I had been in Singapore for about an hour and I was ready to start exploring. I had already signed up for a tour and dinner at the night zoo, so I had 3 hours or so to explore before the tour would pick me up.
First thing after walking out of the hotel, I walked down to the Fountain of Wealth, the world’s largest fountain, which was across the street from the hotel. I took a couple of fun pictures, but like all of the pictures from the first day, I accidentally deleted them, so you’ll have to deal with a Wikipedia link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_of_Wealth
The fountain itself is based inside a shopping mall, which I was soon to discover is pretty much the way the entire city is laid out. Shopping mall after shopping mall linked to shopping mall which is under a hotel which has a skybridge to a shopping mall which goes into the basement which is attached to the subway which, get this, links endless numbers of shopping malls.
I walked around the inner fountain of the Fountain of Wealth three times in a clockwise fashion with my right hand in the fountain whilst wishing for wealth. According to the placards, doing that should bring me wealth. We’ll see.
I wandered about the endlessly linked shopping malls and a down a few outdoor sidewalks. Everything was neat clean and orderly. If it weren’t for the large number of asians, I would easily believe I was in a miscellaneous American metropolis. Portland or Philadelphia or Cincinnati or something.
I eventually stumbled on a large park which was apparently the site of the island city-state’s british stronghold during World War II. This was the beginning of my introduction to Singapore’s only truly significant historical event. I was exploring around the top of the bunker and intended to go up to a little observation tower they had on the top of it, but a fence blocked my way. The sign on the fence indicated that there should be no trespassing and accentuated the point with a decal of a man pointing a rifle at another who had his hands in the air.
Singapore: Do what we say or we will shoot you. (This point would have been a lot more poignant if I hadn’t deleted the photo).
At this point I had been sweating in the hot tropical sun for a couple hours. I don’t know exactly how hot it was, probably in the low triple digits. Singapore is a mere 1 degree above the equator. Further, the Vernal Equinox, when the sun is directly overhead, was only 20 days later.
I was craving water. In Thailand, you can find a 7-Eleven or the Japanese version, Family Mart, on just about every block. Water is 7 or 8 baht for 600 ml. About $0.25. You can basically keep cool by stopping into 7-eleven, buying a bottle of water, drinking it before it gets warm, then stop at the next 7-eleven for more.
I had yet to see a convenience store of any sort in Singapore, though there was no shortage of coffee shops, smoothie bars, regular bars, and other places that sell expensive beverages loaded with sugar, salt, and caffeine. I checked a map of the park I was in and had a little knife-and-fork decal to indicate a place I could go for food. Everything was closed (it seemed like they were setting up for a wedding), but there was a vending machine.
The vending machine only took coins and I hadn’t been in the country for long enough to amass the large pocketfuls of heavy change which would eventually rip a hole in my wallet and lead me to use any excuse I could to ditch them. The only place nearby that could make change was a tour office for the tour of the “Battle Box.” I bought a ticket, got my change, and bought a 100 plus. The 100 plus was a Singaporean gatorade knockoff, the closest thing to water I could find.
The Battle Box tour promised to be amazing. It was a S$3 million (that’s Singaporean dollars, about 1.5:1 US) restoration project inside the actual Bunker the brits holed up in during World War II. It started off wonderfully with some nicely timed sound effects and lighting. I dutifully followed the “no photography” signs until I saw no one else on the tour was being reprimanded. I took some awesome pictures, but alas, I deleted them.
In any case, the tour, which had started so excellently, went quickly downhill. The tour guide was bored and impatient. He acted more like a shepherd, more interested in moving us than showing us what was going on. Also, it didn’t help that the many of the other people on the tour came from non-deodorant cultures. You learn which cultures those are pretty quickly when you live in the tropics. It gets much worse in confined spaces like the Battle Box.
The tour led us through the last days of the Japanese invasion of the Island, leading up to the British surrender. It was clear that large amounts of money had been spent on this project at one point, but now most everything either didn’t work, or worked poorly. Several scenes were recreated using creepy animatronic representation of the commanders, but many were held together with duct tape or simply didn’t work.
All I really learned during the tour was that they british had to surrender mostly because the Japanese destroyed the pipes that brought water in from the reservoirs. Also, that the commander was unhappy about surrendering. That last bit was the major shocker.
After the tour, I wandered back from the park towards my hotel, discovering that 500ml bottles of water cost at least S$2. Just walking and sweating is an expensive hobby in Singapore, especially since I hadn’t brought a reusable water bottle. I did a spectacular job of getting lost and only barely made it back to the hotel through the maze of shopping malls, overpasses, and underpasses in time to throw on some shorts (wearing jeans had been miserable) before heading off to the Night Safari at the Singapore Zoo.