January 24, 2019 – The 7 hour flight from New York to Frankfurt on Singapore Airlines was uneventful and relatively few people aboard. We had a couple of hours to wander around the Frankfurt Airport, before re boarding the nearly 12 hour direct flight from Frankfurt to Singapore. As we arrived early in the morning we transferred to the Regency (Four Seasons) hotel and at 8:30 am there were no rooms, so we had some breakfast and checked in with the cruise / tour operator. The driver from the airport was very good and provided us with many interesting facts and figures, among which was the road we traveled on with its 3 lanes in each direction and a central array of flowers in planters, was actually reclaimed land and can, within 2 hours of the need, be converted into a very long runway by removing the plants from the center of the road – very ingenious.
Singapore modern history dates back to Sir Stamford Raffles, its founder, who bought the island from its Malay ruler in 1819 and set up a trading post. The Sultan of Johor and the Temenggong eventually ceded Singapore to the British in 1824 who ruled until 1942 when the Japanese invaded and ruled the country until the end of the World War II when in 1946 it once again became a crown colony. However, independence was gradually achieved but not before becoming part of the Federation of Malaysia from 1963 to 1965 when it became a formalized city / State. Singapore became an independent republic on 9 August 1965. The driving force behind Singapore’s modern success was Lee Kuan Yew, who took over as Prime Minister from 1959 until 1990 and led Singaporeans into a high-tech awakening. Massive public housing projects and the establishment of educational facilities, sensible urban planning and ruling basically as a dictator with an iron fist, have led to it’s great success as a nation of 7 million people on what is today an island measuring some 42 miles by 24 miles. The second Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong took over in 1990 through 2004 when the Third Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, took office. Today, Singapore is famed for its economic stability (250+ International Banks), efficient infrastructure and sparkling cleanliness.
Anne has spent a few months (in total) in the past in Singapore, working for Citibank and so knows the place and has a friend here with whom we hope to get together. Roger has also been here a couple of years ago, but does not know it well, so after breakfast, we went to the India Consulate to see if we could get Anne a visa in her passport as opposed to the e-Visa. Not possible. So we caught a Taxi to the Gardens By the Bay and Marina Bay Hotel, built on a promontory in the bay near the Financial District, with hundreds of ships waiting to unload and load up merchandise. The port services between 850 and 1200 ships a day with very fast turn around in cargo handling and is now the principal economic activity of the country. English is the official language of the country although the vast majority (some 70%) are of Chinese origin and thus Mandarin is spoken among that part of the population, with Malaysian (15%) and Indian (7%) making up the majority of the rest of the population. Due to the British influence driving is on the left as in Britain.
The gardens are spectacular in a totally different way from most botanical gardens. Let me clarify these are not the famous Singapore Botanical Gardens (A UNESCO World Heritage Site) with its numerous varieties of roses and a fabulous collection of some 60,000 orchid species and the hybridization of these. These Bay Gardens consist of over 1 million plants of 5,000 different species. The dominant feature are the two enormous greenhouses (one being the biggest in the world as per the Guinness Book of Records) , garden areas in the park near the greenhouses, of various types / countries (Indian, Chinese, Malay, Colonial, to name a few), and the iconic Super-tree Grove with it’s metal tree structures with bougainvillea growing up them that are lighted at night and have the sky-walk joining several of these metal structures.
We first went into the “Cloud Forest” glasshouse which simulates moderate Mediterranean climate. Walking inside the greenhouse one is immediately overwhelmed by this 35 meter (115 Feet) high waterfall with thousands of plants behind it and various openings in the “cliff” where people were looking out and observing the rest of the plants and people. We eventually took the lift up 7 floors in the central open area to an observation deck which became a circular descending 4 ft wide walkway cantilevered out some 20 meters (60 feet) from the central structure and some 100+ feet in the air. Fortunately there was a rubber mat preventing us from seeing straight down the 100+ foot drop. The amount of different plant species was amazing and the views of the harbor and the city were also amazing as one looked away from the plants. As we descended there was a hall of Stalagmites and Stalactites, a secret garden and many other interesting features.
The next feature we visited was the “Flower Dome” – The Largest Greenhouse in the world – divided into various sections. The succulent and cacti had Mexico well represented. There were many outstanding features in the overall spectacular array of flowers. Some of these include the creation of umbrellas, animals and other such items made from intertwined branches and roots of old trees. At the entrance was a display of “The Senrinzaki” or “Thousand Blooms”. Neither of us had ever come across this plant growing technique, but it is spectacular. Master growers, cultivate from a single stalk which over a year develops into a display with 500 to 2,000 chrysanthemums all peeking their flowers through a large dome like structure that has holes for the actual blooms. At first we thought it was actually a vase with hundreds of flowers on Long stalks. NO, it was all one plant.
We next walked through some of the country and structural gardens to the “OCBC Sky-way and Super-tree Grove”. In this area there are metal tree like structures rising some 30 meters (about 100 feet). They open up into umbrella like branches. Lodged between and joining these trees is a sky-way bridge some 22 meters (70 feet) above the ground, the sky-way swayed in the wind and is closed down when the winds are high. However, despite the height issue, it was an amazing experience seeing the plants and layout of the place from a raised platform perspective. Each night there are two light and sound shows of these dozen or so trees.
By this time it was the hour for lunch so we walked to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. A skyscraper that has 3 separate white buildings somewhat similar to the WR Grace building in New York. The interesting feature is that the three buildings are connected on the top so it gives the appearance of looking like the letter ‘M”. We went to the top for a very overpriced and average Chinese meal. The view from 60 stories up though over the harbor, city, gardens etc is spectacular. There is also a long swimming pool between buildings 1 and 2 which is open only to guests. Swimming 60 floors above ground level in an “endless” pool gives a whole new meaning to “let’s have a swim”!!!! A taxi back to the hotel, a nap and we met Judy for dinner as she just arrived from the UK for the cruise.
A great first day and now to try and get some sleep being totally confused by the hours!!
Roger & Anne Travels 