March 31 – Viking Orion docked at the Singapore Cruise Centre at noon. A delay in obtaining clearance squeezed our tours – the free included bus tour and the Singapore by Night tour together with only a half hour between them.
Our free bus tour stopped at Merlion Park at Marina Bay
and the Budda Tooth Relic Temple in China Town before returning to the cruise
terminal via Little India. Along the way our excellent guide provided Singaporean
tidbits including commentary of a legal nature:
Smoking in Public is
prohibited – I didn’t see a single person smoking.
Chewing gum is prohibited altogether.
Eating or drinking on public
transport is prohibited – the subway cars and stations are spotless.
Littering can earn one fine
starting at $1000 fine and a stint in a very public place wearing a shirt
promptly displaying Corrective Work Order on the back so all your
friends get you on social media in real time.
Prisoners are not coddled. A prisoner’s day starts at 5 AM with a piece
of stale bread and a glass of water followed later in the day another piece of
bread – that’s it.
I picked a few more rules off the internet:
Walking around one’s house
naked is prohibited. We didn’t see any naked people anywhere.
No more than five people can
gather in public. Protests are only allowed at the Speaker’s Corner. We didn’t encounter any protests, didn’t hear
anyone screaming, yelling or blasting away on a megaphone.
Pornography is not allowed
on home computers.
The Merlion, a mythical fish-lion creature is the official
Singaporean mascot. The fish represents its beginning as a fishing village and
the lion its original name, Singapura.
Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum is absolutely stunningly
ornate inside with many Buddhas, monks and worshiping Buddhists. Our guide said that her Buddhism was more a
way of life than a religion. Shouldn’t any religion be a way of life?
The temple deserved more time than we had but we hung
around for cups of iced coffee at a food court while rain swept across the parking
lot below before continuing the tour.
Video
Back at Orion, we quickly changed our clothes and shoved
our big bags out tour cabin door so that they could be transported to the
terminal for us to claim in the morning. Then we made a mad dash back to our bus for
the night tour.
First up, Merlion again this time with light rain
followed by a Singapore River Cruise. Remember the eyes? Eyes at the bow scare away monsters that live
in the water. Singapore really lights up at night but Hong Kong is more spectacular.
Video
To top off the night each of us had a Singapore Sling with peanuts at the iconic Raffles’ Long Bar. Our drinks were no doubt watered down, for the best I am sure as we had to descend a circular staircase on the way out. Peanut shells are traditionally swept from the table to the floor – now I know where Texas Roadhouse and Five Guys got the idea.
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