Singapore 3/10/24 Sunday

Okay, so today’s breakfast stars were a ‘Purple Bao’ called “Yam Bun” and “Pongal with Sambar Dhal” sauce. Incredible! Tummies full, we head out leisurely to the bus stop. We’re told there’s no threat of rain so we don’t bring umbrellas.

We get to a bus stop that I have been looking at for the past couple days at a small park across the bay from the Marina Bay Sands Hotel for a new view of the area. As I am taking some shots the clouds open up. So much for no threat of rain! But we make it back to the bus stop shelter roof and wait out the small squall. I do have an emergency one use poncho in my back pocket and so does Elee. We don’t open them yet.

The rain abates after 10-15 minutes and we decide to walk to a spot that Elee has been wanting to visit. “Merlion Park”. It is a sculpture of a half lion, half mermaid, spouting water into the Bay. Some fun photos and we walk on, in search of the Yellow Line Bus to go find lunch and we are searching for a specific meal.

We board the bus and ride a couple stops and get off at ‘Clarke Quay’ (pronounced ‘key’). Walking through the maze of restaurants, many shopkeepers attempt to seduce us into their establishments but we tell them what we are looking for. “Oh, go down the way and cross the bridge! Look for ‘Jumbo Seafood’!”

We follow instructions and come across the restaurant that sells the meal we are looking for. We are seated and served beer and wine and a rice dish. Finally, the dish we searched for arrives at our table, “Chili Crab”! It is not only everything we thought it would be, it is likely the most expensive single menu item we have ever purchased! $100 Singapore dollars ($75 US). Maybe rivaled by some dry aged beef steaks long ago. The Crab is about 2-3 pounds and is cooked in a chili sauce that is spicy, but not light your mouth on fire spicy! We finish every last drop! We held out from that $300 meal and this one wasn’t as bad, LOL The meal with wine was under $200! Sorry I have no photos of the meal!

While we dine, the heavens open up again and rain as fiercely as we have ever seen! Relentless such that we contemplate getting a taxi instead of walking back to the bus. we stall our meal and drinks to try to wait out the squall. Sure enough, it is just a squall, fierce as it is. We leave the restaurant to the rain having stopped.

We walk back to the bus stop and board the bus with no issues. A couple miles into the trip finds us scrambling to go to the front of the bus (where the cover is) as the rain comes down again. We arrive back at the main bus hub and the rain stops. We now switch from the Yellow Line to the Red Line for the trip to our hotel, or at least a half mile from our hotel.

Fingers crossed, the rain holds off for our 15-20 minute walk back to the hotel. We lay down for a nap and to rest our legs. A few hours later, we walk down the street and find an authentic Chinese Restaurant and have some delicious Noodle Dishes! And I have a “Tiger” beer, made here in Singapore. I’d prefer an IPA, but those are not as common. And I have to say that it is very good for a Pilsner!

Back to the hotel for the night. The last two days I have far exceeded my walking goal of 10,000 steps per day. Today I miss the goal by 700 steps. Oh well, my legs need a rest! Tomorrow we will board our ship for the next part of the adventure!

Goodnight everyone!

Singapore, 3/09/24 Saturday

Today we wake and have the complimentary breakfast in the hotel. The best item on the menu besides the Bao is the ‘Roti Prada’ with ‘Yellow Dhal’ sauce. Fabulous! So, with full tummies, we pack up our cameras and head out under blue skies without the predicted rain of yesterday!

So we don’t even bring our umbrellas today. I do apply sunscreen which I forgot yesterday and I have some sunburn even under cloudy and rainy skies! And I remember my hat, which my dermatologist will appreciate! We walk the 5 blocks to the HO HO Bus and board when it arrives in 10 minutes or so. I brought the big camera today because I don’t have the threat of rain (even though the camera is water tight, being a pro camera). Handling multiple cameras in inclement weather has its own challenges!

Today, the sights are vibrant and I even reshoot the same images I shot yesterday with totally different lighting! Can’t wait to get to the editing phase but getting my thoughts down here are more important than the photo editing part! We ride the Red Line for 16 of 19 stops and get off at the Marina Bay Hotel, the famous three towered hotel with the “Boat” on top. As a tourist, there are some places you can’t go, but you CAN go up to the top for a fee (someone say you can go to the top? Well you all know me! LOL).

First we get views around and near the hotel and from inside the hotel. The architecture is amazing! Then we pay the fee and ride the express elevator up and step out on the “boat” end of the top level and the views of the city are amazing! This place is all that it is rated to be! And while at the top, we find a drink vendor selling, wait for it… Singapore Slings! Invented here! Albeit invented at a place called the “Raffles Hotel”, nevertheless in Singapore! So, of course we imbibe!

There is a bar and lounge at the top but it is cordoned off from our area. We inquire what it would take to sit there for a while and enjoy the view and it turns out all we had to do at the bottom was to ask to ride to the top for a drink! Sheesh, such typical tourists we are! We paid $32 Singapore dollars each for this view ($24 American dollars each) and could have sat there under shade and enjoyed the same view for free! I’m surprised that we didn’t find this out in advance, being the frugal travelers that we are!

We walk back to the bus stop and ride the bus to the central hub and kabitz with other passengers on the bus. The hub happens to be at a local mall. There seems to be a local mall every half mile in Singapore! We walk into the mall and find a subterranean level with many restaurants and we browse the different foods available. One thing we are quickly finding is that if a restaurant serves Indian or other ethnic foods, they don’t seem to serve beer or wine. A real bummer because we really like a cold glass of beer or glass of wine with a meal. And being in the Singapore heat and humidity (which can be stifling), that refreshment becomes important! I also will down 2-3 glasses of ice water during a meal also, liking to stay hydrated!

We end up at a pizzeria (I mean, who doesn’t end up eating pizza wherever they go?) and have a mushroom, chorizo and tomato pizza with the accompanying drinks of choice. And we share a salad. Not exactly the best tasting (but not bad) food we have had, but our tummies are satisfied and we feel hydrated (from the water, not beer and wine, LOL)

We find a grocery/pharmacy in the mall and pick up some sundries that we didn’t pack right and now have several pounds of items that we prefer not to carry for too long. We look at our clocks and determine that we have about two and a half hours until we need to be in a specific place for our night tour. An important time gap.

We ride the HO HO Bus back to our bus stop, 5 blocks away from our hotel. We are getting quite adept at knowing where our hotel is as related to the HO HO Bus stops. 15 plus minutes walk either direction, Ugh! We’re definitely getting our steps in! 13,000 steps yesterday and today is promising to be more! Hope we’re losing weight! We get our purchases into our room and have only 15-20 minutes to lay back and relax! Because tonight will turn out to be the most exciting night so far! And the Year of the Dragon keeps showing up!

We head back to the HO HO Bus (Hop On, Hop Off Bus for those that have missed earlier blog posts) and arrive right as a bus arrives! Fantastic timing! We board and secure top row seats with a view and ride it for most of an hour which gives us more time to relax our feet and legs that, in turn is a good thing! We arrive at the bus hub and join the queue to have a night tour of the “Garden By The Sea” and the “Marina Bay Sands Hotel” and a promised “Light Show”! I am a bit disconcerted by the length of the queue as I wonder how we can get top row seats for the tour. And we are early to join the queue.

The bus starts loading and my heart sinks as I watch the top seats fill up and we are nowhere close to the front of the queue! Suddenly, they shut off the loading line. Wow! Oh wait, this means there will be more than one bus! And we are now only behind a dozen people! The top decks hold well over one hundred people! We have a shot at this after all! Sure enough, they bring in a second bus. And we load and we get row 3! In the top! Open air seats! The night is good. The bus drives on and sunset starts to set in.

The lights in the city buildings start to come on. Fabulous for photos. I start setting the camera for night photos and coach Elee on how to do the same. The light fades and the building lights come up. One of my favorite times of day to photograph! I hope my shots tell the story as well as my excitement tells it! We weave in and out of city streets and our cameras praise us! And promise us of great rewards! Let’s hope they are telling us the truth!

Our tour guide, Edna, is very excited to show us the sights and she is worthy of her job title! She takes us to the “Barrage”, a location where you can see some of the artistic “Trees” and views of the Marina Bay Hotel. On weekends (this is Saturday!), hundreds of locals and tourists bring their families and children for picnics and to fly kites! We watch literally hundreds of colorful kites as they fly in the skies as we photograph the sites! An absolutely magical sight!

We board the bus again and are taken to an ancient fishing village location, “Lau Passat”, Singapore’s first market. Now it is a restaurant area that has literally dozens of food stalls and bars. We taste Satay skewers and buy some cool refreshing Sauvignon Blanc wine. So refreshing in the sweltering heat and humidity! We also found a store selling bottles of wine that we take back to our hotel. This was a difficult and useful find!

We board the bus again and go to the “Gardens By The Sea”, where the famous Artistic Trees of Singapore reside. Edna takes us to a quiet area, away from the crowds for a fantastic Light Show overlooking the Marina Bay Hotel and dozens of the Artistic Trees as the Light Show ensues! I will put up photos here and attempt to put up at least a short video! Such a treat and well worth every penny we spent! When in Singapore, buy the HO HO Bus tickets AND the Night Tour! You will not be disappointed!

We are brought back to the bus hub and we hail a taxi back to our hotel as the HO HO Busses do not run at night. The day has been a fantastic success! Goodnight all and see you tomorrow!

Friday, 03/08/24

We wake today fresh and ready to explore a new place. This is our second actual day however it will be referred to as ‘Day 03’ because we crossed the International Date Line and a whole day has gone past! We go downstairs for a complimentary breakfast and find some interesting items on the breakfast bar, the most unique was “Idly” and “Sambar Dhal”, some kind of a rice bread with a very spicy sauce to pour over it. I personally liked it a lot!

After breakfast, we go upstairs to prep our cameras and grabb our umbrellas for the weather is threatening rain every day for our stay here. But being the troopers that we are, we will not let the weather forecast dampen our spirits! Pun intended. Outside the elevators we see an interesting sign! It seems there is a violation more serious than smoking in a hotel! We’re going to have to locate this fruit called Durian and find out why!

We walk a few blocks and locate the “Hop On, Hop Off” bus, which we will lovingly call the HO HO Bus from now on. Everywhere we see things that remind us it is ‘The Year of the Dragon’! We have a touch of a problem with finding the correct bar code for the driver to scan but he lets us ride the bus to the main terminal where we get the issue fixed and we get back on the bus and ride the ‘Yellow’ line around the city.

Our cameras are in their element again and start happily snapping away. We are in the open top level of the bus and the weather is being cooperative. Although it wasn’t until after we sit down that we realize some of the seats were wet! Oh well, it is 90 degrees and 85% humidity so the wet seats are not all that uncomfortable in comparison!

We get to see the famous Marina Bay Hotel and the Tree Garden from the bus along with many other architectural wonders that Singapore has to offer. After riding the yellow loop, we get off and find a restaurant to have a bite to eat and a cold refreshing beverage. It even offers one IPA beer that is difficult to find outside the USA or Australia!

We walk around a while and try to locate a company that sold us eSims for our phones prior to ever starting this trip. We have their address and their office appears to be in the upstairs of a shopping mall here in Singapore. We use GPS to navigate to their address and it leads us into the mall. We happen across some interesting sights in the mall where some kind of dragon festival is happening and the displays are all made of balloons! Back outside we spot a ‘DuckBus’ (amphibious vehicle) which was made famous in Boston and we have occasionally seen a couple times around the world!

We never do locate the company, even with the aid of a security guard in the mall. It turns out the address is just a shared address for mail purposes. So we get back on the bus to ride the ‘Red’ line. But Elee has spotted an interesting temple to check out at stop number 2 and we get off to check it out. As we approach it, it starts to rain. But we have armed ourselves with umbrellas and we pull them out.

We get photos of the temple and then check our GPS maps. It is almost equidistant to the next bus stop or our hotel. It has been a good day so far so we opt to hike it back to our hotel as more photos from the open top levels of the busses is not a welcome thought in the rain.

Back at the hotel, we shed our wet things and take a welcome nap as we contemplate what we will do for dinner. After a much needed rest, we head out in search of a local restaurant. One criteria, they must serve wine. By the glass. We find the “Restaurant Row” only a few blocks from the hotel. We actually stumble across a Michelin Restaurant, Poutin, and they tell us they have one table left for 2. There will be a 15 minute wait. No problem. While we wait, we browse the menu. Wait, appetizers are starting at $20. Entrees start at $40. Still not horrible. Then we get to the wine list. Only by the bottle starting at $75. Okay, but wait. Elee drinks white and I drink red. Adding $150 in wine to the meal does us in. We try to slip out the door before being seated and they coerce us back in. We finally tell them it is not what we are looking for. We have only started this trip and $300 for dinner will set the wrong precedent!

So back out on the street, we browse 10-15 more restaurants and only find a couple with wine. Only by the bottle. Finally we find “Tyrewhitt” and get glasses of wine and a sample platter of bar food. We feel like we have completed our typical Friday night Happy Hour Date Night!

So a fun day and evening and we are tired. Back in the hotel, we check our pedometers and find we have walked over 12,000 steps today. Going to turn in and set back out tomorrow! All in all, Singapore is living up to its reputation for being an exciting city!

Goodnight!

To begin this trip

I thought I’d share a profound poem by an Italian Poet. This has been translated into English but I fear there may be something lacking. But here it is, the best I can render it….

September 18, 2021

A Poem About Traveling, by Gio Evan

Try to travel, otherwise you may become racist, and you may end up believing that your skin is the only one to be right, that your language is the most romantic and that you were the first to be the first.                                  

Travel, because if you don’t travel then your thoughts won’t be strengthened, won’t get filled with ideas. Your dreams will be born with fragile legs and then you end up believing in tv-shows, and in those who invent enemies that fit perfectly with your nightmares to make you live in terror.     

Travel, because travel teaches to say good morning to everyone regardless of which place we come from. 

Travel, because travel teaches to say goodnight to everyone regardless of the darkness that we carry inside.                     

Travel, because traveling teaches to resist, not to depend, to accept others, not just for who they are but also for what they can never be, to know what we are capable of, to feel part of a family beyond borders, beyond traditions and culture. Traveling teaches us to be beyond.

Travel, otherwise you end up believing that you are made only for a panorama and instead inside you there are wonderful landscapes still to visit. 

– Gio Evan, poet and songwriter.

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This poem brings tears to my eyes every time I read it. It would be my honor to one day meet you Gio Even! You are a man beyond words! Please read this again. And again. And again!

Goodnight All! Blog Posts on RTW 24 are coming real soon!

March 06-07 Travel Days

So we board our first plane in Los Angeles and take a short one hour flight to San Francisco. Then we board the flight that will take us straight to Singapore. Here are some pics from LAX and the landing in San Francisco (SFO). I even think I spot Rice Paddies in SFO! Who’d have thunk? It is delayed 30 minutes. Not a big deal. Then we get on the tarmac and delay most of another hour.

The captain comes on the radio and explains that we will have tailwinds to Singapore (which is odd for a westerly flight) and that Singapore will not allow us to arrive early. So we finally take off and are told that we will arrive in Singapore on time. Sixteen and a half hours in the air. A long time! Plus another hour and a half in the plane for the delay! 18 hours in the plane! Crossing the International Date Line really messes with your sense of time! No, we are in tomorrow. You are in today! But Elee has found the perfect seats for us in Premium Economy. We have footrests, reclining seats that recline further that most seats and ‘leg lifters’ that supported our calves. Add to that a sleep package pouch that had sleep masks, toothbrush and sundries. Toss in a huge blanket (larger than any airline blanket we have ever seen) and a pillow!

So we spend the first couple hours relaxing and watch a movie each. I choose an old Tom Cruise race car movie, Days of Thunder, and Elee muscles her way through Barbie. More power to her! Then a hot meal arrives and because of our seat positions, we get served not only a hot meal but with stainless silverware and glass wine glasses (with an open bar, of course!).

Movies completed, tummies filled, blankets arranged, I take a sleeping pill that my doctor always kindly prescribes for me when I travel, and I actually get most of 8 hours sleep in a couple of 4 hour shifts. Then I wake and watch another movie. This time I attempt to be brave like Elee and watch Barbie. But 15-20 minutes in, I can’t tolerate it and have to go looking for another action/adventure movie. PS: Elee admits to me that she fell asleep watching Barbie and only woke up near the end!

I watch another movie after and manage to time it so my movie ends shortly before landing and it works perfectly. As we approach Singapore, the last hour has fabulous views of the sunset and I grab some shots with my cell phone which I will try to upload here. We are seated over the wing so not truly clean shots but fun colors.

We get off the plane and have to go through Customs. We find the line to stand in that says, “Nothing To Declare” and we get in that line. No sooner are we in line and an official looking lady looks at us and asks, “Nothing To Declare?” We say ‘No, Nothing To Declare’ and she signals us to open a gate and leave! So we do. There is another check to go through and I clear it with flying colors and walk out. I look back and they have flagged Elee for some reason and send her through another line. But she is through and out in a couple minutes. Nobody is looking at me so I take a photo of the Security area. Usually, one is told not to do that. But here we are!

A half hour taxi ride to the hotel that was pre-arranged and all is good. Our driver was even in the terminal looking for us so it was a happy arrival! All is looking good! We check in to the IHG hotel and get into our room, which is somewhat small but we manage to figure out how to place our luggage. Glad Elee had the absolutely brilliant idea of packing an internal bag/pouch marked “Singapore” and I followed suit.

So we walk outside and down the street which is filled with food restaurants and we choose one, FYR, that serves wine and bar food and all is good! We stop at a small market on the way back to the hotel and pick up bottled water and room snacks and turn in for the night. I get this blog written and it is time for sleep!