Singapore is an amazing place. It is clean, safe, and beautiful. Pick a positive adjective you would use to describe a city and it probably applies to Singapore. 

It was the end of the last leg of our trip and the beginning of our next one. Singapore is one of the last of the city-states in the world and is currently part of Malaysia, although they do not recognize Malaysia as a “government.” Singapore was a British Crown Colony until about 21963 when the Federation of Malaysian States was formed. At that time Singapore joined, but soon seceded and was recognized as independent by Malaysia even though they share the peninsula and command the premium shipping position.

We had an overnight in Singapore. Actually, we got in late – about 7:30 PM – and went ashore to grab a quick local dinner. Wound up in a shopping mall food court, but we had some decent Vietnamese food rather than the usual food court fare.

The following day we caught the Hop On – Hop Off (HOHO) bus and had a city tour. We had never been to Singapore before and after the chaos and craziness of Hong Kong, Saigon, and Bangkok, Singapore seemed almost sedate.

Don’t misunderstand me, Singapore is a vibrant, alive city of over 5.7 million people. It is the cleanest city we have ever been to. Not a scrap of paper, not a piece of plastic anywhere. I suppose that is what you get when the fine for littering is a life sentence…just kidding, but Singapore has some of the strictest behavioral-based laws in the world (Sharia aside). Traffic also moves amazingly smoothly for such a large and densely-packed city. There is also little horn-blowing.

Our HOHO tour took us past most of the major building sights in the city. Singapore has very exciting architecture. It runs the gamut from early British Colonial to ultra-modern skeleton-on-the-outside and buildings that bend. Although we didn't get to visit any of the buildings individually due to time constraints, we have a list for next time.

The Singapore skyline as we approached.

Yes, some of the buildings actually bend!!

Those are part of the cable car system that serves Sentosa Island. They actually go into the building and transfer to the ones coming back out.

This is the Fountain of wealth. The water flows toward the center rather than outward since the Chinese believe that is how wealth should be thought of. It is good Feng Shui.

This is the famous Marina Bay Sands Building(s). The three towers are connected by the "surfboard" on top that houses a skybar, restaurant, and viewing platform. We were told that this complex cos about US$5 billion when it opened in 2010. 

We had a short layover during a bus change, so we opted for a snack at one of the “Hawker” centers. No, not THAT kind of a hawker, but the Singapore version of an open-air food court. While some Asian cities have wandering food carts, and one-off food stands, Singapore has, as might be expected, organized the food sellers into covered and stable food selling areas. We opted for a quick stir-fry and a coke. Not bad and a lot cleaner than we had seen in some of our prior stops.

It was back to the ship early in the afternoon for a 5::00 departure and on to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We have three more port days in a row: Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Malaysia, and Phuket, Thailand. 

Stay tuned for more adventure.