Glenn Family Travels: Singapore Lives up to the Hype

Pat and I have spent the last few days in Singapore. What a wonderful place.....very friendly people, very diverse population, many attractions and very beautiful scenery.

Singapore is an interesting place with an interesting history. Without the usual history lesson, Singapore has roots in European and Muslim cultures for roughly 2000 years. The more recent era began with the Portuguese landing at Malacca in 1509. It was a Portuguese colony until the Dutch came in during the 1700's and finally the British with the arrival of Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819 who founded the colony. If the Raffles name sounds familiar, you may remember it....many hotels, hospitals and other landmarks are named for him both in Singapore and other countries like Cambodia

Sir Raffles saw the potential of the port and worked towards developing this region. It continued as British colony until the Japanese occupied the region from 1942-1945 after which it returned to British rule. In the 1960's with the economy in shambles, Singapore embarked on a very successful modernization program which resulted in the best, per-capita, income of any Asian country outside Japan.

And what a job they have done! This is one of the cleanest cities I have ever seen, It is a model for multi-cultural harmony with Muslim, Hindu and Christian religions existing in relative piece.

Seriously, I counted two (2) cigarette butts! I learned that you can get a ticket if you flick a butt on the street and it shows...it is tremendously clean here. We typically take a boat ride to get an overview in cities that offer it. We took a quick boat trip here and I did not see one piece of floating debris in the water. Stark contrast to Thailand and Italy where I would be uncomfortable sticking my hand over the gunwale to touch water.

We saw very few animals in the street....no stray dogs and very few as pets. During the two days on land, Pat and I only counted 7 dogs which is roughly twice the population of the Glenn household.....wonder where all the dogs are? No jokes about seeing the food section of this blog....we were assured that this is not the case in Singapore. Not sure I entirely believe this, however.

On to the sights. The Gardens by the Bay are and absolute must see. Trip Advisor rates them the number one attraction in Singapore and I would agree. Make sure to take the OBCB Skyway in the Supertrees area. Do the Cloud Forest and Flower Dome as well. Wonderful vision by the designers that showcase the beauty of the indigenous plants.

The only downer (if there is one) is the food and drink. We found most places expensive and Wine and spirits off the charts expensive. One particular restaurant insisted in charging us for the moist towelettes placed on the table. I rarely flame any business during our travels but this one will get a bruising review.

All in all, a terrific visit to a wonderful region. It takes a while to get here but absolutely worth the trip.

We were headed to Bali next but Celebrity has decided to cancel that part of the trip due to security concerns. This is near the anniversary of the bombing of a night club that killed many tourists. This allows us an extra day in Singapore and Darwin. Next port of call is now Darwin. This is a long sail and will take about 5 days. See you soon.