flight was the 15 hours across the north Pacific from San Francisco to Hong Kong. Comfortable seats, excellent food. It was dark all the way over and we were able to drowse part of the time even though it was too cold part of the way. Our Seattle to San Francisco flight was bad. We got bumped from our confirmed seating to the back of the plane and the seat pocket was full of dirty diapers left by a prior passenger. Whew. Hong Kong to Singapore was not much better. We got two breakfasts, one SF to HK and one HK to Singapore. At least we did not go hungry.

We changed some US$ into Singapore currency and had a small dinner at a neighborhood noodle shop. The hotel complex contained a 3 story enclosed mall with everything from food courts and markets for locals to Gucci stores. Turns out this is par for Singapore as every few blocks an apartment or commercial building will contain a mall. Except in old Chinatown and the Indian quarter we did not see any street level shops or separate malls.

We saw a dance and music troop show free in the food court area - definitely not first class. They were from Fukien in China. And so to bed.



 
 



 
 

Trip to Singapore

It seemed like it took forever to get to Singapore, nearly 24 hours - and we lost a day on the way - here's me catching a nap in the Hong Kong Airport - but here we are. It was so foggy in Hong Kong we didn't get to see anything out those big airport windows.

Very nice hotel accommodations.



 
 

At sea on our way back to Istanbul

 
 



 
 

At the pier

With a very short turnaround before heading out again, our ship immediately began loading bunker fuel as soon as we docked. You can see how foggy and misty it was early in the morning.