March 23, 2024

Someone asked if I had taken a photo of Independence Palace while in Saigon. If you recall, on the morning of April 30, 1975, a column of 7 North Vietnamese tanks rolled down Saigon’s deserted streets and crashed through the gates of South Vietnam’s presidential palace. A soldier leapt from the lead tank and raised a red, blue and yellow flag. The Vietnam War was over. Here’s a photo I took.

Someone also asked that I show a picture of my Vietnamese cashews that I bought in Saigon. Here they are:

Welcome to Singapore.

Like a shining beacon of the Orient, Singapore has risen in stature to surpass even Hong King as the preferred destination along the east Asis coast. It is an amazing city and best shown through a collage of photos.

When we arrived in Singapore, we were met by one of the many cruise ships that visit Singapore, the Queen Mary 2. This is the same ship that we travelled on during our 2020 World Cruise. Unfortunately, we had to disembark in Fremantle, Australia on March 20th because of Covid. It took us 47 hours to get home from Fremantle to Perth to Sydney to Los Angelas to Orlando catching flights and just beating the closing of airports along the way. What an adventure that was!

Almost directly across from the cruise terminal is the world-famous Marine Bay Sands. This is the home of Spago, Wolfgang Puck’s Five Star Michelin restaurant. The observation deck overlooks the infinity pool made famous at the end of the Crazy Rich Asians movie. Rooms start at $600.00 per night.

The quickest and easiest and cleanest way to get into the city is the Singapore subway, called the MRT. Four quick stops and you are in the center of the city. No graffiti anywhere!

The architecture of Singapore is influenced by the British and Indian cultures that inhabit the city. As you walk through Singapore you can see that diversity displaced in the public buildings as well as places of worship.

Definitely a fun place to go to in Singapore is the Indian Market. They have the freshest fish where you pick your catch of the day, and it is cooked up for you and delivered to one of many sitting areas. The specialty is not red, but white snapper.

I took a quick detour to find the Merlion Fountain. These tourist spots never seem to be worth the trip. If you are in Copenhagen do not go to The Little Mermaid. Not worth the trip.

Coming down an outside escalator I saw these young Singaporians (yes, that is what they are called) waving to all the tourists. Had to get a picture.

I love kids!

Thanks for traveling with us…