SINGAPORE

Early morning Sunday, October 31st we arrived in Singapore.


We called Todd Slater and met him in the Harbourfront at around 10:00 AM.


Grace and Todd meeting at the Harbourfront

We walked around the city and saw a number of sights.



Sculpture on the River

Ended at the Asian Civilizations Museum. It was great.

As a part of the exhibition in the Asian Civilizations museum there was a special exhibition on Sumatra. One of the featured areas was Nias. Nias is where St. Lazarus sent money and manpower to help rebuild the fishing fleet after the big tsunami several years ago.

Below is a picture of Ken alongside the beginning of the exhibit on Nias and the text that is in the information to Ken’s right.



Nias in the Sumatra Special Exhibition

Nias is an island off the west coast of Sumatra. The island can be divided into three regions – North, Central and South Nias. According to the people of Nias, they are able to trace their ancestry back 50 generations to the Gomo district of Central Nias. Traditional Nias society was an aristocratic one based on a strict hierarchy of nobles, commoners and slaves. Nias society was not anchored on a central governing authority but rather on a complex balance of power between groups of allied villages. The main power within a village resided in the hands of its village chief and his family because they counted themselves as the direct descendants of the village founder.

The traditional religion was largely based on ancestor worship. Ancestor carvings in wood and stone were once common throughout Nias although few traditional artefacts remain today as a result of the world’s fascination with “Nias tribal art”. This fascination was a result of the unique material culture that largely evolved over a long period of time in isolation from the rest of Indonesia. Today, the dominant religion on Nias is Christianity.



Ken and Grace among the Sculpture near the East Asian Civilizations Museum

 There were young people in boat races on the river. We watched awhile and tried to guess which boat would win each race.



Boats racing on Halloween in Singapore



Ken and Grace in front of the Merlion

The Merlion is the symbol of Singapore and is made up of a mermaid and a lion. Bet you didn’t know that.

This is a three building hotel with a pool on top across the 3 buildings. There is also a casino in the complex. Wow!

Note that in Singapore if one is caught with some minimal amount or more of drugs there is an mandatory death penalty. Singapore does not have a drug problem.

In the afternoon we walked around some more.

Raffles Hotel - Seah Street Side

Above is a shot of the Raffles hotel on Seah Street. We took the picture there because on our voyage is Edgar Seah, a Lifelong Learner from Singapore, age 32, who quit his job with Merrill Lynch to travel his bucket list. A really great guy.

The bar in the Raffles hotel

The Raffles hotel is where the Singapore Sling, an alcoholic beverage was first made. Sir Stamford Raffles was Singapore's founder and a lot of Singapore was developed by him.

 Then we went to the Botanical Gardens. There is a special section with orchids.

Grace among the orchids

Grace and more orchids

And more

Another color

Ken was fascinated with this big stand of orchids

Grace and Todd at the Botanical Gardens

The orchids really were stunning and we have a lot more pictures. Todd was a great host. Thanks, Todd

We were late getting back to the ship and had to go directly on the bus to the Night Safari. It was Halloween and the kids were out en masse. So many kids dressed in costumes plus scary werewolves and draculas along the path we took to see the animals. We saw a lot of animals in their natural habitat. It was too dark for our cameras but very interesting. It would have been better on a different night.

Several of our friends from the ship paid money to put their feet in a fish tank that was full of little fish that ate the dead skin off their feet and legs.

YUK!

The next day we just went into the mall and wandered around. We took no pictures in the mall as there was nothing that interesting. We restocked our Coca Colas for our frig on the MV Explorer.


Next Vietnam and Cambodia