Day two in Singapore found the tour groups going off early. Forgetting to mention some of them yesterday, here they are. The Best of Singapore included a lunch for 8 ¾ hours and $280, while Around the Island also with a lunch was 6 ½ hours for $150. A ride to the Gardens By The Bay and the Marina Bay Sands Hotel was 4 hours for $140. Yesterday, there was a tour to the Night Safari for 4 hours and $130 and iconic Singapore was 4 hours for $130. Private vehicles were also available as they are in most every port.
Sadly, we heard the news about a fatal accident on the Nieuw Amsterdam that took the lives of two crew members. We are all heart-broken as are the crew members here. Our sincerest condolences go out to their families and friends. It will probably take time before the cause of the explosion is discovered.
We tried starting our explorations earlier today, but we ended up going off of the ship a bit before 10am like yesterday. Since the all aboard time was 4:30pm, we decided to stick closer to the pier today. Taking the hike back out through the terminal and the checkpoint seemed to go smoother, as did the long walk to the Marina South Pier MRT station. We had hopes that the temperatures would have been lower, but it remained pretty much the same as yesterday. Hot and humid.
At this end of the Marina South Pier MRT, it wasn't so busy, but when we got off at City Hall, it was a different story. Today was Sunday and even more locals were out and about. The City Hall station dropped us off at the Raffles City Mall, where we had to find our way to the street outside. Thank goodness for a lot of signs in the mall, we found where we wanted to go. Walking around the block, we located the famous Raffles Hotel. For the last several years, their property was mostly closed for renovations. When it was ready to open up again, Covid hit and our stop here was cancelled. Back in all of its glory now, we were able to see most of it with the exception of the main lobby which is reserved for hotel guests only. And you had better be dressed properly (no shorts) or you will be allowed inside a bar or restaurant. The Long Bar is more casual and does offer their famous Singapore Sling. Kimberly mentioned in her talk that these sweet drinks cost $39 Singapore dollars these days. With tax that would be close to $30 USD. We'd rather have an ice- cold beer, which is not cheap in Singapore either.
We had passed some signs in the hotel's hallways announcing a wedding reception party here. We happened to run right into the group posing for photos in one of the colonial stairwells. The bride and groom were dressed in traditional Singaporean clothing, mostly red embellished clothing, not the usual white gown and tuxedo. The cameraman had them posing in one shot, then dancing in place in the next frame. Always fun to watch as long as we stayed in the background.
We made our way around to the front entrance to see the turbaned Sikh doorman greeting the guests coming in taxis as well as limos. The front of this iconic hotel is finally finished and was looking mighty fine. In the parking area we spotted limos with flowers attached. Then we saw another bride and groom posing for photos in the front entrance of this iconic hotel.
Across the street was St. Andrew's Cathedral, built in 1856, and Singapore's oldest cathedral. It is a landmark in this part of the city and just by luck, it was opened today. The local parishioners were just leaving a service holding palm leaves. Then we remembered it was Palm Sunday and the giving of palms is a tradition in the Catholic Church. We were lucky to gain entrance through a side door to see the cathedral's interior. Very impressive with blue vaulted ceilings, it was beautiful and peaceful. Another mass was about to begin, so we took our pictures and quietly left.
The MRT station was right next to the cathedral, so we went down the escalator to find our way to the Gardens By The Bay. This would be the red line for one stop, then a transfer to the brown line. That one was not as easy to find. We found long hallways with few people, and figured we may have been able to walk the streets there faster. The only bad thing was the oppressive heat outside. It was good to be more like gophers and cool off down under. Finally finding the correct connection, we ended up coming out at the far end of the Gardens By The Bay. It was here that we found the park with reportedly 250,000 rare pants and two giant-domed conservatories. The Cloud Forest houses the world's tallest indoor waterfall. Since our time was limited, we did not enter the domes today. Sunday has to be their busiest day of the week because the lines to tour the domes was long. Too long for us. We did stroll much of the 250 acre park surrounded by a moat. Trying to remember how we crossed over a footbridge to access the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, we finally found it and walked out of the Gardens to get a bird's eye view of the Singapore Flywheel. Then we made our way through the center upper level of the fabulous "ironboard" hotel. We continued out the doors to another bridge that took us into the Shoppes By The Bay. Escalators took us down to the lower levels where we searched for a pizza restaurant we had found online. This mall is the newest and most opulent in Singapore. It is as glitzy as they come and well worth the visit. There is a huge casino in this complex and the destination of many of the locals as well as foreigners.
Going from floor to floor, we went in the direction of where we had lunch 5 years ago. It turned out that restaurant had changed hands and was a Chinese restaurant now. Only opened for dinner it appeared closed. However, right next door was the place we were looking for - Roberta's Pizza. It was not a large pizzeria, but one that had a wood-fired oven and Italian food. We lucked out and got two seats on the hightop chairs by the bar and the busy cooks. The way it worked here was to look over the menu, then go to their counter and pay for the food and drinks. Then we sipped our Tiger beers while watching the cooks make and bake the pizza. It was pricey by our standards but well worth it for a meal in Singapore. Even the beers were rather high, but that is expected since Singapore adds a hefty tax to anything alcohol. We read somewhere it is an attempt to prevent alcoholism.
This is probably a good time to write the list of forbidden items to be brought ashore. There is no chewing gum, chewing tobacco, or imitation cigarette products. Lighters that look like a pistol or revolver are banned as are controlled drugs or psychotropic substances. No surprise here. No endangered species, obscene articles or videos are allowed or reproductions of copyrighted materials. Severe fines and or imprisonment can occur. Finally, e-cigarettes and vapes are prohibited. If found, they will be trashed. Possession and using of hard drugs can be punished by death.
OK, back to our story. After relaxing for at the pizza café, it was time to head back and find the correct station to turn in our transit cards and get the refund. Only a few of the stations were able to do that, so we had to choose from the list we were given. We went back to the MRT and were told to go to the Bayfront station. Just by luck, we happened run right into it and they did do the refund there which was S$10 each. Then we had our original S $10 passes to get back to the Marina South Pier with some change left over like $2 each. Our weekend visit had been such a whirlwind of activity, and we have the MRT to thank for getting to places very quickly and easily.
On the way out of the MRT station, we spotted many groups of local picnickers on the grassy fields on the waterfront. Some of the younger kids were doing karaoke with speakers, having a really good time. A nice breeze coming from the harbor had cropped up, making our walk a lot more pleasant. We noticed many Asian folks arriving to the cruise terminal and we suspected another ship had docked across from us. It turned out to be the Genting Dream Cruise, a gambling vessel we think. The guests were arriving with only one small suitcase and hand carrys. These types of cruises are numerous between here and Hong Kong and have no trouble filling up with local gamblers.
By the time we got back into the terminal hall at 3pm, it was full of guests in line to board the gambling ship. Lucky for us, we had another entrance just for the Zuiderdam. Once through the security and xray checkpoints, we entered the ship and turned in our passports to be held at the front desk. Done for the day, we relaxed in our room and veranda until sail away, which happened after 5pm. Being one of the busiest harbors in the world, the Captain had to zig-zag his way around the many vessels. Our next port will be Colombo, Sri Lanka with three days at sea to arrive there. We are very much looking forward to that break to re-charge our batteries, so to speak.
Dinner time found most everyone present after two busy days and a night in port. One of us had a rice paper-wrapped chicken appetizer and one bowl of tortilla soup…..both of which were very good. The Club Orange lamb dinner was one choice and the other was barbacoa sauced beef slices. Different but good. Pineapple was a perfect dessert and one cup of hot coffee as well.
If people have the energy, there was a show tonight featuring an instrumentalist by the name of Dennis Lau. He was described as being a showman with finesse and determination to adapt to different music genres. Between the four other music venues, there is something for most everyone.
The clocks went back one hour this evening which was appreciate by everyone.
Bill & Mary Ann
