Singapore Day 1 of 2

Singapore. This is a city and country in one. There is not much history or anything to see as it is only about 100 years old and the modern city is about 50 years old.

We got in about noon and we were supposed to disembark at about 2:00 PM. They took forever to get a gangway connected to the ship. The captain said something about it being a lovely museum piece they were using. Once out of the ship and up about a story walking in this museum piece for about a city block we were in a terminal building. After about a 6 block walk you get to a block long line for immigration. They had two people with computers for all the people from our ship and another next to ours. Their computer system quit for a while and we stood in line for an hour. Quite obviously Singapore does not want tourism. Had we not prepaid for a van we would have turned around and gone back to the ship.

Once through immigration we found ourselves in a shopping mall. Waiting for us was our driver guide. As are almost all of the people in this city, he was Chinese. A very heavy set Chinese. Looked a lot like the Buddha I bought, come to think of it. Everyone speaks English as their first language here and he spoke it perfectly. Our van was a Mercedes and was pretty comfortable. They are very expensive but have a very small diesel engine that barely makes it up hills even though it had a standard transmission.

This is a very modern city with many very good looking high rise buildings. There are a greater percentage of BMWs and Mercedes then any city in the States or Europe. No car older then ten years is allowed in this city, country. After ten years they must be sold, out of the country, or they will be confiscated. Everything is very clean here. Police are mostly plain clothes. If they catch you dropping a cigarette, spitting, or littering there is a large fine and three months jail time, spent at labor, cleaning and sweeping.

There is a large downtown area with all the upscale stores you would find in any major city in the States, and more. Even though most are Chinese, there is also a large Chinatown. It has a large bazaar or what we would call a flea market. They sell everything there including foods and meat as well as all kinds of merchandise. We even stopped to take pictures of a large mosque. It was in a poor part of town and just adjacent was Indian town. We stopped nearby at an arts and crafts center. Art and I sat in the air conditioned van while the girls were getting artsy and crafty. Everything was priced much higher then at home. They had the same Buddha carved from the same type of stone, I bought in Hong Kong, for only three times as much.

They have what is supposed to be a very nice zoo but we have nice zoos at home. Raffles is their famous hotel. I have seen hotels and this one, while nice, was surely not nice as some we have been in. The original Singapore Sling was invented here and they are the only ones in town allowed to sell them under that name. I don’t need one of them for $18 either. Their big attraction is a gondola that goes up their highest hill from the dock area to Sentosa Island. Our driver took us there over bridges. We stopped at the end of the line which is the top of the hill, to see the over look of the city and the harbor area. On the way back to the ship we asked where the very poor area was. He said there were no slums. The government tears down any buildings that get too ragged looking and lets the people fend for themselves. Begging or hawking goods is not allowed. He did drive us through the only area where the very poor have an area where they can sell all kinds of assorted junk on the sidewalks without charge for rent. It looked like a big garage sale. It was clean as they would get thrown out if they made a mess or littered.

That was about it for the day. Our driver was again very good and very friendly. Traffic while plentiful was not nearly as bad as any of the cities since Australia.

Once inside the shopping mall leading to the ship, we had to make a purchase even though I did not want to buy anything in this city due to the unfriendly attitude of their government. Not only did we have to wait in the cattle line for over an hour at immigration, They had changed rules just before allowing our ship to enter the harbor. Now everyone had to carry their passport and submit a visa form each time they got off the ship. The ship gave us all three visa forms each, all filled out. We did have to all go and collect our passports.

We had been wondering how we would get all the junk Bobbi bought, off the boat and then home. Here, right near the door was a luggage store with ridiculously low prices. It may not have been the best but I have seen far worse for much, much more. We bought a large, folding, waterproof duffle with wheels and a solid pulling handle for very little money. Folded up it is only about three inches high and it opens to the size of a 30” suitcase.


There was supposed to be a good Chinese restaurant in the mall connected to the ship and we went there for dinner. It was quite different then the Chinese restaurants at home. The menu did have a few things the same but most items we never heard of. There were a couple of tiny dishes on the table when we sat down. Bobbi and I assumed they were condiments but Art knew better. He started nibbling out of one that had what tasted like dried peanuts and soy beans. Them he stuck his fingers in what looked like chives or green onions. Big mistake but very funny when his eyes got really big and he started saying things like, “OH”, repeatedly and very loudly. The only thing on the table to drink was glasses of hot tea they had poured us. Amazing how quickly he could chug his and then Muriel’s hot tea.

We picked out a few things and stuff just started coming. Besides what we thought we had ordered, several other dishes came. We had no idea what they were but after testing to see if they were not hot, we tried them and all were good. In a place where English was the first language, we had found an establishment where no one did.

After dinner they brought us a dessert no one will forget. I never did get the name right but it was something else. It tasted like melted ice-cream with tapioca, coconut, and canned fruit cocktail. Whatever it was, it was good. Then we finally got the bill. It had the original amount per person we had read on the menu. Added were three taxes, $1.00 for the peanuts Art ate, $1.00 each for the wet naps we used and 10% service (tip). The hot peppers Art spit all over the place were gratis. They charged nothing for water but of course gave us none either. The final bill came out to be about $116.00 Singapore. We might have been really mad about all the petty rip offs had that not come to about $15.00 per person US. Instead we were laughing.

Shark Fin Soup Sherm Out

PS My son Yael just got some pictures, from this trip, we had sent from Hong Kong. If you would like to see them or if you want to read any dates you might have missed, they are on the web at: http://worldcruise2006.rootberg.org and http://www.rootberg.org/travel/166635

(Posted on behalf of Sherman Rootberg)