Around the World in 113 Days by James Cameron

Author:James Cameron [Cameron, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: XlibrisUS
Published: 2016-11-29T05:00:00+00:00

Fruit vendor, Halong Bay, Vietnam

Limestone karst, Halong Bay

Kissing Rocks, Halong Bay

Incense baskets, Hoi An, Vietnam

Elderly Vietnamese woman, Hoi An

Young Vietnamese woman, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

March 9, 2008

SINGAPORE

We have had little internet service since we left Hong Kong over a week ago because of technical problems receiving the satellite signal. When we can log on to email it is terribly slow, so our transmissions for a while may be delayed somewhat from our port schedule.

OK, what do you see when you think of Singapore? I knew it had a vibrant and volatile stock market and was considered a major financial center, but it’s a little more. In person, it is an incredibly well-planned, attractive city that has blended wonderfully restored buildings of traditional Chinese, French, Malay, and what is described as “Chinese Baroque” design from prior centuries, with modern but artistic architecture to create a beautiful, clean, and totally livable large city. Tree-lined avenues, landscaped urban areas, small parks, and roadside tropical greenery are commonplace. According to the quality-of-life index assembled by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Singapore has the highest standard of living in Asia and is ranked eleventh in the world. Measured by GDP per capita, it is the twenty-second wealthiest country. This has been achieved by a country that has no oil or mineral deposits (save some tin), no agriculture, little land, and was a stink-hole of prostitution, graft, and pollution only a little more than five decades ago. Located just sixty miles north of the equator on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, the country is composed of the large island of Singapore and sixty-three smaller islands. Being so close to the equator, the amount of sunlight per day (twelve hours), temperature range (seventy low to eighty-eight high) and humidity (84 percent) are very constant. With a population of 4.6 million on 280 square miles, 20 percent of which was reclaimed from the sea, it is the smallest nation in Southeast Asia. Those statistics also give it the highest population density per square mile although the country doesn’t appear overbuilt or the roads crowded.

The site of several ancient port cities and a possession of several empires in its history, Singapore was a Malay fishing village when it was colonized by the United Kingdom in 1819. The British were looking for spices and followed the Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch in exploring the island and finding little of value, except a deep sheltered bay. In 1867 Singapore was designated a Crown Colony under British rule and quickly became a hub of international trade. In the 1870s, thousands of immigrants from south China began arriving, and the economy continued to grow unabated until the Great Depression of the 1930s.

On December 7, 1941, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Saigon were bombed by the Japanese within a three-hour period of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Japanese occupation ensued and lasted three and half years until 1945 and the Japanese surrender. The city suffered horribly after the war and developed a reputation as a place where anything goes.

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