Exploring Singapore

 Monday, November 28, 2022

Singapore

Singapore has about 5.5 million people, of whom 3.5 million are citizens; the rest are permanent residents or guest workers.  About ¾ of the population is ethnic Chinese, and the birth rate is very low.  The population is aging.

 Still recovering from the trip over, Joyce had a great idea: spend the day on the buses which tour the city.  They have on/off privileges, and the two routes cover most of the parts of the city we might want to see.  That’s what we did, and the photo gallery below is from the bus tour.  It took about three hours to cover both routes and see the amazing ethnic neighborhoods and the remarkable architecture.

 The part of Orchard Road where we are, and where we picked up the bus, is shopping mall after shopping mall, with very fancy, high-priced establishments.  Example: 

There is a section called “Little India,” a heavily Muslim area, an enormous Chinatown, and more.  Some of the street names might not be PC: 


Here’s Little India: 

There are many buildings left over from colonial times: 

There’s a large mosque: 

There are many buildings with Chinese architecture: 

At the bay is an enormous Ferris wheel: 

The ArtScience Museum is shaped like a lotus flower, with a pedestrian bridge made in the model of the double helix of DNA: 

A feature of many of the tall buildings is open floors:


The Supreme Court building looks like a flying saucer: 

We went back to the room for a short rest, and went out to dinner at a highly rated local Chinese restaurant.  The menu contained some unusual items: 


 We did not have the marinated duck tongue nor the pork knuckle.  The food (very good) was delivered by a robot used, we were told, because they cannot get enough restaurant workers (click on the arrow):

 

We’ve barely had time to get a very superficial view of Singapore, but tomorrow we fly to Bali and meet up with our National Geographic/Lindblad group.  More when I have more to tell!

Comments

  1. Ralph LockeNovember 28, 2022 at 7:05 AM

    Wow, astonishing photos! I love the flower-blossom-shaped museum. My first reaction was that it looked like a modernistic version of an oil-fueled Chanukah menorah! Fascinating to hear about the labor shortages--one would think that, in such a wealthy city/country, the businesses would pay workers enough to attract many applicants. Is the problem that the government is trying not to allow ever more guest workers in? Though, honestly, the robot waitress did a fine job! (I've been in a hot-pot restaurant here in Maryland where the food comes out on a conveyor belt for all the tables that are adjacent to that contraption, and one simply lifts one's meal off of it. (The items must be labeled by table. We were not adjacent to it, so got served by regular humans.)

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  2. Rwa442November 28, 2022 at 8:06 AM

    Great choice for getting a good overview of all of Singapore. What a colorful and interesting place. Our son lived across the bay from the ferris wheel and we were able to watch it being built on our last visit. It always seems to me that places like singapore and Japan are early leaders/adopters of new things, so seeing the robotic server doesn't surprise me at all and we can expect to now start seeing them here!

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  3. UnknownNovember 28, 2022 at 10:35 AM

    Marge and I just got back from thanksgiving in NYC, and for the first time I was able to be proud of the diversity of high rise towers in what had been a very boring architectural scene in Manhattan. Along the High Line I saw about a dozen extraordinary, some truly wacky, brand new towers. Great to be able to compare to Singapore, home of the open-floor high rise!

    ReplyDelete
  4. xctravelerNovember 28, 2022 at 10:38 AM

    It seems a shame you had to rush Singapore, but you are covering a lot of territory. I agree with Ralph Locke, my first reaction was Chanukkiah! There are still too many places we haven't been this just adds tot he bucket list - although this whole trip covers territory that has been on that list.
    Enjoy and keep your luggage close

    ReplyDelete

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