Ambassador of Singapore

Now working as a volunteer in Fr. Ray Foundation Pattaya, I feel like an ambassador of Singapore.

A and B, both are volunteers from Denmark, decided to visit Singapore from 19 Oct to 22 Oct. To my surprise, they had never heard of S'pore before. Is S'pore too small and distant for them? I suddenly felt a calling in me to show them how GREAT this small country is.

As they had visited Little India the night before, the day tour organized and led by me followed the below itinerary:

• "Si Ma Lu Guanyin Temple" in the Bugis area. Told them that it was a well-known temple, maybe bcos the wishes of faith-followers came true. They were quick to make a wish while presenting a stalk of lotus flower to Guanyin.
• An Indian temple (don't remember what's the name) just beside the Guanyin Temple. They were amazed by the various types of status of Gods in this temple: one with an elephant head, and another with a monkey head, etc.
• National Library located between Bugis Junction and Bras Basah Complex. It's actually my first visit to this 16 Storey building opened in July 2005. They were impressed by this huge library as they mentioned that in Denmark, their whole library could just be as big as the Central Lending Library (which occupies only one storey of the National Library). I'm equally impressed too.
• The long established (about 120 years old) luxury hotel named after Sir Stamford Raffles - Raffles Hotel.
• Another heritage site – CHIJMES. I'm not too good at my history but I remembered that it used to a chapel where the nuns took in orphans and provided for them.
• Southeast Asia's tallest hotel – Swissotel The Stamford. Pointed this tallest building to them. And they were very interested in going up to City Space (used to be called Equinox) on the 70th floor at night to get a panoramic view of Singapore..... Maybe some parts of Indonesia and Malaysia.
• The famous "Durian" – Esplanade.
• The Merlion Park. They were excited to see this Singapore's icon, the lion head with a fish body. It was my first visit to the Merlion after it was relocated from the old site.
• The six star hotel – The Fullerton Hotel. We did not go into this hotel but the façade was interesting enough to capture their attention.
• A cruise down the Singapore River. I came across a report saying that the Singapore River will be closed by next year or so to become a reservoir. So I convinced myself and them to take a boat ride down the S'pore River (passing Raffles Quay, Boat Quay and Clarke Quay) as it will be a first and last for us. We did not regret taking the cruise as it provided us with a breathtaking sight of the contrast between the old architectures and the modern skyscrapers.
• Chinatown. Showed them the Sri Mariamman Temple, Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, Food Street (not yet opened for business when we were there). The shops and hawker stalls along the streets of Chinatown selling cheap T-shirts and souvenirs were fascinating for them.
• Dinner at Newton Food Centre. The various delicious Singapore food (like BBQ stingray, fried hokkien prawn noodles, fried cockles kuay theow, laksa, rojak) did not appeal to them cos they are both not a seafood person. But they did enjoy the satay with peanut spicy sauce, BBQ chicken wings and sugar cane drink.
  

For the next 2 days, they intend to visit the Singapore Zoo/ Night Safari (I haven't even been there myself), Sentosa and of cos, Orchard Road for some shopping.

Impressed they were by the efficiency of our MRT but were a bit shocked to learn that they can't get change for the bus rides. Our little clean country left a deep impression on them. They decided to use the theme of "Singapore – the FINE country" for the drinking party that they are having in Pattaya with the other volunteers on Thursday...... and of cos, the "Merlion" has to be situated outside their bedroom...... Hee hee hee.