250719 Part 3 Singapore

Singapore was the cleanest place in the far east. There wasn’t even a scrap of paper on the ground. We were anchored off shore in the bay. It was interesting, every morning I went up on the flight deck and enjoyed the ship twisting around on the anchor chain every morning was a different view.

I was fascinated by Singapore.

I was on the USS Kitty Hawk, we were on line and sending planes over Vietnam to bomb strategic targets in areas to help the ground troops. After our regular time on line, we were going to go to Australia for some liberty. On the way we stopped in Singapore. I was excited because I knew where I wanted to go, the Raffles Hotel. Prior to WW-2 and during the war, the British officers stayed in the Raffles hotel until the Japanese overtook Singapore and imprisoned them.
I went to the Raffles to sit out on the famous covered veranda with a garden that was beside the hotel. I sat down under the huge slow turning fans and ordered a Singapore Sling, a drink created in the Raffles for those British officers. It was so good, I ordered a couple more. You can get a Singapore Sling in other places, but they never have the quality the originals had. After relaxing there, I headed off to see some of the sights. I found this alley that had booths which sold so many different items that I had never seen before. Each booth had its man trying to sell something to anyone who wandered into the alley. Everything was clean and interesting. I didn’t buy any souvenirs, my locker on the ship was packed with my work clothes, liberty uniforms and shoes along with books Joyce had sent me. The trip to Singapore was in 1973, that was 52 years ago yet the images I saw there are still with me.

My next liberty I and three other sailors (whose names I can't remember except one name, Taylor T, Trip from Colorado) we left the ship, waved down a cab and headed to town. We were hungry, so I told the driver to take us somewhere for some supper. I told him I would buy his supper if he would go with us and recommend what we should eat. He took us to what was called the car park restaurant. It was in the middle of the business district. All the people there worked until 5 pm and then they got into their cars to go home and the huge parking area was empty until the vendors flooded into the area with all of their exotic foods.
The cabby sat us down and then he went all over to get us all of the foods that none of us could pronounce or ever heard of. It was all delicious! We chowed down on all we could eat. I paid the driver, and we took off walking to see the town. We went into a few night clubs and were shocked. It was like going back to the 1950s. We finally got tired and went back to the ship. The next day was punishment for those exotic foods. My digestive system eliminated all I had eaten the night before rather forcefully.

The ship pulled out of the harbor and we were headed for Australia. We got within a few miles of the equator when a message arrived telling the Captain we were to return to the line off of Vietnam and to start bombing again. I'll never get to see Australia.

So ended one of the most exotic, wonderful places I’ve ever been.