Day 88 – April 13 – Singapore

This morning we docked in Singapore to hot and bright skies.  We decided we needed some extra luggage, i.e. a small hang-up bag and light weight duffel.  Since the Singapore Cruise Terminal is attached to a large shopping center we decided to start there.  Right away we found a luggage store that had exactly what we wanted so there was no need to take the shuttle into the City. 

We decided to take the Cable Car to Sentosa Island since it was right overhead of the Voyager.  It was a short walk over to the ticket station.  So after hitting the ATM for some Singapore dollars, we rode the Cable Car.  It was interesting to see the Voyager from above.  When we got to the Island, we were at the Lookout point.  We bought day tickets because we thought we would see some of the attractions.

There is a free bus system on the island that takes you to all the various points of interest including the beaches.  So we decided to ride the various routes to see what the Island looked like before deciding what we wanted to do.  We planned to have lunch on the Island as well.

We transferred from the Blue Line to one of the Beach Shuttles to see the beaches of the ocean side of the island.  There are quite a few beaches and they are divided into the Family Beaches and the Adult Beaches.  The first family beach had a large rehabilitation project going on and so a lot of it was fenced off.  Since it was not the weekend, the beaches were empty.  It was very hot so we found a café and had a cool drink while watching the waves.  The thing that struck us was how clean the water and the beaches are even though we could see hundreds of ships at anchor waiting their turn to load or unload.  In most of the other harbors of the east we have seen, you see oil sheen and trash around the ships…not in Singapore.  They have rules and they enforce them.  It shows that you can have clean beaches even if there is a large harbor nearby.

We rode the beach shuttle back to the transfer point and took the other beach shuttle to the Adult side.  In the description of the restaurants, there was a hotel that had a nice hawker type food court.  However, when we got there the restaurant was up a steep set of stairs which arrived at a locked gate.

By this time in was very, very hot and Fred was uncomfortable.  We walked back down the street a little ways to see if we could find another place to eat but nothing looked very enticing.  We decided to ride the bus back to our starting point and try there. 

At the Cable Car, we decided that we had had enough of the heat and were not very hungry.  We still had the tickets we purchased that we had not used.  There was a lady standing looking at her map.  Jan asked her if she had just come up the Cable Car and she said yes.  I asked her if she would like our day tickets as we needed to go back down.  Her husband came up at that point and they were very happy to have the tickets and we were glad to give them to someone rather than throw them away.

We rode the Cable Car back down, went to the luggage shop and purchased our luggage.  We had enough Singapore dollars left for a snack as it was now about 2:00pm and we didn’t want a big lunch at that time of the afternoon.  We found a Vietnamese restaurant where we shared an appetizer platter that was very good and just the right amount of food.

We got back to the ship just as the skies opened up and it poured down rain.   We went up to the Observation Lounge for sail away and watched the downpour.  It finally let up about the time the ship sailed out of Singapore.  As we sailed out, a Holland American ship was sailing in to take our berth.  We were a little late leaving because they were still loading supplies.

We had dinner in Signatures for just the two us and it was very good and the service excellent.