singapore holiday-Day 2

Day 2 - Singapore - 19th April 1998

We both got up and showered at a reasonable hour (about 8:00am). Went down to the bistro on the ground floor and had a full english breakfast, eggs, bacon, toast, beans, coffee and cereal , not necessarily in that order. Cost about $16sing. each. About the same as in Australia at a normal Motel. After breakfast we went for a walk into the city centre. Not knowing anything about how far it was we walked a few kilometresthrough Little India along Serangoon Rd till we got to Dhoby Ghaut MRT station.

Seragoon Street, Little India

The MRT is a rail system that covers the island from east to west and north to south. It costs about 90c to go about 3 stations. Most of the stations near the City are underground. The MRT doesn't actually surface until you are a fair way out of the city proper. In fact, when it does surface it goes above ground so that you have a good view of the scenery all around you. Everything is computerised and automated.You buy your ticket from a machine , stick it in a machine when you go to theplatform and stick it in a machine when you depart the station. The undergroundstations are air-conditioned and the platforms have glass walls separating the line from the station platform. When the train arrives, it stops so that all the train doors line-up with the platform doors. The trains are air-conditioned as well. All thecarriages are open plan style. You can stand in the middle of the train and watch it snake its way through the tunnels. Everything is clean and no graffitti anywhere. No wonder, its against the law to sell chewing gum in Singapore and throwing a cigarette butt on theground will cost you $500 if you are caught.

We got out at Orchard Road, the shopping Mecca of Singapore. It was about 10am and both sides of the road were crowded with people doing their Sunday shopping.We went into one building and there were floor after floor of shops selling anything you wanted. Geraldine and I walked past an Camera shop andI made the mistake of showing some interest in a $300 video camera. Big mistake. We were talked into looking inside the shop and it took us a good hour to get out. The video camera was a come on for the salesman to get you
to buy a more expensive technically superiorcamera that he had.

After we made our escape we walked around the malls and shops and had coffee. Finally, we had to make our way back to the hotel to await our pick-up bus for the World Trade Centre and the Cruise ship Superstar Gemini.

About 5pm the bus came along and we boarded after making sure all our luggage was secured. We had to do several more pick ups before the bus made its way to theWorld Trade Centre. It started to rain. By the time we arrived the rain had stopped. but everything was wet. We made sure our luggage was booked for forwarding to theship and then walked to the Cruise departure lounge and customs. About 6.30pm we were allowed to board the ship and find our way to our cabin.

Superstar Gemini at Singapore

We had dinner on-board in the Buffet dining room. We then explored the ship until departure which was about 10.30pm. We watched the skyline of Singapore and the anchored ships in the harbour as the ship headed out to sea. The Cruise had started and we were both very excited about what lay ahead. We were all invited to the Star lounge for an information session and some light entertainment. Afterwards we both decided to go for a final walk around the ship's deck and then head for bed. The night was humid and seas were calm and flat. Tomorrow we were arriving in Port Klang near Kuala Lumpur.

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