FRIDAY, FEB 26TH--DAY TWO IN SINGAPORE

We were to sail from Singapore at 1pm but the Captain says they have another engine problem so will be delayed until 3pm now. I will start this now and finish it after my 2pm croquet and 3pm darts tournaments. I uploaded the pictures I took yesterday onto the blog this morning so there are some new photos to view. Our tour yesterday was very interesting and our guide was very informative, probably best guide to date. There were two very nice, air conditioned buses of us on this tour agenda. Singapore is one of the 20 smallest countries in the world. It is an island just a couple of miles south of the Malaysian Peninsula and is approximately 20 X 40 miles in size. There are just over 4 million people living on the small island so 80% of them live in the hundreds of high rise apartment buildings that you see in my photos. 50% of the people are Hindu with the rest Muslim, Catholic, and Christian. Each of the apartment building has to have all four religions living in them in certain proportions. Singapore was a British colony from 1824 until it declared its independence in 1963. So it is now the Republic of Singapore on the island of Singapore and the capital city is Singapore. There is very little crime here as punishment is harsh. For example, bringing drugs into the country or armed robbery is a hanging offense. The city is also EXTREMELY clean. As you can see from my photos taken in a local market, everything is spotless. Note the lovely fresh vegetables that are brought in daily from Malaysia, Viet Nam, and Thialand. The meat and fish are also very fresh and brought is from other countries nearby. There is no land for agriculture here so all foodstuffs are imported. In fact most everything is imported. When we were in the market there was no odor from the fish so you know it was very fresh. Although we did not go downtown, it is very modern with deluxe hotels and modern shopping complexes. Our next stop after the market was at the WWII war cemetery of Kranji. The Japanese invaded Singapore in Feb 1941 and the British were force to surrender 7 days later. 2000 Indian, British, Australian, and Malayan soldiers were killed and 80,000 taken prisoners of war. Our next stop was at the POW camp where we visited a museum with artifacts, drawings made by the POW’s, and some photos of this hellacious camp. The Japanese tortured, starved, and used POW’s as laborers. 30,000 of the 40,000 Indian POW’s fought for the Japanese against the Allies in Burma. Only 6,000 POW’s survived their 3 ½ years in captivity before being liberated by American and Australian forces. So, enough history for today. We are sailing again from the port of Singapore, the world’s busiest port. Tomorrow will be a day at sea before arriving in Muara, Brunei on Sunday, our time. The port after that will be Manila in the Philippines and many of the crew are from the Philippines so they are getting more excited by the day. Several of our favorite waiters and bar staff will be leaving the ship then so we will really miss them. Tonight we are going to the steakhouse, Prime 7, with Allan & Carolyn for dinner at 8pm. There is another “block party” this evening from 5:30 to 6pm. Again, this is when we will take our wine glasses into the hallway outside our doors and meet our neighbors on aft of deck 6, where we are. Was lots of fun last time and should be more fun this time as we will know most of neighbors, may have some new ones though.. Going to showroom after dinner as JR of cruise staff will be performing again. He got a standing ovation after his last show.