Trip to India and Surrounding Areas - Singapore, April 2, 2017 - Boarding the Celebrity Solstice

We were able to sleep better last night and actually slept in until 7:00 a.m.  After cleaning up, we went down to breakfast, then met in the lobby at 10:15, where we got on the big bus for the Singapore city tour. 

There are three main divisions in the city:  China Town; Little India; and Kampong Glam, the Muslim Quarter.  

In China Town, we went to the Buddha Tooth Temple--a very ornate temple with people meditating inside.

 

 

The temple got its name because the tooth of Buddha is housed upstairs.  You could take pictures of the worship area down below, but upstairs where the tooth of Buddha was, no picture taking was allowed.

A little store is little ways from the temple had a little shop with cold Diet Cokes!  When you are away from home and nothing is very cold to drink, these are just like drinking gold!  Hah!

In the Little India area, 

--> --> we saw a huge statue of a peacock, which is found wild in India and also domesticated in villages.  In India, they live in jungle lands near water. 

 

 Since this was the India area in Singapore, this is a beautiful reminder that that the peacock is the National Bird of India because of its rich religious and legendary involvement in Indian traditions.   " A peacock is a living rainbow.  A peacock alone has the whole world of colors. The richness of colors gives it a heavenly beauty.  A peacock represents the very essence of Indian philosophy."

The Indian area is very colorful,too, along with the beautiful saris the women wear.

We then drove by the Hindu temple.  It is extremely colorful and looked very clean because they had just refurbished it like they do every 12 years.

 Lastly, we went to the Malay area, Kampong Glam; also, known as the Arab Area  and Singapore's Muslim Quarter.  

 

We went by the Sultan Mosque in the Arab Section.

After that, we drove the Merlion Park across from the Marina Bay, where we saw the beautiful waterfront and the lion/fish. 

 

 

The name of Singapore comes from "Sing" which stands for Lion, and "pura" which stands for city.  A historian recorded that a Sumatran prince saw a lion when first landing here, thus he gave the island this name.  However, lions never existed in Singapore.  It is believed that the lion was actually a Malayan Tiger which exists in neighboring Malaysia and is extinct in Singapore.   Nevertheless, the name stuck and that is what it is called today.

 

 A small version of the lion/fish was in a beautiful little park nearby.

The financial center of Singapore is huge!  Singapore has no natural disasters, but no natural resources either.  They have to get their food from neighboring countries even.  However, it has become a big business area and the tourist industry is, also, huge here!  In fact, Singapore has edged Hong Kong to emerge as Asia's top financial center and the third most important venue for financiers around the world, following London, first, and New York, second.

Looking across the bay to some more iconic spots that we would be visiting in a short while, including the Marina Bay Sands, which looks like a big cruise ship on the top of three pillars.

We were thrilled to go the opposite side of the bay. 

 The lotus flower design of the Arts and Science Museum can be seen on the left.

 

  At its opening in 2010, the Marina Bay Sands was billed as the world's most expensive standalone casino property at $8 billion, including the land cost. 

 

 It has 2,561 hotel rooms,  1,300,000 sq. ft. convention-exhibition center, 800,000 sq. ft of shops, a museum, two large theaters, a skating rink and the world's largest atrium casino with 500 tables and 1,600 slot machines!

We were thrilled to be able to go up to the 56th floor of the Marina Bay Sands where we could look over the entire city. 
It was amazing! 

The two unique-shaped buildings in the middle are the Theaters on the Bay, a vast arts and culture center.

To the left can be seen the Singapore Flyer (the Ferris wheel-type structure.)

From this height, we had a great view of the floating platform and 30,000 seating stadium where different types of activities take place, including sports, concerts, exhibitions, and arts and cultural performances.

From there, we went to the Gardens by the Bay.  This 250-acre area is part of  Singapore's National Parks to show the cultivation of flora and fauna from foreign lands.  

A very unique part of the Garden is the man-made mechanical forest, which consists of 18 supertrees that act as vertical gardens, generating solar power, acting as air venting ducts for nearby conservatories, and collecting rainwater.

 Each supertree features tropical flowers and various ferns climbing across its steel framework.

Entering in the gardens, we were lost in a world of absolutely breath-taking tulips, greenery, and waterfalls--it truly felt like the Garden of Eden must have been!

The tulip festival was going on inside where Vincent Van Gosh art was featured.  The colors of his pallet were featured in the tulips around the painting.

Plants from all over the world were featured.

 

Afterwards, we headed for our ship--the Celebrity Constellation.  It is a little old, but clean.  

We went up to the 10th floor and had a salad and some homemade ice cream which the ship provides every day for lunch.  It is always exciting to see what new flavors they will add each day!

After the muster drill (which was very hot and tiring), we were finally able to go to our room on Deck 3, unpack a little, then headed to the main dining room on Deck 5 at 6:15.  After dinner, we watched as we were leaving Singapore from the top deck.  We absolutely LOVED Singapore--so clean and such nice, polite people.