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Published: January 22nd 2014
Greetings from Singapore! We made it safe and sound after a 10 hour flight to Tokyo from Vancouver and then a 7 hour flight to Singapore on Nippon Airways. Nippon Airways, a Japanese airline was very comfortable and provided excellent service with full service meals, beer, wine all complementary. We even managed to get some sleep!
However, our travels were not without a glitch. We pride ourselves in never having any travel problems, missed connections or lost baggage. Well, our luck has run out. Because of a delayed flight from Saskatoon we missed our connection to Vancouver through Edmonton. But they did mange to get us to Vancouver Thursday night on a later flight. But, our luggage never made it!! That dam West Jet. They assured us they would deliver our bags to our hotel in Singapore ASAP. To me this sounded like a long shot. And I was correct. By Monday we had no bags. After several e-mails and phone calls it was discovered that our bags had arrived in Singapore 2 days before but would not be delivered since there was no arrangement with West Jet! Yet West Jet assured us it would be delivered to our hotel.
To make a long story short, we made a fast trip to the airport at 10 p.m. and yes we got our luggage. What a fantastic feeling! Just in time for our 9 a.m. bus the next morning to Kuala Lumpur. West Jet will certainly be hearing from us!
We had two fulls days to see Singapore which was perfect and we were busy the whole time. We stayed in a district that really gave us the feel of the ordinary folk of Singapore, rather than the fancy tourist and hotel area. It was bustling with people going about their business and row upon row of Chinese food stalls, confectioneries, vegetable stands and electronic stores. After dark, the ladies of the night appeared. We were assured on trip adviser it was a safe area and we found it so. The people were very friendly and helpful.
The thing that impressed us the most about Singapore was the incredible skyscrapers and architecture. We have never seen such amazing tall and creative buildings, would even beat Hong Kong. We toured around a lot on the hop on hop off buses that took us around the various areas of the city
with a commentary that provided interesting information about Singapore. Our pictures just don't do the skyline justice. We also enjoyed walking around China Town.
Some interesting things we learned about the city and country of Singapore
- English is the first language with mandarin second
- Population - 5 million; 90% of the people own their own home;
- Virtually everyone lives in a condo/apartment building with prices ranging from $300,000 - $800,000 US.
- no unemployment, 25% of the people are foreign workers; to control traffic congestion,
-there is a 100% tax on new car purchases and you must get a brand new car every 10 years to help discourage car ownership and to ensure the latest environmental benefits of new vehicles. Cars also have a toll machine attached and automatically debit your account when driving on certain roads. Hense the traffic is not a problem! There must be a lot of rich people in Singapore as we saw many Porches, BMW's, Jaguars, Mercedes etc. ;
- 25% of Singapore is claimed land.
Another highlight was a ride on the Singapore Flyer which is a gigantic ferris wheel that enables you
to see the Singapore skyline. It was pretty amazing. We also took a river cruise that was lovely and explained a lot of the history of Singapore in regards to the trading and shipping along the river.
We had a funny experience. We stopped at the up scale Raffles Hotel for a drink at the famous "Long Bar" where the first Singapore Sling was concocted. However, we didn't stay long as the famous drink cost a mere $31!! However, we did get one for $9 at the river cruise port. Very tasty!
As mentioned before, nearly everyone lives in an apartment style home except for one street of expensive bungalows costing upwards of 5 million dollars. Further along Orchard Street is 6 kms of high end shopping such as Prada, Guchi, Louis Vitton and the like. Even though the cement buildings dominate the city, there are plenty of parks and green spaces.
The food is definitely a form of Chinese. Quite different from the Chinese food at home. Lots of different ingredients like duck, mutton, fish etc. Warren loves it. We had to laugh - he ordered sea food soup and it came with a floating wiener
as well as the sea food! I tend to stick with the more plain dishes such as vegetables, rice and noodles. Western food is available at the up scale places but no where we are staying. I even found a Starbucks and enjoyed a cafe Americano.
The weather is beautiful here. Around 30 degrees, cloudy with a bit of a breeze and cools off in the evening. We're packed (with our luggage!) and ready for our 5 hour bus ride to Kuala Lumpu in Malaysia tomorrow morning. Until then . . . . .
Mallory and Warren
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Marcy
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Your pictures are fabulous, Mal - what a colourful place! Glad you got your luggage! Have a wonderful trip.