Singapore

Our “ Worlds Away” travel adventure begins today!
The airplane ride was long and uneventful and Cathay Pacific provided us with an abundance of in-flight movies. We all watched at least 4 first-rate movies and tried to stay awake so we could adjust to the time change faster. After picking up our luggage we worked our way through the airport and met our prearranged pick-up van. Departing the airport, a blast of hot, humid air reminded us that our “Worlds Away” travel adventure brought us half way around the world in 24-hours and left behind was our rainy, cold weather from Bel Marin Keys.
Singapore is a beautiful, clean city. No spitting, no graffiti ($10,000 fine), no littering, no j-walking– or you’re fined $1000 or jailed. An airport sign reminded us that if you bring drugs into Singapore the penalty would be death.
Our first adventure was to experience a Singapore breakfast at a street-café not far from the hotel. We all were anxious to have a cup of coffee and something to start the day. The food offerings were clearly not what we usually have for our breakfast in the USA. No cereal, no fruit, no soy milk or high fiber muffins. Jerry thought Betty and Terry were having Pork balls, but they were actually having chicken buns. About 3 blocks from the hotel is the “Chinatown” of Singapore which wasn’t much different than the Chinatown of San Francisco except there was a Buddhist Museum right in the center of the tourist center. We took a tour and found it quite impressive.
Wednesday we woke up to the news of an earthquake in Sumatra not far from Singapore. According to the news, some residents of Singapore did feel the quake. Not us. Later, we found directions from the Hotel Concierge to the Botanical Gardens via public bus. Our ride took us through the upscale shopping area on Orchard Street claiming to have 10,000 shops. Jerry and Dennis were quite happy to stay on the bus and go straight to the Botanical Gardens. Terry and Betty spent a leisure day by the pool. Later that night we all joined together for our first in-room cocktail hour followed by a cruise on the river.
The electric boat passed many places to dine along the waterfront and into the larger harbor outlining the city skyscrapers. In the background we passed the famed Lion-Fish spouting water. The city was named after this statue meaning Singa-“lion”, and paura-“fish” – or Singapore. The attraction name is now called the Merlion. At the end of the harbor is a new hotel which looks like a freighter ship balanced atop three towers looking about 50 stories high.
Thursday we headed out for the international island play-park of Sentosa, Asia’s favorite playground. A short taxi ride away brought us to a Resorts World destination. On the island are resorts within resorts; world-class shopping; many exclusive hotels, a large casino and many playland-type events to see and do. Today we did something we have never done before – we learned to ride a Segway. If you get a chance, look up Singapore Resort World on the internet to see where we spent a very enjoyable day. While we were on the sky tower above the city we just happened to see our ship arrive and dock in the Singapore harbor. Must be a good omen.
Tomorrow we head off to the Azamara Quest and begin our cruise adventure.
Six BMK Travelers – Shirley, Jerry, Betty, Terry, Leila & Dennis