Singapore: the Lion City! Do you know what a Merlion is?

We just spent two glorious days in Singapore.

Yesterday we took a boat ride on the Singapore River, ate a fabulous lunch, rested a bit, then joined another couple and went to the Night Safari of the Singapore Zoo. What a treat!

The day began with us learning to navigate the Singapore underground metro system, the MRT (Metropolitan Rapid Transit – clever, huh!). After getting some $$ from an ATM (in large bills), we discovered that the MRT ticket machines would not give change above a $5 bill. So we waited in a line for the “Ticket Office” and discovered that it was not the MRT Ticket Office, but an independent ticket office for several other city attractions. So …we finally found the MRT ticket booth and – guess what – they don’t sell tickets, they only give directions, advice, and change money. OK, we got our change and took a stab at a ticket machine. Duh! Instructions in English, Chinese, Malay, and Thai. We opted for English and it was straight-forward from there. You have to know the station from where you begin and the station at which you wish to end. One must put the ticket through a turnstile at each end. I imagine that is so that you cannot ride past your station to a more distant point without paying the additional fare.

We managed to find our way to Clarke Quay on the river and boarded a “Bumboat.” These traditional-looking boats were originally styled to move cargo up and down the river and have been modified to be used as tourist boats. After an hour of seeing most of downtown  Singapore from the water, we decided to walk over to Boat Quay and check out the restaurant row along the water.

 The "Bumboats."

Boat quay from the river. This is a row of restaurants along the shore.

We chose a restaurant that had giant aquaria with live lobster, crabs, fish, squid, and shrimp lining the front of the store. I know it sounds a bit kitschy and touristy, but after all, we are traveling…

 The restaurant we chose.

Bonnie and me in the restaurant framed against the Marina Bay Resort in the far background. Next year we plan to go up to the top and see Singapore from the sky.

Our lunch was a delight. We had the obligatory fried spring rolls with a delicious vinegary dipping sauce, deep-fried baby squid that were so well-done and crisp that it was like eating Cracker-Jack! Probably the best baby squid we have ever had. I wanted more, but the voice of reason (Bonnie) suggested that we save that for another day since we still had steamed garlic shrimp to finish off. The shrimp were halved and loaded with fried and steamed diced garlic. We also managed to polish off a few local beers – Singapore’s own Tiger beer. Tiger is a light, refreshing beer that is not too hoppy and goes down lust a bit too easily on a very hot day. Most of Singapore’s days are hot and humid, so I imagine they sell a lot of it.

We then managed to take the MRT back to the ship, but at our return station we took the wrong exit and would up in the wrong shopping center. I didn’t mention it earlier, but there seem to be shopping malls on every corner in Singapore. The Singapore Cruise Terminal is located in a shopping mall, Harborfront Centre. After stumbling around and asking several people for directions, we found the correct exit and made our way back to the ship to rest up for a couple of hours for our night-time adventure.

Later in the afternoon, we met up with some friends on the ship and the four of us took a taxi to the Singapore Zoo. We have been to many zoos on our travels, but this one takes the cake. We thought that the Taronga Zoo in Sydney was cool with its cable-car ascent to the entrance, but getting into a zoo in the night time when many of the animals are more active is way more cool! we had to go online in the afternoon and buy tickets for a specific time to get in. Since we didn’t want to be late and didn’t know how traffic would be, we got there early and had a bite to eat while waiting – not as good as our lunch, but OK.

 Waiting in the courtyard.

 The Disneyesque line to the tram.

The jungle king at night. We could hear his roar from almost everywhere.

While we were waiting, we watched a short performance of the fire dancers. This was designed to keep the crowd waiting to enter entertained while waiting. We didn’t have to watch for long before we were permitted to enter.

The first thing we did was queue up for the tram ride. You can immediately begin walking the trails, but we opted for the tram ride as a way to become more familiar with the layout. In addition, the tram route goes through several areas not accessible to those on foot. In those non-access areas, there are no fences, moats, or other impediments for the animals. Several times we found ourselves eyeball-to-eyeball with some rather large deer species and more than one wild pig. Fortunately, the lions, tigers, elephants, rhinos, and Cape buffalo are in more secure areas.

After the tram ride, we decided to work our way along several of the trails on foot. I can’t go through a list of what we saw, but suffice it to say, the experience of seeing these creatures at night in their natural habitats – at least as natural as possible – was one of the highlights of both the port call and the trip. They were active, they fought, ate, roared, and [I will not put off anyone by describing what else went on].

By this time it was very late, so we decided to head home to the ship. We got in the taxi queue and rode back to the city. By the time we got in and got cleaned up, it was midnight.
The next day we were up and out again (not bright and not early). This day we decided to go to Chinatown and wander a bit, have lunch at a hawker center and take it a little easier. The MRT was old hat by this time and we found ourselves in the middle of Chinatown very easily.

We walked the “shopping street” and discovered that it was where all the schlocky tourist trash goes to die. Stall after stall after stall of the same cheap souvenirs, clothing, made-to measure suits in three hours, and genuine fake watches.

 The restaurant street where we wound up eating.

We did manage to take a quick look into the Temple of the Buddha Tooth - no joke.

We worked our way through this treasure trove and decided to check out the hawker center. A hawker center is an amalgam of food stalls located in government-approved areas so that the food vendors (hawkers) do not clutter up the roadways or sidewalks. Singapore has severe penalties for clutter and other minor infractions. In the hawker center, there are food stalls side by side by side. Each stall specializes in one specific type of food or one specific type of dish. For example, a noodle stall may sell noodles in broth of various types, but very little else – no dumplings, no roasted meats, etc. The stall next to him might be a dumpling stall and so on. The menus are posted in front with very reasonable – even cheap – prices. The places are spotless as compared to some of the hotdog vendors I have seen domestically… For example, I could get five deep-fried oysters for SG$5. That equates to about US$3.50. We saw people going from stall to stall to make up their lunch. Some people also just went to a favorite stall for their specialty. Everybody sits in large food court areas to eat.

OK, after all this talk about hawker centers, where do we wind up eating? You guessed it. We ate at a full-service restaurant with AIR CONDITIONING. Our lunch this day consisted of pork dumplings and spicy deep-fried shrimp. With copious amounts of Tiger beer. That may not seem like much, but the dumplings were big , flavorful, and meaty with a spicy dipping sauce. The shrimp were deep-fried to perfection with head, shell, and tail still on. They are meant to be eaten that way because there is no breading. With no breading, the frying makes the shells very translucent and crispy. I did leave most of the red peppers that were piled on the dish. Spicy! The Tiger beer came in 24-ounce bottles. Now I know why…

I just had to show you my spicy shrimp. All that red stuff are hot Chinese chili peppers. You can see that the shrimp are head and tail on. Yummy!

After lunch we made our way back to the MRT and along the way we succumbed to the merchandise and I got a couple of shirts. We also got several gifts for friends back home. Not everything was as junky as I made it sound earlier, but one had to actually shop and look at seams, checkout quality, etc.. While there was, indeed, a lot of genuine junk, there were also some good finds if you took the time to ferret them out.

We made it back to the ship with several hours to spare before embarking on the next leg of this terrific journey.

By the way, a Merlion is the symbol of the city of Singapore. It is a result of the union between a mermaid and a lion. That fact in itself should be of interest to students of local flora and fauna. There are no lions within a thousand miles or more of Singapore…but that is another story for another time.

Several days ago I promised to show you the finished product for our new jackets. Here we are:

We are now on our way to Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia. Stay tuned…