Our World

The Fall of 2011 has been a very bad period here in Thailand.
In early October the north of Thailand experienced very heavy periods of monsoon rains. This resulted in flash flooding that did great damage to the hill villages nestled in the mountains and took hundreds of lives. Chiang Mai suffered flooding in the city’s Ping River neighborhoods but the flood waters receded in a couple of days without creating too much damage. These conditions were repeated in the many small rivers that flow through the north and northeast of the country and relentlessly the water flowed south.

The flat plains of central Thailand are ideal for farming but when the rivers converge in this area the flooding is devastating. The flooding is said to be the worse in fifty years as when the waters breached the flood walls it spread quickly over an area that is estimated to be thirty percent of the country. Besides the farms there were huge industrial parks inundated closing factories and putting nearly one million people out of work.

Bangkok’s central commercial district was spared by diverting the flood waters into the suburbs of the north, east and west. Five years ago the new airport was opened which was indeed fortunate as the old airport that had totally served the city was swept under several meters of water. The old airport, that still was used for some domestic flights, has been closed for a month and may not open for another couple of weeks.

The Hard Rock Café in Bangkok each year sponsors a fundraising event that brings people from all over the world. We have been coming for five years and did not want to miss the 10th annual event. We flew off the Bangkok with most people here expecting that we would need to hire a boat to get into town. That prediction proved totally wrong as during the several days we were there we saw no flooding.
Throughout central Bangkok we found sand bag and concrete barriers erected to protect businesses. Climbing over many of them in attempting to walk around town definitely made for more exercise than most Thais are accustomed. Fortunately the area has yet to be confronted by flood waters as the randomness and incompleteness of the barriers would prove ineffective in dealing with the power of a flood. The Hard Rock Café event was very successful in raising money for school charities and the attendees thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

There was no problem flying out of Bangkok, which had been our greatest concern, and we made our way to Singapore. On our last trip here we had visited the newly opened Universal Studio Park. A return visit however was necessitated by the fact that the much heralded Battlestar Galactica roller coaster had not been allowed to operate due to safety considerations and Lois wanted to do the wild ride (not me). You can be totally assured that each and everything you do in Singapore will be as safe as possible. The public’s health and safety are the paramount responsibility of the Singapore government. Admittedly some of the laws and standards in Singapore are extreme and might be considered infringing on personal freedom elsewhere, but arguably you are safer there than anywhere else in the world.

Battlestar Galactica is actually two roller coasters. One is called the Human and the other the Cylon as found in the television series. Lois found the Human to be a very fast and jarring experience. The Cylon carried you up, threw you down, cork screwed you around and the results had Lois calling it the best ride she had ever experienced. Tried to get her to temper her evaluation as having ridden most of the world’s best coasters it should be hard to name one the best. Here second Cylon ride confirmed her opinion so now she has to try and find one to top it.

The park had decent crowds but we never had to wait more than a few minutes for any of the attractions. A boat ride based on the movie Madagascar was new and was quite entertaining. A highlight in the park is the Water World show that takes place in a huge lagoon setting with non-stop speedboats, jet-skis, explosions and pyrotechnics. Ironically Universal has managed to turn one of the worst movie ever made into something special, but it had actors that showed emotion not Kevin Costner.

The Marina Bay Sands Hotel/Casino is an amazing complex of entertainment and shopping, but they have added something very special to the Singapore scene.
The Art & Science Musuem a stark white building that reminds one of the Sydney Opera House sits directly adjacent to the hotel/casino facing the city’s harborfront.
When we visited it was playing host to two fantastic exhibits. The 100th Anniversary Titanic display and a collection of Salvador Dali’s eclectic art. Each was very memorable in their own way.

The Titanic Exhibit (which strictly forbid any photographing) traced the doomed ship from its conception, through it construction to its disastrous sinking. It had full scale displays of many parts of the ship including reproduction of the Grand Staircase.
However what it did so well was to include personal history and accounts for passengers from all classes that were on the boat. As you entered the exhibit you were given a boarding card that represented a passenger and allowed you at the end of the exhibit to find if you survived the sinking or not. Lois survived being in First Class while I did not while in 3rd Class- surprised?

Salvador Dali was one of the seminal artistic creators of the 20th Century but due to his flamboyancy, self promotion and commercialism he deservedly produced a questionable legacy. The choice of works selected to display in this exhibit credit him most favorably. That in itself would make this exhibit outstanding but another factor elevated it even further. The installation of the works in this new gallery go beyond any exhibit we have ever seen anywhere in the world. The utilization of the unique space offered by the gallery design and the extraordinary lighting of the pieces were truly inspired. One of the very central displays allowed the viewer to blend the color and intensity of the lighting to create an endlessly varying artistic experience. How this would have worked with a full crowd is problematic, but when viewing virtually alone, as we did, it was magical. The museum has no permanent collection but will promote itself (and the hotel/casino) on exhibits. Given Marina Bay Sands resources this should make a stop at the Art and Science Museum a must for any visit to Singapore.