Day 1:

We began pulling into Singapore relatively early in the morning. You could see islands on either side of the straight starting at 6:00am, as well as the massive amount of boat traffic from transport ships, shipping goods in and out of Singapore. The lines of boats were long, in some places boats were lined up and stopped. I'm not entirely sure what they were waiting for, but my guess would be a scheduled porting time, or maybe even for a pier to open up so that they can moor to the land. We had to go slow down the straight to keep from causing too much of a wake. As we were approaching the island, I stayed out on the pier looking at all the boats, the water, and what of the city I could see, which wasn't much. A couple of miles away from the island though, you could make out a distinct line where the water went from green-blue color, to more of a dark brown or gray color. What was keeping it back, I'm not sure, but I did hear that it could have been the currents. I would expect it to fade though, and not to be a distinct color changing line. I then hung around on the flight deck a little longer before they told us we had to go back under. There I sat and waited as we took over 3 hours to travel down the canal around the island and moor on the north end of it. It was another 3 hours before they let anyone get off of the boat, but that didn't matter to me since this was my duty day and I couldn't get off the boat anyway.

A little while after mooring, they started calling working parties to bring on food, supplies, equipment, and mail. I got stuck on the mail end of it after they were almost finished. All that I ended up doing was bringing packages that were supposed to go out back on the ship because they wouldn't take them that first day. It wasn't the best of conditions since we could only open one part of the boat for people and all this equipment and such to come on and go off the boat. On top of that, toward the end of the afternoon, it started to rain. I must have missed the downpour part, because by the time I got outside, it was just kind of a small shower at that point. I still was lucky enough to see some lightning and hear some thunder, which I haven't been able to do in quite some time, so I enjoyed it for what was remaining.

The rest of the day was spent wandering around the boat and look at the surrounding area (or what I could from the flight deck anyway). There were a bunch of new cars parked directly forward of where our boat pulled in, the base was to the right (starboard), to the left (port) were more cars and what seemed to be a scrap metal barge which they were loading scrap metal on all night long to take who knows where. Aft of us was the canal and part of an island which seemed to have some sort of boardwalk place. All I could do was look at these things though. The only other real excitement I had for the day was I was tasked to do colors at around 1900 (7:00pm for you civilian type people). It was the first time I had done that, and they stuck me on the union jack, which is a small flag that just has the blue background with the 50 white stars on it. That was an experience, because I was supposed to take it down slowly during colors, which wasn't a problem since the rope got tangled up while I was bringing it down. In fact, after colors were over, I was still trying to bring it down. But it didn't take me long after they finished before I had it down. The way I tied the rope back up though, I feel sorry for the guy that had to do it the next morning. It seems easy, and it is, but not quite as easy as expected. There are still a couple of things that you should be taught for it.

Day 2:

The second day I got up early so that I could get out for duty section relief. I didn't actually get off the boat until 9:00, but at least I got off of the boat. Honestly, after stepping foot on land in almost a month, it seemed like I hadn't been on the boat for that long. Best not to think about it and just spend as much time on land as you can. I was with Montgomery (someone from my old division) and the first place we hit was the mall. I wasn't totally surprised when the first thing I saw at the mall was McDonald's. I don't think I would be surprised if I saw a floating McDonald's just hanging around in the middle of the water just in case boats come by and want a burger or something. There was no real difference in the menu at this McDonald's, except for they had a chicken meal on the menu that had like two pieces of chicken and a couple of side strips. Chicken is a big thing around here. You can get it almost anywhere, and they seem to eat all parts of the chicken, including the feet. They also had a Kentucky Fried Chicken next door, but I didn't go in there. The difference with it here was they actually had a Cornel Sandar's Figure standing out in front of it, which I hadn't seen before. Honor the man that gives you chicken I guess.

We just kind of messed around for a while, because none of the stores opened until 10:00. Montgomery made a phone call, where we found out that a long distance phone from here to the US is about the same price as it costs from state to state in America. A 20-dollar Singapore card (12 dollars US) gave you 125 minutes to the states. I decided I had to go get one of them as soon as we got back to base. He talked on the phone for a few minutes and stores started opening up. That's when I found out that things here are not nearly as expensive as everyone leads it up to be. In fact, a lot of things are cheaper, such as CDs and video games, and some electronics, food... Almost everything. I browsed around a bit seeing what all was available. It didn't seem that they had a lot in the lines of authentic stuff except for jewelry boxes, I saw a couple chess sets, vases and such. I was just browsing to see what was available at this point though. After some of that, we went up to an arcade for a while and messed around in there for a few minutes. I watched more than played games, and I didn't even pay for any games. Even in the arcades here you buy a card with money on it and swipe it on a mechanism on the game and it deducts the credit. That was unique too. After playing some games in the arcade, we browsed around a little more, and that's when I figured out that instead of DVDs being big here it's VCDs. They do have some DVDs, but they have a lot more (stores full) of VCDs. We were in one of these VCD stores and on the monitor they were playing a karaoke CD of a girl singing in Chinese, but I loved the music. Loved it so much in fact, that I went up and asked who sang the song. The lady at the counter told me that her name was Sun Yan Zi, and I ended up going back to the CD store I had been at later and bought her CD. I figure now I'm going to buy a local CD everywhere I go as well. A lot of the CDs they have here are American, but not any hard American. They don't really have any Eminem, or Metallica, or Guns N' Roses around here. Music here consists main of pop artists. Most CDs (and VCDs for that matter) have a seal on it from the Singapore board of censors.

After we browsed around a little longer, got something to eat, and went back up to the arcade for a bit, I had to go back to base so that I could go on my first tour, which was a tour of Singapore by night. We started on a bus taking a 20-30 minute ride to downtown Singapore where our first stop was at the Sizzling Rock, where we had dinner. It was a small portion, but very unique. First, they brought out a cream of mushroom soup, which tasted pretty much the same, followed by a salad, and then the main course. I ordered the chicken, and they brought out raw chicken sitting on top of a piece of hot granite and sauces on the side. I then had to use that hot granite to cook my chicken on at my table, adding what sauces and how much of each sauce as I wanted. I thought this was very different, and a good idea. After the meal, we all hung around and talked for a while, and looked at the city which was now lighting up because it was getting dark. Before long, they loaded us up on the bus to go to our next stop at a market place, supposedly the best prices in town, but I didn't think so. They all seemed to be the same prices, difference was you could haggle here, where at the normal stores, you usually just paid the marked price, unless you were buying multiple items. I bought a couple of things and waited for the bus again. At the market, they had a lot of things that were actually illegal though. Pirated games and CDs were a big item here. I didn't get any because I was still kind of paranoid about law enforcement, something else that is rumored to be real strict here, getting fined for anything under the sun, but it isn't nearly that bad. I'll get into that later. After the market, we went to the Raffles hotel, where most of the celebrities stay when they come to Singapore. As a side note, Raffles was the name of the person who founded Singapore (don't quote me, it was something important like that), and hence a very popular name. The hotel wasn't built until long after he died, but that's where the hotel got its popularity. We went back into the bar and billiard room where they ordered a "Singapore Sling" for us. It's a drink that is probably the most famous around here that contains... well I don't know what all it contained. All I remember was it had rum in it and it was pink, so you figure it out. But since this was such a nice place, I decided I had to go all out, so I went over and bought myself a Cuban Cigar. So here I am, in the bar of the most famous hotel in Singapore, smoking a Cuban and drinking their popular drink. Life was good.

That was where the tour ended, but instead of going back on the bus, I stayed behind with a group of others because I wanted to see more of the city. After some wandering around, I found the "Fountain of Wealth". It is the largest fountain in the world, and is said that if you touch it, you will become wealthy the next day. I didn't touch us because they didn't let us down there. I guess they don't want everyone to become wealthy. I did catch the end of a show they had there though. Twice every evening, they spray the water in certain ways, and a laser light show is shown in the middle of the fountain. It was actually really neat, and I would have liked to go back to catch the whole show. At this point, that part of town was closing down (the businesses close at around 10) so I wound up going to another part of town, more of the night life part of town, Orchard Ave. to be more exact. Here they had a building, mall by day, had four clubs in it by night. Two of them had live bands, which I wasn't all that impressed with. They all sang American songs that were kind of older, but it would have been nice if they had sung some things I didn't know. I wandered around inside a bit, but then I went outside which I liked more. The atmosphere out there was much more social and I wound up talking to people for the rest of the night. I ended up going back to base at around 4 in the morning in a Taxi that tried to overcharge me and the two guys I was riding with, but they were drunk and I wasn't, so after I let him know that I knew what he was doing was wrong, he let me go. See, I'm getting smarter at these things. Kind of funny how the cab driving never turned on the meter...

Day 3:

I slept until late morning and just kind of messed around on base for a while, because I signed up to go to a family's house for dinner, and I was told that if I missed it, I would be answering to the CO. They sure do know how to scare a guy. It wasn't that I didn't want to go, it was just I had to find my own way there, and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to find it. It wasn't that hard though. In fact, I was the first one there. I just hopped on the bus that took us next to the MRT station (basically a trolley system). I took a ride to downtown and walked from there. It was real easy to find, just took about half an hour to 45 minutes to get there, but at least this let me ride their subway.

The family dinner was the best though. I was expecting to show up, have something to eat, maybe they would break out pictionary and we would be on our way. It was nothing like that at all. They weren't native Singaporeans like I expected either. They were American's whose job brought them over here, so now they live here. The Richert family were the actual hosts, but they had a few friends over also, which was more the better because I enjoyed talking and spending time with all of them. As soon as I showed up, I was asked if I was thirsty. Next thing I know, I have a beer in my hand. That actually surprised me, because in Singapore, alcohol is not cheap. Their way to discourage things around here is to raise the prices. I believe that is why everyone always says it's so expensive here, because the alcohol costs so much, and as much as I hate to say it, most military come to ports to do a lot of drinking. So, I started on my first beer and started talking to them as the others showed up. There ended up being seven of us all together. This place was very nice though. We had a barbeque on a patio type area of what we would think of as an apartment complex, but most living places in Singapore seem that way. It was 26 stories high with five spaces on each floor, and a security gate out front to come in. Out behind it was a fountain, a pool, a hot tub, a cool down tub, and a building that held changing rooms and a sauna. So, after chatting for a while, we jumped in the pool and started swimming around and having fun. This was a VERY nice pool too. It purposely ran over to give the outsides kind of a waterfall effect, was made out of tile, and had lights that changed colors on the bottom. I find that a lot of the really neat things around here are really simple. But, the difference between this pool and the pool back on base was we could drink in the pool. I don't really know how much I drank, but it was quite a bit and got me to the happy point, just not completely drunk. I still knew what was going on. After swimming for a while, they called us out for dinner. Dinner could not have been better for a poor soul who has been out on the water for nearly a month. We had barbequed steaks and ribs, potatoes, salad, a skewer of vegetables, chips, dip, and of course, beer. I ended up having about 6 ribs, two steaks, about three skewers of vegetables, a helping of salad and a helping of these potatoes. Everything tasted excellent. I was in heaven and even at times forgot I was in the Navy. I was just enjoying life. And enjoying it I was. After dinner, we all hopped in the pool and socialized some more. After talking for about an hour or so, they asked us if we wanted dessert. Well, an hour prior, we were all as stuffed as a Thanksgiving turkey, but we were definitely ready for dessert. I myself was eating as much as they would give me because it was such great food. Dessert was brownies, cookies, strawberries and (get this) TILLAMOOK Ice Cream. Awww yeah! Tillamook Ice Cream baby. I can't believe they sell that over here, but there were no complaints at all, well except that they don't sell the cheese over here, but you can't expect it all. After stuffing ourselves again with dessert, there was more swimming (not me this time though) and more socializing with a lot of laughing. As we approached the end of the night, I had a couple of glasses of Australian wine with the hosts which was some excellent stuff as we talked some more until the security guard of the area told us it was time to break it up. So we took some last minute pictures, said our good-byes, and we were on our way. They kept saying they hoped we had a good time, but I don't think they know what a great time we had. I don't think they can comprehend! And since this is also going to them, THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR A WONDERFUL AND UNFORGETABLE EVENING, MICHELLE AND JOHN RICHERT, AND FRIENDS!!!!

After I left the Richert residence, I made sure everyone got on the way back to base all right and I stuck around because I wanted to wander the town again. After some walking and running into a couple of people from the boat, I found myself on Orchard Ave. again and once again talking with people. I went into one of the clubs for a while with a small group from the boat, but a little before 3, they all left to go to their hotel room, and I stayed behind and talked some more. I was going to head back soon after, but I ended up sticking around and talking to people there until wee hours of the morning. I was there until about 6:30 in the morning socializing because I was having such a great time just talking to the people in the area. Something I would gladly do again. Plus, all night, you don't really have anything to worry about because the crime rate is so low. At 6:30, the trains had started running again, so I got on one of those and headed back to the boat, observing the morning life of this fine city.

Day 4:

I didn't get back to the boat until around 8:30 - 9:00 in the morning, and didn't get into bed until about 10:00. I ended up sleeping until almost 4, then got up and went to the base club to finish up some phone calls. After a long wait for the first one, I got on a bus and went back to the mall for some last minute souvenir shopping, and to use the phones until my phone card was used up. By the time I got back on base, it was almost time for all E-3 and below to be on the bus. I did some final shopping at the small store they had next to the pier. Then I stood outside there and was discussing this port with some others from the ship. Most everyone had a good time here, and I didn't hear much in the line of bad things. But this pretty much finished this port off, because 2 hours after all the E-3 and below had to be back on the boat, I had to be back on the boat.

Social Life:

Singapore is different from America in so many ways. In a lot of ways, I believe that it is better, but in other ways it's not. One reason that it is better is because of the low crime rate. It's nice to be able to walk around on the streets at night and not really have to worry about much of anything. I still stayed alert, but I didn't even have to kind of question anything because no one ever really gave you a look or followed you. Reasons I think the crime rate is so low goes beyond the law around here. Sure, there are some pretty strict laws around here, like where you can smoke, the fact you can't chew cum in public, you can't bring food or drinks on buses and public transportation at all, but that is a very small reason why this town is so great. I think one main reason is that this city if very family oriented. That's a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is family always looks after each other. It helps in the raising process and you always have people to talk to. You're not rebelling against your family for many reasons. Education is also very high here. In fact, I heard the term that they were possibly over-educated here. Most everyone here can speak two languages, if not more. But one thing I was highly impressed with was when I was riding the train back to the boat after that night I stayed out all night. I saw some of the local children in their school uniforms heading toward there school. The ones I remember clearly was one reading over one of his schoolbooks. One was just standing waiting for his stop while listening to something on his headphones, and one kind of seemed to be snoozing or daydreaming or something. But the ones that impressed me much was I saw two of them that looked late grade school or junior high aged that were reading the morning newspaper. The newspaper isn't very big here, and it's free. They are in all sorts of locations in the morning, in stands and being passed out. By mid-morning, they are all gone because everyone takes an interest. I did get one, and kept it, but I haven't read it yet. I do intend to when I have some time to do so. I was too busy observing everything on the way back, and I wanted to take in as much as I could while I could. Everyone seemed to be headed in one direction or another, most going to work I'm sure. There were just lines of people everywhere, and most people were either walking or using some sort of public transportation. But I can understand that. I found out that in this area, to buy a car, you need not only a Singapore license, but also a certificate just to be able to buy a car, and this certificate would cost in the area of 25,000 US dollars. And then you would have to by a car that would cost around the same area as in the states. But that wouldn't be the end of it, because then, at certain times, even normal roads would charge a kind of toll. Every car comes equipped with some sort of card mechanism that you have to have a kind of charge card in to charge you when you pass certain areas. If you don't, you get fined. But driving is another example of how they raise prices to discourage things. But honestly, I could easily see living here without a car. It's not really a needed thing.

The price of cars is just one example of how high the cost of living is around here. To rent a flat (which is basically a two bedroom apartment), from what I heard, it costs on average the equivalent of 1500 US dollars every month, if not more. A lot of things may seem cheap here, but it is not cheap to live here. And work is not anything like in America either. We are so spoiled in so many ways. Once you get a job in Singapore, you don't let go of it, and chances are you will never get "promoted" either. You are stuck in the position you are in as a career. So, you wouldn't be high up in a company unless your family owned it. One example would be in one of the malls I went to, there was a drug store that we went browsing around in (medicine also costs a lot here) and saw a manager who looked to be in the area of 16 years old, and working under him were a lot of women that seemed to be in their 40's if not older.

But I believe in a whole, Americans could learn a lot by the society around here. I mean, nowhere in America could you go to a food court in a mall and get your food served to you on a real plate. People just don't appear to be interested in taking things that aren't theirs around here. Sure, I only have a week of experience around here, but talking to people such as the Richert's and some of the people on Orchard Ave, they spoke very highly of around here also. In fact, many don't seem to want to leave, and I wouldn't blame them.

I'm not going to tell everything in here, because I don't remember everything I want to say and would always want to add more later, and also because I have to have something you don't know to talk about when you all ask me how these places were.

Overall Impression: