Final Tour

Our time in Singapore is coming to an end. We did lots of things, but there are lots more things we could have done. Today I sent Jim off to the weekly chapel, sent my regrets, and played hooky to go on a final tour. This tour took us out of the downtown core to see other areas of the island -- I assumed to see the countryside. Guess what --there is no countryside! The entire island is built up and developed. I shouldn't have been surprised. It's one of the smallest countries in the world, no where near as big as Prince Edward Island, and it has 5 million people! For the last 50 years they have successfully increased the size of the island by doing land reclamation on 3 sides of the island. I think one of the hotels we stayed at was on reclaimed land. It boggles the mind.


The tour guide told us that 90% of people live in high rises.

I asked if there was any agriculture. She said only 2% of land is used for agriculture. I think there's an organic farmer somewhere on the island. So all that food we ate was brought from somewhere else. Every day there are 1000 ships out there in the harbour waiting their turn to unload their products. It's the world's busiest container port by tonnage. They also import people to fill blue collar jobs. Being the rich country on the block, people from neighbouring poorer countries come here to work. We met a young woman working in the hotel who was from the Philippines. She has a one year old son back home who she misses very much. She said she was doing it for him.

Many containers at the port

A major stop on our tour was the Changi Museum on the east coast. We were not allowed to take photos, but I think they have a good website if you are interested. This area was a prison for civilians and POWs during World War 2. Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942 and they call it the three and a half years of darkness. It was a very bad time in their history, and I got the feeling that they never quite forgave the British for not being able to protect them from it. Prisoners constructed makeshift chapels and the museum features 5 Christian murals painted by a prisoner.

Just so this post won't be too depressing and negative, how about I end with a pretty picture. I think this is some variety of an orchid, which is the national flower of Singapore. Orchids are one thing that they do grow and export. (Maybe this isn't an orchid at all. I'm not much of a flower gardener.)