Singapore
Arriving in the evening, we checked into the Novotel Clarke Quay Hotel. The Clarke Quay area was once a historical port and cargo center. The government cleaned up the Singapore River from 1977 to 1987, and the area was revamped and turned into a commercial, residential and entertainment hub.
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Clarke Quay was a great place to find a bite to eat. It had been a long travel day, including our Taipei layover, so after dinner, we were ready for some sleep. In the morning we joined our travel partners, Gail and Lloyd Jacobs and Lorna and Vernon Bradley, for breakfast, and then set off to explore the city.
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We strolled Singapore's Chinatown, historically the area of settlement for many Chinese immigrants who arrived in the then-British colony. Today it's a vibrant neighborhood containing a large number of shops and restaurants.
It was time for lunch and we had been looking forward to visiting Maxwell Food Centre in Chinatown, one of Singapore's famous hawker centres. With over a hundred cooked food stalls, there were plenty of cheap and tasty choices available, but we headed for Tian Tian, probably the most popular in Maxwell Food Centre.
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The Michelin Guide awarded Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice a Michelin Star, the first ever given to a street stall anywhere in the world, and Anthony Bourdain has also given their chicken rice his endorsement. Yummy!
The next morning we walked to the waterfront Merlion Park to see Singapore's national icon. The mythical Merlion has the head of a lion and the body of a fish. The body symbolizes Singapore's humble beginnings as a fishing village when it was called Temasek, meaning 'sea town' in Old Javanese. Its head represents Singapore's original name, Singapura, or lion city in Malay.
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Returning to the hotel, it was time to check out and head for the ship and begin our Southeast Asia cruise.
Click here to board the Cruise.