Singapore

The Merlion is the symbol of Singapore - half lion, half mermaid, to symbolize the name of the country, Singapore, which means "lion city" and the importance of the ocean in its business development. Here Tim & the girls do their best Merlion impression.

A star is born. This is Tally's favorite pose!

In a cable car crossing into Sentosa, Singapore's vacation island.

Adayla has been costing us this trip, now that she's a "big girl"

At a Chinese New Year's (Spring Festival) celebration

In front of a Hindu Temple in Little India that we went in. No, that's not an American flag in the top-right corner of the picture. Tim really liked the Coke machine in the temple.

Shopping for jewelry in Little India.

In front of the "World's Largest Fountain," the Fountain of Wealth. Unfortunately it wasn't working when we were there - does that mean that our wealth has dried up?

Who needs Western Union? These folks at a Chinese Buddhist temple are burning "spirit money" so that their ancestors can use it in the afterlife.

A Lion Dance that we watched in a mall.

The girls somehow eating durian ice cream - yuck! They wouldn't let Tim throw it away.

The Singapore skyline in the background

Before San Antonio's Riverwalk, there was Singapore. This is a wonderful place to eat!

This is a beautiful country!! If anybody wants to visit Asia, without leaving all the comforts of western life, Singapore is the place to come!

Chinatown? Check. Little India? Check. Tropical paradise 50 miles from the equator? Can get around only speaking English? Great food? Check. Check. Check.

Singapore’s history basically started in 1819 when a British Admiral landed on the island looking for a new shipping port to compete against the Dutch ports in the area. When Sir Raffles landed on the island, there were “1,000 people and 10,000 tigers.” That quickly changed as the British colonized the island and brought in workers from India, China and Malaysia to keep up with the explosive growth that the island experienced. Admiral Raffles realized the importance of keeping their cultures strong, so he established Chinatown and Little India. These areas are now only three subways stops apart, but we thought they were a world apart by the stark contrast in neighborhoods. It was funny to see when we got on the subway in Chinatown, everybody was Chinese. Then when we got off at the Little India station, everybody was Indian!

The official language in Singapore is English, but in various accents. If the Brits had only been able to colonize the entire world, we wouldn’t have to worry about learning foreign languages! Chinese is also widely spoken and Malay is spoken to a lesser extent. As expected, we heard quite a bit of Hindi in Little India, but outside of there we really haven’t seen many Indians.

Singapore is an “extremely” clean and orderly country, with emphasis on “extreme.” Heavy fines are imposed for doing things such as spitting, chewing gum or eating on public property. Obviously littering is also a fine. You must cross the street at a crosswalk if you are within 75 meters of a crosswalk and cars must stop for pedestrians. There are also fines for not flushing a toilet after using it. The fines may seem silly, but the result is a clean and orderly country. It is so nice that everything here is clean. It is so nice not to worry about somebody not stopping for you when you cross the street – they all do it.

Singapore still draws its wealth from shipping and business. It boasts Asia’s highest per capita income. Singapore’s favorite pastimes are shopping and food, and both are phenomenal. Huge, modern high-end shopping malls are everywhere. While the shopping is pricey, the food is cheap – and great! There is such a variety wherever we’ve gone. It’s so nice…

The funny thing is that Singapore is more “Chinese” than Shanghai is. Singapore really celebrates Chinese New Year, and doesn’t turn it into another sales promotion as Shanghai has done. The country basically shut down for three days for Chinese New Year. We also saw three traditional Lion Dances around town today, something that just they just don’t do in Shanghai any more (thanks to Mao Zedong for killing culture and tradition in China). We arrived on the third day of Chinese New Year, thinking nothing of it since Shanghai wasn’t shutting down for the holiday. We were surprised when we went to Chinatown to find that it was more like a ghost town. So that’s why we took the metro from Chinatown to Little India, figuring the Indians probably could care less about Chinese New Year, and we were right, all the shops there were open.

Today, day 2 here, we went to one of the really nice malls on Orchard Road to get Josie set up on a wireless network for her school studies and then the rest of us left and wandered around the city. The food court there was awesome. Did I mention the food here is great?

Then I ordered this ice cream smoothie with a local fruit, durian. I had no idea what a durian was, but it was advertised in various places we went, so I figure it’s not immersion if I order cookie dough ice cream all the time. Morgan is less daring - she only tries things after I've tried them (call me Mikey from Life cereal). This one bit me, however. This smoothie tasted like strong raw onions. I took one big mouthful and almost gagged. Then I took a second bite to see if it really was that bad. It was. The girls wanted some of my ice cream, but I just wanted to throw it away. They begged, so I gave it to them. They actually ate it. I’m still wincing as I think about that thing – yuck! Morgan just about beat me for letting her try it. I think it helps make the ice cream she likes that much sweeter. After all, you have to taste the bitter to know the sweet, right?