We flew to Singapore from Kuala Lumpur, which was an easy and quick one hour flight. We landed and got settled with the afternoon left to explore, so the first place we headed was the Singapore Flyer. This was the world's largest Ferris wheel until 2014, when a new Ferris wheel in Las Vegas took the honor away. While no longer the world's tallest, the Singapore Flyer is still quite a high flying experience!
The views out over Singapore were fantastic. Nearby were Gardens By the Bay (a huge park with 2 indoor conservatories) and the Marina Bay Sands, an upscale hotel, casino, and shopping complex.
We took our Day 210 photo as a family and enjoyed a beautiful aerial introduction to Singapore!
That day was the eve of the Chinese New Year, so we headed to Chinatown to check out the festivities that were beginning that evening. The storefronts in the area were colorful and detailed.
2017 is the Year of the Rooster, and there was a giant lit-up rooster at the heart of the main street, complete with lit-up tail.
As it got closer to midnight, the crowd got larger and larger.
Colin and I took catnaps while sitting and waiting on the curb.
When the clock struck midnight, the red "streamers" (so we thought) that are behind us in the picture above were lit on fire and made quite a racket. Happy Chinese New Year!
Moments later, fireworks lit up the sky to celebrate the Year of the Rooster.
The next day we started off with a walking tour of downtown Singapore. We started by poking around the Raffles Hotel, just across the street from where we were staying. The Raffles Hotel is the oldest hotel in Singapore and is famous as the birthplace of the "Singapore Sling" cocktail.
We continued on past a number of beautiful Singaporean buildings, including Parliament and museums.
This building with multi-colored windows used to be a police station but is now houses several Singaporean ministry offices.
We walked along the Singapore River, which runs right through the central business district. There are several different quays along the river with shops and restaurants.
We stopped at the merlion statue, which has the body of a fish and the head of a lion. The boys had fun taking silly pictures with the spouting water as a prop.
We ducked into the mall at Marina Bay Sands to get an air-conditioning fix. Malls are a huge deal in SE Asia--literally and figuratively, since they are often massive and act as a "town center" in many places. We are not big shoppers (especially right now as we travel with backpacks), but a good piece of advice I read before this trip was to "get over [my] mall phobia" because you just can't avoid them in the region. And, if nothing else, the malls are always good for a bit of relief from the hot and humid weather outside!
There is an emphasis in Singapore on polite behavior--we saw signs on subway trains, the backs of busses, and all over town urging people to make conscious efforts to do kind things (like give up a seat, let someone in the traffic queue, etc). There was even a whole marketing campaign going on about having empathy, something that is so important and sometimes seems to be in short supply.
All of a sudden, Colin saw this flag and got all excited and said, "That's the first flag of America!" Our guide told him it didn't have anything to do with America, but later we looked it up and it is the Grand Union flag, which is indeed considered to be the first flag of the USA. (It was also the flag of the British East India Company, which was present in Singapore, and that's why it is in the museum.) C has a keen interest in history and a great memory, and he often amazes us with his knowledge and recollection.
Another day we went to Gardens By the Bay to walk around the outdoor gardens.
This tree was really cool!
There were a number of different sections with different plants and one section with trees that were manicured into different animals.
This floating baby sculpture is apparently rather famous but it seemed a bit random, honestly.
One activity that we got zero pictures of was also one of the most interesting--a tour of the Battlebox in Fort Canning. This was where the British hunkered down to command the defense of Singapore against the Japanese in WWII and, ultimately, where General Percival made the decision to surrender Singapore after only a few days of fighting. This tour was also very informative and engaging, although we were not allowed to take any pictures!
We went back to Chinatown one day and ate dumplings at Din Tai Fung, which is reputed to have some of the best dumplings in the world. Though the service was a bit slow, the dumplings were very good. As we waited for a table we could see the staff meticulously rolling, filling, and crimping each individual dumpling.
We visited the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple (which reminded us of our visit to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy, Sri Lanka).
The temple was quite busy with a lot of people leaving offerings as part of observing the Chinese New Year.
There was an entire line to bathe this statue by pouring water over it several times.
On the roof of the temple, there were beautiful flowers, including amazing orchids.
Chinatown was a busy place with lots of locals and tourists in the small streets and alleys.
We ended this day at the Singapore Botanical Garden, where we saw another colorful jungle fowl and more beautiful trees and plants. We didn't have enough time for the Orchid Garden--it will definitely be at the top of the list for a future visit!
Singapore is an extremely clean, organized, and orderly city. It is very easy to get around, everything is well marked and mapped, and English is the primary working language, so it's a breeze to communicate. It was a great place to spend a few days!
