We dock in the world’s largest container port. Containers here have an 8 hour turnaround time - the terminal operates 24 hours per day. The Queen Elizabeth is too large to dock closer to the city. Singapore is a city state, only about 135 square kilometers in size. You can cross from east to west, or north to south in a few hours. The first impression is one of an ordered, clean city with modern buildings. The city has an unemployment rate of about 3 percent. The slums which characterized the city in the 70s are gone - replaced with modern high rise public housing. Most people use public transportation. Depending on the car’s engine size, it can cost $70,000 to buy the right to purchase a car. The car itself is even more expensive.
We drive first to the national arboretum. All the orchids are in bloom - an incredible array. In the celebrity area of the orchid garden, are orchids named for important visitors - like Margaret Thatcher. We are visiting mid-morning, but the temperature and humidity are both around 90. The orchids are incredibly varied, and it is delightful to walk through the garden in the shade. The landscaping is ordered and immaculate.
Our tour is focused on the ethnic and cultural diversity of the community. Our next stop is little India, with the smells of incense and shops with fabric and handicrafts. There is a Hindu temple. Our next stop is the Muslim area, with the Masjid Sultan Mosque. We have a Chinese lunch (6 courses) at the Spring restaurant - and Sumner teaches his shipmates at the table to use chopsticks.
We then visit Chinatown. This area is a reminder of the way the Chinese lived when they came to the area in the early 1800s. There is a Chinese cultural center that serves as a museum. It recreates a “shop house” - a business place where people lived on the second and third floor. To make money, the owners of the shop often partitioned the upper floors into multiple rooms, charging residents for the use of each room . The rooms were small, cramped, and poorly lit. Our guide (48 year old Chinese woman) tells us that she was an orphan, raised in a Catholic orphanage, and adopted by a Chinese women - “her mother” who still lives with her in public housing. At one time they lived in a cubicle upstairs in a shop house. The landlord only allowed residents to have water for three hours per day - otherwise the room with the faucet was padlocked. They how live in high-rise public housing. The apartment is 1,000 square feet - three small bedrooms, a kitchen-eating area, and a bathroom.
She reminds us that Singapore has outlawed chewing gum. Chewing gum will be confiscated if it is found in your luggage when you enter the country. (She is friends with a security guard at the airport, who sometimes providers her with gum. Apparently the guards do not necessarily destroy the chewing gum when it is confiscated.)
She is known as the “cat lady” to her neighbors. More information is available upon request to friends and family who are readers of this blog.
We visit the Merlion - the half fish, half lion that is the symbol of Singapore. Its statue stands on the edge of the river. Within a year or two, a new cruise terminal will be constructed in downtown Singapore, and the Queen Elizabeth will be able to dock downtown - like Hong Kong. Many people are here on this Saturday afternoon, and not all are tourists, we think. Jean is watching Sumner take photos, and two lovely young Muslim women come up to Jean and ask if she could take a picture of her friend with Jean, who says, “of course.” Then the other young women says - is a picture of me with you okay - their English is excellent. As we are leaving the area to return to the bus, some other young women ask Jean if they might have their picture taken with her. Jean was wearing sun glasses and her cowboy hat, so maybe they thought she was a movie star! But no matter why, it was a delightful exchange of friendship.
Our last stop is Raffles. At one time, Raffles Hotel was on the edge of the water. Now it is more that ¼ of a mile from the harbor. Much of Singapore is built on reclaimed land. Sumner visits the “long bar” where a Singapore Sling can be had for $26 - not counting service charge and tax. He decides to save his money, and purchase a poster in the Raffles Hotel museum - a fanciful documentation of a bartender creating the drink.
We return to the ship just in time to have dinner. Many Russians have joined the ship in Singapore; 700 passengers have exited - mostly British. The authorities in Singapore have required those in transit to have their passports and special documentation cards in order to visit the city. They will not allow the ship to leave until all passports and documentation cards are accounted for. As a result we sail an hour late. Sumner has a Mai Tai in the top deck lounge to watch the sail-away (in place of the Singapore Sling) - Jean has a Brandy. In the morning the ship will be in Port Kelang - the port that is the gateway to Kuala Lumpur - the capital of Malaysia. Another trip is scheduled for the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment