Singapore from the Street, River and Sky

Day 37, Grand Asia 2017

Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017 – Singapore

Tokyo. Beijing. Shanghai. Hong Kong. We’ve docked overnight in these great cities, and today we added Singapore to the list.

Each city has its must-see tourist attractions. I hit four of those here tonight with an evening tour – shopping in the Bugis Village night market, a boat ride on the Singapore River, a trishaw ride through Little India and a nighttime revolution on the Singapore Flyer, the second tallest Observation (Ferris) Wheel in the world.

Earlier in the day, I joined a fellow passenger to explore the city on our own. We took the ship-provided shuttle to a huge office building/hotel/mall complex in the heart of the city and walked a few blocks to the Raffles Hotel, home of the Singapore Sling. Alas, it was still mid morning, and the hotel’s famous Long Bar is closed for renovations, so we skipped the drink and settled for browsing the hotel grounds and gift shop.

The day before I had discovered a great iPhone app, Pocket Earth Pro, and downloaded the Singapore map. The app shows your location, provides detailed maps and calculates routes for walking, driving and public transportation, even without an Internet connection. We followed the route, admiring the Christmas preparations along the way, about a mile to Chinatown where it began to rain.

One of the Chinatown attractions is a food stall that has earned a Michelin star. Actually, the Chinatown location is an offshoot from the original, where reports are that lines are long for the famous and cheap chicken and rice. The rain put a bit of a damper on exploring the small alleys, so we skipped lunch and just passed by stalls of cheap toys, smartphone cases and inexpensive T-shirts and other souvenirs.

Singapore has a wonderful transit system, and we easily took the MRT train from Chinatown through one connection and then back to the pier. My Fitbit reported I had walked five miles, so I indulged in a short nap before my evening “A Night Out in Singapore” ship’s excursion.

The Singapore trishaw differs from the sit-low in Saigon in that seat for two sits to the side of the bicyclist, much like a motorcycle sidecar. The ride through the busy streets of Singapore was as orderly as my ride through Saigon had been chaotic. No motorbikes whizzed past going against traffic, and all drivers meticulously obeyed traffic signals. I guess a city infamous to many of us for caning those who litter has a strong incentive to follow the rules.

Dusk approached as we rode through Little India, and by the time we boarded our riverboat at Clarke Quay for a 30-minute cruise on the Singapore River it was dark. We passed by lively restaurant and bar waterside establishments before emerging into Marina Bay. At one time small open boats filled this river, offloading cargo from anchored ships. Today new land encircles the bay. The Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Casino reigns over it all with its iconic three towers topped by a single ship-inspired terrace. Our timing was perfect for catching the nightly laser show.

We capped the evening with a 28-minute ride on the Singapore Flyer. When built in 2008, it was the world’s tallest, but recently the Las Vegas High Roller took over the top spot by a margin of about 10 feet.

We boarded one of 28 capsules the size of a city bus for the breathtaking views of the city, anchored ships and Marina Bay. I’m not a fan of heights and avoid even escalators in open-air atriums, and I was comfortable on the Flyer. I just concentrated on the views and not the fact that we were nearly 50 stories up in the sky.

An interesting factoid: After the world financial crisis a decade ago, believers in feng shui determined that the Singapore Flyer turned in the wrong direction, sending wealth out to sea. A change in direction to bring wealth into the city seems to be working.