Singapore - The Lion City

 I broke one of the laws in Singapore and got away with it, 10 points to whomever can guess which!

Yesterday was Singapore Day. At pre-port they told us that Singapore would be different from any of the ports we’d been too and in many ways is more sophisticated than the United States. Their healthcare, education, public transportation, and food are some of the best in the world. But what really makes Singapore so impressive is not that they’ve managed to rise to such a developed level, but where they have managed to do it. They are at least a decade ahead of their closest neighbor countries. There is a lot that makes Singapore an undesirable place to be, the strictness of the rules, the harshness of the punishments, and human right’s violations, but it is the most impressive city I heave ever seen. It is impeccably clean and beautiful to look at. The transportation is top notch and the food service is indescribable – it was all anyone could talk about. There are tons of gardens and trees everything is marked (in like 4 different languages). In some places, you can just push a button and a taxi will come a minute or two later. In every other port we have arrived in, students have gone on wild goose chases trying to find internet, stamps, ATMs, drugstores and the like. In Singapore, the terminal included all of those things. I wish we could have stayed a week, but alas, it is too expensive to even park our ship overnight. I had a very full day. We started at the botanical gardens, which was the highlight for me. We walked around Swan Lake and visited a Japanese garden and the world famous orchid garden (60,000 orchids), and saw multiple waterfalls and the Singapore Heritage tree. Then we stopped at Arab Street for hummus and hookah and walked to the golden domed mosque. Next we visited Chinatown, where I could have spent an entire other day, and finished the day with a quick stop at the Esplanade to see the Double Helix Bridge, the hotel with the garden and trees on the roof and the Performing Arts Center. I didn’t get to try a Singapore Sling - my only regret…

Also at pre-port Dean Dan was seated in the front row and in the middle of Dean Marty’s talk about logistics and safety, he got up and took the microphone. He said, “I don’t know why ISE hasn’t included this in the list of things we need to tell you, but it’s extremely important. If you hear a tsunami warning siren, don’t go to the ship.” Everyone broke out laughing because it seemed like such an obvious thing, but it’s a good thing he thought to mention it because we don’t know what the sirens sound like, and we are told time and time again to return to the ship if there is an emergency. It was his tone of voice that made it so funny, and it is odd how its never been mentioned on passed voyages, but it extremely relevant now.

We are not going to Japan anymore. Right after the earthquake and tsunami, we were told that since we were still a few weeks away it was not going to affect us. Once the nuclear plants started going, we knew it wouldn’t be long before they retracted that statement. We are going to Taiwan instead. Surprise - Taiwanese passport stamp!!