Day 84 - Singapore 

Friday, April 4

Woke up at 7:45 (yes, in the morning) because I was determined to go to the medical centre to get something for my ears and sore mouth.  I was the first one there after they opened at 8.  The doctor gave me a different antibiotic and paracetamol with codeine.

Back in my stateroom by 8:30 I watched the morning show and checked I had everything I needed for the day (we have to carry our passports - first time since we left the US - and we had a landing card).

Left my stateroom at 9:30 thinking that the tours had all left.  Well, they hadn't.  The lines to get through immigration were out the door of the terminal.  It took me about 45 minutes from the time I left my stateroom until I got in the queue for the shuttle bus.  That took another 15-20 minutes.  Finally arrived at Millennia Walk about 11.  First thing I had to do was find an ATM which was fairly easy in the Mall.  Then I had to find the hop on hop off bus.  Easier said than done!

I had a map that showed where the bus was supposed to be but in reality it was at the back of the building that is was shown as being beside.  Because of construction I had to walk around another building to get to the back (later discovered I could easily walk through the Suntec Mall).

Finally got my ticket and rode around the yellow line.  That took about an hour and by then I was hungry.  Found the restaurants on the lower level of the Suntec Center.  Ended up having a really strange tasting burger at Wendy's.

Then it was back for the Heritage bus that went through the different ethnic areas.  After that I was hot, thirsty and running out of steam (remember I was up really early) so I walked back to the shuttle.  The line was huge so I went into a "MosBurger" and bought a large Sprite and sat in the lovely air conditioning and watched the line.  I decided to see if there was any free wifi in the vicinity and found I could pick up the wifi from the neighboring Outback Steakhouse.  I checked e-mail and read a fellow world voyager's blog and then got in the line that was considerably shorter.  Wrote and hastily sent an e-mail as I got ready to board the bus.

Singapore immigration is really tight.  We had to show our passports three times getting back on the ship.

Hot and tired I decided an ice cream was what I needed so a quick trip to the Lido before returning to my stateroom to relax.

Went to the early evening trivia and only had 10 out of 21 correct.  One I missed was "What do Elvis Presley's and Jim Morrison's deaths have in common?"  Any guesses?

There were five for dinner but Hilda (who has been ill for almost a month)  came by to say "hi" and she hoped she would be eating with us again in a couple of days.

Tonight's show was called "Instant Asia" which was a Singapore folkloric group that did Malay, Chinese, and Indian dances.

We had a thunder storm but it was too misty to see the lightning flashes.  I would love to see a  nice lightning display on the water (the only one we have had was during dinner so I could not see it).

Here are some of my street scenes

this is a hotel

the famous Raffles Hotel where the Singapore Sling was invented

Smooth sailing until next time!