Singapore

On our last day of the cruise, we sailed down the Strait of Malacca from Banda Aceh and stopped at Malacca in Malaysia.  The Strait of Malacca is a 550 mile long narrow waterway between Sumatra (Indonesia) and Malaysia that turns out to be one of the world's most heavily trafficked shipping lanes, carrying three times as many ships as the Suez Canal.  Who knew?  It is the key link between the Middle East and East Asia.

Lying on a shipping route, Malaysia and Indonesia were trading posts for India, China, and other countries long before the Europeans finally arrived in the sixteenth century. Then the Europeans came and "claimed" the lands since no one lived there, fought wars over them, and traded them back and forth in various treaties related to wars in Europe.  First the Portuguese came to Malaysia but they somehow lost it to the Dutch, who had to cede it to the British after the Napoleonic wars. 

We took a walking tour of the historic part of Malacca starting at Red Square.  No, not that Red Square.  On the right is the Dutch Statehouse that was later used by the British.  There is, of course, a church and a clock tower as well as a fountain dedicated to Queen Victoria.  We went to an interesting museum showing the history of Malacca, and walked the same route taken by Queen Elizabeth when she was here in 1948 and again several years later.

The next morning our cruise ended in Singapore, the city at the end of the Strait of Malacca, and which is one of the busiest ports and trading centers in the world.  We started with a walk through Chinatown and lunch at one of the 1,500 hawkers centres here.  I guess you could call a hawkers centre a food court on steroids.  Each centre has dozens of stalls serving every type of food.  The centre can be contained in one huge building or on one or more floors of a modern office building.

The next day I took a bike tour to get oriented to the city.  Singapore is surprisingly rideable despite being a huge, crowded city.  Seven million people live in Singapore but the city only allows one million cars.  If you want a car, you pay $150,000 for a permit to own a car for ten years.  When your name gets to the top of the list, you can then buy a car.  Ten years later, when the permit expires, someone else can buy a car and you have to apply again.  So not as much traffic as there could be.  Also, like Japan, everyone obeys the traffic laws and no one jaywalks, so riding here is pretty easy.  There are bike lanes all over but the coolest thing I saw:  a bike lane that went through a shopping center.

They claim that Singapore is the most diverse country in the world and I believe it.  The vast majority of the population is ethnic Chinese, but there are many Malaysians, Indians, and Europeans.  There are ten official religions and four official languages:  English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil.  Government business is conducted and schools are taught in English.

What makes Singapore work:  authoritarianism and, if I believe what the guides have told me, total lack of corruption.  When Singapore became independent in 1965, the government decided to impose strict fines, jail time, and yes, caning, for various infractions.  Jaywalking, vaping, littering - each of these can cost you hundreds of dollars.  Groups of more than four teenagers being rowdy - jail time for disturbing the peace.  Protesting without a permit - jail time.  Meanwhile, the prime minister is paid like a chief executive of a company so he does not need to get rich on "gifts," bribes, and kickbacks.  His salary is $1.5 million.

Another interesting thing about Singapore is its commitment to remaining green even as it constructs more and more high rise buildings.  So each building must be green.  The architecture is imaginative.

Singapore's Gardens by the Bay has two huge greenhouses, one with flowers and one with over a million plants from every continent except Antarctica.  They also have a grove of eighteen Supertrees with elevated walkways.  At night we saw a beautiful sound and light show from under the Supertrees.  Then we walked to the Bay and saw an incredible sound, light, and water show unlike anything I have every seen.

On Friday afternoon, we took a walking tour called The Past, Present, and Future of Singapore.  And, of course, we saw the iconic sights of Singapore.

The Merlion - half fish, half lion.

A three tower hotel with a ship across the top that contains restaurants,
 an observation deck, and a swimming pool.

After the tour, we went to Lau Pa Sat, another hawker centre which Barbara Ullman had recommended, as did our guide.  He told us that at night, they close the street to cars and the hawkers set up grills to make satay.  We also followed the guide's advice and chose the stand with the longest line.  After fifteen minutes, we ordered and they took our money.  Then they gave us one of those beeper things and said "forty minutes."  Forty minutes?  Look at the other orders we have, they said.  They had our money so we waited.  It was worth it.

If you eat in a restaurant or cafe, they add a ten percent service charge which goes to the business, not the servers, and a ten percent tax.  And tourist restaurants are a little pricey.  But in a hawkers centre, it is hard to spend more than ten dollars for a meal and you can easily eat well for under five dollars.  (These prices are Singapore dollars which are about twenty percent less than US dollars.)  That is why there are over 1,500 hawker centres.  Everyone eats there.  Office buildings often have hawkers centres in them or nearby, and they are packed at lunchtime.

So one more afternoon in Chinatown for a little shopping and a last meal at a hawker centre, and the trip is over.  I will leave Singapore on Sunday morning at 10 AM and arrive in San Francisco on Sunday morning at 9 AM.  Go figure.