We arrived in Singapore today. This is a very modern city that has only been independent since 1965 and all the updated development has taken place since then. Our tour today included a Singapore river cruise that allowed us to see both the new high rise buildings and the old shop houses. These have been preserved as part of the old historical city, which were buildings that had shops on the first floor and living quarters above in 2 or 3 more stories. We also toured the Chinatown museum that told the story of how the Chinese immigrated here and now are 76% of the population. The rest is made up Indian, Pakistani, Malays and Eurasian. The city is very clean and orderly.
After the tour, we visited the Raffles hotel, which is named after the Englishman who first developed Singapore starting in 1819 after convincing the Sultan to cede it to the East India Company. This is the hotel of the famous Singapore sling drink that was invented between 1910 and 1915. Tin enjoyed a Singapore sling and I had a “virgin sling.”
We also enjoyed participating in a walk on the deck for the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Fund as one of our onboard activities yesterday.
Our next port will be Phuket, Thailand on Monday.
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