Singapore, November 2, 2014

Singapore November 2, 2014

We arrived yesterday after a twenty-six hour journey from Tokyo Narita.  Did I mention these are tickets purchased with miles?  You are at the mercy of the airlines that decide when and how they will carry you.  Eva Air, otherwise known as the Hello Kitty Carrier, took us from Narita to Taipei, and after a two-hour layover, to Hong Kong. It was all done well and certainly everything was most comfortable but oh my gosh, the Hello Kitty theme wore thin quickly.  Everything has the pink little Hello Kitty logo; I mean everything from the paint job on the plane to the pink aprons on the flight attendants.  There is a big picture of Hello Kitty on every bulkhead wall as well as on the barf bags, toilet paper, coasters, glassware - even on the food, where there was a picture of Hello Kitty on cubes of tofu.  Really, stamped on tofu in pink.

We had to overnight in Hong Kong at the Regal Hotel, which is connected to Terminal One, since it would have been too late to get to Singapore.  The room was fine but since it is an airport hotel, there was a lot of noise and Cindy didn’t get any sleep. I kept assuring her that she would be able to sleep the entire way to Singapore since I had gotten us a business class ticket on Cathay Pacific using miles.  I further assured here that it was going to be a new Airbus 330 with lay flat beds and she would sleep like a baby for three hours.  Imagine my surprise upon entering the plane to discover that it was an old 777 and that Cindy had a middle seat (which we traded with someone so that we could sit next to each other) that certainly didn’t recline 180 degrees. Seems that they had more passengers than expected and they swapped planes to handle the load without notifying anyone. There were several other couples that were in the same situation, finding themselves seated apart from one another.

We are in Singapore to visit with our friend Scott who is the General Manager of the Pan Pacific Hotel. I’ve known Scott for more than 25 years, having met him when he was the GM at the Oriental Hotel, where I had complained about something or other and he personally came to apologize and invited me for a drink. That had never happened to me before and I was rather impressed to say the least, so impressed that I made it a point to always stay wherever he was GM and thus a friendship developed. (from Cindy:  He means he had never gotten personal attention from the GM before, not that he had never complained before.  Ha!  Scott just loves to tell the story and of course he goes on and on about how picky the complaint was; not true but it’s certainly good for a laugh.)  Under his guidance this hotel has become a shining star in the constellation of hotels in Singapore.  Having just completed a 100 million dollar renovation, it is spectacular; nothing over the top, just tastefully appointed public areas and thoughtfully designed rooms.  After our orientation to our room - it takes awhile to get used to all the AV, electronics and control panels - I told Cindy that she needed to take a nap while I met Scott for a drink.

After that, we met a friend who teaches here in Singapore for drinks and dinner, and since needed to get to work the next morning, we were able to get to bed early and we slept ever so comfortably.  Refreshed and energized we hit the streets of Singapore at about eight in the morning and the heat and humidity hit us like a brick.  There is also a horrible haze, the result of uncontrolled burning in Indonesia, which detracts from the real beauty of Singapore.  This island city/state has always been known as the Switzerland of Asia, clean, green, safe, and wealthy.  However, I was not prepared for how much has really changed in the past six years.  There seem to be twice as many skyscrapers, malls and hotels. One of these, the Marina Bay Sands, is actually three buildings, which support a huge outdoor garden at the top of the buildings. At the base there is an enormous high-end shopping mall with a canal and gondolas ala Venice.  There is also a casino, which is the second highest moneymaker in Asia after Macau.  We’ve a lot to see and so goodbye for now.  Cindy and Wm