Singapore is our port of call today, and if we have not said this before, we will say it now…..it is one of our most favorite cities in the world. It is a mix of the old and the ultra-new, as well as people-friendly , clean, and most of all, safe. We find it easy to navigate the entire area using their excellent mass rapid transit or MRT, their underground maze of high-speed trains that take you everywhere. Our only disappointment is that we only have one day to explore the many sights we like to see. Usually, we always have two full days here, but not this time. Too bad.
Anyway, here are some quick facts about the city and country of Singapore. It has a population of 5.8 million people that speak Mandarin, Malay, Tamil and English. The size of Singapore is only 697 square kilometers, so to say the city is concentrated with lots of people is a given. It has come a long way since Sir Stamford Raffles arrived and established a trading port here. There are many places to see such as the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, the Singapore flyer that has a thrilling site-seeing 30 minute ride, or Raffle's Hotel, where you can buy a Singapore Sling for S$41.00. The Fullerton Bay Hotel, the National Museum, Little India and Chinatown are not to be missed. Then there is Clarke Quay on the river, Orchard Road and high-end shopping, The Singapore Zoo and Jurong Bird Park are a few more to add to the list. For us, we love strolling the 200- acre Botanic Gardens, or spending time on Sentosa Island. If you like shopping in gigantic malls, then a visit to Vivo and Suntec City Mall is in order. Shop until you drop. Today we did our best to cover as many of these stops that we could and still be back to the ship before the all aboard time of 5pm. Such a short time.
Some of the special foods in Singapore include carrot cake, but not like the one we know. It is made with radish flour with bean sprouts, chili sauce, and salted radishes. Char kway teow is a flat rice noodle wok-fried with bean sprouts, cockles, prawns and sausage with dark soy and more chili sauce. Hainanese chicken rice is poached chicken on a bed of fragrant rice with chili sauce. Murtabek is a pancake with spiced mincemeat, garlic, egg and onion. Nasi padang is white rice with meat, veggies, and curry. Roti prata is fried flatbread served with curry. And all of it tastes better with Tiger beer, a local brew.
Our day began at 5am, when we woke up to watch the Zuiderdam arrive to the port of Singapore. We were able to take pictures of the city lit up like it is at nighttime. The ship was docked starboard side at the Cruise Ship Terminal at Marina South Pier by 7am. That happened to be when the Pinnacle Grill as well as the dining room restaurant opened for breakfast today due to the fact it was the end of another segment, and many folks were going home today. Another thing was that we were bunkering fuel today and taking on provisions.
The ship was cleared by 8am, but we stayed onboard working in our room until closer to 9:45am. We believe that this was another one of those zero clearance days, and everyone had to be off of the ship before 10am. We took our passports, room keys, and the papers that Michelle had printed for us to the immigration checkpoint. It turned out that we did not need those papers since it was done electronically, but just in case, we had them. Our passports were scanned and our photos taken. Then we went on to the xray check where we both passed. We went outside and followed the covered pathway to the MRT station. This process was repeated in reverse when we returned to the ship as well.
We had saved last year's MRT EZ card with S$2.00 on them, so we could up the fare and use them to get to a station where the one day EZ link cards were sold. For some reason not all of the stations sell them. Marina South Pier does not. We have never done the up fare, so the agent came out to the kiosk and showed us how it worked. Piece of cake once you know which buttons to push. The people in Singapore are most friendly and willing to help. This occurred several times today either in an MRT station or even outside. It's nice too.
The closest station to sell the one day cards was Raffles Place. Luckily we had saved the MRT map and easily found our way with all of the trains going here, there and everywhere. The prices of the EZ cards had changed. Instead of paying S$22, we paid only S$17. They have eliminated the S$10 refundable fee. They were still S$5 ahead, but it was well worth it to us not to have to take the time to return the tickets at the end of our stay. And just for future information, the two day tickets were S$24 and the three day cards were S$29. The one day cards we bought allowed us to ride the MRT and other buses all day until 11:30pm. We made good use of it as we rode to several places and back on those cards.
We went back down to the train, and we took the red line to Dhoby Ghat, where we transferred to the purple line to Chinatown. This is a place for photos of large eateries, fun shopping and food stands. We kept on the move, spending just enough time to get some pictures. Then it was time to go back to the purple line to Little India. Once again, this is a most colorful area chock-full of Indian treasures and saris for sale. We have bought more than one sari here over the years. It sure felt like rain was on the way as the skies were getting darker by the minute. So we decided to move on after we strolled through their meat and fish market. The aroma wasn't the best, but we made it through the throngs of shoppers and found the veggie and fruit section….much better.
At Little India, we switched to the blue line all the way to the Botanic Gardens. Walking out of the station, we had rain, which came down heavy for a few minutes, then let up. Usually we spend a couple of hours here with a visit to the Orchid Garden. Unfortunately, there was not enough time for that today, but we did take a hike around a lake where we saw a 4 to 5 foot monitor lizard moving along the banks. Getting close, the lizard did not like it, and eased into the water swimming away. Then we eased our way back to the MRT and continued onward.
Lunch was in order…. or should we say beers were in order. From the Gardens, we took the blue line to the brown line at Stevens stop. Then we got off at Orchard, the highend shopping and hotel area where the Hard Rock Cafe is located. By asking one of the security guards at the MRT station, we found a short cut to the Wheelock Place without going through the entire mall. It is another one where you could get lost for days.
Lunch at the HRC was wonderful. The best beer there was draft – Sapporo 500ml. We added an order of grilled chicken cheese nachos, plenty to share. Relaxing for over an hour was so nice in the air-conditioned restaurant. Checking the dessert menu, we had a nice surprise. They now serve mud pie. Wow….that made our day, and we shared one generous slice. Before we left, we made a visit to the Rock Shop and found two new HRC t-shirts to purchase.
We would liked to have made a stop at Marina Bay Sands, Gardens by the Bay, and the fabulous mall there, but it was already after 3pm, we were not willing to chance running into a problem getting back to the ship. Being that today was a Saturday, the trains were fuller and fuller everywhere we went. Back at Wheelock Place, we went through part of the nice mall to the red line that took us all the way back to Marina South Pier and the Cruise Terminal. Then we still had the long walk under the covered walkway to the terminal. And as we described in the beginning, we did the reverse check-in with immigrations and xray check on the way back. We made it back on the ship by 4pm. A marathon day, we did most everything we had planned and survived it.
There was a muster drill for the newly embarked guests only. That was fine because we were not moving out of our room for anything if we did not have to. Captain Frank van der Hoeven, our new Captain now, came on after 5pm to say "welcome" to all of us. He continued to tell us about our travel to the next port in Malaysia, Port Klang for Kuala Lumpur. He predicted partly cloudy skies, slight seas and slight breezes with a high of 95 degrees. Along with a high humidity reading, he warned about the dangerous combination of the two that can lead to problems. He added that thunderstorms were a 60% possibility with lots of rain. Pack the umbrellas. Glad we did that today too. We will have to travel 200 nautical miles to reach Port Klang going up a river to dock at a container port.
Sailing out of the port was delayed by an hour or so. We had to navigate around numerous commercial ships to get out of the area. Sitting on our veranda, we spotted a white-bellied sea eagle quite by accident as it swooped from high above and caught something in its talons in the water. It was a very large and impressive bird that continued on its way and never returned. For the most part, we saw very few birds today. We were lucky to get a few good photos of this eagle, which was quite impressive.
Dinnertime found we had a new assistant waiter, Yasin, who seems to be quite nice. They all are. We ordered the everyday shrimp cocktail with the red sauce and Caesar salads. The entrees were one sirloin strip steak and French fry plate and one pot roast with their veggies of the day (green beans, carrots and broccoli). All good, but could have been hotter. Our new guy has not gotten the message yet. Dessert was one scoop of vanilla ice cream and one scoop of orange sorbet.
Annie Gong, who is always on the world cruise as well as some legendary cruises, was our entertainer this evening. She is an instrumentalist with classical music tonight.
Tomorrow we will be in another country – Malaysia. It may be a day on the ship for us…who knows? It has been brought to our attention that the beginning of Ramadan began February 28th and will end March 29th. This might affect the attractions and services in the upcoming ports.
Bill & Mary Ann
