21: Singapore…Superstar

Even docked a distance from the heart of the city, the view from our ship was rewarding.

Singapore is a Southeast Asian superstar. An island country born in the 1960’s after separating from Malaysia (which itself had lived through British colonization), it is politically stable with a majority Chinese Han population with minority Malay and Indian populations.

Gary and I had signed up for the “Essence of Singapore” field program offered through Semester at Sea’s Field office. The rapidity with which we were coming to these ports, we had had very little time to research what we might like to do and see. I was hoping to find a camera store that could clean my Pentax sensor and possibly have a meal in my friend Shereen’s sister-in-law’s restaurant, Coriander Leaf. But most important of all, Gary needed to record a 3 - 4 minute video that we needed to transmit back to Santa Cruz so it could be aired at the 10^th Anniversary Global Oceans Dinner, which we were sadly missing. It was a lot to do in a day and a half.

View of our destination, the Singapore Flyer, with Supertree Grove,  part of the Gardens by the Bay, on the right.

Our first stop on the tour was the Singapore Flyer. Inspired by London’s Eye, Singapore built the Flyer. The Flyer is a high tech Ferris wheel-like structure that stands 541 feet tall and completes a full rotation in 29 minutes. Each of its gondolas is enclosed in glass and steel and holds around 20 adults. I even saw one gondola set up with small tables as though for lunch. The ride was well worth it. It was a beautiful day and the views of Singapore were breathtaking.

The Singapore Fyler's support mechanism.

Our guide had not come on the ride with us, so we had to rely on the map that came with the ticket to help us identify what we were seeing. The map was a bit cartoonish, not at all like the sophisticated works of contemporary architecture that appeared to have been lifted off the latest covers of architecture magazines. In fact, I remarked to Gary that I would not be surprised if one of my friends (old classmates, or colleagues) had been involved in some way, in at least one of those buildings (but I will have to wait until we get home to find out…).

View of Gardens by the Bay from the Singapore Flyer. Supertree Grove is on the upper right. In the foreground are the two cooled conservatories: Flower Dome and Cloud Forest, designed by Wilkenson Eyre Architects.

Reminiscent of a lotus flower, the ArtScience Museum, designed by Moshe Safdie, is part of the Marina Bay Sands Resort and has been referred to as the "welcoming hand of Singapore".

After the Flyer, our guide handed us each a crisp $10 bill for a quick lunch at the (sterilized) street food market below, and then we were off again to visit the Marina Barrage. The Barrage complex is designed to control flooding in the low lying areas of the city, but also houses the Sustainable Singapore Gallery, which is chock full of state of the art displays that highlight Singapore’s efforts towards environmental sustainability. It also sports a large windswept green roof, where people come to picnic and play ball. After our trip to the Marina Barrage, I decided that Singapore should be considered the world’s capital of PR….and of course there is nothing wrong with showcasing how good, how progressive, and wealthy you are, truly.

Quite an innovative piece of design, the Marina Barrage and Sustainable Singapore Gallery sits at the mouth of the Singapore River, all on reclaimed land.

A closer view of the Marina Barrage.

The Sustainable Singapore Gallery that is part of the Marina Barrage housed several eye-popping displays - some were so spectacular in design that it was I had to remind myself to ALSO focus on the message.

Displays underfoot catch the interest of a toddler and her older sister.

The Barrage's windswept green roof was ideal for kite flying. One of the towers of the Marina Bay Sands Resort is just visible at the left. 

A close up of that exuberant cantilever of the Marina Bay Sands Resort, supposedly the world's most expensive building at 5.7 billion US dollars. This ambitious roof terrace spans the building's 3 vertical towers.

Juxtaposition of history (and architecture....)

This housing structure near the dock area looked a bit incongruous in Singapore, but the addition of a bit of color and life, to what may seem a somewhat pristine and sterile city, was welcome.

Of all the dock areas we have thus visited, Singapore's ranks up there as one of the densest and best organized.

Needless to say, we didn’t do all that I had hoped to do in Singapore. Good news is that after much time and frustration we were able to get the video made and sent off the next day, from the coffee shop in the shopping area adjacent to our dock. It was too late to try to head to the Gardens by the Bay, or go into the city for lunch, as we would have to chance missing “on ship time”. So we went for a walk (a really warm walk) through a nearby park. The tropical flora reminded us of Costa Rica…lush and green…and I could almost believe that there were monkeys frolicking overhead...

Wildlife in the city...this spider was 4 inches, front to back!

This flower seed pod almost whacked Gary on the head. We thought a monkey had hurled it at him, but no...once we started looking, we found many of them on the ground.