A little about Singapore

I really enjoyed my time in Singapore. It is amazing to think of how much they did with their country in only a few decades, and that the man who made modern Singapore is still alive. Singapore built its economic strength by maintaining its base (which started mostly in the 19th century) as a massive port city. Even today, many of the commodities we use have passed through Singapore at least once. Two days ago I went to the top of the Marina Bay Sands, and aside from the beautiful view of the island and ocean what is truly remarkable are the vast number of ships that crowd the coastline. They are all either leaving the harbor or waiting to dock and relieve their loads. The shipyards are massive, with giant crates piled on top of each other taking up what appear to be acres of land. Looking from the ships back to the gleaming buildings on land is the clearest explanation I've ever seen to how a nation acquires wealth. You can trace cause and effect in a mere glance across the horizon.

That day I also went to the Asian Civilizations Museum, which has excellent exhibits on all Asian cultures: south, west, straits, etc. They had an array of artifacts, from giant drums to wedding garments to illuminated copies of the Quran. Every exhibit has multiple multimedia stations that you can stop at that play videos and display more information on any topic you could possibly think of. One thing people in Singapore do right is give you ALL the facts.

I also went to the Peranakan museum, which celebrates the rich history of the Peranakan people. Peranakan is like mestizo, it means someone who has mixed native ancestry with some other county--in this case India and China. Men who traded with the native people in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia interacted a good deal with the women and sometimes decided to stay put and marry to make a family there. Many people in this region identify as Peranakan, and have unique foods and traditions that set them apart from their fully Indian or Chinese counterparts.

I also had a good deal of Singapore food. They absolutely love toast, so there are toast-themed restaurants to be found everywhere. It's served with kopi (coffee) or teh (tea). The accent and phonetic spelling confused me at first, but you get used to it once you hear them talking long enough.

One of the last things I did was very fun but not very cultural: visit the Harry Potter exhibition, where they have on display many of the real props and costumes used in the lining of the eight Harry Potter movies. This is the first time the show has hit Asia, and I was offered a discount ticket when I went to enter the Marina Bay Sands viewing area. Of course I couldn't say no! And it was a very fun time indeed: I got to see wands, gowns, even the creatures they used in the films. The best part was I wasn't the only adult woman there--I meet a teacher from the Philippines who was traveling, like me, and just couldn't say no to the opportunity.

I'd like to tell more about Singpore, but unfortunately I am leaving on a trek to see some wild orangutans! Wish me luck! I should be back on the 7th. Take care until then!