Singapore Day 1

The photo above is my morning shot from the balcony in Singapore Harbor. We didn’t dock until noon. Our tour was scheduled for 12:45. We got off the ship and had to go thru immigration. That took 45 minutes. The line was really long and we had to go through to an agent, show our passport, get photographed and thumb printed. We will have to go through the agent every time we get off the ship. What a pain in the neck!
we finally boarded our bus at 2:00 for the Panoramic tour of the city. We went to Chinatown first. We stopped near a big Buddhist temple. That’s where the restrooms were so Bunny and I had to wend our way through many worshippers to find one open. I had to put a shawl around my shoulders because I was wearing a sleeveless shirt. The temple was very busy. It was beautiful. We didn’t have enough time to really look around before we had to get back on the bus. From Chinatown, we drove to another area. The guide emphasized that all cultures live together in peace in Singapore. So he took us to an area where the was a Buddhist temple and a Hindu temple on the same street with a former Protestant church nearby. But first we went to a coffee shop to have Singapore coffee. They use condensed milk in the coffee. It looked pretty strong. I had a Coke. From there we went to the Opera House but didn’t tour it. We were there to look at the Marina Bay Sands hotel and the Singapore river. We took some photos and got ourselves dinner to go. There was a Subway in the hall under the Opera House. We drove back to the cruise terminal. There is a food court attached to the terminal so we sat there to eat our sandwiches. It was a taste of home! We met Betty and Rudy there so we could all take the shuttle to the Marina Bay Convention Center which is attached to the most upscale mall I’ve ever seen. There was a light show at the Gardens, a 15 minute walk away, then a water and laser show outside the mall. I decided not to make the walk to the garden knowing I wouldn’t be able to get back for the water show. So Bunny and I wandered around the mall and went outside to get a spot for the show. We thought it was at 8:00 but it was 8:30, so we had a long time to wait. It was a pleasant evening if a little bit to humid for me! We took the shuttle back to the ship, arriving at 10:00. We were pretty tired. It took forever to upload photos so I gave up and went to bed. We are going on a Singapore by night tour tonight so I probably won’t post until the next day after we leave port. So many people asked how I’m doing because I missed a day. Thanks for your concern. Blame it on the lousy WiFi on the ship. Photos today are the temples, Hindu is the colorful one. The Marina Bay Sands, the light show and night shot of the city. Just realized I didn’t put tho hotel photo in here. I will do it next post. It looks like a giant surfboard in the sky.