Singapore Part III

Hello Everyone,

We had a (short) third day in Singapore today (Monday, 2 Mar 2026), but I decided not to go out again. I had some stuff I needed to catch up on, so I decided since we had an early afternoon departure, I'd just stay onboard. I did mundane stuff like getting the rest of my tax data ready and sent off to my accountants (shout outs to Kellie and Christina!) and doing some laundry. I also spent time working on these blog posts.

Departing Singapore

I snapped a few pictures as we left the harbor in Singapore. Here's an overall shot of the skyline and the port facility where we were docked.

Harbourfront Cruise Terminal with Singapore Skyline

The tall buildings on the left are part of a luxury waterfront residential complex in Singapore called Reflections at Keppel Bay. It is known for its striking curved glass towers and landscaped sky bridges. It sits along Keppel Bay, near the HarbourFront and Sentosa areas of the city.

Reflections at Keppel Bay

The walkways connecting the towers aren’t just circulation corridors—they were designed as elevated garden spaces. The development’s architect, Daniel Libeskind, intentionally integrated landscaping into the sky bridges so residents can experience something closer to a park suspended between buildings. The vegetation you see on the bridges is part of a landscaped sky garden system. The bridges contain small ornamental trees, shrubs and tropical plants, patches of grass, and seating areas.

A couple of boats caught my eye as we were leaving. This one is a private superyacht named Australia. According to Google, it is currently owned by Australian billionaire Clive Palmer.

The Superyacht Australia

This one is the OceanX Explorer, one of the most advanced marine research vessels in the world. It is owned by OceanX, a non-profit founded by billionaire Ray Dalio. In addition to submersibles, deep-sea robots, and state-of-the-art labs capable of doing DNA sequencing, it also has a a media center equipped to produce Hollywood-grade documentaries. They've even collaborated with National Geographic.

The OceanX Explorer

In a previous post I noted that Singapore has the second busiest port operation in the world, behind Shanghai. Singapore moves some 41 million TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) of shipping containers annually. I expected to see vast port facilities, and I wasn't disappointed. They just go on and on for miles. There are multiple locations all over the waterfront. There are also two cruise ship ports here.

Port Facilities in Singapore

Some of the container ships are mind-bogglingly huge. This ship, the Maersk Havana, can hold over 15,000 TEU of containers. The largest of these ships can hold more than 20,000 TEU. Roughly 2/3 of them are below deck.

The Maersk Havana

This particular ship was also transporting some new garbage trucks. Look at the picture above, near the back of the ship, just in front of the stacked, white containers. You'll see a dot that is the trucks - gives you some idea of the scale. Here's a close-up:

Garbage Trucks on Container Ship

Evening Entertainment 

In lieu of dinner this evening, I took part in another cooking class. This one focused on foods from Singapore. We made soft-shelled crabs in a chili sauce for an appetizer, followed by Hokkien Mee as the main course. Hokkien Mee is a noodle dish that contains shrimp, squid, fried pork belly, hard-boiled eggs, and vegetables. It's served in a "boat" made from a banana leaf. Dessert was a pudding made from avocado, tapioca pearls, and sago cream. Of course, we had wine pairings with it! It was all delicious and a lot of fun.

Here I am with my cooking partner Elizabeth, playing with sharp objects.

Elizabeth and Jim, Playing with Knives

And here I am serving up the main course:

Jim Serving Dinner

One Last Thing

A while back, I had a good question on one of my blog posts. I replied there, but thought I'd repeat it here. Some of you may be wondering the same thing.

The question was:

"So all these facts, do you just hear and remember them, write 'em down, look them up, they give you fact sheets, you make them up or what? You could publish a fine travelogue book!"

My answer was:

I make 'em all up! These days, if you say something often enough and with enough passion, it simply MUST be true, right?

Seriously though, I take notes during our shore excursions then come back to the ship and do more research, primarily using Google, ChatGPT, and Wikipedia, to fill in the gaps and fact check the guides (I've found a few inconsistencies in what some of them have told us!). Also, some of the guides have better English skills than others, and it's sometime easy to miss details as they're explaining things. Looking stuff up afterwards gives me a more complete picture. Using Google Lens on photos I've taken also helps me identify buildings and objects I've taken pictures of.

Not only does this make for a (hopefully) better and more factual blog, it also helps me learn more about the places I've been. I don't claim to be an expert, but it might (someday) help me improve my score in trivia games.

Our Next Stop

Tomorrow we'll make a short stop in Kuala Lumpur, and I'm looking forward to an excursion there which will explore some of the local culture. Stay Tuned!

Cheers,
Jim