Sandy and Tom: SINGAPORE

SINGAPORE

MARCH 8-9, 2014

Fascinating is the word for this city-state. It was a World War II battleground, it is a global superstar, and it is a crossroad of the world. However, little is known about early Singapore. A town named Temasek existed on the island as early as the 11^th century. Its early settlers borrowed the Sanskrit word meaning “Singha Pura” meaning Lion City. In the 15^th century it was claimed by the Javanese maritime empire that dominated the kingdoms of Indonesia and Malaya. British colonial administrator Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles arrived in what was then a tiny fishing village in 1819. In 1824, the Sultan of Johor deeded the site to the East India Company and a major British trading post in Southeast Asia was created. Singapore was put under the direct control of the British Crown and consolidated into one administrative unit. Though Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942, it was restored to British rule after the war. Internal self-government began in 1959 and in1963, Singapore became a semi-autonomous state within the Federation of Malaysia. On August 9, 1965, Singapore was separated from Malaysia and became an independent republic within the Commonwealth of Nations. Today Singapore has grown to an affluent and vibrant city. They have a government patterned after the British and elect a Prime Minister every five years.

Singapore is a natural deep water port. It is the second biggest container port in the world, Shanghai is first, and Rotterdam is third. In 1972 the tourist board felt the city needed a symbol so they made the “Merlion”. It has the head of a lion and the body of a fish. There are no lions in Singapore, though. The city is diamond shaped and is 11 miles long north to south and 21 miles long east to west. The city was originally 500 square kilometers but now is 730 square kilometers from reclaimed land. We wondered how they can build these very tall heavy skyscrapers on reclaimed land like the Sands Hotel. I’m including a picture of it. It was built in 2008. It has three buildings which is the hotel part and on the top is a structure that looks like a ship. That has a swimming pool in the middle and one or more restaurants. The architecture in this city is the most unique of any city we’ve seen.

A unique experience we had in the city was a ride on the Singapore Flyer. It is a giant ferris wheel built in 2008 on reclaimed land. It was made by a German firm and cost 2 billion dollars. It is 150 meters high. It has capsules to ride in and takes half an hour to complete one turn completely around. There were 31 of us on the tour and all of us fit in the one capsule and we could have had more with us. You can rent the capsule and have dinner served with one course delivered with each turn of the wheel.

On tour we went by the very old famous Raffles Hotel named for the city founder. All the rich and famous stay here when they come to town. It is the place that founded the Singapore Sling in 1915. We couldn’t go in because you can’t enter in shorts. It is very upscale.

Notice in the panorama picture the soccer field that is built in the water. Soccer is their favorite sport.

Tomorrow we will be in Phuket, Thailand.