Friday January 25, 2019 – Singapore
Our second day in Singapore was the official start of the cruise and the cruise events. So the morning tour where we first met our fellow travelers, took us to Little India, Chinatown and the Orchid part of the Botanical Gardens. Anne and I had a nice lunch with an old friend of hers from Citibank and in the evening we ended up at The Long Bar at Raffles Hotel and dinner at the Raffles Mall. A fun but tiring day.
We boarded the coach where the excellent (Chinese) Singaporean Peter was our guide for the 4 hour tour of a few of the key places in town. We drove through Little India, so called because of the predominance of the Indian Singaporeans living in the area and the shops all catering to that part of the now very integrated Singapore population. Freedom of religion, and ancestral ethnic diversity and integration are key elements of the constitution of the very young (in it’s 50 odd years of independence) country. The three major ethnically specific areas of town are the Indian (Little India), Chinese (Chinatown or Niu Che Shui- “Cow, Car, Water” literally in Mandarin or “Bullock water Cart”) and Malay heritage, with the latter called Kampong Glam.
Our first stop was at the Thian Hock Keng (Place of Heavenly Blessings) Temple complex between Amoy and Telok Ayer Streets (The Temple of “Mazu” – the Water Goddess). This used to be on the shoreline and was the first and last place mariners prayed before or after returning safely from voyages. It really was three temples now into one with an ornate entrance topped by dragons and a fiery ring. The temple started as a humble joss house in 1821/22 erected in honor of Ma Zu Po the Protector of Sojourners for travelers to ask for safe passage The current temple was constructed between 1839 and was completed in 1842 and also has adjacent the Chong Wen Ge (Institute for veneration of literature), which house Singapore’s first Chinese Education Institution. Outside the main altar is an elaborate joystick (Incense Sick) holder which allows prayers to ascend with the smoke to the realm of the deities. The central altar of this Taoist Temple is the seater Ma Zu, flanked by a scarlet faced man pointing to his eyes as he had exceptional eyesight to see the incoming ships and to the other a verdant man pointing to his ears indicating the exceptional hearing ability.
Various “side altars” around the courtyard surrounding the central altar are deities depicting other elements of life in the present and hereafter. The first one contained two men, the one in black signifies the person who waited for his friend to arrive by the waterside and to show his devotion to his friend, waited despite the rising waters that drowned him. When his good friend dressed in white arrived he realized his friend was drowned and hung himself which provoked the release of the tongue and thus the foot and a half long exaggerated tongue extending from his mouth. Another of the side altars was for ancestral worship that only has small tablets with the picture, name and key attributes of the person. These are displayed behind the altar and are prayed to on specific anniversaries (Birth, Death etc). Still another altar shows a deity with 14 arms. There is also a wishing well with different bells that are rung after the wish is requested so as to awaken the corresponding somnolent deities and listen to the prayer request.
We then took the coach to the junction of Neil and Pagoda Streets in the heart of Chinatown for a walk through the area. The first place we passed was the Sri Mariamman (Hindu) Temple as we continued down Pagoda Street lined with it’s “Work Houses” where the shop or workplace was on the street level and the owners lived above. Being the start of the Chinese New Year (of the Pig) all was decorated with festive lanterns and a “sea”of red and Gold ornaments and displays in the shops for good luck, prosperity and wealth for the new year. As we wandered down Banda Street to the Temple of the Tooth of the Buddha we were greeted with merchants selling their brightly colored wares, the smell of food and adorable small children dressed in their best school uniforms, wandering the streets with their chaperones / teachers excited about acquiring the best type of sweets (candy) for their taste. Duran was for sale (but we turned it down due to the lingering horrendous odor it emanates) as well as pomelo, tangerine trees etc providing excitement for the senses due to it’s colorful nature.
Leaving Chinatown we went to the famed Singapore Botanical Gardens (one of only 3 such gardens on the UNESCO Heritage Site list in the world). It is a truly amazingly beautiful place immaculately maintained and boasting the largest orchid collection in the world. It was established in 1859 by the Agri-Horticultural Society and designed by Lawrence Niven. Since it’s establishment it has been the South East Asia regional hub for plant science, research (some 750,000 specimens) and conservation with the hybridization of many new species and is recognized worldwide as a leading institution of tropical botany (The library has some 40,000 rare books). Some 4 million people visit the gardens each year, which is the highest attendance of any such botanical garden in the world. More details at http://www.sbg.org.sg. The gardens are very large and we just covered the extensive Orchid (Orchidaceae spp.) collection. Orchids represent some 20,000 to 25,000 species or about 10% of the flowering plants. Here, thousands of species are grown in pots and due to Orchids infrequent flowering, are paced strategically, appearing as if planted in the ground, and removed / replaced when not in flower. Thus the visitor always has a view of the best orchids. Here also can be found, planted the national flower (as of April 15, 1981) – an Orchid that grows somewhat like bamboo or Meadow Rue to a height of 6-8 feet with small white petals and pink sepals in the center (Orchidaceae papilionanthe Miss Joaquin). One interesting tree was one of the few surviving trees in Hiroshima, following the atomic bomb being dropped. The section on “Celebrity” named orchids was particularly interesting as hybrids are developed for people in the news – politicians, sports and entertainment luminaries. We saw some named after Lady Diana, Prime Minister Jean Chretian, Annika Sorenstam, Margaret Thatcher, Queen Elizabeth to name a few.
Leaving the gardens we returned to the hotel. Judy remained, lunched and rested at the hotel while Roger and Anne went to lunch with Geok, an old Citibank friend of Anne’s. She picked us up at the hotel and took us to a residential neighborhood in an upper middle class compound of some 1,000+ condominiums. Her good friend and cook started this Chinese restaurant and Geok was asked to manage the Front of House. ThaiPan Restaurant on 13 Siglap Road only serves the residents, has some 30 staff and is very popular. We enjoyed a terrific lunch, not really knowing what we ate, but delicious and enjoyed living like a local at least for a short time. It was great meeting her and for them to catch up on the past.
Returning to the hotel we were exhausted by the hot sun 40 degrees Centigrade, the walking and experiencing the exciting life, that we fell fast asleep. In the evening we met up with Judy and went to the LongBar at the Raffles Hotel (Opened on December 1, 1887 – most of which is closed for extensive remodeling) to enjoy peanuts and their famous Singapore Sling. This drink was invented there and requires a special hand cranked (20 times) shaker to get the correct frothiness and mix. What does it consist of you ask – Widges London Dry Gin, Benedictine, Luxardo Cherry Sangue Morlacco, Fernando Dry Curaçao, Raffles Signature Grenadine, Pineapple Juice, Fresh Lime Juice and Angostura bitters mixed and shaken 20 times on the hand cranked machine and served over ice. Delicious, but after two of them, one felt no pain!!! Peanuts were served in a jute sacks and the shells thrown on the floor – the traditional way it’s been done for years. We had to check out the bathrooms which are brilliant white marble with black polished granite, Orchids and a specially engraved Raffles door knob. The Sling was created in 1915 by the bartender Ngiam Tong Boon. At the time men would drink their whiskey or gin, but it was not socially acceptable for women to drink alcohol in public. So the bartender decided to make a feminine drink that appeared like a pink fruit juice using clear alcohol. Thus the ladies could drink their “fruit juice” along with the men.
After our enjoyable drink and soaking up the atmosphere we looked for a restaurant in the Raffles Mall – most of which were fast food, but we found an Italian place and after some confusion as to how to order we ended up with selecting different items on a paper that translated into an excellent salad. So all in all, a really fun day. Tomorrow, we board the ship and the adventure continues.
A picture of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles
Roger & Anne Travels 