In the 1980s, due to overcrowding and congestion, Singapore’s government authorities began moving street-food vendors into new buildings with facilities to help improve hygiene and cleanliness. Known as hawker centres, they are effectively large food courts with stalls around the perimeter serving a wide variety of affordably priced food. 

The Chinatown Complex Food Centre is one of the city’s oldest of its kind housing over 200 vendors specializing in everything from roasted duck to claypot rice and all else in between! The building has a wonderfully scruffy ambience and we were able to find its most notable vendor – Hawker Chan, formerly known as Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle – likely the world’s cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant!

Resembling a surfboard sitting on top of three high-rise buildings, the Marina Bay Sands hotel is an iconic part of the Singapore skyline.

Allegedly, a deck of cards inspired Israeli-born Canadian architect Moshe Safdie’s blueprints for three main towers which house over 2,500 hotel rooms with prices that usually hit $500+ a night. Cantilevered on top is the SkyPark offering a 360-degree view of Singapore and the opportunity to dip into an infinity pool!

In front of the hotel are three low-rise domes featuring wave-form roofs which are home to an exclusive shopping mall, fine-dining, an indoor skating rink, nightclubs and all the facilities necessary to support a convention centre capable of holding 45,000 people!

A short walk from Singapore’s main business district lies an engineering and architectural marvel known as Gardens by the Bay.

It is hard to imagine that this horticultural destination was once sea, then sand and soggy soil. Yet, in a five year time-span, an inter-disciplinary team of international and local architects, engineers and landscape specialists successfully transformed a barren site bereft of road, drains and electricity into a lush green space where over 1 million plants reside. Plants, trees and flowers from every continent, except for Antarctica, can be found in the Gardens.

Inspired by mature trees in a rainforest, the  16-story-tall, vertical gardens are fitted with state-of-the-art technology that mimics the ecological function of real trees. These man-made structures have been designed to collect rainwater, generate solar power and act as venting ducts for the park’s conservatories. 

The Cloud Forest, above right, is one of the two armadillo-shaped hothouses located within the Gardens by the Bay. It houses the world’s largest indoor (man-made) waterfall. The Flower Dome, above left, houses plants from the Mediterranean and semi-arid subtropical regions.

Singapore is a sunny, tropical island in SouthEast Asia off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It is a city, a nation and a state which covers some 275-square miles and is inhabited by some 5-million people from four major communities: Chinese, Malay, Indian and Tamil.

Known as a City in a Garden, nearly 50 percent of Singapore is a green space. It is a thriving metropolis offering a world-class infrastructure with a fully integrated island-wide transport network, a dynamic business environment, vibrant living spaces and a rich culture largely influenced by its four major communities with each offering a different perspective of life in Singapore in terms of culture, religion, food, language and history.

The Singapore River.

I am taking a day or two to recover from jet lag and will be back blogging on Sunday, October 28th and look forward to sharing our adventures with you.

We are a party of three for the first two weeks – Mike, myself and long-time friend and traveling companion Mike Neary, aka Uncle Mike – spending six days in Singapore, six days in Bangkok and two days in Pattaya Beach, Thailand.

Uncle Mike then returns home to Chicago and Mike and I join the Silverseas ship, the Silver Whisper, for a 14-day cruise to Vietnam stopping in Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Ha Long Bay, Nha Trang and finally ending in Singapore.

From here, Mike and I fly to Adelaide to see family, returning to Singapore for a overnight stop and then homeward bound some 35 days after leaving.

Good to have you aboard and see you Sunday!