Singapore

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Early this morning I arrived in Singapore. This was by far the most high-tech port we have been to. After walking down the gateway, you go up an escalator that takes you to what looks like an airport terminal. Inside, you walk for a while until you reach a passport checkpoint. You have to show them your passport, shipboard id and immigration form. Then you have to get your bag scanned and go through a metal detector. After that, you follow the terminal out which takes you to the inside of a mall. Anyways, it was really long and complicated. The worst part was every time you wanted to go from the ship to this mall area; you had to go through all these steps over again. Also, every exit somehow led to a mall. I think it’s pretty safe to say that Singapore is a giant mall!

So here is some stuff I learned about Singapore. The first thing you should know is that Singapore is a really clean place. They also have fines for everything!!! Here are some of them: you cannot litter, smoke in public places, drink excessively, no j-walking, spit, chew gum, graffiti or be a crazy drunk in public. Alcohol and cigarettes are a luxury here so it is extremely overpriced! Gas is also really overpriced because no one really owns a car. The only people who own cars are really rich. Most people make use of the subway system, which is actually really clean and organized. The city is also really built up (again, weird transition from India). They have the most advanced/weird looking architecture everywhere. There was even a cable car system that takes you from the inner city to various islands. It is located on top of the skyscrapers. The whole concept of the city was just futuristic. Some of the architecture was really funky looking. The buildings are weird shapes. I really liked it though; I thought it was neat to look at. Even though the rules are really strict here, you can tell that they are doing something right, because everything looks so nice and clean. Their punishments can be kind of extreme too, like over $1,000 fine just for chewing gum, being put in jail for j-walking, or even being caned or sentenced to death for dealing drugs. They definitely don’t joke around there!

The real problem was how expensive everything was! Literally anything I bought, the prices were crazy! I mean just a coffee at star bucks was around $6.

Also if you were curious, there are four main groups that make up Singapore. These are: Asians, Chinese, Malays and Indians. There is a descent sized population from southern India as well (I knew they were from the South when the tour guide said that one of the main languages in Singapore is Tamil (spoken in Chennai). I was so happy that I knew that!

I went on a class field trip to a WWII memorial museum (the Ford Factory Museum). Our guide was really great and explained a lot of Singapore’s history to us. After spending about an hour there, we went to see the memorial that they have in honor of the soldiers that fought in the war. It was a large cemetery that had lined up graves on top of a hill. Once we got to the top, the tour guide told us to look straight out over the mountains. I did and I saw what looked like the city of Singapore. He told us that that was Malaysia. Then he told us that when we turn around, we can see part of Indonesia. They seemed so close by from where we were standing. It was pretty cool! I felt like I was on the 3D version of Google Earth! Don’t worry, I took pictures!

So after that, the bus took us to lunch. We went to restaurant that was in a park. In Singapore, everyone shares food, so they put down several platters on a spinning table and we all tried a little bit of everything. The food was pretty descent. Some type of orange/pinappple fish, chili chicken, egg pancakes and fried shrimp. After that we headed back to the ship. On the way back it started pouring. But the tour guide told us not to worry, since they are so close to the equator it rains on and off. I guess he was right because in about ten minutes, it stopped raining and it was insanely hot once more. That was another bad thing about Singapore, it was sooooo humid!

Once we got back, I couldn’t find anyone on the ship. It was already 3 pm and we had to all be back on the ship by 8:30. I was originally going to meet up a group of friends for dinner somewhere but our phone plan didn’t work out (stupid internet in port). So I decided to just make the best of my time and wander around the mall that was located on the inside of the terminal. I walked around for a while until I found a Starbucks. This might sound kind of pathetic, but this was the happiest moment of my day. It was weird to finally see an American café. I felt really comforting to see something that reminded me of home. Well at this point I decided to just admit defeat and sit in this coffee shop but I ended up seeing one of the girls from my field trip getting coffee too. I went up to her and asked if she was doing anything, she said no. So we decided to hang out for the rest of our time in Singapore and go exploring!

We ended up taking the subway to Raffles Place. This is a giant hub in the middle of the city filled with business, hotels, and restaurants and shopping. The subway system was really nice and after we looked at the maps a few times and asked for directions, we started to figure out how it worked. Once we got there, we ended up walking to the waterfront to just see what the city looked like and take some pictures. Then we decided to go to the Raffles Hotel. This is a very historic hotel we were told to see in Global Studies. It is home to the famous Singapore Sling. The sling is an alcoholic drink made with a mix of different fruit juices. This hotel used to be the only place you could get them, but now they are starting to make them in other various restaurants. When we found out the price for one, I was pretty discouraged about getting one. $30….and that’s just for one drink!!! We weren’t going to get one, but then realized that we have to because this is a famous Singapore drink. We ended up splitting one so that we could just try it and pay less. It was really good, but not worth $30. But then I remembered what my tour guide said about alcohol being a luxury item. I looked at the rest of the drink menu and realized that almost every drink was around $20-30! I thought that was insane! At this point, we were running out of time so we thought it would be a good idea to head back to the port.

We found the subway station and got back to the port mall around 6:30. I used up the rest of my money in the grocery store buying some snacks. I was kind of upset that I didn’t have any time to really shop or relax. I sort of felt rushed the whole day, but I still had a good time. I wanted to save most of my money for the next port (Vietnam) because I think I can get some pretty good deals there! Singapore was a really nice city but I think I would only go back for business. It is not a really big tourist place, the only real cool thing to do is sightsee, shop and eat. The buildings and hotels were amazing, but also very expensive. If I ever did come back, I would want to stay at this hotel that is located on the top of a sky scraper. It looks like someone dropped a ship on the roof of a building. There is a pool that is on the edge of the roof and all these fancy restaurants….I’m sure it would cost me half of my life savings to stay there!

When we all got back on the ship, everyone was talking about Japan. I have been trying my best to listen to newscasts whenever I find time. They loop Aljazeera on the TVs in our rooms. Last night we heard about the other reactors! It sounds like a complete mess. It is actually really scary, so many people have died and we are sooooo lucky that we weren’t there when this happened. Every time they show footage on the TV of ships in a harbor sinking, I just keep thinking that that could have been us. I think that runs through everyone’s mind on the ship. So many people on the ship have been worrying about their friends and families (the international kids from Japan especially). No one has a great way to contact loved ones and at times it can be really difficult for them.

I think tomorrow they might announce the new port we are going to. We were really thinking it was South Korea, but now there is news that the radiation has been spreading to that area, so we are not safe. They also have to find a port that most of us can go to. US citizens don’t have that many problems obtaining a visa to another country, but the Asian students are going to have a lot of complications. They also have to pick a malaria free zone I was told. The ship doesn’t have enough medicine on board to supply everyone. I just hope that our ship doesn’t have problems when we start to sail around that area. We’re all pretty concerned. I really trust SAS and our captain though, so I feel really safe. I think it will all work out in the end, it just really sucks.

I’ll try to keep everyone informed. Also, Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!!!

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