Davin Reporting!
Day 1 - April 3, 2016
Singapore was an unusual port in that we would be staying there for one and one-half days. We had decided to book a tour so that we could quickly get the major sites out of the way on the first day, leaving the second day open to do whatever we wanted. We arrived in port at around 2 PM in the afternoon, and our tour left at around 3 PM.
Let me start out by saying that Singapore is basically a city situated on the equator. The weather here is absolutely horrendous. It is horribly hot and humid here– the average high temperature year round is around 88 degrees, and that is combined with 85% humidity! This is just about the worst climate of any place we’d experienced! Our guide told us that a couple weeks before the weather had been “sweltering”, which sounds terrible, considering how bad was when we were there.
Singapore itself is basically a huge city state, and nearly everyone lives in apartment buildings. The cost of housing here is incredibly high, so any sort of detached housing sells for millions of dollars. In that respect it’s probably a lot like Hong Kong, or major cities in Japan. Culturally, Singapore is a fusion of several ethnic groups– Malays, Chinese and Indians.
The city was originally founded by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, and it was a British colony until the 1960s. As a result, it also has significant British influences. Most of the population here is bilingual or multilingual, and can speak English as well as their native language. Although, in our experience, some speak English better than others.
The first stop on the tour was the National Orchid Gardens, which are inside the Singapore Botanical Gardens. There was initially some question as to whether we would stop there because rain was threatening. Apparently here in Singapore thunderstorms are also extremely common, and you have to be concerned about lightning strikes! Ultimately we did stop at the Orchid Gardens.
The National Orchid Gardens is basically a lush green garden, with hundreds of different varieties of orchids growing there. It seems that growing orchids has some sort of historical and cultural significance here in Singapore. They design new varieties of orchids here and many celebrities are given the opportunity to have a new orchid named after them. The larger Botanical Gardens also looked nice, although we didn’t get to see much of it. I think these attractions would probably appeal more to people who are more into plants.
The next stop on our tour was the Merlion statue, which is basically a twenty or thirty foot tall lion with a fish tail, with water spurting out of its mouth. There had to be hundreds of tourists taking pictures of this thing. It was a nice enough statue, but honestly when something like this is one of the “highlights” of a city, you know you’re in trouble! It paled in comparison to dozens of other statues I’ve seen on the trip so far.
[Kristin Interjection: I was also disappointed because I had gotten the impression that the statue was a beautiful gold statue. We think they may have put such a picture in the cruise tour magazine? And so when I saw the white stone statue I was very underwhelmed by it!]
The last stops were at two temples. The first was a Chinese Buddhist temple in China Town. It had a few statues, and decorations in gold, but it was pretty small and fairly unimpressive. When we met with Jonathan in Hong Kong, he said that after you’ve seen a few Buddhist temples, you’ve seen them all, and it’s sort of true. The problem is by this point I’d already seen a number of more impressive Buddhist temples, so this one was fairly forgettable.
[Kristin Interjection: They had some neat versions of the zodiac animals in human form. I took pictures of them but they were lost when the camera was lost.]
The Sri Mariamman Temple was more impressive. It was a Hindu temple, featuring various statues or reliefs on the outside of the temple wall, all of which were colorfully painted. It was definitely a different style of temple, and an interesting change from all of the Asian temples we had seen so far. However, realistically I think it also falls into the same category as the Chinese temple in that it was a decent example, but not an overly impressive one. If you want to see Hindu temples you really should just go to India.
There also appeared to be a ceremony going on at the temple while we were there. A bunch of people were sitting in rows, and a very foul smelling incense was being burned. At one point a woman walked over to a nearby deity and said a prayer, before returning to the group. Out of respect, we didn’t really get a very close look at what they were doing, but it was interesting to notice even in passing.
[Kristin Interjection: Our guide told us that it was a fertility ceremony where young women were coming to ask for the blessing of a child.]
The were also a couple of annoying things about this temple. First of all, they charged $3 for photography. However, that was compounded by the fact that it was enforced by two men sitting in a booth far to the left of the entrance, that shouted at people that tried to take pictures (or who hadn’t removed their shoes). I really think those guys should have just been standing up front, welcoming people and telling them the rules, not just sitting back and shouting at them.
The whole thing just came across as obnoxious, and also as a cheap money grab. I have more respect for places that simply say no photography. At least then it could be about maintaining the proper degree of reverence. Here it was clearly just about trying to skim off a few extra bucks. Frankly I would have preferred if they had just charged non-worshipers an entrance fee, with picture taking permission included.
[Kristin Interjection: We didn’t want to pay to take photos, and good thing because we lost the camera anyway! But another person in our group wasn’t paying attention and started taking pictures which brought the yelling wrath down upon them!]
After seeing this temple, the tour group headed back to the ship, but Kristin and I decided to stay behind in the city and make our way back to the ship ourselves. After parting ways with the group, we walked around Chinatown for a while, before selecting a restaurant to eat at. The food was alright, but kind of expensive, in my opinion, even after adjusting for the exchange rate (one Singaporean dollar was roughly $0.75 USD). Once again, it seems like the Chinese food we get in the U.S. is pretty close to what you’ll get from a Chinese restaurant in Asia.
Next we decided to walk to a store called Audio World, because Kristin wanted to buy some noise cancelling headphones (she complains that I snore sometimes, especially if I have a cold). Unbelievably, this store– Audio World!– did not sell any sort of headphones or audio equipment! They sold just about everything else– televisions, major appliances, toasters– but no audio equipment (it’s possible that they sold surround systems, but I honestly don’t remember seeing any speakers at all). Whoever is running this store must have been smoking something pretty potent to decide that it made sense to phase out all audio equipment in a store called Audio World! Absolutely ridiculous!
We then continued walking through several more malls looking for a shop selling audio equipment, and discovered something weird about Singapore: it is nothing but malls all the way down! You can walk through a huge, multi-story shopping mall, out the other side, and cross the street and enter another mall. Then, you exit that mall, cross the street, and enter yet another, ad infinitum. There are tons of stores, but unfortunately few selling anything that you actually need!
Ultimately, we had little luck finding a place selling headphones, and Kristin decided that she didn’t really need to buy them anyway. So, we made our way to the Supertree Grove, where there is a light show. Unfortunately, we had a long way to walk and ended up having to run for at least half a mile to make it to the show on time. The worst thing was that the heat and humidity made it almost impossible to cool down again, despite being absolutely drenched in sweat! It’s like Las Vegas in the summer: it just doesn’t cool down here, even long after the sun has gone down!
[Kristin Interjection: I felt okay while running, but as soon as we stopped my temperature went through the roof and I felt like I was going to pass out! It’s like all the heat was trapped in my body because of the external air temperature being so hot and humid!]
The Supertree Grove consists of large metal structures, roughly in the shape of a tree. These are covered with a limited amount of fake foliage and lights. They’re actually more impressive than they sound from the description. For the light show, the trees light up in various different patterns, while strobe lights turn on and off, while music plays. The light show was actually fairly impressive, and ironically it may have been the best thing we saw here in Singapore!
After the end of this light show, we made our way over a walkway that passed through the Marina Bay Sands hotel. This is actually a pretty impressive hotel, consisting of three buildings, with a structure that looks kind of like a ship supported on top. The inside of the hotel was also quite impressive, with a large open space where you can look up and see how large the building is.
[Kristin Interjection: This is a sister hotel to the Sands hotel in Las Vegas.]
The walkway led through the hotel and out the other side, and over the top of the mall, before leading to an escalator that could take you down into the mall. Out in front of the mall was the Marina Bay, where another light show was going to be performed. This one featured fountains which had images projected on to them, as well as a few lasers shining down from the hotel.
Honestly, this show was not very impressive. It featured images of a baby and then kids. I guess it was supposed to be something about the course of life, but overall it was pretty lame. There was too much emphasis on the images, and the fountain performance itself wasn’t very impressive.
[Kristin Interjection: I agree, it was totally lame.]
Since we were at the mall anyway, we decided to go inside and look around. Much like other malls we’ve been to, there was little to distinguish this from being a mall in the U.S. The stores were largely the same. I view all of these malls with decidedly mixed emotions. It seems like one of the prime exports of western culture are these monolithic shopping malls, and it seems especially bad in places like Hong Kong and Singapore.
I have to ask, is it really the pinnacle of human achievement to have huge malls where people can buy overpriced status items? Are we as a species really that vapid?
In any case, most of the stores were nothing special, but we did encounter a DC Comics store which was pretty cool. There were mockups of the Batmobile, as well as Catwoman and Batman, and other DC Comics heroes. The store was selling clothes with logos and other types of memorabilia, and there was also an attached café and restaurant. The restaurant had overpriced hamburgers (at least twice the normal cost) with things like the Batman symbol on them. All of that was pretty cool to see, and another highlight of our visit to Singapore (while the store was cool, the fact it’s a highlight once again tells you how much I enjoyed Singapore).
[Kristin Interjection: The DC Comics Store made me think of Micha! We took pictures of the store mostly for him. Not that he will really need or want a picture of a DC Comics Store! Lol!]
It was now quite late, so we started to make our way back to the ship, but on the way out of the mall we first stopped at a 7-11. I was pleased to discover that here in Singapore you can buy copious amounts of fountain soda for a cheap price! In most other countries they don’t have the fountain drinks, so you end up paying at least twice as much for soda. We were quite thirsty by this time, so bought a Big Gulp to share on the way back to the ship, and also purchased a couple of ice cream bars.
The walk back to the ship was almost 1.7 miles, and even after 10 PM it was still quite warm. As we ate our ice cream bars along the way, a couple of times some of the contents dripped onto the ground, and we joked that we might be fined for it! Singapore has surveillance cameras everywhere, and they’re notorious for handing out fines for almost everything. Our guide on the tour earlier told us there was a joke that went: “How was your vacation in Singapore?” “Oh, it was fine, fine, fine!”
We got back to the ship around 10:30 PM and were surprised to find a double decker tour bus had just pulled up and a bunch of people were getting off. It turned out that tonight was a special dinner for those on the entire world cruise (although we going all the way around ourselves, we’re not technically “full world” passengers since we traveled on multiple ships). After a quick pass through security we made it back onto the ship, and grabbed something to eat at the buffet, before going to bed.
Day 2 - April 4, 2016
Our second day in Singapore got off to something of a late start, both because we got back so late last night, but also because we were trying to figure out what to do. We’d already hit the major tourist highlights (for what they were worth) and there just wasn’t anything that really interested us. We considered going to a water park, but I wasn’t sure about it. I was afraid it would be too crowded, and also the equatorial sun meant getting sun burned was a serious risk.
Ultimately, we decided to head over to the water park and scope out the situation, with the possibility of falling back on visiting the S.E.A. Aquarium if the water park didn’t work out. We got off the ship, and decided to break the mold by taking a taxicab instead of using public transportation or walking, as we usually do. As it turned out, the taxi was a really good deal, with the trip costing less than $15, while taking only about 20 minutes of time. We were very pleased by our experience, and now found ourselves significantly ahead of schedule.
We walked over to the water park, and discovered that it wasn’t all that busy, so we decided to just go forward with visiting. Unfortunately, we hadn’t yet eaten anything, so we first had to buy an overpriced lunch inside the park. We then went through the ritual of changing into our swim wear and applying sun screen (which I absolutely hate to do).
At this point we discovered the pavement at this water park was very heavily textured. It felt like we were walking on little stones. In the past I’ve made the mistake of walking on burning hot pavement at a water park, thinking I could just “tough it out”, only to end up with burned and blistered feet. This time, however, the ground only felt mildly uncomfortable, so we both thought we could “tough it out”.
Having gotten ready, we walked back to the first slide we planned to go down, and we were surprised when the attendant said it was closed. We asked what other slides were open, and were told that everything was closed due to the threat of lightning! We looked up at the sky and discovered that a very ominous cloud was coming our way fast! Apparently a thunderstorm had blown in, and now the whole park was shut down, and we hadn’t even managed to put our toe in the water! It was a pretty big letdown, to say the least!
We were also more than a little concerned at having spent $70 to enter the park, only for it to shut down before we could even go on any rides! Fortunately, Kristin talked to the lady at the customer service desk and managed to get free tickets to the aquarium as a replacement (they wanted just give us a rain check for another day, but we wouldn’t be there another day!). In terms of securing a refund, we were probably lucky that we hadn’t even managed to get into the water!
[Kristin Interjection: Yes, the lady even said that the park closure due to weather was in the fine print of buying the tickets, but she seemed happy to accommodate us because we had literally done nothing. Davin said later that even though weather closure was in the fine print, you can’t actually read the fine print until after you pay and are handed your receipt which has the fine print on it! So, that policy is a pretty big pile of B.S.]
Although we were still somewhat behind by getting aquarium tickets, since it actually cost a few dollars less, we were glad not to be out the entire amount. So, now we went to the trouble of rinsing the sun screen back off, and getting dressed again, and started heading for the aquarium.
Only now we noticed that our feet felt like they were on fire! It turned out that unbeknownst to us the rough ground at the water park had been taking a serious toll on our feet! In retrospect we might even have been lucky to have been ejected before we could do more damage to them! Lesson learned (again): if you feel anything under your feet at all– even a tiny grain of sand– then you need to put on shoes!
[Kristin Interjection: It was amazing. Our feet were completely torn up with only about 10-15 minutes of walking bare-foot on this water park’s pavement. You basically cannot visit this water park and walk around without shoes. It’s not like what we are used to in Southern California. We noticed that the slides have shoe cubbies. You MUST wear shoes. We were in severe pain for the rest of the afternoon after spending only 10 minutes walking gingerly over this pavement.]
The S.E.A. (South East Asian) Aquarium was a decent aquarium. At the front entrance to the aquarium, there was a to-scale model of one of Admiral Zheng’s treasure ships. His 1405A.D Chinese armada expedition consisted of 27,800 men and a fleet of 62 treasure ships supported by approximately 190 smaller ships. This ship was absolutely massive, to the point where only a partial model would fit inside the large room. It was actually hard to believe a completely wooden ship could have been so large!
The aquarium itself featured fish from many areas of the world. It was probably the second best aquarium I’ve seen, after the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. The highlight was probably seeing the feeding of the sharks. Divers wearing what looked like chain mail entered the tank and held out fish and squid attached to metal skewers. The sharks would then swim by and grab them off and chomp them down. Then other small fish in the tank would chase after the innards that spewed out. We actually had this on video, but unfortunately it was lost with our camera (more on that in a moment).
After spending a couple of hours at the aquarium we left, and planned to head back to Chinatown to get a postcard (we’d seen a number of them there yesterday, and hadn’t found anything better today). We went down to the taxi queue and waited patiently for our turn. Finally we got into a taxi, and that is when disaster struck! We asked the taxi driver whether he accepted credit cards and found out that he did not, so we got back out and got into another cab that did.
That was when Kristin realized that she no longer had our camera! Apparently, she had set it down in the other cab, and in our haste to get back out she had left it behind. And now, of course, that taxicab was long gone with our camera, and our chances of seeing it again were slim to none! With nothing else to do, we continued on to Chinatown, and arrived feeling very despondent.
It’s a terrible feeling to know you’ve lost something, and there is nothing you can do can get it back. If it feels this bad to lose a camera, I hate to think how it must feel if something truly bad had happened, like if someone had died! To be honest, I actually didn’t feel so bad about losing the camera– after all, accidents happen– but more so for losing our photos from the last few stops, which were “priceless”.
However, much later, after significantly more consideration, I realized we’d really lost almost nothing. All of the major tourist sites we’d visited have probably been photographed a million times, and there are hundreds or thousands of photos of them on the internet. Taking the millionth photo of the Lantau Island Buddha means absolutely nothing. So, all we actually lost were a few pictures of us standing in front of these landmarks, and maybe a few random quirky shots. It really wasn’t anything to feel that bad about!
Unfortunately, at the time we were not very happy about it. I tried to still focus on getting the postcards, while Kristin alternated between swearing and crying. Kristin also tried calling the taxi company to report the missing camera, but had trouble understanding the person on the other end, who also rudely kept hanging up on her. But, anyway, we suspect that most taxi drivers just keep whatever they find, and consider it a bonus of the job. That is, if the driver even saw the camera at all, and it wasn’t just kept by the next passenger. There wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of getting that camera back!
[Kristin Interjection: As if I wasn’t clearly unhappy enough, Davin would NOT stop lamenting by repeating the mantra of, “If only you had copied the pictures off...” I was ready to punch him, multiple times. And then he’d tell me to calm down! And then he’d say “If only you had copied the pictures off...” And then he wanted me to calm down again. Really? >.<]
The only good thing was this happened in Singapore, and we still had several hours to acquire a replacement. Also, fortunately, I remembered that the cruise terminal the baggage carts had an ad on them for an electronics district, so we wore off some more shoe leather making our way there (we were hardly in the mood to risk another cab!). There a nice salesman and woman sold us a portable Canon camera. We didn’t realize it, but we actually purchased another copy of the camera we originally had from 2014, which was accidentally dropped by our onsite manager at the Palms. (In retrospect, I’m not sure we got such a great deal by being sold an old model like this, but we had limited time and only spotty connectivity on our phones, so we couldn’t make a more informed decision.)
We still had a few hours left in the day, so we spent them retracing our stops on the previous day. It was like deja vu seeing the Merlion, the DC Comics store, and the Supertrees all over again! Unbelievably, we even had to run to the Supertree Grove again! In any case, at least we managed to reacquire most of our photos again, so we only really lost Taipei, Lantau Island and Vietnam.
It was now getting late again, but we wanted to continue our sampling of worldwide Pizza Hut locations, so we hurried to the nearest one, and got there only a few minutes before it closed. Singaporean Pizza Huts are similar to Hong Kong in that they serve all kinds of Italian meals in addition to pizza. It was too late to sit in, so we purchased a to-go order.
Fortunately, I noticed a drug store just downstairs from the Pizza Hut, so while we were waiting for our order, we headed down there to buy some blister treatment for our feet. Even after all this time our feet were still burning– all from a few minutes of walking on rough ground! Unfortunately, this experience reminded me of the “shoe testing” track at Sachsenhausen, and made me realize just how horrible that torture must have been!
Finally, we collected our pizza and ate it outside on a stone wall outside the mall. It was once again a decent pizza, but I felt like it was lacking in sauce again. It seems like a lot of Pizza Hut pizzas are lacking in sauce, which is unfortunate because they are much better with more sauce!
By this time Kristin’s feet had taken a turn for the worse, as one of her blisters burst open, and she could no longer walk on it! Fortunately, the public transportation system took us most of the way back to the ship (we wished we had used it yesterday to save ourselves some time), and we got there just a few minutes before the ship pushed off.
[Kristin Interjection: I had to very awkwardly walk on the exterior edge of my right foot because any weight to the center caused a searing pain!]
My honest opinion about Singapore is that it pretty much sucked. I’m not saying that because we lost our camera, but just based on our overall experience there. The weather was absolutely horrendous, and it’s like that all year round. It’s basically just a big city state, that has mostly come into its own in the last few decades, so it seems to have very little historical character. There are simply much more interesting places to visit in the world, with much more appealing climates.
[Kristin Interjection: Before bed I took a picture of our room to show the difference between my style of living and Davin's. I'm the messy one...]
Next Stop: Penang, Malaysia (April 6, 2016)
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