Singapore fling

We needed one more semi-spontaneous trip with Dave and Monique before they head off to Holland for the summer. Dave, having been in Singapore the prior week for work, recommended we pop down and spend a few days exploring the city. It was a holiday weekend in Malaysia, so plane tickets anywhere were expensive -- so Singapore had the advantage that we could drive there. The kids, having recently watched Pirates of the Caribbean 3, agreed that we needed a Singapore adventure.

Singapore is known as one of the cleanest, best organized country/cities in the world. There are lots of rules and everyone follows them, or you face large fines and other punishments, such as caning. One rule is that all cars in Singapore must be registered with the government. All Singapore cars have a wireless transmitter in them (think EZ Pass) and all foreign cars must be registered with the government upon entry. When you drive in Singapore, there are no stops for tolls or parking garages -- you just drive around and the tolls hit your account from the wireless transmitter. For foreign cars, photos of your license plate are sent to a central data system and your tolls/fees/fines compile for payment when you exit the country. Singapore was also the first city to implement electronic variable road pricing. Toll pricing is based on how much traffic is in a given area at a particular time. So if you head into downtown during rush hour, you might pay $15 dollars whereas we entered around noon, so it was only $1.

Tyler: This subway is soooo fast.

After a quick four hour drive from KL, we crossed the Straights of Johor and we were over the Singapore border. Unfortunately lack of signage left us driving out of the immigration checkpoint without registering our car. We stopped at several places, including the AutoPass top up station, but alas, in this efficient country THERE IS NO WAY to get an AutoPass if you happen to miss the location at the immigration checkpoint. Oh no... more on breaking Singapore law later...

Old meets new meets surveillance cameras

Singapore is highly urbanized with excellent public transit. After checking into the hotel and parking the car, an uncharacteristically slow drizzling rain waylaid our afternoon plans, so we found ourselves hanging out at a microbrewery in Clark Quay by the water. After drinking a full set, and critically rating each beer, the rain had stopped (Brian's crowning achievement was recognizing a traditional hand pulled English ale by taste). Singapore food seems to me basically expensive Malaysian food served in cleaner venues, but there is one exception -- chili crabs, a Singapore speciality. Yum! After stuffing ourselves with crabs, we took a lovely walk around Clark and Boat Quay. This is where I decided that I love Singapore. The walk was pleasant, clean, and quaint, yet modern. Almost Disney World-ish. The city integrates old (uber well-maintained, beautiful historic buildings) alongside modern glass high-rises. KL really lacks this kind of night life and historic preservation. I'd love to see KL clean up their polluted (nasty) rivers and develop such a place to walk.

 

 

Kids waiting for the light show to start

We spent our second day in Singapore taking the subway around town to visit Arab Street and Chinatown. After delighting the kids with an afternoon at the hotel pool, we headed to Gardens by the Bay, a newer area in town. This area is newer because it is a land expansion project made from filling in the ocean. The gardens are beautiful and filled with large scale public artworks, including a "grove" of light up "trees." There are two large conservatory domes, the flower dome and the cloud forest. The flower dome smelled good but didn't blow me away. The cloud forest dome was wonderful. It simulates a cloud forest environment, including a huge waterfall. As the sun was setting during our visit, the waterfall was beautifully lit (go Ravens!). Then you elevator way, way, way up and then slowly descend along a set of pathways watching the flowers and plants evolve as you move to lower altitude. We capped off the evening with a couple of free public light shows -- both again made me think I was in Orlando at Epcot (the second show even did the Fantasmic-style water screen projections - The Pohls would have been right at home).

High up on the cable cars. Sentosa Island cable cars
had a superheros theme, including masks for all!

For our final day in Singapore, we headed over to Sentosa Island, self-promotionally entitled 'Asia's Playground.' Sentosa, a 5 square km island is just a half kilometer from Singapore's mainland. Since everything is an adventure for the Pohl-Garibaldi/Badoux's, instead of driving to Sentosa Island, we drove up to a lookout point on the mainland across the harbor from the Island. From there we boarded a cable car that took us high above the water, through a building, and then landed on a hill on Sentosa. Sentosa's role in World War II is worth mentioning. The British fortified an old fort on Sentosa awaiting Japanese invasion from the southern sea. Doing so, they created a network of secret tunnels which remained undiscovered until 2001. The Japanese invaded Singapore by the north, not the south, and captured Singapore behind the Sentosa fortification.

Today a free public bus system runs circuits to take visitors to all the island's many attractions. Foregoing Universal Studios, we decided to hit up the aquarium and then the water park. (We'd seen the water park from the cable car and the kids, in sequential 5 minute rotations, inquired "Can we go there?" ...."Yes? How long until we leave for the water park?" ... "Fish are cool. When are we getting to the water park?")  The SEA Aquarium is huge. They even have a dolphin swim/trainer for a day program, but for somewhere between $200 and $450 dollars (depending on the number of minutes you spend with the dolphins) we decided to skip that attraction. The panoramic open ocean tank was the largest I've seen. Pretty cool. Unfortunately, the aquarium was incredibly crowded. And what's up with everyone taking pictures and videos on their smart phones of EVERYTHING? Really - I saw more of the aquarium THROUGH the screens of other people's phones. Has anyone ever seen the 'selfie-stick'? It's all the rage in SE Asia. People attach their smart phones to a telescoping aluminum pole so they can take better pictures of themselves. Some of them are even bluetooth enabled! It is one of the funniest things until the 4th or 5th time you get smacked in the head. We prefer to ask other people to just take our picture but maybe we're just getting old and crotchety.

Tyler took this picture. He asked that I please include it in the blog!

Post aquarium ("Mom, is it time to go to the water park yet?") we walked over to the also absurdly crowded water park. Despite the crowds and never getting on a slide due to the extreme waits, we had a blast! We floated the spectacular lazy river several times, checked out the wave pool, and climbed the water obstacles -- it was an all around fun afternoon. Great friends make awesome vacations! We wrapped up our Singapore trip with another evening of good beer. Great friends and good beer make even more awesome vacations!

Now as far as law breaking... we exited Singapore without having registered our car. After clearing immigration, we were directed to the AutoPass beat down office where Brian received a verbal caning for not having stopped for an AutoPass. We always thought Tyler would be the one to get in trouble in Singapore. After an hour and a half of stern warnings, we are now recorded in Singapore's police system as "officially warned." Friends heading to Singapore via Woodland or Tuas checkpoints, call me and I will let you know exactly where to find the AutoPass offices.

Of course after this trip to Singapore, we decided that we need JUST ONE MORE semi-spontaneous trip with Dave and Monique before they head off to Holland for the summer... so we're planning to close out the school year with a beach trip. Visit to Redang, anyone!?!

I'll leave you with a shot of all the kids on the lazy river... well it would have been all the kids but they flipped the tube right as I took the picture! Only V was spared thanks to her floaties...