The start of another adventure, this time an exploration of SE Asia followed by some time in the Gulf states; and again without a vehicle.

This trip has been in the planning for well over a year and has undergone a number of adjustments in the face of changing world and other events.

The original version of this trip would have taken us across the Perian Gulf to Iran, Armenia and into Georgia but rising political tensions over the past year rendered that non viable, and more recently the Coronavirus had us debating the wisdom of pushing ahead with our plans anyway. As you can see we decided to persist.

On a personal front Saturday March 7th was our 50th wedding anniversary. A year or more ago while we were planning this trip we had given that event no consideration and so the original plan was for our exploration of SE Asia to start in Hanoi on March 15th. But about 6 months ago the topic of "how to celebrate our anniversary" came up and a plan to bring forward the start of our Asia trip, fly to Singapore and splurge with 3 nights at the historically and colonially famous Raffles Hotel

That's the story of how we got to be here.

On a short note of irony. We pretty much managed to make our anniversary day dissapear.

We boarded our flight out of SEATAC at 23:40 on March 6th. The plane took off at 00:20 on March 7th and landed in Taipei at 06:00 March 8th having crossed the international date line on the way. So we never did really experience March 7th.

Raffles Hotel

Raffles is an interesting hotel. It started life around 1830 as a small beach front house. In 1878 it became a hotel and in 1887 was leased by the (Armenian) Sarkies Brothers who expanded the facilities progressively over the years as part of their plan to turn the property into a high-end hotel. The hotels famous Long Bar is credited with inventing Singapores national drink the Singapore Sling. One can still sample a "sling" in the long bar for a modest S$30.00 (S$1 = US$0.75).

The hotel has recently been removated yet again with work having been completed in August of 2019. The result is evident as the place is in pristine condition and all the rooms now sport high-tech tablet based system for controlling lights, air conditioning, doors and windows. Never the less many colonial touches remain. One is still greeted at the front door by a Sikh Doorman in Raffles Livery, and English high tea is still available every afternoon.

We were a little surprised to find that the hotel was aware of our "special occasion" and had provided some special treats to aid in our celebration, including complementary "Slings", and some of our family had arranged for us to par-take of that previously mentioned High Tea.

Finally one should note that the once "beach front" hotel is now some considerable distance from the Singapore water front as a result of extensive foreshore reclaimation over the past 40 years. As one might have guessed Singapore is a densely populated country, consisting as it does of only a single small island and a single city. The latest number I can find puts the population density at 8,136 people per square kilometer, ranking it third behind Macao and Monaco and considerably ahead of Honk Kong at 6,754. By comparison the population denstity of the US is approx 33 per sq km, Canada 3.7 and Australia 3.3. The total population of Singapore is 5.6million.

Contravirus

Returning to the Coronavirus for a moment. SEATAC airport was pretty much empty when we arrived to catch our first flight to Taipei, but surprisingly the flight itself was well stocked with maybe 80% of seats occupied. Taipie airport was also basically empty and there was evidence on the display boards of large numbers of cancelled flights. The shorter flight into Singapore was maybe 50% occupied.

The airport in Singapore is huge and it was also empty. No lines at all at customs and immigration. Screening of passengers for elevated temperature was in effect at Singapore a no-touch thermal imaging system.

I would guess Raffles Hotel is at about 10% of its capacity.