In Tamil, a language of Singapore, “singam” means lion and “puram” means city, hence Singapore is known at the Lion City. This name comes from folklore where a prince, after a huge sea storm, landed on the island and the first animal he saw was a lion. However, studies indicate that lions have never lived there, so he probably saw a Malayan Tiger.
Singapore is an island, a city, and a country. Its symbol is a “merlion” which is half lion and half fish (similar to a mermaid.) The symbol represents the lion (from story above) plus a fish for water since this country depends so much on the water surrounding it.
The Merlion now sits at the harbor to welcome visitors.
While the country is small (about 224 sq. miles) it has a population of almost 5 million people. The country itself is the large island of Singapore and some 63 surrounding islands. It is a parliamentary republic, but in reality it is a benevolent dictatorship.
It has VERY strict laws, and severe consequences. You cannot chew gum or litter. Drug lords can expect the death sentence if caught. Media is censored and “inappropriate” websites are blocked. However, it is a very safe place to live, and you can walk fearlessly any time during the day or night. It is the cleanest city we’ve ever seen.
Because immigrants were brought in by the British when they were setting up a trading post, there is a multi-racial population. The majority are Chinese (74%.) There are other ethnic neighborhoods as well, each with their various religions and places of worship.
We took a morning tour which featured the highlights of Singapore. Our first stop was the National Orchid Garden. We have seen many botanical gardens and none compared to the beauty and interest of this one. It is mainly the way it is laid out – a feng shui influence to be sure. The orchid is the national flower of Singapore, and in these gardens there are over 60,000 orchid plants. They were beautiful.
Since you’ve seen an orchid, here is just one of the many water displays in the gardens.
While driving to our next stop, we passed some beautiful private homes. Most of the people here live in high rises (because of the scarcity of land.) 83% live in government housing (all high rises) which can be rented or bought.
If you work, the government takes out a 20%compulsory savings for you. The only thing you can use it for is to either buy a home – the down payment – or for medical needs. Otherwise, it is like our social security that you get at age 62 or 65.
Our next stop was the Sultan Mosque.
Underneath the gold dome, there is a black band – they are the bottom of soda bottles. Poor people who could not contribute money, donated bottles!
We only had a photo stop at the Raffles Hotel. It is a beautiful all-suite hotel ($1000 for a small room up to 8,000 for a larger one – per night!) They have a long bar where they serve their famous drinks for about $15 each!
Famous for inventing the drink – the Singapore Sling!
We then drove to our next stop at the harbor area. On the way we passed the new Supreme Court Building that looks like a round spaceship. We also saw the pretty white church – St. Andrews Cathedral near a large field they now use for sports. When the British ruled, it was called “scandal point” because the people would meet their to gossip. We also saw the Swiss Hotel which is the tallest hotel in Singapore.
At the harbor (where the Merlion stands) we learned that back in 1977 the Singapore river was so dirty the city decided to clean it up. It took 10 years. They added 1 million fish to make sure they could survive. Now, within 2 years, it will be drinkable water.
We saw the Singapore Flier – a new addition to the waterfront area. It is like the London Eye, only higher. On a clear day you can see not only Singapore, but also Malaysia and Indonesia. It takes about an hour to go around.
Chinatown was our last stop. Before exploring the little alleyways full of shops, we went to a Buddhist Temple (We were supposed to go to Sri Mariamman, a Hindu temple, but it was under rennovation.)
The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple ornately decorated in mostly red and gold – very beautiful. We were lucky because there was a service going on with lots of chanting.
We were given about 30 minutes to shop in Chinatown before heading back to the ship.
After dropping off our stuff in the room, we headed back to the terminal where there were two attached shopping malls. We had a quick Vietnamese lunch and then looked around all the stores. It was a good thing to do in the afternoon because it poured rain all afternoon.
That night our tour started at about 6:30 when we had our Night Safari. In Singapore, they have a regular day time zoo – and then one you go to at night and see the nocturnal activities. The traffic was terrible because of the earlier rain, so it took almost an hour to get there. Once there, we boarded an electric powered open tram that took us around the area. Some parts were lit up to better see the animals. Other parts were totally dark. We saw all kinds of animals – Asian elephants, white rhinos, giraffe, tapirs, lots of different kinds of deer, flamingoes, crocodile, water buffalo, etc. After the tram, we took a night walk to see more animals - some we had never seen before like “fish cats”. These were big cats that hunted for fish in the water. They patiently walked on logs in the water to stalk the fish. We also saw the smallest deer ever – about the size of a little dog. We saw adorable otters playing in the water. There were lots more too. Doug took pictures, but it was mainly too dark to take good ones. After the walk, we watched an animal show that started with a coyote howling on top of a rock outcroping. It ended with trained otters cleaning up trash as an environmental demonstration – even separating the plastic from the paper in different bins! It was a fun show.
We didn’t get back until nearly 11 p.m. and had to get to bed because we had another tour early the next morning. It was a LONG, but very fun day.
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