We arrived in the beautiful busy port of Singapore in sunshine, high humidity and temperatures. Doug and I and Mary Anne and Harry decided to see the city by the Hop On and Hop Off bus. We had been here three times previously and just wanted to show Mary Anne and Harry a brief overview of this busy clean city.
We took the shuttle to the duty free store and picked up the bus. We decided to sit up on top of the bus so we could get a great view of the many sights of Singapore. There was a running commentary while we were onboard the bus which was very helpful. We got off the Arab District to look around and saw Baghdad Street and Kandahur Street. While we walked around, a teacher approached us to hear his students sing and we were asked to rate them. We had no clue what they were singing but gave them 10/10. They were so sweet. When we were passing through Little India, we could distinctly smell the strong spices in the air. Singapore also has a large Chinatown. Singapore is made up of a diverse blend of cultures, Chinese, Malaysian, East Indian, and expats. It is no wonder that Singapore is called the "Crossroads of the East."
Along the way we could see many old colonial buildings and many new modern buildings. Construction was everywhere. The British founder of modern-day Singapore was Sir Stamford Raffles who came up with the Singapore Sling drink. The Raffles Hotel was built from his original bungalow with many add ons.
We came upon the Singapore Flyer which is the highest observation wheel in the world. Many of the other sights were: The Esplanade which is supposed to look like two microphones, Clark Quay on the Singapore River, high rises with laundry hanging out of the kitchen windows, old temples, mosques, and churches, huge construction sites, tall tall city buildings such as Suntec City, Orchard Road with all the high end stores and the canopy trees overhanging the wide city streets, and the world's busiest port.
We also came to the Botanic Gardens and decided to have a sit down drink and a bite to eat. Birds were chirping everywhere and fountains splashing water while we sat in the somewhat cool shade.It is here that the first rubber trees were planted and smuggled from Brazil. The manicured gardens with palm trees and 60,000 orchids was a sight to behold. We loved strolling through this huge area in the middle of the city. We were in awe of all the greenery and the beautiful flowers and orchids. The climate is perfect for the thousands of orchids to grow outside.
We arrived back at the ship and then got ready for the tour entitled Singapore by Night. We boarded a bus that took us to Clark Quay which has beautiful restaurants on the sides of the Singapore River. We boarded a bumboat (as seen in the photo) and saw all the waterfront's colourful restaurants, shops, wine bars and entertainment hotspots. Wednesday was ladies night so the bars were a hopping.
Next we boarded a trishaw, a three-wheeled pedicab that took us down the street to Little India, past shops, an Indian temple, the famous Sultan mosque to the world famous Raffles Hotel. There were at least 30 in our party and we each had a trishaw. Some trishaws had boom boxes blaring all sorts of music from Abba to Michael Jackson and these trishaws would be 3 deep blaring their music yelling out the sites in broken English and laughing and we would be closing our ears and laughing at the sight of it all. The drivers were so sweet and accommodating.
The Raffles hotel is one of the finest in the world with its colonial architecture reflecting the British Rule of 1819-1963. We drank our Singapore Sling (cost of $23 US) in the Long Bar where the drink was invented in 1915.
The next day, the four of us decided to take the cable car that was running right above our ship to the island of Sentosa. We first of all went up to the top of the mountain which overlooked the popular island resort. We have great views of the busy port, the city of Singapore and our ship amongst other ships in port. We then took the cable car down to the island. We decided to go to the aquarium which did a great job of displaying all the sea life in the surrounding waters. We took the moving pedway in the tunnel with the fish swimming overhead just like the one in Auckland, NZ. I took many photos of all the sealife. We also touched the stingrays who came gliding by to take food out of our hands. We then went to the 3D theatre and walked around the island and decided to come back to the ship. We were exhausted from the high temperatures and the very high humidity.
We were very impressed with the cleanliness of this city. Singapore does not seem to be suffering in this global economy for there was construction everywhere. The photo you see in the blog of the huge construction site will be the site of 2 new hotels, Universal Studios and a casino. Work was going on 24 hours a day in most of the sites. A very busy city.
We were happy to be in an English speaking country. We are now on our way to Thailand.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
NEWS FROM THE SHIP
Well our ship is still cruising along on one pod. The technicians are on board and worked for two days in Singapore and are going to be working for two days while we are at port in Thailand. The captain says there is progress but the pod is still not fixed. Apparently, we can cruise to all the coming ports at our slow comfortable pace and still meet the schedule but it will be later on when we cross the Bering Strait that it will become a problem. So we have to be in port inorder for them to work on the pod.
Another death on board the ship and the poor gentleman's body was sent home from Singapore and the wife is continuing the trip. We chuckled on that one.
We have a lot of new crew on board, new headline singers and a new captain who was handed over the keys to the ship, not the oar or pod or rudder. We also have 4 new tablemates and have lucked out once again for they are nice. One couple is from north eastern England and the other couple from Phoenix, Arizona. We sure do miss Jim and Sue from LA and their daughter, Cate from San Francisco.
Doug took a lecture about modern day pirates on the high seas. We hope there aren't any around here for unfortunately, we cannot outrun them with only one functioning pod. That is something to think about.
Some of the activities coming up onboard the ship are: Jade Harbour Fair - Asian floating carnival, An Imperial Evening in Hue - a special shore side event for world cruisers only and that is supposed to be a surprise for us, Hong Kong Kabang - at the Stardust. A party for us world cruisers only. Another surprise event.
Out of 16 days in this leg of the trip, we are in port 10 days, so we will be busy going ashore and seeing a lot during this leg. On Tuesday morning, 48 of us leave the ship and fly inland to see The Wonders of Angkor Wat. We just received our briefing and the itinerary this morning. We will be seeing many temples and kept very busy. We meet up with the ship on Thursday in Ho Chi Minh City. We are really looking forward to this side trip.
Another death on board the ship and the poor gentleman's body was sent home from Singapore and the wife is continuing the trip. We chuckled on that one.
We have a lot of new crew on board, new headline singers and a new captain who was handed over the keys to the ship, not the oar or pod or rudder. We also have 4 new tablemates and have lucked out once again for they are nice. One couple is from north eastern England and the other couple from Phoenix, Arizona. We sure do miss Jim and Sue from LA and their daughter, Cate from San Francisco.
Doug took a lecture about modern day pirates on the high seas. We hope there aren't any around here for unfortunately, we cannot outrun them with only one functioning pod. That is something to think about.
Some of the activities coming up onboard the ship are: Jade Harbour Fair - Asian floating carnival, An Imperial Evening in Hue - a special shore side event for world cruisers only and that is supposed to be a surprise for us, Hong Kong Kabang - at the Stardust. A party for us world cruisers only. Another surprise event.
Out of 16 days in this leg of the trip, we are in port 10 days, so we will be busy going ashore and seeing a lot during this leg. On Tuesday morning, 48 of us leave the ship and fly inland to see The Wonders of Angkor Wat. We just received our briefing and the itinerary this morning. We will be seeing many temples and kept very busy. We meet up with the ship on Thursday in Ho Chi Minh City. We are really looking forward to this side trip.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
AROUND THE SHIP
There are many shows on the ship and I took a few photos of a one hour show in the Galaxy Lounge that was called Curtain Calls. The show included snippets of several shows including Evita, Cats Mama Mia. The costumes are elaborate, the singing and the dancing is superb. We don't know how the dancers can make such quick changes. There are many shows per segment and infact we have another one tonight, all different with different songs and different sets.
Some photos are of the sunsets that we see from our windows. The sunrises are also spectacular, but we are never awake that early in the morning to see them.
Another event that I have photos of is the Crew Olympics. They had events for the 200 and some crew who participated in such events as Tug of War and Greasy Pole over the swimming pool. The bar tenders, housekeeping, dining room staff, shop staff etc all dressed up differently for their group. It was fun to watch the staff having a ball.
The Closing Ceremonies of the Cruise Olympics was great too with Harry winning a Gold Medal in Lap swimming for his age group. He worked so hard for it and we were so pleased he got his Gold. The ceremony included entertainment, the extinguishing of the flame and the handing out of the final metals. It was a great event. I got my photo of Billy Mills who made the movie in Edmonton and won the 10,000 m gold medal in Tokyo Japan.
As you can see, we are kept very busy.
Some photos are of the sunsets that we see from our windows. The sunrises are also spectacular, but we are never awake that early in the morning to see them.
Another event that I have photos of is the Crew Olympics. They had events for the 200 and some crew who participated in such events as Tug of War and Greasy Pole over the swimming pool. The bar tenders, housekeeping, dining room staff, shop staff etc all dressed up differently for their group. It was fun to watch the staff having a ball.
The Closing Ceremonies of the Cruise Olympics was great too with Harry winning a Gold Medal in Lap swimming for his age group. He worked so hard for it and we were so pleased he got his Gold. The ceremony included entertainment, the extinguishing of the flame and the handing out of the final metals. It was a great event. I got my photo of Billy Mills who made the movie in Edmonton and won the 10,000 m gold medal in Tokyo Japan.
As you can see, we are kept very busy.
PENANG BAY, BALI, INDONESIA
We arrived a the day before in the evening so we could see Bali in the distance with Mt. Batur in the distance. There were little fishing boats coming towards the ship to look us over.
The next morning, we decided to go into the town of Padang Bay. We had been to Bali before for one week and another time as a stop on a cruise so had pretty well seen everything we wanted to see so we thought we would walk around the town. It was already very very hot in the morning. As we approached the pier we could see the welcome sign and all the peddlers waiting to inundate us. As the tender stopped at the pier, a gentleman told us to be careful for the people will swarm you with goods to sell and you have to just keep walking. We forgot how bad it could be from the last time we were here, but as soon as we left the pier, the kids, adults and drivers swarmed us shoving their goods at us as we tried to walk. We decided to go to a restaurant to get away from them. They were not allowed inside and so we talked with the proprietor as the peddlers filtered away.
Bali is still suffering from a downturn in tourism. The bar owner said that cruise ships have started to come by but are still few in number. The poverty is quite noticeable but the children and the people are very happy. They are gracious and very friendly. As we walked around the town, we would ask the locals questions and they were so polite in answering and in speaking fairly good English.
There were many stray dogs walking around the town. Roosters in cages were crowing and cats were everywhere. The Balinese people practice Balinese Hinduism. That means that they make offerings to their shrines from 3 to 6 times a day. These offerings are made up of rice and food laid out on a lovely woven dish. The offerings are everywhere, including on the pavement infront of a shop. I accidentally walked ontop of two that ended up stuck to my shoe because the rice is sticky. The cats love to eat from the offerings and therefore live in the temples where allot of the offerings are laid out. The Balinese's big holiday was going to be today, and on this day, there would be offerings made everywhere. The ladies whom we took photos of were making all these woven dishes to hold the offerings. They were going to sell these for extra money.
There are no refrigerators in Bali and therefore all the food has to be bought every day. As you can see from the photo, a lady was selling her two fresh small chickens for food. The roosters are sold for cock fights which are held almost every day but are illegal. The winner gets the dead cock to take home and eat for dinner.
The shops are tiny, but the owners are friendly and kind. We bought a mask from the lovely couple in the photo who were happy to pose for the picture. On the way from this shop we ran into three boys yelling and playing in the alley and through motions, I asked to take their photos. They loved it and asked me to show their photo on my camera and giggled when they saw it. Then one boy approached Doug and rubbed his Buddha belly and laughed and laughed. They were so cute.
The people never leave the island because they are happy with the way things are even though they make so little money. They are very close to their family and community.
Unfortunately, we missed seeing the beautiful dancers at the pier but you get a glimpse of the ordinary Balinese in an ordinary small town. We did not go to the tourist section where all the big hotels are so this small bay gave a view of the normal Balinese way of life. It is a good life from the smiles we can see on their faces.
The next morning, we decided to go into the town of Padang Bay. We had been to Bali before for one week and another time as a stop on a cruise so had pretty well seen everything we wanted to see so we thought we would walk around the town. It was already very very hot in the morning. As we approached the pier we could see the welcome sign and all the peddlers waiting to inundate us. As the tender stopped at the pier, a gentleman told us to be careful for the people will swarm you with goods to sell and you have to just keep walking. We forgot how bad it could be from the last time we were here, but as soon as we left the pier, the kids, adults and drivers swarmed us shoving their goods at us as we tried to walk. We decided to go to a restaurant to get away from them. They were not allowed inside and so we talked with the proprietor as the peddlers filtered away.
Bali is still suffering from a downturn in tourism. The bar owner said that cruise ships have started to come by but are still few in number. The poverty is quite noticeable but the children and the people are very happy. They are gracious and very friendly. As we walked around the town, we would ask the locals questions and they were so polite in answering and in speaking fairly good English.
There were many stray dogs walking around the town. Roosters in cages were crowing and cats were everywhere. The Balinese people practice Balinese Hinduism. That means that they make offerings to their shrines from 3 to 6 times a day. These offerings are made up of rice and food laid out on a lovely woven dish. The offerings are everywhere, including on the pavement infront of a shop. I accidentally walked ontop of two that ended up stuck to my shoe because the rice is sticky. The cats love to eat from the offerings and therefore live in the temples where allot of the offerings are laid out. The Balinese's big holiday was going to be today, and on this day, there would be offerings made everywhere. The ladies whom we took photos of were making all these woven dishes to hold the offerings. They were going to sell these for extra money.
There are no refrigerators in Bali and therefore all the food has to be bought every day. As you can see from the photo, a lady was selling her two fresh small chickens for food. The roosters are sold for cock fights which are held almost every day but are illegal. The winner gets the dead cock to take home and eat for dinner.
The shops are tiny, but the owners are friendly and kind. We bought a mask from the lovely couple in the photo who were happy to pose for the picture. On the way from this shop we ran into three boys yelling and playing in the alley and through motions, I asked to take their photos. They loved it and asked me to show their photo on my camera and giggled when they saw it. Then one boy approached Doug and rubbed his Buddha belly and laughed and laughed. They were so cute.
The people never leave the island because they are happy with the way things are even though they make so little money. They are very close to their family and community.
Unfortunately, we missed seeing the beautiful dancers at the pier but you get a glimpse of the ordinary Balinese in an ordinary small town. We did not go to the tourist section where all the big hotels are so this small bay gave a view of the normal Balinese way of life. It is a good life from the smiles we can see on their faces.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
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