May 2018
It has been an incredible week! Singapore has become one of my favorite cities. Joining the ranks of Paris, Florence, Dublin, and Prague. Singapore is clean, safe, modern, and an incredible mix of cultures. In fact, Singapore has four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin Chinese, and Tamil. Almost all of the signage was in English and I never once had any language issues. In speaking with locals, they said Singapore lacked its own culture. It has served as a mixing pot of cultures and I believe this has helped to make it so modern in our increasingly global society.
Singapore serves as one of the worlds leading financial centers. In league with London, New York, and Hong Kong. The Central Business District (CBD) is a very impressive area. This picture of the CBD was taken from the rooftop of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel during their nightly light show. The picture beneath is the Maria Bay Sands Hotel, the worlds most expensive resort, costing over $5.5 Billion to construct. (FYI, if you would like to be a part owner of International Luxury Resorts, I can help with that)
Above, Singapore CBD at night.
Below, Marina Bay Sands Hotel. The hotel is intended to resemble a boat, the blue roof of the luxury mall is water, and to me what looks like a shell is meant to be the water foam crashing on the beach. The foam is the Art-Science Museum.
I went into all three of these structures and they are most impressive. The mall even has a waterway going through. So you can ride a gondola to get your Gucci.
In front of the mall is a pretty cool massive water basin. This space also serves as a large open area on the bay for people to enjoy and watch the nightly water/light show.
One of the best features of the Art-Science Museum, and the National Singapore Gallery, is the interactive attractions they offer. Below you can see my picture of Turtle Ted. All of the creatures you see were colored by guest. Then scanned into the display. This is just one of many examples of opportunities to make your own art at the art galleries. On the top floor they also had local 5th grade students presenting the robots they had built. These kids were incredibly smart and destroyed me in the block moving competition.
Moving on from science, let’s talk about religion. Singapore has a population of 5.5 million. (For reference purposes, largest cities: #1 Shanghai 24 million, #25 New York 8.6 million, #71 Los Angeles 3.9 million.) Buddhism (33% of population) is the most common religion, followed by Christianity (18%), non-religious (18%), Islamic (14%), Taoist (10%), Hindu (5%), and a scattering of many other smaller religions.
As you walk the streets of Singapore, you cannot deny the presence of religion. The monuments are most impressive, and so different from the mostly Catholic monuments I had become accustomed to in traveling Europe. The colors are vibrant and at times the pictures grotesque. Here are some pictures from the Sri Veeramakaliamman Hindu Indian Temple. I had to take my shoes off before entering. Inside many people were praying and offering sacrifices of food and flowers.
Here are pictures from two different Chinese Buddhist Temples. People were burning incense, chanting, and also offering fruit sacrifices. All of the temples are protected by two lion statues at the entrance.
After visiting these temples, I walked through Chinatown. I followed my nose to the most repulsive thing I could smell. This is what I came across.
I am impressed if you have made it this far, and hope you have enjoyed the pictures. You are going to be rewarded for sticking with it, because I have saved the best for last.
Gardens by the Bay is the most incredible thing I have ever seen. It alone warrants a trip to the other side of the world. I went to The Gardens during the day. Then to the roof of the Marina Bay Hotel (boat looking one) at dusk, for a drink and the water/light show. Then back over to see the gardens at night and the light show there.
Not only is it beautiful, it is also fully sustainable. Taking advantage of multiple forms of renewable energy, the entire facility is self sufficient. A most impressive blend of technology and environment. I will let the pictures take it from here.
Get it? If so, you are smarter than me. I was wondering how they spelled Alice wrong. Jet lag is a thing, especially when the day if flipped (12 hour time difference here from east coast).
I am smiling because I am thinking about Game of Thrones.
The flowers you saw above are inside the lower dome. The higher dome has a waterfall inside, but was under maintenance.
Hope you have enjoyed a little insight into my time in Singapore. I write you now from Penang, Malaysia and do not intend to have such a long break between posts again. Here are a few final random pictures.
The best airport in the world.
The Merlion is the mascot of Singapore.