Poor Singapore - Richard wrote this weeks ago but it kept falling to the bottom of the blog pile!
It would be easy to blow Singapore off - an Asian Chicago............but Singapore made us think and that was why we travel.
Singapore is incredibly urbanized, very ordered, very clean, very affluent, autocratic and very successful......it works really, really well.
The architecture is stunning (as is much of Asian metropoli) with a breathtaking Concert Hall that resembles the infamous Durian fruit
The rest of Singapore's downtown isn't shoddy either
What struck us most as Toronto residents was that Singapore has an optimistic plan. They are going big - David Miller eat your heart out.....or get off your ass.....below is the Harbour plan they're building now
Singapore preserves its role as a global crossroads. There is of course still Raffles - a remnant of the empire - which seems to be a shopping mall with a hotel as an appendage now. There is an Indian quarter and a Chinese quarter, both with shopping streets that are a marvelous spectrum of colours and fragrances - especially the candy and cookie markets
In the centre of Singapore is Clarke Quay - a totally created entertainment area (you can tell by the lighting structures and the buildings.....it's a South East Asian Disneyworld). But for all its artificiality, it is predictable, good value, safe and honest. After a month in SE Asia we wanted a hamburger and wings. We went to Hooters! It worked - you need a burger and wings every once in a while no matter how good the Thai and Lao food has been
Near our hotel was a wonderful fast food place where we ate breakfast. They had one of our favourite signs - it may not be big in North America
We figured the best way to spend our day was to hire a guide. We found an articulate, opinionated cab driver - it was much fun. We saw the rich and the poor; the homes and the businesses. Unfortunately photos from a cab window are not very interesting; other than the incredible orange trees being grown for homes for Chinese New Year
We ended our day with a visit to Singapore's Botanical Gardens (we love botanical gardens) and they have one of the world's largest collections of orchids.....so following - a lot of pictures of orchids.
A break in the run of orchid photos - there is an area devoted to hybrid orchids named after notable persons. We liked the Margaret Thatcher the best....it was iron gray and grew only to the right!
Lots more orchids photos to follow in the next post!
