Singapore
After two more sea days we arrived in Singapore. We left the ship as early as possible, which was a little after nine as we were a little late in docking. A friend from the ship, Gigi, had told us she wanted to go with us. We warned her about our fast pace, but she was undeterred, so we went ashore together. We went to buy a day pass on the subway, called the MRT, but the window to sell the tickets didn’t open until 10 a.m. Rather than wait around we decided to take the complementary ship’s shuttle into town. It took about a half hour to get there, and then we debated with Gigi and also Judy and Erica, who just happened to be on the same shuttle, about the best way to get around town. We passed up a taxi driver who wanted something like $30 a piece in favor of another hop-on-hop-off bus for $12.
We walked by huge stores on Orchard Street, the main shopping drag, mostly upscale, selling everything from Gucci to Volvo. At the tourist information center, the woman was so sweet and wanted to explain in detail what to do at every stop on the bus. Finally I was concerned that we would miss the bus because of her long explanations, so we bought our tickets and headed for the stop. Indeed the other lady in the info center said the bus would there any minute. While we were waiting Ronnie was shopping at a sidewalk jeweler selling pearls, diamonds, etc.
Instead of a couple of minutes, it was more like 10 or 15 minutes, which should have been a clue to us. You see, what we found is that the published schedule bears absolutely no resemblance to when the bus actually arrives and leaves. The bus was supposed to come every 30 minutes on the hour and half hour, but many times during the day we ended up waiting 40 minutes or more because one bus was early and the next one late. Anyway, we did a walking tour of both Little India and Chinatown. Little India was a disappointment despite the many small shops and vendors. So much incense that it was oppressive, and most of the items for sale did not interest us in the least. Yipee! Chinatown was more what we had expected in Little India, with a pedestrian street lined with many markets stalls selling merchandise at reasonable prices. However, we restrained ourselves, except for buying a few gifts for people on the ship, since we knew we were going to be in China soon.
In between we visited the famous Raffles Hotel, named for the British man who first developed Singapore. Quite an impressive colonial building, but we were quite put off by the sign at the front that only registered guests were allowed in the lobby. We looked around the gift shop and saw a sign for a lunch buffet. We inquired about the price and headed for the exit rather quickly left when they told us $55 a person. For lunch we ended up at a place called Esplanade, a pretty harbor area on the water, and ate a good meal at a Thai restaurant overlooking Marina Bay. We also visited St. Andrew’s Cathedral, a totally white building covered with a local stucco. The cathedral was full of school children, mostly teenagers, in uniform, and the school head and archbishop were leading the service for some important occasion.
After Chinatown, which included long walks to a couple of temples, we were tired and tried to figure out the fastest way to get back to the ship. It turns out that if we had just taken a taxi from there we would have gotten there quickly. Instead we got on the hop-on bus again after another long wait, and thought we would go back to where we could pick up the ship’s shuttle. Then we missed the stop near the shuttle stop because the driver merely did a “drive-by” stop and it was gone before we knew it. It was going to loop back around again, but by that time we would miss the shuttle, only running every hour at that point. So, Ronnie suggested we get off and take the MRT.
We found the MRT less than a block away, which was packed with rush hour passengers. We bought our tickets at a machine, guessing which stop was the one near the port. After we packed into the train, Ronnie asked a few people and found we had the wrong stop. To get to the right one we had to transfer twice. We finally arrived at the stop near the ship, and had to find a sympathetic fellow at the booth who helped us add enough money to our cards to get out even though we did not have enough change. We got money back for turning the card in and paid the fellow back. After some searching in the port mall we got Ronnie a Starbucks! I also stayed a few more minutes to use up our Singapore money. We were frustrated in our visit by the heat and the transportation difficulties, and don’t have a great desire to return there.
After two more sea days we arrived in Singapore. We left the ship as early as possible, which was a little after nine as we were a little late in docking. A friend from the ship, Gigi, had told us she wanted to go with us. We warned her about our fast pace, but she was undeterred, so we went ashore together. We went to buy a day pass on the subway, called the MRT, but the window to sell the tickets didn’t open until 10 a.m. Rather than wait around we decided to take the complementary ship’s shuttle into town. It took about a half hour to get there, and then we debated with Gigi and also Judy and Erica, who just happened to be on the same shuttle, about the best way to get around town. We passed up a taxi driver who wanted something like $30 a piece in favor of another hop-on-hop-off bus for $12.
We walked by huge stores on Orchard Street, the main shopping drag, mostly upscale, selling everything from Gucci to Volvo. At the tourist information center, the woman was so sweet and wanted to explain in detail what to do at every stop on the bus. Finally I was concerned that we would miss the bus because of her long explanations, so we bought our tickets and headed for the stop. Indeed the other lady in the info center said the bus would there any minute. While we were waiting Ronnie was shopping at a sidewalk jeweler selling pearls, diamonds, etc.
Instead of a couple of minutes, it was more like 10 or 15 minutes, which should have been a clue to us. You see, what we found is that the published schedule bears absolutely no resemblance to when the bus actually arrives and leaves. The bus was supposed to come every 30 minutes on the hour and half hour, but many times during the day we ended up waiting 40 minutes or more because one bus was early and the next one late. Anyway, we did a walking tour of both Little India and Chinatown. Little India was a disappointment despite the many small shops and vendors. So much incense that it was oppressive, and most of the items for sale did not interest us in the least. Yipee! Chinatown was more what we had expected in Little India, with a pedestrian street lined with many markets stalls selling merchandise at reasonable prices. However, we restrained ourselves, except for buying a few gifts for people on the ship, since we knew we were going to be in China soon.
In between we visited the famous Raffles Hotel, named for the British man who first developed Singapore. Quite an impressive colonial building, but we were quite put off by the sign at the front that only registered guests were allowed in the lobby. We looked around the gift shop and saw a sign for a lunch buffet. We inquired about the price and headed for the exit rather quickly left when they told us $55 a person. For lunch we ended up at a place called Esplanade, a pretty harbor area on the water, and ate a good meal at a Thai restaurant overlooking Marina Bay. We also visited St. Andrew’s Cathedral, a totally white building covered with a local stucco. The cathedral was full of school children, mostly teenagers, in uniform, and the school head and archbishop were leading the service for some important occasion.
After Chinatown, which included long walks to a couple of temples, we were tired and tried to figure out the fastest way to get back to the ship. It turns out that if we had just taken a taxi from there we would have gotten there quickly. Instead we got on the hop-on bus again after another long wait, and thought we would go back to where we could pick up the ship’s shuttle. Then we missed the stop near the shuttle stop because the driver merely did a “drive-by” stop and it was gone before we knew it. It was going to loop back around again, but by that time we would miss the shuttle, only running every hour at that point. So, Ronnie suggested we get off and take the MRT.
We found the MRT less than a block away, which was packed with rush hour passengers. We bought our tickets at a machine, guessing which stop was the one near the port. After we packed into the train, Ronnie asked a few people and found we had the wrong stop. To get to the right one we had to transfer twice. We finally arrived at the stop near the ship, and had to find a sympathetic fellow at the booth who helped us add enough money to our cards to get out even though we did not have enough change. We got money back for turning the card in and paid the fellow back. After some searching in the port mall we got Ronnie a Starbucks! I also stayed a few more minutes to use up our Singapore money. We were frustrated in our visit by the heat and the transportation difficulties, and don’t have a great desire to return there.
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