Singapore: Modern, Clean, and Efficient

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On my first visit to Southeast Asia, a trip to Viêt Nam in February, 2003, I stopped in Singapore for a day. Singapore is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Singapore is a unique country in Asia. It is governed by a benign dictatorship. This makes for a very organized city. They try to keep it very clean (even though it is not quite as fanatically clean as I was led to expect). They even outlawed chewing gum, because it makes such a mess! Singapore has a very strong economy. The building boom is going strong there, with high rises going up all over the place.

Most of the city is very modern, with very modern looking buildings. But there are also still old parts of the city left like the old river front and Chinatown. The symbol for Singapore is the Mer-lion. There is a large statue of a Mer-lion in the harbor, spewing a large water fountain into the harbor.

I was there just after the Chinese New Year. There were several groups of musicians and dancers going through Chinatown to celebrate the New year. The dancers were dragon costumes and dance to the music of their musicians. They visit local shops and dance there for a while, then move on to the next one.

Singapore has a very nice botanical garden with a huge collection of orchids. The Singapore Botanical Gardens are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I have included a large number of pictures of orchids on this page since I found them quite remarkable. If you know the name of any of these orchids, please let me know and I will include it on this page.

All pictures are © Dr. Günther Eichhorn, unless otherwise noted.

Singapore