Exploring new things to do in Singapore

We think Singapore must be the world’s cleanest country.  It is against the law to sell chewing gum or to

bring it into the country.  That’s because people were sticking it in the subway doors and spitting it on the sidewalks. They really enforce the laws prohibiting littering, graffiti and drugs.  They want to keep the country beautiful. There are so many trees and flowers it is called “The Garden Country.” We think they are very clever.  Instead of a sign saying “Do not jaywalk” the sides of the streets are lined with shrubs so the only place to cross the street is at the legal crosswalk.

We visited the newest attractions, Gardens by the Bay.  It is amazing and concerned about the environment.  They have what they call Supertrees.  Some are 150-feet tall and are connect by a garden walkway.  The Supertrees serve several purposes. Singapore is hot and sunny so they provide shade and also as a structure for plant life. They are designed to store solar energy and rain water that they use in the gardens. Inside the Flower Dome was just as impressive with plants, flowers, and trees from around the world. 

From the Gardens by the Bay we had a great view of Marina Bay Sands Hotel which is very unique looking

with three tall pillars of rooms with a flat top. We went to visit because we had heard about their swimming pool. The swimming pool is on the roof 52 floors above the ground. It has incredible, heart-stopping views of Singapore. It looks like people could swim over the edge but they can’t.

There is an ArtScience Museum as part of the hotel.  Do you have LEGOS?  They had an exhibit, The Art of the Brick, with all the sculptures made of LEGOS. The artist, Nathan Sayawa, was a lawyer but he found enjoyment sitting on the floor creating artwork from LEGOs. When he found he could make a living by creating with his LEGOS so left his law practice and now does what he loves to do. We loved that story and were amazed by his creations. 

Singapore was a trading port – and still is.  Over the years traders from

the countries of Malaysia, India and China settled there.  When the Chinese traders married the Malaysian ladies there cultures mixed creating a new culture called Peranakan. We went to the Peranakan Museum to learn more about their ways. Mostly, there were hard working and successful.  They use to live in places called shophouses.  Their shops would be on the ground floor and they would live on the top floor.  Like their clothing and dishes the shophouses were brightly decorated.

We went to a shophouse which today has a store on the ground floor but the floor above is now a cooking school.  We learned to make three Peranakan recipes.  One was chicken satays – chicken on a stick which is served with a spicy peanut sauce.  It is very popular in Singapore and very good. We also learned to make another popular local noodle dish called Fried Kway Teow. And for dessert we made Kueh Dadar which are thin pancakes with coconut filling.  We really liked them.  Making the pancakes can be a bit tricky. Our teacher, Lena Tan said, “The first one is a test. Experiment to get it right. It you get it wrong you can just eat it!”

Singapore: The Lion City

In Singapore many people speak English because years ago, like the United States, Singapore was ruled by the English. Singapore is called the Lion City. According to a local legend in the 14th century a Malay prince landed safely on the island of Singapore after a thunderstorm and saw a beast on the shore. His chief minister said it was a lion. However, lions never lived in the area so they think what they saw was really a tiger.

Today Singapore is a model city. It is extremely clean. Chewing gum is illegal. We asked why? A guide told us. “When the new transportation system was first built people were sticking gum in the doors to keep them from closing. Since gum isn’t necessary and people were not using it properly they outlawed it.” The city has so many trees that another name for Singapore is “The Garden City.”

After World War II Singapore was not a beautiful place. It has taken many years to turn it from a dirty war-torn country into a model one. Singapore has always been an important trading port because it is in the middle of the trade routes between Asia and the rest of the world. We took a ride on the Singapore River which runs through the city and has been a busy river for years. Now it is mainly used for tourist boat rides. The guide on the boat ride told us, “It took 10 years to clean up the river. They removed 15 feet of sludge from the bottom of the river.” People often used the rivers as a place to throw their garbage and in many places they still do.

Singapore has no natural resources so they depend on tourism to earn money. They are always thinking of wonderful things for tourists to do. The Singapore Zoo was the first to have night safaris where open buses take visitors from one part of the zoo to see the animals at night. Many wild animals are more active at night. They even have trails people can walk. They must have a special way to keep the animals in their own area but we didn’t see any fences.

Their newest tourist attraction is the Singapore Flyer. It is the world’s largest observation wheel. The Flyer is 541 feet high and takes about 30 minutes to make one complete circuit. Each capsule holds 28 people. A narration along with a map details the sites we could see from the Flyer. The Flyer is located in a new area of Singapore. The country is small but they are making it bigger by adding “reclaimed land.” They build new land but dumping rocks and dirt along the edge of the land. Many cities like New York and Boston have gotten bigger by adding more land along the waterfront. From the Flyer we saw the newest development. Sometime this year, Singapore will open the world’s largest hotel with over 2000 rooms. There will be three 55-story towers connected at the top with a unique sky garden.

We love the Flyer but we also liked the Yakult Rainforest built beneath the Flyer. We think it is very clever because it hides the foundation and supporting structure of the Flyer. The Yakult Rainforest has tropical trees, waterfalls, and pools with koi fish. Koi fish are like large gold fish. In the Asian way of thinking the area blends the basic elements of water, earth, and sky. We wonder what they will think of next.

Hello from Singapore

Hello! That is the common greeting in Singapore. Singapore was once an English colony just like America. Singapore has been a crossroads on the trading routes for hundreds of years with people from India, Malaysia, China, Holland, Portugal, and England. There were so many different languages it made it difficult to do business. When the English came they brought their language and over the years the people developed a language called Singlish. Singlish is a combination of English and words from all the other languages. The government has promoted the Speak Good English Movement because they think that when business people arrive in Singapore and hear Singlish they don’t take the businessperson seriously.

Because so many different people came here to work and live there are interesting walking tours. We took a walking tour of the Chinese neighborhood where the traditional homes have been beautifully restored. They are called shop houses because they had their shop on the ground floor and lived in the top floors. Many of the shops have bamboo eaves above the shop because bamboo symbolizes luck and success.

One day we took a cable car to Sentosa Island. At one time there was a fort to defend it from invaders especially during World War II. After the war the island was developed as a recreation area and named Sentosa, which means "peace." It is an improvement over the former name, which meant "death from behind." We made two friends, Summer S. and Evelyn B. They are students learning to be tour guides. They told us about things to do on Sentosa. Our favorite was the Images of Singapore where we learned about life in Singapore past and present. One display showed Malay children playing hopscotch and playing with a top. Seems that all children like the same things. Our guides told us that in Singapore, "The World becomes one because it is where the four winds come together. From the East we get our strong sense of family, from India we get our idea of peace, from Malaysia our sense of community and from Europe our need for harmony."

One of the most exciting things to do in Singapore is to go on Night Safari. Many jungle animals are nocturnal. From the tram tour we saw lions, hyenas, jackals, and other night animals on the prowl. The lights are dim like it would be a full moon night and fences were so well disguised that we couldn’t see them. They also had a native group from Borneo that did an incredible fire-eating show. We could feel the heat from the flames and couldn’t figure out why they didn’t get burned.

We also went to the Science Museum with amazing optical illusions and educational displays. They even had an area called Snow City. It is very hot in Singapore and it never snows so people are fascinated by snow. They love to touch it to experience how cold it is. They can’t imagine living someplace where it snows.

Singapore has the world’s tallest Ferris wheel called The Flyer. It is 541-feet high. Each "car" can carry 28 people. The view of the city from the top is amazing. There are so many things to do in Singapore that we want to visit again. But, we must remember not to bring any gum. It is against the law to bring chewing gum into Singapore because people where spitting it on the sidewalks and sticking it places. Singapore is a very neat and clean county. Maybe this is not such a bad idea.