Singapore is an amazing, tiny dot of a location in our world.  Over 6 million people live on a  peninsula/island that is about 1/4 the size of Rhode Island.  Singapore began as a British trading post and free port in 1819 , which quickly attracted traders and migrants from across Asia. It became part of the Straits Settlements and grew into a strategic commercial and naval hub, though it fell to Japan during World War II before returning to British control.In 1965 Singapore left the British Empire to become an independent nation. Under the leadership of President and benevolent dictator Lee Kuan Yew , Singapore pursued rapid industrialization, strict governance, and major investments in education, infrastructure, and global trade. Over the decades, it transformed from a poor port city into one of the world’s most prosperous, densely populated financial and technological centers, known for its strong rule of law (the famous canings and other stiff fines for doing lots of stuff that we might consider fall under our “rights” or “freedoms”, multicultural society, and global economic role.
The city is modern, clean and shows that it can still be beautiful even though it’s packed full of people.  There is no main race or religious demographic here.. Buddhism is practiced by about 1/3 of the people, but there are large groups of Taoists, Christians, Muslims, and Hindus because the peope here are predominantly Chinese, Malay and Indian.  Conveniently, English is the lingua franca.

Part of the skyline on our walk over to the marina park and a series of world famous botanical gardens.

We spent the morning walking through a series of buildings – the Cloud Forest and the Flower Dome.  These are the largest greenhouses in the world and have gained title as a World Heritage site due to the amazing variety and means of display.

It seems like Brenda knew 2/3 of the plants here and got really excited about discussing which ones she’s had, why they won’t grow in Georgia and what other new plants might be useful targets for our gazebo.  She was really in her element and I will admit – this place was the only gardens I’ve toured where I didn’t get quickly bored.

Brenda waiting for me to buy tickets to the next attraction – a skyway that let’s you walk around Super Tree grove.  These are man made structures that are planted chock full of bromeliads, orchids, ferns and tropical flowering climbers.

The weather here is pure Georgia summer.. 91 degrees and humid.  We would try to do an activity and then dash into somewhere that has AC for a drink and a treat before heading back out and sweating all over again.

View of the MBS (Marina Bay Sands) towers.. it is a hotel and convention center and casino and very high end shopping mall and restaurant pavilion.

Walking along the skyway about 150 feet above the ground.  These “trees” light up at night but we didn’t stay around long enough to see the show.

After lunch and a brief rest, we headed to “Little India” to walk around and do some small gift shopping.

Brenda in the back checking out all of the fabrics for shawls and saris and such.

The Indians are big on jewelry (and Gold!!) – so many shops selling the stuff and they were surprisingly busy.

Final stop of the day in neighborhood Kampong Glam – the muslim quarter.

In an Egyptian fragrance shop – waiting to have some small, fragile item properly wrapped to survive the long luggage journey home.

We ended the night with late night drinks and snacks in the lounge of our hotel, Netflix on the TV and pass out sleeping.  It’s now early Friday morning (Halloween!) here and I finally got what would be considered a normal, 8 hours of sleep during the correct time of day.