Singapore Part 1 - November 2007

Wednesday November 7th

Tuesday morning, we had intended to go to China, but since we had done most of our shopping already in Hong Kong, we decided to stay and just walk around the city. We went to a couple of local stores where we had seen some nice things and bought those things. 

 

We then went to SHanghai Street where they supposedly sell kitchen items (Bubbie was looking forward to it) but we didn't see anything different...so we just roamed around the area and then went back to the hotel and ate lunch (smoked turkey sandwiches with mustard). We packed most of our stuff and then went out to the ladies market again to buy some last minute items. 

 

We went out to dinner at the Jewish Center and had some chinese food. It was very good. 

 

Back to the hotel and we collapsed from all the walking...

 

Wednesday morning...we slept in (first night that we slept for a long time) and then we were off to the airport. We took a cab to the express train station which is about 15 minutes from our hotel and at the station, we checked all our luggage thru to the airport and then took the high speed train (22 minutes to the airport). Everything here is very efficient...they even offered to have someone meet us at the airport to carry our carry on items to the plane...no charge.

 

We are now in the lounge and will add more when we get to SIngapore...

 

We had a nice flight (B"H) flight to Singapore. The airport is supposed to be the best in the world and it took us only 30 minutes to go from landing to customs clearance to baggage pickup to money exchange to getting into the taxi to downtown - total of 30 minutes...it was truly amazing. BTW, the airport has a mini botanical gardens inside the departure lounge area with beautiful live orchids and palm trees growing inside...truly beautiful. 

 

What you notice on the ride from the airport is the tropical plants that are lining both sides of the street. There are fan palms (first time we have seen these), orchids, birds of paradise etc all along the way. Being less than 50 miles from the equator, it is hot and humid all year with the average temperature being about 85 - 90 degrees by day and only about ten degrees less by night. There are high rise buildings all around and you notice that the type of people here are predominantly asian/malay/indian. As you enter the downtown area, you see skyscrapers (50 - 80 storey buildings) that are mainly offices and hotel buildings.

We caught a cab and headed into town to our hotel, the Carlton. When we arrived at the hotel, the first couple of people that we saw coming out of the hotel were wearing kippot (business people from Israel) and as we entered the hotel we passed a Chassidishe Jew wearing the full Chassidic garb. It turns out that he was the Volover Rebbe's son who was in Singapore on Kashrus business. It turned out that years later he was killed in the massacre at the Chabad House in Mumbai. He was not the only person we met while in Singapore that was there for supervision of kosher product runs.

When we came into the hotel, we were ushered up to the top floor to the Executive Club for check in. We were literally amazed at how courteous and welcoming the staff was to us, and it was not till I noticed at the top of my sheet the words "Mr. & Mrs. David Woolf, Embassy of Israel",  that I realized just why they were being so nice. I guess they mixed us up with some high official but we were certainly not going to correct them at this point!

We were given an absolutely gorgeous penthouse suite with complimentary fruit platter and chocolate platter and I am still not sure whether this was part of what we ordered or perhaps one of the perks that we as official Israeli Embassy people were receiving.

The view from the room was amazing! We headed into the lounge and met the two Israelis that we had seen as we were entering the hotel. They suggested that we go to the shul for mincha and dinner and that seemed like a very good idea to us.

It was almost sunset, so we headed for a short walk to the Maghain Aboth Synagogue.

A few words about the Jewish Community Center complex which includes the Maghain Aboth Shul and the Jacob Ballas Center. Just before we had arrived in Singapore, the community had dedicated the new Jewish community centre next door to the Maghain Aboth Synagogue, the Jacob Ballas Centre, named for the late Jacob Ballas, a pillar of the Jewish community in Singapore, a successful stockbroker and well-known philanthropist who chaired the Singapore Stock Exchange for a number of years.

From what we had been told, when Jacob Ballas died, he left the shul $100 million Singapore dollars, which at the exchange rate, when we were there, was about $60 million Singapore dollars. This remarkable center provided all the immediate Jewish needs of the community. It contains offices and apartments for the Rabbis and the Yeshivah Boys, it also has a women’s Mikvah, a slaughtering room for fresh kosher chickens, a full service restaurant, a kosher shop and a social hall for Shabbat and festival meals and other functions.

The weekday minyan also meets there and only on Shabbat is the historic Maghain Aboth, next door, used for services.  If you attend the daily minyan, a full breakfast is served in the restaurant in the building and the pricing is very reasonable. The restaurant also serves well catered meals for dinner nightly.

On Friday night, visitors can pay in advance for the catered meals in the Centre social hall and on Shabbat morning there is an elaborate catered meal/kiddush for all who attend services. The place was packed for the white glove elegant meal service that followed.

The Awafei Restaurant in the Ballas Center.

Some of the clientele when we visited.

After dinner, we went for a walk in the area. We headed over to the world famous Raffles Hotel next door to the Carlton and we marvelled at the wonderful architecture. It is a colonial-style hotel, established by two Armenian brothers from Persia—Martin and Tigran Sarkies—in 1887. It was named after Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore, whose statue had been unveiled in 1887. It was in the Long Bar room in the hotel that the famous Singapore Sling cocktail was invented.

Below is the hotel in 1932 and below that picture is the hotel in 2007 when we visited.

Two bearded fellows, both wearing head coverings!

When we headed out the front door we were approached by a bicycle driver with a side seat for 2, who offered to give us a bike ride overview of the city up close and personal for about 30 minutes. It seemed like a cute way of getting our bearings so off we went.

He drove us to the financial district on the waterfront; beautifully lit up by night.

He drove us by The Raffles City Mall right near our hotel.

He drove by Sri Mariamman Temple, Singapore's oldest Hindu temple. This elaborately decorated temple, established in 1827, was in the downtown Chinatown district.

One of the streets in Chinatown by night.

After a very wonderful quick tour of the city, we were returned to the Raffles Hotel and retired for the night in our penthouse suite in the Carlton Hotel.