March 13, 2016 – Singapore

We arrived in Singapore on Friday morning (March 11), for one of our extended-stay ports. We had three full days to explore one of the most exciting, safe, and forward-thinking cities on the planet. We’ll try to squeeze into this one posting all that we did in our three days here.

Singapore is an island city-state, located just off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It sits 85 miles north of the equator. As such, it has a very warm (some would say hot) climate year-round. Singapore is both the name of the country and of its capital city. There is one main island and sixty other much smaller islets within its territorial waters. The main island (also named Singapore) is only 250 square miles in size – about half the size of New York City. With its 5.5 million residents, Singapore is the second most densely populated nation in the world.

Singapore was founded as a British trading colony in the early 1800s. In 1954, Singapore declared itself a self-governing state. For a short period in the 1960’s, Singapore was a part of the Federation of Malaysia. Since its total independence from Malaysia in 1965, it has become one of the world’s most prosperous countries and boasts one of the world’ largest cargo ports.

Singapore Day 1

We have a big event planned for later today, so we decided to take it easy and save up our strength for tonight.

The ship is docked at HarbourFront Cruise Terminal which includes a large 3-story shopping mall and is adjacent to VivoCity Mall, the largest mall in Singapore. This is not one of our favorite places to dock. Each visitor is required by the Singapore government to carry their own passport (along with embarkation and disembarkation cards) at all times while ashore. The local Customs & Immigration people at HarbourFront are very strict about checking passports carefully every time we get on or off the ship. Additionally, It’s also a long walk from ship to the terminal, including two locations to show passports – about 20 minutes in all to do this, if there are no lines at customs & immigration.

We decided to concentrate on the local area in the early part of the day. We ran the gauntlet through the terminal and passport control successfully and wandered around both of the adjacent shopping malls. At the VivoCity branch of the Tang Department Store (one of the oldest and most popular Singapore stores), Ginny fell for a collection of very interesting and colorful painted elephant ceramic pieces. It turned out that they were part of “Elephant Parade,” which is an organization that runs the world’s largest art exhibition of decorated elephant statues. Each Elephant Parade statue is a unique art piece created by artists and celebrities, and are intended to raise awareness for the need of elephant conservation. These original works are, of course, quite valuable. However, limited-edition handcrafted replicas (of several sizes) are created from the exhibition elephants and sold at selected locations worldwide. We understood that their goal is for a high percentage of Elephant Parade profits to be donated to elephant welfare and conservation projects. Despite the tug on our hearts, we did manage not to buy one, since we don’t have enough luggage space to bring these home.

After returning to the ship and resting for a short time, we went out through another long walk to the terminal through passport control again. Crystal was putting on a special off-ship event for full World Cruise participants, similar to the one they staged in Hawaii back on January 30th (6 weeks ago). This one was being held on Sentosa Island, a popular location visited by some twenty million people a year. Sentosa Island is a single location for many things – a casino, a branch of Universal Studios theme park, numerous clubs, hotels, restaurants, and a white sand beach, just for starters. As a point of interest: The view from our cabin balcony in Singapore is of Sentosa Island, and a cable car system linking Sentosa Island to Singapore Island passes right over the top of our ship while we’re docked here. Anyway, one of the many attractions on Sentosa Island is the very large S.E.A. Aquarium (the SEA stands for South East Asia).

Crystal rented the entire aquarium for exclusive use by the 350 full world cruise travelers this evening. We were greeted by Kompang dancers in costumes and as many Singapore Sling drinks as we could handle. Most of us opted for either wine or soft drinks instead. Then it was through a glass tube in the shark tank to view the exhibits. The claim is that this aquarium complex is home to more than 100,000 marine animals of over 800 species, living in 49 different habitats. Here are photos of some that we particularly enjoyed viewing:

We wound up in the Ocean Gallery, a huge room, with more than 300 of us sitting in front of a gigantic tank, viewing an extraordinary number of large fish, while a harpist performed soothing background music (followed later by a combo of musicians). Several different types of “culinary canapes” (appetizers) from five famous world-class chefs were offered for sampling by roving waiters. We greatly appreciated the effort (and expense) that was put into this special event, and we enjoyed the evening.

Singapore Day 2

Early the next day, Saturday (March 12), we hopped on the Hop-On-Hop-Off (HOHO) Bus at the cruise terminal for a tour all over Singapore. This city has definitely grown to the forefront of the world’s economy in the past 50 years. Everything we saw seems to be modern, well-organized, clean, and efficient. We rode by some remaining colonial-era buildings that are still functioning in new roles after refurbishment, and more modern, tall skyscrapers than it’s possible to count. Also, we admired Orchard Road, a 1.4-mile stretch of the most impressive, high-class shopping districts we’ve ever seen. When we were here three years ago, we did an organized ship’s excursion (which we enjoyed), but today we saw a much larger view of the city, with many choices of where to stop and look around.

We hopped off the HOHO bus at the world-famous and historic Raffles Hotel which first opened for business back in 1887. This grand hotel still brings to mind the days when Singapore was an outpost of the British Empire. As luck would have it, there in the Raffles Gift Shop was a small 10 cm (4 inch) replica of the Raffles Elephant contribution to Elephant Parade. We couldn’t pass this up, as it seemed like it was pre-destined that we have one of these elephants. We peeked in at the Long Bar – one of the most popular tourist attractions in Singapore – but didn’t purchase one of the famous Singapore Sling drinks (first served in 1915 at this hotel), which now cost close to $30 per serving.

After returning to the ship after this excellent adventure, we had a good lunch on board and then Jim wanted to do more sightseeing, so he set off at about 2:00 pm for the MRT (subway) station. His goal was to explore the Marina Bay area, including futuristic Gardens by the Bay and the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. It’s an experience in itself just to ride on the MRT (which stands for Mass Rapid Transit). it’s spotlessly clean – no trash, no graffiti – and all the signage in the stations and on the train are well thought-out to benefit the traveler (including tourists). As there is an MRT stop right in the HarbourFront Cruise Center, it was easy to buy tickets and hop on the subway right there. You can buy individual tickets (using cash only) for each ride on the subway via easy-to-use automated kiosks. But what Jim actually did was go to the Ticket Office (in the station) and buy a 1-day Tourist Pass for $10 (plus a refundable deposit of $10).

Once reaching the Bayfront subway stop, Jim walked off the train and followed excellent signs to the Gardens by the Bay park via a lengthy underground tunnel and then a shuttle tram. Gardens by the Bay opened within the last five years and is a 21st Century botanic garden marvel – a 250-acre park with plant life from around the world and high-tech “super trees”, “bio domes”, and themed Heritage Garden areas.

Admission to the Gardens is free, but there is a S$28 fee to enter the two conservatories (“bio domes”). As Jim was short on time, he decided to skip the bio domes. As he understood it, within the Flower Dome are plants that grow in drier Mediterranean and sub-tropical climate zones. The Cloud Forest recreates a cool mountain forest of the tropics, including a 100-foot man-made mountain and waterfall. We imagine that the two domes could take an hour each to explore.

“Super trees” are major attractions – tall constructions made of steel and concrete modeled after giant mammoth trees that are illuminated at night. The 18 “super trees” are up to 160-feet tall. They have a distinctive look with metal trunks and branches, with plants and flowers growing along the sides of the trees. Connecting some of the “super trees” is an aerial walkway (called Skyway), 70-feet above the ground. Jim paid the small fee and went up the elevator in one of the trees. From there, he walked between the trees, with great views of the trees, gardens, city, and South China Sea. Unfortunately, Jim couldn’t stay there waiting for the sun to set, to see the light display from within the branches of the trees. We’re sure that the show is well worth seeing, as we’ve seen pictures of it, but Jim decided he needed to get back on the ship (and not miss dinner).

Adjacent to the Gardens by the Bay is the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, which consists of three very tall towers, with a 787-foot rooftop platform and swimming pool terrace spanning across all three buildings (called Sands SkyPark). From a distance SkyPark resembles a very long canoe. Jim walked through the building after touring the gardens, but didn’t pay the non-hotel-guest fee (somewhere around $20) to take the elevator up to look at SkyPark.

From the hotel, Jim hopped back on the MRT, returned to the HarbourFront station, and walked through the terminal back to the ship in time for dinner. It was a long, but rewarding, day.

Singapore Day 3
Our good friends from Oregon, Gary & Joyce, were in town on vacation. They’re going to board the MS Volendam in Singapore a few days from now. We traveled with them three years ago on Holland America’s Around the World cruise, and we’ve stayed in touch ever since. So we invited them to join us on board the Serenity at 8:15 for breakfast and a tour of our favorite hangouts on the ship. Gary & Joyce have visited Singapore many times, and they had a plan to go two places today – first the Jurong Bird Park and then the Chinese Garden. They invited us to join them, and Jim decided to go with them, while Ginny decided to stay on the ship and do some reading.

The biggest downside to travel today was the long and time-consuming trek through the terminal. There was another ship in port (a Star Line gambling ship, we thought) that decided to unload all their passengers at the same time we were leaving the Serenity. The line at Customs & Integration was enormous (think JFK airport Customs & Integration if five Jumbo Jets all arrived at the same exact time). The two preceding days there was a special line for Crystal passengers – we were essentially using the ship as a hotel coming & going for the three days in port – but not today. It took more than 1½ hours to get to the terminal from our ship. We understand and appreciate the need for security, but this was ridiculous.

When we finally reached the terminal, we went to the MRT station and bought tickets using the ticket machine and set off for the Jurong Bird Park. We made a transfer at one station and then caught a bus for the last link. The park itself is advertised as “Asia’s largest bird paradise,” and it is large. Spread across 50 acres, they have 5,000 birds from 400 species that, for the most part, roam freely in natural habitats. Especially nice were several large free-flight aviaries where visitors (that was us) walk through a door into a net and screen covered enclosure, so the birds can’t escape or fly away. The Waterfall Aviary – including a 100-foot tall waterfall feature is “the world’s largest walk-in aviary with over 600 free-flying birds.”

About the time we reached the halfway point walking around the park, Jim was getting nervous about making it back to the ship in time before it left for Thailand, so he had to leave Gary & Joyce and head for the exit. When Jim reached the exit of the park it started to rain, and it looked like it might start coming down even harder. He didn’t look forward to waiting for the bus in the rain, so his decision was to take a taxi back to the cruise port. That was a good idea, because it started to pour down rain for the rest of the drive (and it continued for hours after that). The rest of the story went just as well, as the Star Line ship had already left the port, and there was no backup in the passport line. He returned to the ship with plenty of time to spare.

It’s too bad Jim didn’t get to see the entire park, but what he did see was very nice. He especially enjoyed the Waterfall Aviary, the Indoor Penguin Exhibit (home to about 100 penguins across five species), and the very nicely landscaped tropical settings. If you’re interested in birds, this is the place to come – probably one of the best in the world. It was especially nice to be able to share time with Gary & Joyce, and we wish them well on their upcoming voyage.

Some final thoughts: Singapore seems to be a modern, vibrant, wealthy city-state, with a healthy respect for the past including their Chinese, Malay, and Indian heritages. It is said that Singapore has the best quality of life in Asia and, indeed, one of the best in the world. We certainly have no reason to doubt that, based on our three-day visit. It seems to be doing everything right.

The one downside is going ashore from a cruise ship at the HarbourFront terminal -- the lengthy walk from our ship to the terminal and the time-consuming, frustrating, security and passport checking. This is not an easy or pleasant experience, but I can't really fault them too strongly for a high concern over security.

Tonight Crystal Serenity departs from Singapore and cruises up the east coast of the Malaysian Peninsula for two port calls in Thailand.

Jim & Ginny