Day 11: Separate, then together

Joshua and I wanted to see things today that Randy said that he saw yesterday, so we split up again with plans to meet for dinner.  First, Joshua and I had to walk through Little Turkey to go to the subway.  We also had to walk through a less prosperous neighborhood and counted 4 pieces of litter on the ground. 

Little Turkey neighborhood

Mosque in the background

In Hong Kong we saw signs everywhere about trying to control
mosquitos.  This is the first one we've seen in Singapore.

We took the subway to the Old Hill Street Police Station. It is an historical landmark near Fort Canning Park.  It was originally a police station for the British in 1934, then Japanese army barracks during the occupation. Then the government took it over and government offices are there now.  Currently it houses the Ministry of Communications and Information and the Ministry of Culture, Community, and Youth.

The courtyard which had a glass roof added so that it could be air conditioned.

Then we attempted to use Google Maps to walk to the Merlion Park.  Well, it had us walking through the middle of a cricket stadium, then crossing the water on a dotted line.  So, we made our own way near there and stopped at a Starbucks for a cool-down and refresher.  The heat index was at 107 degrees Fahrenheit today.  We had shaken lemonade iced tea, hibiscus flavor (in the US they're called refreshers, hibiscus flavor).  The store was the 100th Starbucks in Singapore.  The Marina Bay area is like Manhattan, a Starbucks around every corner!  This one was huge, with couches and a huge glass window overlooking the bay with a counter to sit at the window. 

The original fire station next to the old police station

More promotion of moral behavior

Interesting building

This is the courtyard of the National Gallery (where we stopped to cool off)

The National Gallery uses the original City Hall and Supreme Court buildings.  They
enclosed the space between as an atrium and added air conditioning.

The original cricket clubhouse.  This area had many Victorian British buildings.

The front of the National Gallery.  In the foreground is the old Supreme Court building.

Skyline of the financial district

Victoria Theater and memorial

If you're looking for the green man, here's how to find him!

After our drink, we looked at Google maps (with the park across the street).  It showed us going across the river on the bridge, then coming back on a dashed line, so we wondered if we were supposed to swim or stick out our arms and fly.  It turns out that the dashed line was a pedestrian bridge but there was no reason to cross the road bridge and return on the pedestrian bridge since we could cross the street on the road underpass and be at the park.  Weird Google maps!  The Merlion is like a mermaid lion (remember Singa Pura means Lion City in Sanskrit).  So Joshua and I took pictures, then Randy texted that he wasn't feeling well, could we meet earlier, say at 5:30.  Well, it was 4:30, so Joshua and I hung around the Marina Bay area for an hour, walking a bit and taking pictures until Randy got there.

Here is the pedestrian walkway that was a dashed line of Google Maps.

Small merlion fountain.

Big Merlion

Sands Marine Bay Hotel

Helix bridge in the background

Merlion

Then we used Google Maps to find a food court (they call them hawker centres) with Asian food.  There was a sign that said that 91% of the people of Singapore see hawker centers as central to the culture of the country.  They value people coming together over food.  Then we walked back to the Marina Bay Area, then around the bay to see the Helix Pedestrian Bridge (which is right next to the Sands Marina Bay Hotel) lit up. 

A field filled with an aerobics class.

Joshua dreaming

These chairs are just placed here to use and can be moved around.
No one takes them.  Very low crime rate in Singapore.

Financial district skyline near sunset.

Financial district at night

Helix bridge

Science museum

Helix bridge

On the Helix Bridge

Then we walked through part of the Sands Hotel mall (filled with designer stores) to the subway station to get home. 

Inside the hotel shopping mall

Crystals hanging down that are lit up

The colors on the floor change depending on the movements of who is walking on it

Another helpful hint of how to get on and off the subway cars

 

Day 10: Separation Day

One of the bays in Singapore

Today I woke up and still couldn't get the water warm, so I went back to bed to read until Randy and Joshua woke up.  Well, they slept in even much later than I did!  I had Randy watch me turn on the water to see what my problem was.  Well, the water is backwards--you have to turn it to the right where the blue is instead of the left where the red mark is.  I had tried that, but evidently didn't hold it there long enough.  So we decided to split up today.  Joshua and I wanted to go to the History Museum, so Randy went to a part of town where he wanted to take photos.  The History Museum of Singapore isn't as glitzy as the History Museum of Hong Kong and only started in the 14th century instead of 400,000,000 years ago, but it was really good.  I felt that I had a much better handle on the history at the end.  And of course I had my history nerd with me to answer any questions that I had!  The museum focused on the settling of the area, and the meaning of the name Singapura which is its Malay name.  It is from the sanskrit "lion city" because a Sumatran Prince went there and saw what he believed to be a lion and named it Singapura (instead of its old name, Temasek).  Then there was a lot about the colonization by Great Britain, then the occupation by Japan (that was a black time including Japan's persecution of the Chinese), then the withdrawal of Great Britain, the alliance with Malaysia, then the separation from Malaysia.  The head of state actually cried about how the separation was handled.  Then about the creation of the country (city-state) of Singapore.  That is why the city seems somewhat Disneyesque, I think.  It reminds me of Tomorrowland, of Disney World.  Very well planned and orderly and supremely clean and polite.  They even have red and green lines and arrows to show you where to wait and where to alight from each subway car.  There are lanes for walking each way marked at the airport and in the MRT stations.  No one crosses the street until the green walking figure lights up.  The country all came together and created a planned community.  They planted trees to become a garden city (they have a tree planting day every year), they planned communities of homes so that everyone had an affordable home and that many people could eventually buy their homes.  Each group of homes had a business area with shops.  They introduced family planning.  Then they thoughtfully planned industrialization and investment by foreign companies to grow the economy.  Sounds like a Republican's nightmare!  Every worker's wages doubled and the number of women in the workforce in the 70s tripled!  So far, I haven't seen a beggar, a slum, or a homeless person.

The museum

A ship exploring

A rickshaw

Japanese occupation

They had these Quiet Spots spread out in the museum--maybe for people
with sensory processing issues or anxiety?

Modern (1970s) apartments

Social engineering

Creating a Garden City

Becoming a Global City

Art installation

These are in the subway.  This is Stand up Stacy, then there's
Move to the Middle Melvin, and Bags on the Floor Benny.  

Another part of the museum was the Story of the Forest.  Starting on the second floor, first you go into a dome room with flowers falling from the sky, and it smells like flowers.  Then you follow a path with a moving woodland scene happening.  Then another dome with flowers falling from the sky and woodland scenes on the side walls.  There are huge cushions on the floor, so Joshua and I laid down to watch it.  It was very soothing.

Because it was just the two of us, Joshua and I spent a long time at the museum (and we didn't even get to see the exhibits on life in Singapore on the second floor).  Then we found an Asian food foodcourt for dinner before meeting up with Randy at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.

Huge tree--Joshua is in front for size comarison

The front part of the museum

Dinner.  Joshua tried sushi and I had orange chicken with rice (and an egg).
The chicken was crunchy and had chunks of orange rind in it and was very good.
Joshua wasn't a fan of the sushi and we had to go get a sandwich for his dinner.

You can buy a pass to go up to the observation deck of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel (the one from the movie).  By the time we were up there, it was getting dark.  We saw the hotel's light show, then went to the other side and waited 5 minutes to see the Gardens by the Bay's light show.  They were both rather uninspiring.  The Garden's was too far for us to hear the music and the hotels' was too slow.  But it was beautiful up there.  They have millions of tons of soil there for the plants and millions of liters of water for the pool (we weren't allowed to see those from the observation deck).  Joshua checked out room prices--$500 per night for a typical room and $6000 per night for the suites!

From the observation deck

The light show

The Gardens by the Bay

The Gardens' light show

Then back to our apartment.  I'm ready for bed!  Joshua just showed me some video of the violent riots in Hong Kong and how they broke into the government building.  Scary--glad we missed that!