After sleeping at the hotel for about four hours we were ready to explore Singapore. We only had one full day before we were to board the ship. 

We had a great breakfast at the hotel and decided the best way to get a quick overview of Singapore was to use their Hop On Hop Off buses.

First a few tidbits about Singapore, which means “City of Lions”. It is 88 miles from the equator and the 20th smallest country in the world. Singapore is very clean and very safe. If you pick a flower from a public area, jaywalk, spit on the street or fail to flush a public toilet you can be fined, but we were told these are rarely enforced. Chewing gum is not allowed and if you bring chewing gum into the country you can be charged with smuggling gum on the black market. On our tourist card it said in big letters that bringing drugs into the country is punishable by death. All of these fines and laws may seem overboard or even ridiculous, but in Singapore you see no homeless sleeping on the streets, no panhandlers, no trash and no crime. It simply is not tolerated. When the country gained independence in 1965 it was a country of slums without a proper infrastructure. Today, despite its small size it has one of the strongest economies in the world. It is a leader in trade, shipping and finance. 

However, it is also a very expensive place to live. It is especially expensive and difficult to own a car. In order to encourage public transportation they have a lottery system to get a permit to own a car. The lottery system is a Certificate of Entitlement which only gives you a legal right to own a car for ten years. After ten years you have to re-enter the lottery system. Once you are lucky enough to be allowed to own a car you have high registration fees and excise taxes, road taxes, motor insurance fees, high parking fees and high gasoline prices. And don’t forget high maintenance costs. It costs $2,000 Singapore dollars ($1,485 American dollars) just to get a driver’s license!

We spent the day riding the buses, hopping on and off at various stops. The heat and humidity was oppressive. It was truly terrible. We were glad to find a Hard Rock Cafe  where we had a great lunch and Bill purchased a Hard Rock Cafe Singapore T shirt to add to his Hard Rock Cafe T shirt collection. It was so nice to get into the air conditioning.

Remember I said there is no trash in Singapore. The Hop On Hop Off bus driver came to the upper deck of the bus to give a passenger his change. The driver noticed some trash an inconsiderate tourist had left behind. He was visibly upset and went downstairs to get a broom and dustpan to get it up. All this while we were sitting on the side of a busy street! 

We were able to see the US Embassy.

After dinner we walked down to the river not far from our hotel and had a lovely evening cruise on the Singapore River where we enjoyed some of the lights.

This is their old Parliament building.This is their space ship Supreme Court Building.

In order to see Singapore in depth you really need at least five to seven days. So many places we passed by but didn’t have time to experience. Here are some photos from our time there.

If you notice the large rat figurines, it is because they will be celebrating the Chinese New Year on January 25th and it is the Year of the Rat. We even found a Methodist Church.

Next up Thailand.

Well, the journey has begun! We buttoned up the RV, packed our bags and left Yuma headed to Los Angeles. It was cheaper to rent a car from Yuma to Los Angeles rather than pay for airport parking for a 34+ day adventure which includes a thirty day Asian cruise. 

It was a rather long five hour drive to Los Angeles and even though it was a Sunday afternoon, we had lots of traffic around Long Beach. After a quick dinner we turned in the rental car and walked the short distance back to the hotel. I wondered if we would be able to sleep because of anticipation of the long flights the next day, but we were so tired we quickly fell asleep.

The next morning we took the 7:00 A.M. hotel shuttle, a short ride since the hotel is a mile from the airport. 

When we printed our boarding passes we were very happy to see we were TSA pre-approved, meaning a shorter line at the airport and we could leave our shoes on. We flew ANA which is a Japanese airline. Our first flight was a twelve hour flight from LA to Tokyo. We then had a three hour layover followed by a seven hour flight from Tokyo to Singapore. When we checked in at the ANA desk we learned we had a free upgrade to Business Class from Tokyo to Singapore and free access to the Star Alliance Lounge at each airport. We were thrilled. 

After breezing through security we headed to the Lounge. Wow! We hadn’t eaten breakfast and Bill had a big plate of scrambled eggs, sausage, hash browns, orange juice and coffee, all included with the Lounge pass. With comfortable chairs and a quiet relaxing environment, we were very content until time to board the plane. 

A twelve hour flight is never easy but we were well prepared with compression socks to prevent deep vein thrombosis, a potentially deadly condition, as well as books on tape and plenty of snacks. We had booked Premium Economy seats which are a little more pricey than economy but gives you more legroom, very important on long flights. The time went by fairly quickly with some naps, a large selection of onboard movies to choose from and plenty of food and snacks. The airline offered a selection of Asian and Western dishes to choose from. The Japanese flight attendants were friendly, kind, helpful and very soft spoken. 

After an uneventful flight we landed in Tokyo and once again went to the Star Alliance Lounge with our complimentary pass. The layover went by quickly and we then boarded the flight to Singapore in our upgraded Business Class seats. All we can say is WOW! Our seats were like individual pods with a lot of legroom. Best of all the seat fully reclined into a bed. We were given a mattress for the bed (a new mesh mattress in a plastic bag) as well as a great pillow and duvet style blanket. As soon as we took off I made my bed and went to sleep, waking up six hours later, with an hour left in the flight. The flight attendants saw I was awake and remembering I had missed dinner they immediately asked if I wanted something to eat or drink. Bill had stayed awake long enough to have dinner and two glasses of complimentary red wine. He was still sleeping when I woke up and woke up a half hour before landing. It will be hard to go back to those premium economy seats on the flight home! Here are a couple pictures from the flight brochure of the pod beds.

We landed at 1:00 A.M. local time in Singapore. From the time we left the hotel in Los Angeles to the time we landed in Singapore was just under 24 hours and we skipped an entire day when we crossed the International Date Line. The free upgrade to Business Class was certainly a blessing that made the trip easier.

The Singapore Airport is beautiful and if it hadn’t been the middle of the airport we would have liked to explore the airport more. Here are a few pictures we quickly snapped on the way to baggage claim.

After collecting our bags we went through immigration. The immigration officials were very friendly.  They stamped our passports, fingerprinted our thumbs digitally, gave us candy and sent us on our way with a cheery “Enjoy your visit to Singapore!”

We walked downstairs to public transportation and got the 24 hour city shuttle which took us to our hotel for $9 Singapore dollars which is $6.67 American dollars each. Knowing we would be arriving after midnight, all this had been researched ahead of time. 

We arrived at the hotel at few minutes after 3:00 A.M. We had notified the hotel of our late arrival and our room was waiting for us. 

After napping until 8:00 A.M. we had nice breakfast at the hotel and then hit the streets to explore Singapore. 

We are not sure what our Internet will be like over the next month but we will post to the blog when we can. We are dedicated to blogging about this trip, but it may take awhile getting all the blogs done. 

Next time we will have plenty of pictures from Singapore. 

Singapore, WOW!