The next day we did most of our historic stuff, taking the free train to the mainland/city and then buying our little cards to ride buses and trains all over. We enjoyed very much the World War II reenactment at the Battle Box, complete with wax figures from that famous Madame T?'s place in London. You could hear and see the British discussing their dire straits….This and the fabulous Italian restaurant where we had lunch are set in the beautiful Fort Canning Park. We walked in beautiful, peaceful residential neighborhoods that day too, and ended up at Raffles Hotel of course, which is a pilgrimage place for writers! I of course had to buy a leather thingie with a notebook tucked inside with Raffles' logo, and a book with its history and pictures of its amazing suites, and a tea towel with an old ad for them that proclaims that they even have electricity (provided, the book says, by their own generator).
The next day we went to Underwater World on "our" island, an aquarium. I had to go twice to my favorite exhibit there -- a moving sidewalk that takes you slowly through the middle of a huge curving tank, where stingrays and huge fish were swimming above and beside you! We also saw dolphins having a great time -- and though it was so hot by that point and the dolphin pool was outside, like all of Singapore it was planned perfectly -- right there I got a delicious strawberry-yogurt-ice shake so was fine. Well, especially with the ridiculous hat with a crab on top that I got for my dad and then "borrowed" for that day (sorry, Dad!).
After lunch that day we went to Fort Siloso on the same island. There and elsewhere I appreciated how they are very careful to state when they're not certain about a facet of Singaporean history. Later in the day we took a wonderful walk through a jungled area and saw two very pretty waterfalls. We ended our day with dinner and then a cable car up to the top of a hill from which we could see the sparkling city on one side and its zillions of huge lit-up ships on the other (Singapore is one of the world's largest ports).
The next day (our last) of course we had to do shopping -- though the sushi chef among us went instead to a famous sushi place in the city. Then we took a cab-van the hotel got for us, and the driver played a Jackie Chan DVD for those of us who could tear our eyes away from the lush greenery and fascinating architecture of Singapore (including the only buildings I've ever seen that look like a ship blew up onto their top).
We truly had a perfect vacation. I think one big reason I loved it was not only its interesting history and beauty, but how extremely well organized and clean it is! I loved the little cards for various transportation, breakfast, shopping discounts, even a restaurant, all credit-card sized! Photos I have seen online and in books do not capture Singapore, and my fantastic experiences at its wonderful airport and even its free tours from the airport did not prepare me for this beautiful, wonderful vacation.
