The next morning was Friday, Erev Shabbat. On Friday, after Fran's manicure, we took the subway into the heart of the financial district. The subway is ultra modern and very clean. In fact there is not a garbage can to be found in any subway station. After all, if it is forbidden to eat, drink, chew gum or spit..why would you need to have a garbage can?
We decided to stay close to home and tour the inner city of Singapore. The mouth of the Singapore River contained the old harbour for the Port of Singapore, so naturally, the city grew around it. As a fledgling colony, the area which is now known as the Downtown Core was the financial, administrative and commercial centre of the colony. The financial district is centered around the Singapore River and the symbol of Singapore, the Merlion, which stands guard over the harbor.
We walked thru the Fullerton Hotel (we regularly walk thru buildings here as it is always hot
and humid with a temperature of 30 degrees or so...so walking thru buildings helps keep you cool) which is one of the fanciest hotels in the Far East...I think it is rated with 6 stars.
The Fullerton Building was opened on 27 June 1928 by the Governor, Sir Hugh Clifford, who suggested the building be named after Robert Fullerton, the first Governor of Singapore. The building had five founding tenants: the General Post Office, The Exchange, Singapore Club
(now Singapore
Town Club), the Marine Department, and the Import and Export Department.
It has now ben converted into a 5 star luxury hotel on the waterfront. We walked through the building and its amazing atrium.
A light shade made from material.
We then headed outside for a water taxi ride on the Singapore River; but first stopped to speak with some locals:-)
We then took a boat ride on the inner harbor surrounded by towering modern financial buildings.
It has now ben converted into a 5 star luxury hotel on the waterfront. We walked through the building and its amazing atrium.
A light shade made from material.
We made our way to the waterfront to see the Merlion (combination Mermaid and Lion) which is the symbol of Singapore. It is a very tall sculpture and looks out over the harbor and spews water out of its mouth.The Merlion is a mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish, used as a mascot and national symbol of Singapore. Its name combines "mer" meaning the sea and "lion". The fish body represents Singapore's origin as a fishing village; and the lion head represents Singapore's original name — Singapura — meaning "lion city".
Anyway, while there, we decided to take a river cruise thru Singapore and ended up at Clarke's Quay which is a pretty renovated warehouse area now converted into riverfront shops and restaurants. This was a short walk from Chinatown, so we went over there and toured the street markets.
We took the subway, clean and spacious, back to our hotel to get ready for Shabbat
The subway was clean, safe and spotless. As you can see they have closed doors that lead to the train, so there is no possibility of falling into the track. We saw this in Hong Kong as well. And as there are 4 official languages, all signs are quadrilingual!!!
Shabbat was quite interesting in Singapore.
Candle lighting was at 6:32...in the past 6 weeks, the time for candle lighting has only moved about 5 minutes in total.
Because Pirchei Jerusalem Choir was in town, they held a shabbaton this friday night which meant that there were about 80 people in shul (perhaps 25% were visitors) and davening was followed by a full Shabbat meal.
Davening was in the beautiful Magain Aboth shul which is about 150 years old. The Rabbi who we had met earlier in the week, was away for the Shabbat at a Chabad conference. Even
though he was a Chabadnik, the shul itself was not. The nussach was Sefaradik/Iraqui. There were a few people there who were there to supervise Kosher food production, mainly soup noodle mixes, in Singapore, Malaysia and other Far Eastern locations.
Dinner was held in the new JCC next to the shul which is named the Jacob Ballas centre after Mr. Ballas who died recently and left $100 million Singapore dollars to the shul (about $65
million Canadian!!!!)...so they named the building after him and it houses a bais medrash, banquet hall, restaurant, mikveh, shechitah room for chickens, dorm for the 6 kollel guys who are learning for semichah there, community offices etc.
It was a very nice meal with much zemirot. We met a few people visiting from Israel (one doing defense work from the Israeli Army...we discovered that there is tremendous ties between Israel and Singapore militarily... and another doing tuna hashgacha all over south east Asia) as well
as Israelis who were stationed here for a few years for business or studies...and Americans who were here for business. As well, we met Yonatan Weisbrod from Toronto and a Dr. Tony
Ryback, who lived in Toronto and retired here.
Tony, formerly of Rabbi Feldman's Kehillat Shaarei Torah, filled me in on the cost of real estate here. A 2500 sq. foot condo will run you about $6 million Sing.$. (about $4 million Canadian). And if you cannot afford to buy, then you can rent the same place for S$8,000 per month (about $5500 Canadian). About 95% of the real estate here is government owned and managed because the cost of private ownership is prohibitive.
Shabbat morning, we had less people in shul (about 60) who all stayed for the weekly kiddush, which is a full course meal. If you are a member of the community, you pay nothing for the meal; if you are a tourist, it costs you $25 per meal. Most of the people who came with children
brought their nannies (who make $200 a month; better than Indian nannies who make half that amount).
Because of the elaborate kiddush open to the entire congregation, about an hour before
kiddush begins, there is a major influx of couples and families who are there to catch the end of the tefillah and to participate in the kiddush/meal. Most of the families are accompanied by their nannies/maids; it appears that most families have live in help in Singapore.
All in all, Shabbat was very nice and restful.
I wore a kippah throughout the time that I was in Singapore and never once felt threatened or in any danger. It seems to be a very peaceful and tolerant place.
We met an individual there from Israel and when we asked what he did, he replied that he was
in the armament business and that there was significant cooperation between the IDF and the Singapore military establishment. In fact, someone remarked that Singapore feels a lot like Israel. Small country surrounded on all sides by Muslim countries with no where to go except to the sea!
On Motzaei Shabbat we went for a walk thru the shopping district. The streets were packed with shoppers. We ended up buying 2 suitcases in order to be able to carry back all our souvenirs that we had picked up on our trip.
There are signs like this all over the place....it's getting me thinking....
On the way back to our hotel, we walked thru some older passageways that had been converted into shopping areas and boutiques. This is a very well maintained city/state and is spotlessly clean. People joke: Singapore is a fine city...you can get fined for any act that compromises the beauty of the place.
In the morning we took the Metro to the Jurong Bird Park...these are some of the sights along the way.
The idea of a permanent bird exhibit was first conceived by late Dr. Goh Keng Swee, then Minister for Finance, in 1968. During a World Bank Meeting in Brazil he visited its zoo and was impressed with its free-flight bird exhibit. He sought to see that Jurong would be more than an industrial zone that Singaporeans would have a place where they could escape from urban life, where people could relax with nature. On 3 January 1971, Jurong Bird Park, built at a cost of Singapore$3.5 million, was opened to the public.
On Motzaei Shabbat we went for a walk thru the shopping district. The streets were packed with shoppers. We ended up buying 2 suitcases in order to be able to carry back all our souvenirs that we had picked up on our trip.
There are signs like this all over the place....it's getting me thinking....
On the way back to our hotel, we walked thru some older passageways that had been converted into shopping areas and boutiques. This is a very well maintained city/state and is spotlessly clean. People joke: Singapore is a fine city...you can get fined for any act that compromises the beauty of the place.
We even passed by a beautiful heritage type building where a wedding reception was taking place. We stuck our heads in, wished the bride and groom a mazal tov and headed on our way.
In the morning we took the Metro to the Jurong Bird Park...these are some of the sights along the way.
The idea of a permanent bird exhibit was first conceived by late Dr. Goh Keng Swee, then Minister for Finance, in 1968. During a World Bank Meeting in Brazil he visited its zoo and was impressed with its free-flight bird exhibit. He sought to see that Jurong would be more than an industrial zone that Singaporeans would have a place where they could escape from urban life, where people could relax with nature. On 3 January 1971, Jurong Bird Park, built at a cost of Singapore$3.5 million, was opened to the public.
On Sunday we went to the Jurong Bird Park...which was an awesome place to visit. It features birds from all over Asia and besides the beautiful birds, you just cannot seem to get over the tropical vegetation that makes everything look so lush and green.
In the evening we went to the Night Safari at the local Zoo which is a very well organized tourist spot...that features nocturnal animals in their natural habitat.
We spent a wonderful day and came back to relax, eat dinner before continuing on to the Night Safari.
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