December 23- At Sea

We left the Intercontinental Hotel about 10:00AM yesterday and joined other cruisers for a tour "The Footsteps of Raffles." Stamford Raffles was the founder of Singapore. 

The name and the symbol for the city with the lion's head and the mermaid tail comes from a mistake. An early founder thought he saw a lion- turned out it was a deer- but the word for lion is "singa." The name means "lion port" thus the lion and the water connection. The name of the symbol is Merlion.

We walked several blocks through a shopping center and boarded a Bum Boat for a rid

e on the Singapore River. The river in the 1970's  was so filled with trash boats could hardly go through. Then the city decided to clean it up. That process took 10 years. Our guide claimed the water was now good enough for people to swim in it and a large population of fish have returned to the water. Didn't look so terrific to us.

We saw the amazing skyline with the contrast of modern and old and reall

y rundown. The guide said the port, finances and then tourism were the main sources of income for the city.

We visited the Asian Civilizations Museum and made a quick photo stop at Raffles. I was so glad we had seen the hotel the night before.

Renewed acquaintance with another couple from our last cruise on Nautica who were also headed to the ship for this trip. And at breakfast this morning we saw Jennie, a wonderful and fun lady from Australia who was on our Orient trip also. 

We drove through the commercial port that was so very, very busy.

Singapore is 85% Muslim, 10% Christian and the rest a varied mixture of ethnic groups. The area is surrounded by countries that are totally Muslim and at one point the Singapore government was made up mostly of Christians and people believed that might be dangerous because of the surrounding countries. We found this city interesting.

Arrival was wild though the BIG terminal.

We finally got on board and and into Cabin 7035. We found two great gifts from Leigh Berghane- champagne and shipboard credit. Thanks to Leigh for all her wonderful efforts for us!

Happened to run into Inge and Lawrence on our way to the Welcome Aboard Show so we watched it together and then went to dinner in the Grand Dining Room. We also made some reservations at the special restaurants. Just love this ship.

Our time went backward an hour last night so we are 12 hours earlier than home. We'll get to see Santa a bit earlier.