Singapore - October 27-28, 2013 - Day 2

Day 2 was short, out by 9 am back by 1 pm for a 3 o'clock sail away, something about immigration here that had us coming back for an early all aboard time. So it was off to Chinatown and the Sri Mariammam - Singapore's oldest Hindu Temple, why... well the Hindu Temples here are pretty amazing but it might be that I like all that incense burning. Next door to the temple is a great market, we had visited this market once before, Jan wanted to come back here to get some pearls (she bought on our last voyage this way) restrung, ah about $8.00 cdn to have them done here compared to about $100 back home. There are also great relatively cheap massage places here so the four us got 45 minute massages, Jeff and I got foot reflexology treatments while Jan and Joy went for the full body treatment, $20 cdn each for the guys, $30 cdn for the girls. Back to the ship for another amazing sail away.

BTW - for transit here, get yourself a Tourist Card, $20.00 Singapore dollars for a day, $26.00 for two days. At the end of the time using it, return it for $10.00 deposit back - great deal for use on any of the transit options.

Singapore - October 27-28, 2013

Simply said, we love Singapore, another one of our favorite, incredible and amazing cities on this planet. Singapore is clean, well organized, offering many fascinating sights to see and has very friendly people. We docked at around 3:00 pm on the 27th, and departed 3:00 pm on the 28th - of course never enough time here. The weather was a very warm 32 degrees with some spotty thundershowers.

Day one, we originally headed off to the Zoo, as we transferred to the bus it began to rain - I mean really rain. For those travelers following our blog and want to visit the spectacular zoo, metro and bus are the way to go, take the Metro to the Ang Mo Kio station then transfer to bus number 138, easy - takes about an hour from the port. We decided not to visit the zoo in the rain and stayed on the bus and headed back to the city. We discussed that on a future cruise we will visit here again and will visit the zoo on a day without rain.

Back in town we visited Little India, through our friends we learned that there was an Indian festival taking place today, Deepavali celebrations, wonderful lights and market type shopping, fun. We then Metroed over to Clarke Quay for dinner at one of the restaurants on the river. The outdoor facilities here at Clarke Quay are in a word, amazing, if Vancouver could only wish to be like a Darling Harbour in Sydney, then here Sydney could only hope to like Clarke Quay here in SIngapore - sorry Vancouver but even in your most wildest fantasies could you come close to touching this nightlife extravagance. We had a wonderful Indian food experience at a place named Raz, the essence of India - delicious and good spicy. A great day. Hey, Hey, Hey, don't get me wrong, I love our city and how it is evolving and frankly I wouldn't want it to evolve to this level, it is just incredible to see how cities do evolve, this is the beauty of travel.

At Sea - October 27, 2013

Today was a day to get back into sea day activities. Tai Chi - our spots remained untouched, nice gesture from our fellow Tai Chi'ers (I think that is right). Jan had a Bridge substitute sit in her place so that she is able to resume with the same team, again nice. Also our trivia team partners kept out chairs vacant until our return. So we do continue, there are many moments of pause as I look out into the vast empty ocean with the many memories flooding in and out. Many thoughts are also back home as we all move this difficult time.

Tom our Dining Room manager set up a very nice evening with special cocktails with Staff Captain Gerard Teensma and partner Christine. Gerard and Christine also hosted our table during the Roaring 20's themed formal night. Mr. Teensma is the second in command on this ship, should something happen to the Captain, he is next in line to take charge. A nice interesting night ending in the Captain's Ball, there is a picture of me having a dance with the Captian's girlfriend Brooke. Today we sail into one of my favorite cities, Singapore.