Singapore

The month of March is flying by…

We had a long few days off the ship visiting Cambodia.  We flew from Cambodia to Bangkok, Thailand for a short day tour on our way back to the ship.  We had lunch on the 65^th floor of a hotel overlooking the smoggy city and also saw the Grand Buddhist Palace.  It’s interesting how I’ve seen so many temples yet each has a look of it’s own. 94 percent of the people in Bangkok are Buddhist so their temple was very extravagant.  Imagine walking through the Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz.  Large gold towers and perfectly decorated shrines, walls covered with glass beads and glitter. It was overwhelmingly impressive.

 

Our first day back on the ship was St. Patrick’s Day.  We take every excuse to celebrate and spent most of our day making decorations and confetti for our dinner party.  If the crew didn’t already think we were crazy, it is no surprise to them now when we call room service asking for green paper and balloons.

 

We stopped yesterday in Singapore, which officially marks the halfway point of the trip.  This was one of the three major disembarkment stops, so we had a large turnover of 1000 thankful people off the ship, and a brand new group of 700 victims to torture.  Because of the large number of people on and off the ship today, we stayed in port until 1am.  This was our first port to be able to stay off the ship past 5pm and we took full advantage of it.  Our morning consisted of a tour of the World War 2 battlefields where we were able to go underground into one of the battle box protection facilities. It was a very well done display that had figurine models of the people and audio of their conversations that took place at the time of the war.  It felt so real that it completely freaked out Isabelle and Grisha who both thought they were actually a part of this underground war facility. We also visited an old Prisoner of War camp, where Grisha kept wondering when he was going to get to see the prisoners.  As cute as it was, I finally broke the news to him that the prisoners were set free after the war ended. 

 

Self-exploration of the city isn’t something we have had the chance to do much, since most days we have had a tour and had an early return back to the ship.  Our first stop of exploration through the city of Singapore took us all the way to a much needed homemade lunch from Subway! (hey, at least we skipped out on McDonalds for the first time in 2 months.)  We then took a ride on the “ferris-wheel” as the kids called it, but more properly known as the Singapore Flyer.  It slowly takes you up and around in a large glass container that you can look out to see the whole city.  Our afternoon consisted of wandering around “little India”, picking up a jar of peanut butter at the local supermarket, oh and yes we did stop at McDonalds for a McFlurry.  Compared to the other Asian cities we have visited, Singapore was very westernized.  I never wondered if the people spoke English, I could read all of the signs around the city, and just like at home, there is a Starbucks or McDonalds on every corner.  The city is pretty small, not even the size of New York City, and is very well kept with beautifully planted flowers and trees along all of the streets.  It is also extremely clean.  Even when Grisha dropped his McDonalds cone, ice cream scoop down onto the sidewalk, he got an ok from dad on picking it back up and licking it like new.  We wrapped up our 13 hour day in Singapore with a trip to the local zoo for a night safari where we saw lions, and tigers, (no bears).

 

Back on the ship, I have just received a notice telling me that I have officially reached the Gold Membership Level on Cunard ships. Which means that I have new benefits on board and now have the same status as many 65-year-old travelers.  What could I want more than a good conversation starter next time I visit the retirement home.