THE TEMPLES OF ANGKOR, CAMBODIA
Mark flew into Portland two days ago, rented a Suburu Impreza with all-wheel drive and stayed with us in Salemtowne. We spent Monday doing a bit of shopping, including a stroll through Costco and then some toiletries purchases at Walgreens. Apparently I picked up a cold virus “bug” over the weekend, and as we started our journey, my cold “blossomed” into the usual sneezing, coughing unpleasantness.
We sent off last-minute e-mails, and were pleased to find one from Karen, written on her last day of birding at San Blas, Mexico. She was to fly to Mexico City from Puerto Vallarta, then take a bus to Cuernevaca, and finally, a taxi to cousin Anita’s home. As we were heading to the Portland airport this morning, Karen was due to check in to the language school where she’ll spend the next few weeks.
Mark had regretted accepting the Suburu which was cramped for him, but this morning, as we loaded the luggage in the car we had to walk very gingerly up the drive, which was coated with ice! Having all-wheel drive suddenly seemed reassuring.
We pulled out at 7 a.m. and the highways seemed okay, but there was ice on the shoulders and the car radio reported a rash of ice-related accidents all over the area. We also had to join all the commuters, so it was slow going almost all the way to the airport. We appreciated Mark’s “god-like” status with the airlines and our Business Class tickets, as we sailed right up the “red carpet” lane at check-in. Getting through security would have been smooth, except that my new titanium knee requires a separate, thorough “wanding” but we still had time for a light breakfast at the Red Carpet Club lounge. Ah, the privileges that come with Mark’s upgrades. Access to the lounges REALLY impresses me.
The first leg of this long, long flight started with a little Brazilian-made “EMB” commuter plane from PDX to Seattle. I could see why Mark hates these little planes. He literally cannot stand up in them, and probably gets his head banged when sitting down if the plane hits some turbulence. But, we all managed the 40-minute flight and the views of the beautiful snow-clad peaks were nice. Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier all loomed above the dense cloud cover, while Mt. St. Helens barely managed to keep her “flat top” above the clouds.
As we were flying toward Seattle I realized that I still had two envelopes in my purse that needed to be mailed before we left the USA. One for our Green Valley condo deposit really needed to be sent. However, we only had about ten minutes at the Seattle airport before boarding our Boeing 777 jet. And, I learned there were no mail boxes within the secure area of the airport. Aaargh! What to do! A passing airport “host” agreed to mail the letters for me, so we handed them over, then walked up another “red carpet” and into this big, big jet.
Thanks to Mark’s generosity, we had only a very short walk—into the spacious Business Class forward section of the plane. His many “mileage runs” this past year had generated coupons good for “system-wide upgrades” (SWU’s in Flyer Talk lingo). A SWU allows ticket purchasers to upgrade many economy class tickets to Business Class. Mark’s coupons expire at the end of January, so he said he was happy to be able to use them for the three of us on this trip.
By the time we had our carry-on bags arranged in the expansive area in front of our seats, the attendant was right at our seats, asking what we’d like to drink from her tray of champagne, juice and other beverages. Champagne seemed the right way to start off this “trip of a lifetime” and it probably tasted even better when sipped leisurely as the poor Economy passengers filed past us, headed for flyer’s Hell for the next 10-plus hours. There would be no complimentary champagne in their future on this flight!
We found little silver drawstring bags at our seats, filled with those flyers' amenities: mini-toothbrush, toothpaste, eye mask, hand lotion and “hydrating” moisture, and ear plugs. My eyes gleam at the sight of such bags! Take-off was right on time, and the clouds were broken enough that I had good views of the Olympics Mountains west of Seattle, and then, our final glimpse of North America, as the plane flew over the point of land beyond Neah Bay, Washington. Bye, bye USA!
Actually, our plane flew the northern “circle route” to Japan, and we probably flew right along the Aleutian Islands—but the dense cloud cover meant we could see no land below them. According to the handy route map on our individual monitors, we also flew right across the Bering Sea before arcing down past Korea toward Japan. We were chasing the sun all the way to Japan, so every time I opened the window shade a very bright sun beamed in the window.
United Airlines did their best to keep us fed and entertained during the 10-hour flight. We soon had drinks and those UAL signature warmed mixed nuts in our hands. Oh, so hard to resist--so we didn’t. The nuts were followed by a full dinner. Mark and I chose the Japanese meal, while Glenn had the beef entrée. I struggled with my chopsticks and the first course of strange-to-me tidbits (I think there was eel in one of them). When the main course, Sea Bass, arrived I pleaded for a fork and all was MUCH better—the fish tasted way better than the first course too.
Soon, we were engrossed in the movies. We had our choice of seven different movies, and when the longest one finished, they replayed the whole batch. I watched the “Nanny Diaries” since I had enjoyed the book a while back. Mark watched a western, the “ 3:10 to Yuma” with Russell Crowe. On the next movie go-round, we switched movies. Glenn alternated between the movies and the map which IS engrossing as you trace your plane’s route across the Pacific.
United didn’t want anyone to complain that they went hungry in Business Class, so we had two more meals—a light lunch of sandwiches or oriental noodle bowl, and later another light meal or a fruit plate. The fruit was excellent. All in all, the food seemed quite healthy and portions were moderate. The attendants were more than happy to keep your wine glass filled all during the flight.
Wednesday, January 16
At some point after leaving the Bering Sea, we passed the International Dateline and shazam! Just like that, it was a day later! The rest of our flight to Singapore occurred on Wednesday.
We napped a bit and then, there was the Tokyo (Narita) airport, appearing between the clouds, and we were on the ground. It was about 4:15 p.m., local time. We had to put our carry-on luggage through a brief screening, and then Mark guided us to a very beautiful airport lounge. We had only enough time to walk through the lounge as Mark pointed out the shower area, and demonstrated the beer-dispensing machine for Glenn! We’ll have more time to enjoy the Red Carpet Lounge when we fly back home—without Mark along as our guide. But, he made sure we knew about the excellent amenities at this lounge at Narita Airport.
As we expected, the final leg of our flight to Singapore was the toughest. It was 7 ½ hours long and we were now seriously out of synch with our new time zone. The movie ("Ratatouille") didn’t seem as entertaining and my developing cold with accompanying cough and nasal congestion made it hard to get to sleep. But a spoonful of my heavy-duty cough syrup (laced with codeine) did the trick, and I DID sleep for probably two or three hours. I’m not sure how much actual sleep Glenn or Mark got, but enough to get us through customs at the Singapore airport and retrieval of our bags. Nice to know the bags made all those changes of planes and came right along with us!
Thursday, January 17
It was midnight in Singapore, but the duty-free shops were open and the ATM machines were working. Mark grabbed three beers (which are VERY expensive in Singapore, due to heavy taxes) and also changed some dollars into very pretty Singapore bills. We learned there was no hotel bus, so we went through the queue at the exit doors, where a white-gloved attendant quickly waved us to a waiting cab. The air was warm and a bit humid, but not bad—of course, it was midnight too! A very nice cab driver, who spoke English and gave us a little idea of what we were seeing in the night. Obviously, many high-rise buildings. Most of the roads into central Singapore were one-way, so it was not so apparent that our driver was on the wrong side of the road! Actually, we already had a clue that Singapore has followed its British heritage and drives on the left—after all, the driver and the steering wheel were on the right side of the cab! Anyway a very pleasant ride and when we got to the Le Meridien Hotel, the cab went up a ramp, and dropped us off at the front of the hotel—which was 3 stories above the street. I think our taxi ride cost about 37 Singapore dollars—which are equivalent to $1.38 US dollars, or a bit more than twenty dollars to get the three of us from the airport to the hotel in the middle of the night.
The hotel was lavish, with white marble floors, and a 6-story atrium with glass elevators gliding up and down was very impressive. In his earlier travels, Mark learned that the Starwood chain of hotels had a very nice incentive plan. If you got their credit card, you immediately had 10,000 “points” and accrued additional points with your credit card properties, AND they have an even better deal: you can pay “Cash and Points” with a very minimal amount of cash. That was what we used for our hotel reservations on this trip. The going rate at this Singapore Le Meridien hotel would be about $150 or more, but on check-in we paid $30 cash for each of our rooms, plus 1600 points. Mark calculates the value of these Starwood points at about six or seven cents each—WAY better than the value of the airlines’ frequent flyer points at one or two cents each. Anyway, we took out Starwood cards as well, so between us we had ample points to use with a minimal cash outlay for rooms in four or five-star hotels.
We were quickly checked in and given adjoining rooms on the top floor—Nos. 937 (Mark) and 936 (us). The bellhops relieved us of our bags and we took one of the glass elevators up through the atrium. Our rooms were very pleasant and overlooked Orchard Road below. They were smoking rooms, but there was little smoke odor and the air conditioning worked very well. An oriental-style screen painting was above the king bed, but the other two paintings in the room were very contemporary watercolors. The French influence, I’d guess. (The Le Meridien hotel chain was originally French-owned.)
Glenn opted to find his pajamas and sink into king bed. I headed for the shower and by the time I had my hair dried it was about 2 a.m., on Thursday. A spoonful of my codeine-laced cough syrup, plus sleep deprivation during the last day guaranteed that I got to sleep rather quickly. We both woke up a couple times, but managed get enough sleep to be ready to try a half-day tour of Singapore.
We met with Mark at 8 a.m., went down to the lobby and inquired about half-day city tours. The concierge said there would be one at 9 a.m. This meant that we would hardly have time to leisurely enjoy the hotel’s breakfast buffet, so we settled for their “express” breakfast served in the atrium lobby. A nice selection of sweet rolls, croissants (this IS a French hotel, remember?), jams, juice and coffee proved to be plenty. (Cost: $9 Singapore dollars each.)
A “Luxury Tour” representative appeared about 9:15 and led us down to a lower level below the hotel lobby, out through the tour offices and onto a nice, air-conditioned bus. We met “Mahat” our guide for the morning and had our pick of seats, as there were only about 12 of us on the big bus.
Our 3.5 hour, S$28. tour started by going past the home of this city-state’s president, set in a large park called “Istana.” Our first stop was in “Little India.” Originally, this area was the home of the British when the island of Singapore, and all of Malaysia was part of the British Empire. We saw many buildings (mostly two-story) with the date of construction on them, and it was between 1900 and the 1920’s. Apparently it was a conscious decision of the Singapore government to turn this area into the home of the Indian population quite recently—in the 1990’s. As we left the bus for a short walk through a few blocks of Little India, suddenly the women were in saris, the florist stalls were selling red and yellow flower “Leis” and there was the usual assortment of small businesses that is typical of any ethnic neighborhood. Along one street, a lot of chairs had been set up in front of a raised stage, and two cattle and two goats were penned up near the chairs. The cattle wore the red and yellow flower leis, and had brightly painted red horns! The guide explained this was one of the many Indian festivals, to celebrate the harvest. Obviously, harvest occurs at a very different time of year in Singapore!
The bus drove down to the water front, where a river enters the salt water bay. Enroute it was just one big section of high-rise skyscraper office buildings after the other, with some older buildings from the British era tucked in. The architects of the world must have been kept fully employed by Singapore! Most of the towering buildings did not appear to be more than ten years old, and major reclamation of the waterfront area is currently underway. Soon, there will be a huge stadium facing the bay and the salt water will be blocked from the bay which will become a fresh-water reserve for the city. "Mahat" said that right now, Malaysia supplies Singapore’s water—they would prefer to be independent. At the “Esplanade” a Ferris wheel with bus-sized cars (bigger than London’s the guide was quick to note) will begin operating. AND, a Las Vegas-funded billion-dollar casino is under construction. We’ve come to Singapore a little too soon!
We stopped at a nice area where the river met the bay; saw the “bumboats” full of tourists, the Starbucks coffee shop near the river, and two very interesting “Merlions” (the head of a lion and body of a fish) which figure heavily in Singapore’s lore. Both were supposed to be fountains, but workmen in orange-colored uniforms were working hard on the bigger Merlion which wasn’t spitting water as it should.
We had heard of Singapore's strict rules (a sign at the airport said "If you bring in drugs, the penalty is death") and of the city's efforts to eliminate litter, even handing out "caning" punishments to those who spit out their chewing gum on the street. Might seem harsh and an infringement of personal liberty, but boy, was this a clean city!
Between stops our guide regaled us with the many virtues of this little city/state perched at the southern tip of Malaysia. Apparently Singapore is a "quasi-democracy" where the same party has ruled since Singapore became an independent republic in 1965. The voters must be satisfied since this regime has brought order, cleanliness, full employment and universal health care to this little island just a causeway from Malaysia. The rest of the world apparently has a lot of faith in Singapore's bankers and business community too. On our tour we saw a multitude of skyscrapers with the names of well-known banks and corporations emblazoned on them. The harbor was full of shipping too.
Here's a few lines about Singapore's take on democracy, freedom and justice from Wikipedia :
"There are no jury trials. Laws restricting the freedom of speech are justified by claims that they are intended to prohibit speech that may breed ill will or cause disharmony within Singapore's multiracial, multi-religious society. Some offences can lead to heavy fines or caning and there are laws which allow capital punishment in Singapore for first-degree murder and drug trafficking. Amnesty International has criticized Singapore for having "possibly the highest execution rate in the world" per capita."
Hmmm, nice, clean place to visit, but do we want to live here??
Our next stop: " Mt. Faber," the highest point in Singapore. From this high point, a tramway to runs to the nearby island of “Sentosa” (site of another new casino and million-dollar condos, both under construction). There were good views of the harbors, oil tanker ships, loading cranes, high-rise public and private housing, etc. We walked through the lovely “Jewel Box” restaurant, wedding reception area, and shops situated at the top of the hill.
Between stops, "Mahat" explained why it requires eighty thousand Singapore dollars to own and drive a car here: With all taxes and fees, it costs forty thousand dollars to purchase the car and another forty thousand dollars to register it for ten years. Only registered cars are allowed on the streets. In spite of this high cost there were plenty of cars although most of them appeared to be taxis. For those who can't manage the eighty thousand dollars, there is an excellent subway/train system throughout the island and obviously it is heavily used.
No tour is complete without the obligatory stop at some stores. Today we were taken to the “jewelry factory” which appeared to be a very upscale jewelry store with lovely young ladies anxious to show us any expensive bauble we showed the slightest interest in. At the prices on the baubles, our sales resistance was very high! However, back on the bus our guide pitched ten-dollar "Merlions" that are clear glass, change colors, and belt out the "Sing-a-pora" song. How could we resist? Glenn and several other tourists purchased their very own Merlions and it seemed the perfect memento of Singapore for us. It's so touristy, we love it!
Last stop—the Botanical Garden. Entry was free, unless you wanted to go in the orchid garden area. We passed on that, but enjoyed a short stroll to some nice fountains, and the gift shop. In the gardens we saw a small “flock” of VERY serious birders in serious birding clothes with serious birders' scopes, cameras, etc. Note to Karen—is this a good birding area? We heard a lot of chirping. Considering that Singapore is only 85 miles north of the equator, it was a nice day, about 80, sunny and yes humid, but tolerable. My cold is barely tolerable. I’m going through the hotel’s thin tissues at a great rate, coughing a lot, etc., etc. Phooey!
We got back to the hotel about 1:30, and skipped lunch in favor of buying Cokes and beers at the “Hotel Meridien Mall”—located underneath the hotel. We scoped out the many shops within a block of LeMeridien. There were lots of “hawker” food spots in the food court area, an internet café charging $3. for 39 minutes, etc. Our hotel is at one end of " Orchard Road" which stretches for several miles and is one big shopping mall after another. Amazing! Every high-fashion name we ever heard of is here, plus little hole-in-the-wall shops selling electronics, clothing—you name it. This is a small island and almost everyone lives in high-rise apartments with limited space. Where do they put everything they must be buying at these malls?
We took our beverages back to our room, and supplemented the drinks with some of the snacks that Mark thoughtfully brought along from Texas. What a guide! He even brought the most important ingredient for snacks—peanut butter! After snacks, it was time for a lie-down in our cool rooms.
By 4:30 p.m. we had rested and copied all the photos taken so far onto the laptop. Time to eat! We took the hotel elevator down to the lower mall level, checked out all the "hawker" food stalls and finally settled on the Thai food booth. Glenn got sweet and sour pork, Barb, the cashew chicken, plus rice and soup. Then we shared our entrees. Mark chose beef and noodles, Thai style. (When I asked if our entrees were “hot” we were assured they weren’t. Well, they weren’t, if you avoided those bright red little pepper slices!) Mark got beer and hot sweet tea from another booth. All tasted fine—and we were the only Caucasians in the food court. We noticed that the LeMeridien staff get their meals down here—free maybe?
After dinner we used the nearby Internet cafe, checking our mail and writing a “we’ve made it to Singapore” e-mail to many friends. We did a three-block stroll along Orchard Road. Very colorful shops, but we don’t need cameras, clothes or other Singapore souvenirs (if you have a Merlion that changes color and sings, what more could you want?) so we headed back to the hotel. We agreed to meet Mark at 7 a.m., and get a cab to the airport for the flight to Siem Reap.
Photo Album Jan. 15-17>>
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