Sorry if I scared you. I did not spontaneously combust in Singapore. When we finished our short tour yesterday we had to hurry to a party organized for all the Canadians onboard and then we had to rush to our dinner reservation, which was followed by my attendance at Asia Night on Deck 5. Linda caught the start of the third venue but then she had to retire. She can finish a running marathon but when it comes to marathon partying you better send me in. But I’m sure you are more interested in hearing about the port-of-call.
Singapore is a pretty amazing city-state. As a sovereign nation it is one of the smallest behind other city-states like Monaco and The Vatican. As a nation though it has a pretty amazing economy and boasts the 6th best GDP per capita of all the countries in the world (our ship handout quoted it as 3rd best GDP but I checked the CIA factbook). This is really significant when you consider it is such a diminutive urban area jammed in between Indonesia and Malaysia, countries that are very poor in comparison.
I think one of the main reasons Singapore has done so well has to do with that old real estate adage, “location, location, location”. It has one of the finest deep-water ports in the world and it is situated in a bottleneck passage between the islands of Southeast Asia that separate the Pacific Rim from the Indian Ocean. Essentially most trade from the high growth economies of the world passes through Singapore.
Singapore is an amazing contrast to Saigon and is more in-line with Hong Kong in the density of skyscrapers and the burgeoning central business district. I did not see a single scooter there though and that is because Singapore is a showcase in urban planning. They have one of the best public transport systems of anywhere in the world and everyone uses it. We saw some cars but running an automobile there is so expensive only the super-rich can afford it. We were told that the government taxes the hell out of the car owners.
What also sets Singapore apart from everywhere else is the lush green spaces everywhere. The planners included many beautiful parks and although it is a concrete jungle it does not feel like it when you are walking around in it.
We took a four-hour tour yesterday and covered the high points but we are sort of upset that the cruise company did not let us spend more time there. We definitely want to go back because we only scratched the surface of this ultra-clean, modern, English-speaking country. The captions on the photos, which follow in a blog I will follow-up with momentarily tell the story of some of what we saw today.
We are currently steaming along through the Malacca Strait headed for Phuket, where we are to dock tomorrow morning. It will be a day at sea today but it will be made interesting by two necessary events. First of all I have run out of underwear and will be doing laundry today. And secondly, tonight at 11pm my time I will be connecting to a Skana Exploration Ltd. Board of Directors meeting scheduled for 10 am Calgary time. Isn’t modern technology grand?
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