The first step in our 2026 journey was to fly from Los Angeles to Singapore. Singapore wasn’t on my destination list, mostly because I had been there (even though Tami had not been anywhere in Asia) and because you can’t get to Singapore in our RV. Singapore is a tiny island, and our RV is way too big for that.
Once we get back, we will get the RV out of storage and start heading north through California all the way to Canada. We have places to explore and family to see. Right now, our RV is parked in the same storage lot as last year, when we went to Europe.
It is a little scary to park your full-time home, lock your doors, and then depend on the sun hitting the solar panels to keep everything working. It worked last year without any failures except that our router took a break.
Living in our RV gives us lots of freedom to explore
Our trip to Singapore and back will be much shorter than our 120-day trip through Europe last year. So far, (I did a status check yesterday), everything in the RV still seems to be working. When I ran the same status check last year, my router failed to respond, leading me to believe we had an electrical failure. It wasn’t true, and everything was fine except for a reboot of the router. I included some of the details about our first non-RV trip in my end-of-the-year recap. Our 2025 adventure
Unlike our 2025 adventure, this time I left the inverter on, running from the solar panels and batteries, and left the refrigerator on as well. Since my router failed in 2025, I was unable to check the RV for two months. This time, at least for now, the router is still online, telling me that the electrical system is still working.
Not my first trip to Singapore
The last time I was in Singapore (for one night in 1990), I had no desire to go back. I was in the Navy, heading to the Persian Gulf. We had stopped in the Philippines for a short stay and lots of work. Our route to the Persian Gulf was through the Straits of Malacca. I was in the Persian Gulf both before and after Iraq attacked Kuwait.
Singapore, to me, wasn’t as exotic as Hong Kong, and so small. It was also much more expensive than anywhere else we visited, except downtown Tokyo. We wandered through the city, mostly in the middle of the night, with our only aim to be back on the ship in time to go to work. For me, the best parts of going to the Persian Gulf (doing important and sometimes risky things) were our return trips that included stops in Australia.
Why did we go to Singapore this time?
This time, our visit was inspired by Tami’s son, who was in Singapore to work on semiconductor chips. Chris is doing his job in Singapore, with frequent visits to both Boise and India. So, to visit Chris for two weeks, we flew to Singapore and felt lucky to arrive an hour early, cutting our 18-hour plane trip to “only” seventeen hours.
The plane trip was horrible, we were in inside seats with no exit to the aisle, and sitting between us and the path to the bathroom was a drunk. He fell asleep before takeoff, awoke only for midnight dinner, and then right back to sleep. At least he was a quiet drunk. We departed LAX at 10:30 pm and had dinner right after takeoff. Since we were heading west, we were chasing the sun and arrived just after sunrise at about 6:30 in the morning, Singapore time.
I stayed awake until about 3 pm, Singapore time, then gave up and went to bed, not getting up until 6 the next morning. Overall, resetting the jet lag was not bad. Traveling west on the late-night plane and staying awake after arrival made it pretty easy to get over the jet lag. If only the airplane seats were better.
Singapore
I have a hard time liking Singapore. Since it is at sea level on the equator, they only have two seasons: hot and sticky and hot and rainy. We were there during the dry season, but that didn’t stop the rain. The other reason I didn’t like Singapore was its expense. While visiting, I found a third reason I didn’t like Singapore, which I’ll tell you about later.
During my lifetime, Singapore has moved from a developing country to one of the cleanest, highest-earning countries in the world. Even though it is less than 25% the size of Rhode Land and much smaller than Los Angeles, both in population and land area. It eclipses the value and growth of almost every nation in the world, with the few exceptions of oil kingdoms.
In Singapore, the British were overrun by the Japanese in World War II and never recovered. The British built an excellent defense against sea attacks, but the Japanese attacked from Malaysia (land), and the British had no defenses. Japan had no mercy.
The occupying Japanese were brutal in Singapore, especially to the Chinese population. After World War II, Singapore reverted to British rule until 1962, when it rejoined Malaysia, only to quickly gain its independence from Malaysia in 1965.
Created by Great Britain
In a very real sense, Great Britain created Singapore in 1819 when Raffles drained the swamp and purchased it from the Sultan of Johor. (Johar is the Malaysian state next to Singapore.) Raffles recognised the island as a natural choice for a port. Singapore was ideally located, had easy, deepwater access to the port, and had abundant rainfall for freshwater.
Raffles created Singapore as a nearly tax-free haven that lay along the busiest shipping lanes in the world. At that time, Malaysia, China, and Indonesia imposed heavy tariffs on all cargo handled at their ports. Raffles drafted a set of new policies for the settlement, including very low taxes. He also banned slavery, closed gambling dens, prohibited carrying weapons, and imposed heavy taxes on alcohol and heroin.
Independence
In 1965, the “freeport” part of Singapore disappeared with its independence. Instead, it became a low-tax country. In the 1960s, Singapore had ethnic and civil unrest problems to the point that Malaysia didn’t want Singapore as part of their country, and the British were looking to shut down the British Empire. During the 1960s, protests and racial riots were common.
Cleverly, the new government was able to fix both the racial problems and remove the slums at the same time, and create home ownership by building high-rise condominiums. In the 1960s, Singapore remodeled its population and housing by converting slums into high-rise apartments, employing builders from mixed cultures who eventually could build and purchase their own apartments. They mostly eliminated the historical ethnic neighborhoods and instead mixed the population into stable, affluent housing. It wasn’t free enterprise but rather a mix of government and successful incentives.
After independence from Great Britain and Malaysia. Singapore created wealth where there was none without natural resources. Modeled after British Singapore and with an ideal location, they seized the opportunity of container-based shipping with low tariffs.
Despite lacking oil reserves, they became a major player in oil refining. Instead of relying on others (the British), they established their own modern military for defence. Singapore also mandated personal savings accounts and private property ownership in high-rise condos built on government land.
On the surface, Singapore seems ideal, very safe, and peaceful. I mentioned the other reason I don’t like Singapore is that, even though it holds elections, no one describes them as freely contested, fair, or open. The People’s Action Party controls the elections and wins consistently. In real ways, they make all the rules both for society and elections. The rules are strictly enforced and often have brutal consequences. As for me, I don’t like or trust dictators (or kings). History has too many examples of the brutal results.
What is next?
Mostly as an objection to our exhausting airplane ride from Dublin to Los Angeles last year, we decided to try something new: instead of returning to Los Angeles by plane, we would take a cruise ship. A cruise ship is more expensive and takes much longer to cross the Pacific Ocean, but it is vastly more interesting and comfortable.
Cunard Queen Anne
After our stay in Singapore, we joined the Cunard Queen Anne in Singapore for the Pacific Ocean part of its round-the-world cruise. We are not only going to Los Angeles but also stopping at multiple destinations along the way, including my favorite places in Australia.
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Art and Science Museum in Singapore
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Wow, love your incredible journey. Thank you for sharing. We’re just back from a 15-day cruise through the Panama Canal and slowly adjusting back to the Central Time Zone. Can’t wait to see more photos.
I was on the Abe Lincoln in that same time-frame and geographic area….Our squadron was VFA-94 flying the F-18 Hornet. This was the following the transition from the A-7 Corsair II.
I too had less love for Singapore than for other ports of call…..however, it was where we took our aircraft for updates and repairs starting in the Philippines flying out of Cubi Point. It was kind of an interesting over water transit following a T39 pathfinder out of VRC-50 to deliver a bird into Paya Lebar in Singapore for the rework.
Sounds like you might have had some extra money to spend. When I was there we couldn’t afford a beer.
Thanks for sharing.
Always have wanted to visit Asia. But hot and sticky is not fun. Looks like you guys had a fun time, even though it was hot.
Quick thank you for all you two do. I really do appreciate and enjoy all your travels and postings. very interesting. So just a big thank you and to let you know I’m watching.
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This was very interesting and informative. Thanks.