By Bob Van Leer

(SINGAPORE, Tuesday, March 21, 2000) - Betty and I arrived in Singapore today after a more than 8000 mile trip from Gold Beach. Singapore is a small, highly developed parliamentary democracy located in southeast Asia.

   This is a tiny country, only about 20x25 miles in size, but has a population of 3.86 million. The population is mostly Chinese (77%) with the balance Malays and Indians. It has been a separate country only since 1965. Before that it was part of Malaysia.

   We started Saturday on this trip, driving to Medford to spend the night. Sunday we took a United Airlines flight to San Fransisco and then boarded Singapore Airlines Flight 001 at just before midnight for the 6799 mile flight to Hong Kong. This trip took just over 13 hours of elapsed time, which is a long time to sit in an airline seat. The plane was a Boeing 747-400 and Singapore Airlines has a deserved reputation as a superior airline.
We landed at the new Hong Kong airport, shown on the maps as Hong Kong International Airport. It is a big improvement over the old airport where passengers literally looked into office windows as the planes descended. But I liked the old airport name better, Kai Tak. It sounds more Chinese.

   We were able to leave the plane at Hong Kong and stretch our legs, but were restricted to certain portions of the airport for the hour we were there. Then it was off on the final leg of 1600 miles, mostly south, to Singapore, a three plus hour flight.

   We took a tour bus around the island and visited Singapore Botanic Gardens. I didn't know there were so many varieties of palm trees. Part of the gardens is the National Orchid Garden which they bill as, "The largest orchid showcase in the world". And it is spectacular. Orchids are grown outside like bedding plants here, as we are only about 60 miles north of the equator.

   We are staying tonight at the Pan Pacific Hotel on the 28th floor. The hotel is new and good.

   We are here for only one night. Tomorrow we board a cruise ship, Legend of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean liner, for a cruise that will take us across the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean, making a number of stops and finally going through the Suez canal. We then make several stops in the Mediterranean sea before finishing up at Athens, Greece and flying to New York and San Fransisco and then to Medford and home. This will be the first time we have actually gone around the world.