The Traveling Martens

Last days in Singapore....

We went to the Boat Quay area in downtown Singapore for dinner. A large river runs through Singapore city and out into the ocean, and Boat Quay is a section of the city with dozens of nice restaurants and a walkway along the river. We took a river tour in a "bum boat", which is a low, flat boat which used to be used to ferry cargo along the river. We saw many of the government buildings on the water, and a large Merlion statue at the end of the river facing the ocean. The Merlion is Singapore's national symbol and is a mythical animal with the head of a lion and the body of a fish.

The next day, we went to Sentosa, which is a small island just off of downtown. We actually got to the island by riding a small, glass cablecar, just big enough for the two of us, out of the 20th story of an office building, across the green water, and over to the island. The cable car was 300 feet up in the air, and was definitely a little freaky, but gave us wonderful views of downtown Singapore city, the harbor, and several smaller islands. Sentosa is a small resort island for the locals, and we walked around the whole island, seeing several gardens, Merlion statues, and beaches. We walked along one beach which is the southern most point of continental Asia. We went to the aquarium on the island, which had a huge overhead tank full of all kinds of sharks and eels. The aquarium also had great displays of tropical fish, jellyfish, and seahorses. Next, we headed to the pink dolphin show. The pink dolphins were fun to see, they were a light gray on their backs, but had bright pink stomachs and sides.

We ate a light dinner near our hotel, and sat at an outdoor cafe for a while, before making it an early night as we left for Australia the next morning.

Singapore is an interesting place. It is beautiful, and we enjoyed the visit. The best analogy we can think of is the Jim Carrey movie "The Truman Show" in which he lives his life in a city inside a bubble. Singapore is definitely inside its own bubble. The island is immaculate, and the people seemed very middle class and above, shopping for Gudi, Versace and name brands everywhere. But it was only big-name companies that we saw, no small businesses or entreprenuers at all. We also never saw one policeman, as there is no crime with Singapore's infamous penalties for chewing gum, littering, and even for not flushing a public toilet. However, there are cameras EVERYWHERE! We think we would go a little stir crazy living in Singapore. One waitress told us about taking one vacation abroad, to Australia to see their Mardi Gras parade, and she told us how crazy she thought it was, she had never seen anything like that in Singapore!

We would definitely recommend visiting Singapore for a few days. It is so pretty, and everything about it is just nice. Even the subways smell fabulous, we honestly think the government must pump pleasant smelling scents into them!

posted by Mel and Stacy Marten @ 2:33 AM