Thursday 22 June/Friday 23 June 2017
This time it is Fran and I travelling as Disney is not exactly a place that Richard wants to visit or would enjoy...and someone has to stay home to look after the dogs! We are staying in a Comfort Inn for a week then moving to a villa to join Sarah and her family, who is an old school friend of Fran's and her youngest daughter is Fran's god-daughter. I don't think either of us has ever gone on a two week holiday with only a medium sized suitcase and hand luggage before but we knew it was going to be hot all the time so shorts and t-shirts were the order of the day. We caught the 3.15pm ferry across the Strait (which was virtually empty), the 6pm bus to Bridgeport and then the Skytrain, arriving at YVR at 6:45pm. We checked in and went to find somewhere to eat supper as we knew we wouldn't get fed on the plane and we were planning on sleeping as long as we could as we were on the red eye to Toronto. I've never done an internal flight in Canada before and was surprised at how quiet the area was. We had a leisurely supper in WhiteSpot then went through security to find our gate. We still had a couple of hours before our flight and right next to the gate was a wine bar....it would have been very silly not to have sampled some so we had a "flight" each, I had rose and Fran had red. They were all wines that were over $50 a bottle so ones we definitely won't be having again but it was interesting to see how different they all were.
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Wednesday 2 November- exactly a week after getting home, we were setting off again! This time back to the UK to see our new grandson and also visit some other relatives and old work colleagues.
Fran drove us to Duke Point and we got the ferry, bus and Skytrain to the airport. It was a night flight, as it usually is, back to Gatwick which isn't the ideal airport for us but the only one Air Transit flys to at this time of year. The flight was by no means full and we took off on time then, after dinner, settled down to sleep as much as we could. It was 10am UK time when we landed, 2am to us so all we really wanted to do was be on our way. Well, that didn't happen...as the world and his wife seemed to be trying to get through passport control....I have never seen so many people all crowded into the arrival area! They had changed it since we'd last been through there so that everyone with UK/EU passports were in one hall and everyone else in another, not just different lines in the same 'room' but different 'rooms'. There were several machines for if you had a readable passport and then about 6 guys sitting behind desks for if you didn't. The machines had very explicit instructions in how to use them but that obviously was still not enough for some people as they kept getting big red X's when they tried! We shuffled slowly towards the front of the mass of people then the system overloaded and had to be shut down for a while to let it reboot!!! eventually we got through..no red X's for us! Needless to say our luggage was going around on the console when we got there, so we collected that and headed out to the bus stops to find the correct one for where we needed to get to to collect our hire car. We stood waiting..and waiting..and waiting. Lots of other buses and cars came to pick people up but not the one we needed, Another couple were also still waiting and we discovered that they had just missed it so we were obviously waiting for it to do 'the loop' and get back to the airport. Eventually the bus arrived and we climbed aboard with all our luggage. We soon realized why it had taken so long to 'do the loop' as the hire car office was a long way from the airport. We arrived at the hotel where the office was and followed the signs only to discover that we had done a complete circuit of the outside of the hotel! Someone had turned the car hire office sandwich board through 90 degrees....luckily someone saw us on our second circuit and told us where to go. The guy behind the desk was very friendly and all he wanted to do was chat rather than getting on with the paperwork so we could be on our way, we were as polite as we could be considering we had been travelling for a long time by now. Eventually we were shown to our car, put the luggage in and Richard checked the outside with the guy for scratches and dents (of which there were lots). We programmed my cousin's address into our GPS and were off. We assume it was because we were tired and just following nagging Nora (our name for our GPS) directions but after a while I realized we were seeing place names on signposts that we shouldn't be anywhere near!! Now for those of you that don't know, we were heading around the M25, an orbital motorway round London. If you imagine the M25 as a clock face, we had started between 6/7o'clock and needed to get to 12o'clock, so distance wise it didn't really matter if we went anti or clockwise but from a time and road type (staying almost entirely on motorway), we needed to go clockwise and.....you've guessed it, we were going anticlockwise! We were at about the 3o'clock position when we realized this so we weren't turning round but just hoped we didn't get into the London Congestion charge area. We went through the Blackwall tunnel to get us under the Thames and to the north side of the river, then passed the O2 arena, which we had never seen before. We were now well off the motorway and driving through the east and northern parts of London and we noticed how narrow the roads are compared to what we have become used to and also the amount of traffic...oh boy!!! My cousin was planning on taking us out for lunch as we'd said we would be there around 1pm but we pulled up outside her house around 4pm so she took us out for dinner instead....I hasten to add that I had let her know we were somewhat delayed due to navigational misfuction! After a lovely Italian meal and a good catch up, we programmed my sister-in-law's address into Nagging Nora and set off again, this time there was no chance of heading the wrong way! We arrived at our overnight stop totally ready for a good nights sleep.... Wednesday 26 October: We had done most of our packing last night so only had a few things to add to our cases after our final breakfast in our hotel. We needed to be at the airport around 10:30am so it wasn't an early morning rush as the journey there was about 30 minutes and taxis were always outside our hotel.
We arrived at Changi airport, found the check in desk and got our cases checked through to Vancouver. Security was easy, with no lines and we wandered around the duty free shops for a while but couldn't buy any alcohol or perfume as we were transiting through Hong Kong. Our flight took off on time and we settled down to be extremely well looked after by the cabin crew. We were flying this leg with Singapore Airlines and were very impressed. We had a 2 hour layover in Hong Kong and had to go through security again..never sure why you have to do this as we hadn't been anywhere!...and each airport seems to have its own rules: iPads were fine left in hand luggage to go through the scanner in Singapore but had to come out and be separate in Hong Kong. Richard set the beeper off as he walked through and couldn't work out why (he had got used to what set it off on the cruise ship so was now very careful about what he took out/off and put in the tray), the security guy got him to put his arms out and went over him with the 'paddle' which started making a noise when it was mid chest level! It turned out it was his remote hearing aid controller that had never set any scanner off in the past. The security guy had obviously never seen one of these before and several minutes of hand signals ensued as the guy didn't speak any English! He had a conversation with the guy sitting watching the hand luggage go through and they decided that the remote needed to be scanned...I still don't think they really knew what it was...but luckily that seemed to satisfy them and we were through!! We headed for the duty free here and managed to get some rum that Chris wanted. Our flight to Vancouver was with Air Canada, which lots of our friends complain about but we had a good flight which actually landed 40mins ahead of schedule. No problems at YVR and we were soon on our last legs of the journey...Sky train, bus and ferry and then Francesca was a very welcome sight at Duke Point. We had been away for almost 7 weeks, visited some amazing places, met some interesting people and have some wonderful memories that will stay with us for ever. Just enough time to unpack, do the washing, put all the summer clothes away and repack cases for our next trip....... Tuesday 25 October: Having had our buffet breakfast in the hotel, we decided to go to The Battlebox at Fort Canning Hill. After consulting our map we figured it would be an easy walk from our hotel in a direction we hadn't been before. Our route took us passed the Central Fire Station which is the oldest existing in Singapore. The idea for a professional fire brigade was thought of after a fire in King Street destroyed S$13,000 of property on 7 November 1855. 14 years later a volunteer fire service was started and another 36 years after that the Central Fire Station was built. Planning started in 1905 and it was completed in 1909 at a cost of S$64,000. It is still used as a fire station today. On the way to the Battlebox, we saw a Cannonball tree with "cannonballs" on. Having seen this tree in flower at the Botanical Gardens, it was interesting to see the fruit. This tree is one of natures most extraordinary woody species. The young tree looks like any other at first until it starts to develop curious snake like flowery stems from its trunk. These bear really weird flowers at their tips which, when examined closely, you can see that inside the colourful flowers is a folded lip-like structure covered in fleshy bristle-like stamens, which the bees have to squeeze inside if they want to get any nectar. Most flowers fall to the ground but a few are pollinated and begin to develop the spherical woody fruits which really do look like rusty cannonballs when fully grown. They are very heavy therefore this tree in no longer planted by roadsides due to the damage they can cause!! Photos: Central Fire Station, Cannonball tree- snakelike stems, flowers, woody fruit (Cannonballs) We continued on up the hill that took us to Fort Canning and found the Battlebox. You can only tour the Battlebox on an organized tour and the 9:45am was already fully booked when we arrived (lots of school groups are brought here) so we got tickets for the 11am tour and went off to explore the "hill". Fort Canning is a small hill, just over 60m high, but it has a long history due to its location and elevation. In the 14th century it was known as "The Forbidden Hill" as it was the place where ancient kings of Singapore had their palace and also where they were laid to rest. Commoners were forbidden from ascending the hill, hence the name. The Gothic Gates are imposing and somber gateways which lead to Fort Canning Green. They were built in 1846 and have become a landmark of the hill. There are small portions of the wall which originally surrounded the Fort on either sides of the gates. Photos: original Officers Married quarter, One of the Gothic Gates. We returned to the Visitor Centre in time for our tour which was provided by an extremely knowledgeable lady from the Singapore Historical Soceity. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take any photos during the tour but we spent a fascinating hour going through the underground bunker system and learning about the reasons behind the surrender of Singapore. The British, Australian and Indian army commanders had already endured 70 days of brutal fighting. Their forces were short on food, ammunition and petrol and they faced an enemy that was hell bent on taking Singapore. They had many more men than the Japanese but they were far less well equipped and the Japanese had control of the reservoirs, meaning the allies had only 2 days of water left. It certainly wasn't a decision taken lightly, Churchill had actually ordered them to fight to the death if necessary, but the commanders, after several hours of discussions, decided to go against this order. If you would like to find out more about the Battlebox, please head over to my general information page. Having completed this tour and added to our historical knowledge, we walked to the MRT station to catch a train to the Gardens by the Bay. This underground system is extremely easy to navigate and, like everything in Singapore, very efficient. The Gardens were signposted from the station and it was a very short walk. We had visited these gardens when we were here in 2015 but it was only a very brief stop on an organized tour and we wanted to explore them in more detail. The Gardens by the Bay are actually 3 waterfront gardens; Central, South and East which together form a nature park of 250 acres on reclaimed land. This is part of the Singapore government strategy to transform Singapore from a 'Garden City' to a 'City in a Garden' aiming to raise the quality of life by enhancing greenery and flora in the city. In 2006 an international competition to design the park was held with 70+ entries by 170 firms from 24 countries. Two British firms were awarded the contracts for Bay South and Bay East. Bay East: is 79 acres with a 2km promenade frontage designed as a series of large tropical leaf-shaped gardens each with their own specific landscaping, design, character and theme. There are 5 water inlets aligned with the prevailing wind direction, maximizing and extending the shoreline while allowing wind and water to penetrate the site to help cool areas of activity around them. Bay South: is 130 acres which showcases the best of tropical horticulture and garden artistry. The inspiration for the design is from an orchid, as this is the national flower of Singapore. There are 2 conservatories; the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest and it was these that we particularly wanted to visit as I had seen photos and heard about them from a friend. They are both energy efficient showcases of sustainable building technology and provide an all weather entertainment space within the Gardens. Both are around 2.5 acres and the flower dome is the worlds largest columnless glasshouse. Photos: Lily pond as you enter the Gardens from the MRT station, Dragonfly lake with Supertrees in the background, close up of dragonfly Flower Dome: covers around 3 acres of land which replicates a mild, dry climate and features plants found in the Mediterranean and other semi-arid tropical regions (parts of Australia, S.America and S.Africa). The dome is 38m high and consists of 3322 panels of glass in 42 varying shapes ( like a giant jigsaw puzzle!) and the temperature is kept around 23-25C, slightly cooler at night. It features 7 different 'gardens' as well as an olive grove and a central changing display field which enables flower shows and displays to be held here. This area is amazing and has lots of plants on display that we are used to having in our gardens but are obviously very unusual to the locals as they were all very excited about fuschias and geraniums! The central area was an African theme which was going to be changed to their annual Christmas theme the following week. We could have taken 100's of photos here but restrained ourselves! Photos: 2 photos of a very extensive Cacti display, great examples of Baobab trees, dragon made out of branches, horses made out of branches, views over the African display x3, S.African flowers and a stylized giraffe. There were lots of animals and birds, like the dragon and horses, that we kept finding...not always that easy to see as they blended in so well with their surroundings. I would love to know how they actually managed to get some of the plants, especially some of the extremely tall trees, into the Dome, but can't find that information anywhere! The main features in the African display were the animals and needless to say the lion was on top of "Pride Rock'! The 2 rhinos were created by Gardens by the Bay staff. The bodies, which have South African tribal logos on, are made of various beans such as black, green and red kidney beans and the legs are made from cinnamon sticks. Each of the beans were stuck onto the sculptures one at a time so I can't imagine how long it took to make them. Photos: Rhinos, Lion atop Pride Rock, Elephant sculpture, examples of S. African flowers, stylized version of traditional S.African hut complete with spider on the roof. Cloud Forest: this is higher but slightly smaller (2 acres) than the Flower Dome and replicates the cool, moist conditions found in tropical mountain regions between 1000-3000m, as found in SE Asia and Middle and S. America. The main feature is a 42m "Cloud Mountain", which is accessible by elevator and then you descend by a circular path where a 35m waterfall provides refreshing cool air. The 'mountain' is an intricate structure completely clad in epiphytes such as orchids, ferns, peacocks ferns, bromeliads and anthuriums. We arrived just as a 'misting' had finished so everywhere was very damp! Photos: sign explaining what the Cloud Forest represents, 35m waterfall, one of the beautiful flowers on display, dragon intricately carved from wood (lots of different, beautiful carvings like this round the 'mountain'), view of side of mountain, looking up to one of the walkways. There is a path most of the way around the bottom of the mountain which you have to go round to get to the elevator to go up. Everywhere you look are the most gorgeous flowers and plants and below are some photos of just a few. By the entrance to the elevator there is a Lego garden and the Venus Flytrap and pitcher plants are works of art! The elevator takes you up to the top of the 'mountain' where there is a 'lake'. This looks just like a mirror and is perfectly still, with no ripples at all. A little boy standing next to me didn't believe his mum when she told him it was water and he was very reluctant to put his hand in to find out! Needless to say, there are some wonderful examples of orchids here and the photos below are just a small example of some we saw. The sides of the 'mountain' are covered with plants that would grow at the various levels and this must have been a nightmare to plant up originally. Most of these varieties don't need much attention once established but occasionally some plants must die and I would hate to be the person that needs to sort that out! The walkways on the 'outside' of the structure give you the opportunity to see all the plants up fairly close. Both the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest were amazing in different ways. I wasn't sure what Richard would make of them as he's not a great 'garden and plant' fan but he was very impressed. The other features of the garden that most people come to see are the Supertrees. These are tree-like structures that dominate the gardens landscape being 25-50m tall. They are vertical gardens that perform several functions which include vertical planting, shading and working as environmental engines for the gardens. They are home to lots of unique and exotic ferns, vines, orchids and a vast collection on bromeliads. We obviously saw these structures when we visited the gardens in 2015 and could certainly see the difference in how much more of the 'trunks' were covered in plants now. They are also fitted with environmental technology that mimics the ecological function of real trees: photovoltaic cells that harness solar energy which is used for some of the functions of the Supertrees such as lighting, just like photosynthesis and they collect rainwater for use in irrigation and fountain displays, just as real trees collect rainwater for growth. They also serve as air venting ducts for the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. A walkway has been constructed between the taller trees so people can view the Gardens from a different perspective but we didn't try this out! Photos: Supertree between palms, view of some of the trees from the Cloud Forest, picture taken from Gardens at the Bay website showing walkway, another picture from the website showing the trees lit up. The Flower Dome, Cloud Forest and Supertrees walkway are open from 9am-9pm every day and the Gardens are open from 5am-2am daily! This means that all areas need to be well lit and below are some photos that I have taken from gardensbythebay.com.sg that show how beautiful they look during the evening hours. This had been a lovely last day in Singapore for us and we headed back to our hotel on the MRT again. We had a short rest before heading out again to the river front for dinner and a last look at the amazing sights by night.
Monday October 24th: We decided we would travel the hop-on, hop-off buses today to see as much as we could. After breakfast we headed for the bus stop which was right by our hotel and got on the red line bus which took us around China town then back along Marina Bay and out to Little India and the old Arab quarter. We stayed in this bus for the full circuit plus a bit, so we got off when we arrived at China town again and got on the brown line which took us passed the Tiong Bahru Enclave and then along the west side of the river towards Clarke Quay then over the river and passed the National Gallery and the War Memorial, back to the hub where we got off. Photos: Old rickshaw station that is now a restaurant, old colonial buildings, Raffles City which is a 70 storey building and annually hosts a vertical marathon- record time is 7mins!!, Marina Bay Sands, building with lots of colourful shutters, National museum of Singapore. The hub for the hop-on, hop-off buses is at Suntec City which is where the Fountain of Wealth can be found. In 1998 this was listed as the largest fountain in the world by the Guinness book of Records. The bronze ring is based on Hindu Mandela meaning universe and is a symbolic representation of the oneness in spirit and unity and also symbolizes the equality and harmony of all races and religions in Singapore. The circumference of the bronze ring is 66m and it is 13.8m high. Jets of water cascade down from the ring and the centre of the fountain has a large water screen used in the nightly laser show. A large jet of water is occasionally turned on in the centre and it spouts higher than the top of the ring. The inward flowing of water has two meanings: water is the symbol of life and wealth in Chinese culture and the inward motion symbolizes the retention of wealth for Suntec City. According to feug shui experts, water flowing inwards represents riches pouring in, hence the name Fountain of Wealth. Photos: CBD with old buildings in front, Colonial buildings in Little India, Mosque Malabar, coloured buildings near Sim Lim Square, Peacock at the entrance to Little India, Fountain of Wealth. Having found the fountain, we then headed back to the buses, wandering through the shops at Suntec and stopping for tea and cake! We arrived back at the bus just as a blue line was pulling in so we boarded that and went out the east side of the city. This was a much shorter route than the others so we were soon back at Suntec but had achieved our objective of riding all the routes. We decided to walk back to our hotel as there were a couple of things I wanted to see: the war memorial and Raffles Hotel. The Civilian War Memorial was built to honour the civilians killed during the Japanese Occupation (1942-45). It is affectionately known as the Four Chopsticks due to the tall pillars. Each of the 4 pillars stand 67m tall and symbolize the Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian people who died during the war. The pillars are joined at the base to signify unity of all races. Raffles Hotel is synonymous with Singapore and is where the Singapore Sling was invented. It started as a privately owned beach house which was built in the early 1830's and opened its doors as a proper hotel in 1887 with just 10 rooms. It now has 130 suites and is about to have multi million dollar renovations done which will take several years to complete. When we got back to our hotel, we had a rest before heading out for dinner, walking along the river again to a restaurant on the Boat Quay. Photos: Statue of Sir Stamford Raffles, South Bridge, looking across the river to the CBD and restaurants
Sunday 23 October: We decided to spend the day at the Botanical Gardens, which includes the National Orchid Garden, and the easiest way to get there was on the hop-on hop-off bus so after breakfast we set off for the hub at Suntec City Mall. It was a very easy walk and we bought a 48 hour pass so that we could ride the buses again tomorrow. It was the yellow line that would take us out to the gardens which were on the NW side of town and also show us some of the city en route. We headed towards the Singapore flyer then along Bayfront Ave across the Helix Bridge and past the Marina Bay Sands hotel. We then drove past Lau Pat Sat which is an historic market built in 1894 and the largest remaining Victorian filigree cast-iron structure in SE Asia. The frames were cast in Glasgow and shipped out to Singapore to be assembled. It is now a hawker centre which comes to life at night. Our route continues past Clarke Quay and Robertson Quay where old warehouses have been integrated into the new buildings. There is an enormous amount of road/building work going on in the NW part of Singapore as they are extending the MRT system (metro). We arrived at the Botanical gardens stop and, along with quite a lot of other passengers, got off the bus and found our way to the entrance. Photos: Lau Pat Sat, UNESCO plaque, Symphony Lake, Info about the Greenwich Arrow which you can see in the lake The Botanical Gardens were established in 1859 and are the only tropical gardens honoured as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. They played a pivotal role in the regions rubber trade boom in the early 20th century with research into rubber cultivation. They are the only botanical gardens to be open from 5am - midnight every day of the year and entry is free. More than 10,000 species are spread over 82 hectares and they started form an overgrown plantation and a tangle of virgin rainforest. During the Japanese occupation of Singapore a Japanese professor of geology took over control and ensured there was no looting and it continued to function as a scientific institution. We walked around the lake and then headed for the Ginger Garden and the National Orchid Garden, this you did have to pay to get in SG$1!!! Photos: Torch Ginger x2, info re torch ginger plant, 2 examples of plants from the Zingiberailes, waterfall in Ginger Garden The orchid garden was amazing and I've just put a few photos here...if you really like orchids then head over to my general information page where I've posted lots more!! There are more than 1,000 species and 2,000 hybrids, the largest display of orchids in the world. It has been at the forefront of orchid studies and a pioneer in the cultivation of hybrids. I never knew that it takes 4 years for a new hybrid orchid to flower so it's a very long, slow process and it explains why they are so expensive. Burkhill Hall is a colonial plantation bungalow that was built in 1886. It was named in honour of the only father/son pair to hold the post of director and was in fact the directors house. Photos: Orchid display at entrance to NOG, Crane fountain, info about orchids, flowers x2, Burkhill Hall There are several different areas in the NOG including a VIP Orchid Garden which features orchids named after visiting state dignitaries and VIP's and a Celebrity Orchid Garden where, surprise surprise, the orchids are named after celebrities to commemorate their visit. Photos: Vanda Ban Ki-moon, Dendrobium Memoria Princess Diana, Dendrobium Margaret Thatcher, 2 more beautiful orchids Another area is the Tan Hoon Siang Mist House where displays of new orchid cultivars can be seen and there is also a Cool House, which was lovely to walk through as it gave us a break from the heat outside! We headed back to the entrance via the lake with very large lily pads and the "Golden Arches" walk and spent some time in the shop before going back to the bus stop.
The bus took us along Orchard Road which is a 2.2 kilometre retail and entertainment hub of Singapore then back to where we boarded the bus this morning. We walked back to our hotel and had a rest until heading out again for dinner. Saturday 22nd October: Having checked into our hotel, which couldn't have been better situated, we decided to go for a walk as the rain seemed well and truly gone. We headed towards the river and then Marina Bay where we found the Merlion which had been covered in scaffold when we visited last year. The Merlion is a statue with the head of a lion and body of a fish; the fish represents Singapore's origin as a fishing village and the lion head represents the original name, Singapura, which means lion city. Photos: Merlion, Merlion poem, Merlion, Marina Bays Sands Hotel, ArtScience Museum and Singapore Flyer We carried on back along the river towards the Boat Quay where we came across two bronze statues representing Singapore's past. "First Generation" is a statue of boys jumping into the river which commemorates that the river was once the lifeline of the country when first migrant communities settled around it. It was a common sight to see naked boys swinging from trees beside the river and jumping into the water. The boys learnt to avoid the muddy depths and dangers of the bumboats crossing the river and had no fear of the water which was often polluted with garbage. The Clean River project, launched in 1983, saw families, hawkers and bumboats removed from the river and the innocent laughter of the swimming boys was heard no more. "The River Merchants" shows Alexandre Laurie Johnston, who was a prominent Scottish merchant of early days, negotiating with Chinese Trader and Malay Chief, while Indian and Chinese coolies load goods onto a bullock cart. There are riverside restaurants all along the Boat Quay and we wandered along looking at the menus trying to decide which one we would return to later for dinner. We made our way back to our hotel, having realized that there was a much shorter route than the one we had taken! Later we headed back to the Boat Quay and a lovely meal overlooking the river.
Saturday 22nd October: We woke to very grey skies and pouring rain! Our cabin stewardess had told us there was no rush to vacate our stateroom as we had a disembarkation time of 10am so we went for breakfast at 7:45am. There were still quite a few people there but the main rush to eat had gone. We sat watching the dark clouds whilst eating but by the time we had finished, they were starting to move away and the rain had stopped. We went back to our stateroom, gathered our things and went to find Isaura to say goodbye. We headed for the main dining room as that was our waiting point for disembarkation. Several times messages came over the PA system saying that due to congestion in the terminal building they had been asked to stop calling disembarkation numbers - we remembered what it was like last year so weren't surprised at this. Our number was called just before 10am and we had our sea pass card swiped for the last time as we left the ship. The queue to get through passport control wasn't very long and we were soon looking for our luggage in the baggage hall. Our cases were very easy to find and we headed towards the scanning machines at customs. Singapore has very strict laws regarding what you can bring in - e.g. no chewing gum, no tobacco or liquor (unless you pay duty on it) so they scan all the luggage. Once out the other side of this, we headed to the taxi rank.
On this leg of the cruise we have travelled: Sydney - Brisbane 482 nautical miles Brisbane - Airlee Beach 518 Airlle Beach - Cairns 289 Cairns - Darwin 1205 Darwin - Benoa, Bali 952 Benoa - Singapore 1025 TOTAL. 4471 nautical miles = 5141.65 land miles Thursday 20th-Friday 21st October: Last two days of the cruise were at sea again. The weather was really hot and humid now but we were much more used to it. Our balcony was still our favourite place, so we could move inside when we needed to. We were getting the occasional rain shower, which sent everyone on the pool decks running for cover, but it didn't bother us! Lots of reading and knitting was being done, just generally lazy again. Thursday evening we went to a cocktail party that was put on for all the back to back cruisers. We chatted to a couple from Florida who had been on the ship since Honolulu, were spending one day in Singapore then flying to Barcelona to get on Celebrity Reflection to sail back to Florida. They didn't like really long flights so didn't want to do Singapore to Florida! We then ended up talking to Sue, the Hotel Director, for quite a while.
Both evenings at dinner we sat with people we had never met before and they were all very chatty so it was late on when we ended up leaving the dining room. We went and sat in Cafe al Bacio both nights, claiming our free gelato on Thursday and using up as much of our on board credit as we could on Friday evening with hot chocolate and liqueur coffee. We had to have our cases outside our stateroom by 11pm on Friday night, which we managed to do. It's much easier when you aren't packing to fly directly home as we could have things we needed in the morning in our small bags, like toothpaste and other toiletries, which wouldn't be allowed in carry on. And so to bed.....our last night on the ship. Wednesday 19 October: We weren't sure what to expect here as we had been given such conflicting reports from fellow passengers and friends. It seems that it's a place that you either love or hate....there's no half way. Anyway, we had booked an excursion and had to be in the theatre for 7:45am so an early breakfast for us! We had been told last night that it would be a 45 minute tender ride to the pier, which meant we would be anchored a long way out but it turned out to be only 15 minutes as the Captain had been given a closer anchorage point. Extra tenders had been organized locally as well so passengers didn't have to wait too long to get ashore. We found our coach, which had air con (thank goodness) and we set off for Celuk village where we went to a Silver/Gold jewelry store and got a quick look at some being made. We then headed to Batuan Temple, which dates from the 9th century. We were expecting a lot of incense to be burning, as we had seen in all the temples we visited in Thailand, but, much to our surprise, there wasn't any. Photos: Entrance from pier, display in port, silver/gold workers, 6 pictures of various parts of the Batuan temple From the temple we went to the village of Mas which is famous for its wood carving and watched some men and women at work. I don't think I'd want to hold the piece of wood between my bare feet and use the very sharp tools that they were! After this we went on to Kedewatan (the village of angels) to watch a traditional Balinese dance, the Barong. This basically is a story of good and evil told in dance and was very good....the highlight of the tour actually, as we really didn't think very much to the visit to the jewelry and wood carving places. They always imply that you will see the people making the things but it's a quick walk through that area and into the shop where they try to sell you things. This was certainly the case with the jewelry, not quite so much with the wood carving as you could have stayed outside and watched them the entire time we were there....but it was too hot!! Photos: Wood carvers at work x2, rather scary looking "thing" by the "stage", 3 pictures of the Barong (they must have been HOT in that costume!), Barong with monkeys (sorry a pole was in the way!), other characters in the story. After the dancing, we headed back to the ship and I have to confess that I fell asleep on the coach, as did quite a lot of other passengers I think. It had been a long trip and we hadn't had any lunch, it was hot and the guide had talked non stop about the things that form the Hindu beliefs. It was interesting to start with but he did tend to repeat himself a lot. There was a short queue for the tender when we arrived back at the pier but we were able to stand in the shade to wait.
Once back on the ship, it was straight up to the Oceanview for something to eat. We should have sailed at 5pm but we were still at anchor at 6pm and the tenders weren't all back and loaded. The sea had started to get a bit 'lumpy' as we were coming back and the swell had increased even more since then, preventing them from getting from the pier to the ship so we didn't end until sailing until nearly 6:30pm. We were sitting on our balcony as the sun set and I managed to get some lovely photos. We weren't very hungry, having had food around 4pm so we just had a snack at dinner time and went to watch the show which was the same girl as last night and one of the ship's entertainment girls, who is looking to get a solo career singing on cruise ships. It was an entertaining show with some good songs. I can't say that we would return to Bali again in a hurry....there are other islands we would much prefer to go back to. |
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