A daylong rain greeted us on our first full day in Singapore, but it didn’t dampen our touring spirit as the city is used to dealing with downpours. Rain is common in this region and buildings are often designed to provide covered walkways for pedestrians. In addition, shopping malls are seemingly everywhere, many of them underground and connected to subway stops. Those are maze-like and reminiscent of casino floors, as in they are designed to make it difficult for you to escape without spending some money.

On the plus side, the subway system is very modern and easy to navigate, making moving around the city easy, even in the rain. One can easily enter the system simply by tapping a Visa or MasterCard at the turnstyle (no Amex or Discover), and then tapping the same card at the exit. One quirk is that if you share an account with your spouse, as we do, you can’t use the same card in succession. Luckily I had my Visa debit card with me after Pat used one of our credit cards to pass through the gate. We wouldn’t have known what the problem was had a system employee not been at the entry when we first arrived. Another plus was that a metro stop was directly across the street from our hotel. Pretty convenient.

Our first observation is that while the majority of the faces one passes on the street are Asian or South Asian, Singapore doesn’t feel particularly foreign. It’s a former British colony. English is widely spoken and one of four official languages. All of the subway announcements are in English as is all of the signage. So while it’s different here it also feels sort of familiar. It’s also a very clean city, with no signs of trash anywhere. The government is known to be very strict about that sort of thing. The contrast between here and the craziness of Cairo a year ago is notable.

We started the day with a visit to the Asian Civilizations Museum for the first of what is likely to be several discussions of Buddhism, Hinduism and other Eastern belief systems. We opted to take part in a free English-language tour conducted by a volunteer docent. There was also a special exhibit about how the Spaniards during the early colonial era were responsible for shipping a number of goods from Asia to the Americas on galleons sailing from Manila to Acapulco and back again. OK, flying 19 hours seems like a lot these days, but I can’t image traversing the Pacific on a wooden sailing vessel.

Singapore’s location at the tip of the Malay Peninsula has long made it an important trading center and another display at the museum contained artifacts from a ship called the Tang that sank in the harbor around the year 830. Even then the Chinese were mass producing bowls and other finished goods for trade throughout Asia. Interesting.

Next we ventured over to the Gardens by the Bay, which is part park and part horticulture center. It’s regarded as one of THE things to do in Singapore. The only trouble is that if you walk to the park as we did, traversing the last steps to the entrance is a bit of a nightmare.

Why? Because fronting the park entrance is the massive Marina Bay Sands Hotel & Casino, and navigating through the giant lobby to reach the park is not well marked. We took several wrong turns, circled about, asked staff members for directions, etc, before finding our way down to the Marina Sands metro stop, from which one could stroll to the entrance. There was, of course, more shopping. (We now realize there is also a Gardens by the Bay stop on another subway line that we could have reached directly from our hotel stop. Hindsight is always 20-20.)

The reason for heading there is that two featured conservatories, the Rain Forest Dome and the Flower Dome, are enclosed and thus enjoyable on a rainy day. There’s an entry fee for those exhibits that came out to US $52.75 for the two of us, about in line with what we would likely be charged at other botanical gardens. Both were enjoyable to visit, but the most fun was the Flower Dome because it still had its Christmas display in place. It featured an homage to Scandinavian/Viking culture at Christmas. Think Gnomes and the like. Weird to look at when one is in Asia, suffice it to say.

We wound up the day by attempting to visiting the famed Long Bar at the historic Raffles Hotel, where the Singapore Sling cocktail was created in 1915. Unfortunately, the Long Bar is prominently featured in every guidebook on the planet, so there was an hour-long line to get in. Not something we were willing to do, especially since the drink doesn’t sound that appealing. (It consists of gin, Grand Marnier, cherry liqueur, herbal liqueur (often Benedictine), pineapple, lime, bitters and club soda. Meh.)

Instead we found our way to a former convent nearby called Chijmes that houses a number of eateries. There we settled in at a Japanese spot that seemed popular with locals for a couple of happy-hour beers, a little sushi and yakatori, after which we called it a day. (And the entire meal probably cost just a bit more than what two Singapore Slings at Raffles would have cost.) It was a lot for the first day, but that often seems to happen. The weather today looks better so we will see what discoveries await.