Wednesday, May 31, 2017

A Swing through Singapore

With a few regrets, we flew North to Singapore from beautiful Palau Flores in Indonesia.  Finley had a friend who visited Singapore a few years ago, so he was a fountain of facts about this interesting city-state. It’s a very environmentally focused country with creative ways of disposing of trash and keeping its outputs carbon neutral. Despite its cosmopolitan, wealthy vibe, it’s basically a socialist system and 90% of residents live in government housing.  It’s exceptionally clean and very safe.  It’s also famously humid, and we frequently scurried into air conditioning for a cool-off.
 
 Colonial-era shop houses were everywhere.


 
Singapore’s amazing cloud forest biodome

 

Public transportation is excellent and traffic is very manageable.  Singapore has essentially regulated away the scooter hordes that plague other big cities in SE Asia--levying huge fees & taxes on scooters and motorcycles.


 
For a change of pace, we stayed in Wink Hostel, a cool backpacker destination with a few large family rooms.  The individual pods were a hit.


On our first day of exploring, we were met and shown around Little India and Arab-town by the wonderful Robin Smith, an expat Idahoan who sailed on the Wunderpus with us along with her husband Roland.  Robin and Roland have been living & working in Singapore for four years and love it.
  
 Little India with Robin leading the way



Do NOT mess with Godess Kali

this kid keeps photobombing me


Two Signapore Slings at the famous Raffles Hotel set us back about $60 U.S.  Ouch.  At least the bar was full of other tourists paying through the nose for spiked pineapple punch.








The Super Trees (Megan's favorite) were a cool attraction.


Super trees by day
Super trees at dusk

Etc...


The Marina Bay Sands Hotel/Casino/Shopping Mall, which seems like it was visible from everywhere in Singapore, has a weird UFO/Ocean liner hat


When one does not feel like simply walking in the mall beneath the Marina Sands, one takes a hired boat.
Cool double helix bridge downtown

Requisite shot with the Singapore Merlion


River dining late to beat the heat




Onward!








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