Tuesday, March 21st, 2023 Queen Victoria, Singapore
Updated: Jul 3, 2023
We’ve visited Singapore several times before; it was a necessary stop on my way to work in Penang – we’d always enjoyed our visits and so we were really looking forward to reacquainting ourselves with the city-state. This was our first visit to Singapore by ship, we docked at the cruise terminal near the Downtown Core area at about noon – we could already feel the heat of the city from our balcony viewpoint. Singapore is one of the few ports where we were asked to show passports and go through immigration every time we got off and back on the ship; the first disembarkation took the longest and involved and in-person check, but subsequent visits were handled by automated passport and facial recognition systems. The ship was running a shuttle bus to the convention center, close to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel but on previous visits to Singapore we’d always used the rapid transit system (MRT); it’s very extensive, easy to use and inexpensive – so this was or plan for this visit as well. We followed the covered walkway that led from the cruise terminal for about 500M to the Marina South Pier MRT station, about a 10-minute walk. The MRT system offers several payment methods, we opted to use our credit cards for the first day – as it was already well into the afternoon and bought 2-day tourist passes (about 16USD each) for the next two days. Using credit cards is very easy on the MRT, just swipe your card to open the entry gate, board the train and go wherever you want, then swipe your card to open the exit gate. We made our way to the Kampong Glam area of Singapore, an area of old shop houses surrounding the Sultan Mosque – also home to Arab Street, famous for fabric stores. When planning a route around Singapore it’s important to ensure you have the shortest possible distance between air-conditioned locations – the intense heat and humidity have a dramatic impact on your comfortable walking range. Arab Street was about a 10-minute walk from the Bugis MRT Station, not too bad – the other trick is to occasionally drop into an air-conditioned shop as you browse along the street. Arab Street is packed with fabric, carpet, and a whole host of other sewing related shops – the sidewalk actually cuts under the front of the shops and the goods “spill out” so that as you walk down the street it has a distinctly “Arab bazar” feel to it. Walking in the direct sunlight was almost impossible, but under the cover of the storefront it was just bearable. With the fabric itch at least partially satisfied, we took the MRT back to the City Hall station and went into the Raffles City shopping mall. I’m convinced that a large proportion of Singapore’s population live a troglodyte existence. Alongside the older areas of the city like Kampong Glam and China Town, there are hundreds of modern spectacular skyscrapers and beneath these modern structures lie large shopping malls connected by a series of subterranean walkways, all airconditioned – I’d bet that any time of the day a significant portion of the city’s population is underground. The shopping malls have all of the famous luxury brands, Singapore is a very wealthy City, and in the basement, there are always an amazing array of café’s, restaurants, and food shops.
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