Feb 2010 - Singapore

In Feb, 2010, we went to Singapore. Singapore is located at far tip of the Malay peninsula, practically right on the equator, and as such is pretty much a constant balmy and humid 33 degrees C (93 F) - 38 (100 F) every day. Singapore is essentially a "city state" which has a varied cultural history. It has Indonesian, Malaysian, Chinese and British cultural influences, and as such, one of the most impressive things about Singaporeans is their ability to speak usually at least several languages. I love the Singaporean accent - they speak very crisp English - where a native Texans says the word "Plug," like - - "Pluugg," the Singaporean says what might sound to me like a very quick "Pluck." They also like to use the word "-Lah" at the end of English words or phrases to make some emphasis or gain consensus. "We'll go to the store together, OK-lah?" It makes for a very sing-song and lyrical use of English. I love it-lah!"

Singapore is home to the largest container port in the world (30 million "TEUs" - "Twenty-foot Equivalent Units") in container traffic per year. Shanghai ranks a close second, and Hong Kong is a close 3rd. The busiest container port in the USA by comparison is LAX, with 8 million TEUs, and ranks 16th worldwide). It is strategically located in Southeast Asia.

It is essentially a 'city state', and it has a lot of police, and very little crime. You can very easily get a ticket for j-walking, and a police who was shamed was made to wear a hello-kitty armband with his uniform.


Although Singapore was adversely affected by the economic slowdown, particularly because it is an enormous financial hub in SE Asia with many multi-national corporations, including big banking centers. It is arguably challenging Hong Kong for international importance in the region particularly as pertains to banking. Since it is so heavily banking focused, Singapore got hit with the first wave of slow-down in Fall of 2008 particularly sharply, but it has recovered well. Note the skyline filled with cranes above. Construction is everywhere.
We stayed in the financial district in the downtown area, and we enjoyed Lau Pa Sat market. It is a food court type of market, specializing in assorted cuisines.

You can find all sorts of interesting foods there...
And you just sit down at a table and enjoy!
There is a small island which belongs to Singapore called Sentosa. It takes about 20 minutes to get there from downtown by taxi, and is full of tourist attractions - theme park areas, beaches, etc. We do well with beaches. So we hung out at Palawan Beach for most of the day.

There's an area which juts off the Palawan beach area which claims to be the southern most point of continental Asia. Not exactly sure how that works since Sentosa is an island, but hey we took the photo, of course! You can walk via wooden footbridge over the water to get there.

At the end of the footbridge is a pair of cool wooden tree-house-looking look-out-tower type structures. You can climb up for an interesting view!




Another highlight of being in Sentosa was seeing wild peacocks! Like any other bird, they came by the beachside restaurant looking for snacks.




The decor on the island is very nice - very tropical and southeast Asian in style.


Another attraction that Singapore boasts of is its zoo. It is a "natural habitat" type of zoo, and so we enjoyed walking around. They have a night safari but we got too tired to stay for that.


The white tigers are beautiful.
Yep, we stayed busy!