Last Hurrah at Changi Airport & the Fun to be had
This Airport is MASSIVE and so much to do whilst waiting departure.This was the last day of our wonderful Asian Cruise + holiday. The terminal (great name for airports!) has the usual number of shops & restaurants .A lounge for travelers is provided where weary passengers can get their heads down on provided lounges..You can stretch out, relax and enjoy the latest blockbusters for free at the 24-hours Movie Theatre.and to get around the huge Terminals a train service (free) enabling passengers with lots of time to spare to free ride around the airport In 2012, the airport handled 51.2 million passengers,making it the seventh busiest airport by international passenger traffic in the world and the second busiest in Asia by international passenger traffic in 2012. The airport registered 4.92 million passenger movements in December 2012. Annie enjoyed the world’s first Butterfly Garden in an airport, where an indoor waterfall and more than 1,000 free-roaming butterflies soothe and delight the senses .Apparently these insects are greatly attracted tp Pineapples (Annies fav fruit) and we placed a few arounf our garden in the hope it will attract butterflies BUT the birds ate them as soon as the pineapples were put down !!!.For kids the tallest indoor slide in Singapore
Chinese New Year is on Jan 31 and the airport has retained Xmas decorations for the new year (Year of the Horse)
Singapore the Last of our Asian trip and then Home
Breakfast with our new found friends ended with cheery goodbyes and disembarkation was speedy except the wait for Taxis ! we are now in our Hotel (The Mandarin) food is very expensive at around $30 each,luckily just around the corner is a Food Hall with great,cheap choices.Bed early and no signs of withdrawal due to not having any alcohol today
Caught DAY bus (Hop on Hop off) and good value for $33.We toured in the open topped bus for around 6 hours getting of at Big Wheel (that boasts being the biggest in the world.out doing Londons Eye) The Chinese Markets were fantastic with lots of very cheap bargains and very colourful.The Markets and streets were decorated with Giant Horses hung high above the streets .On January 31 the Chinese celebrate New Year and of course it will be the Year of the Horse.We had dinner in a food hall which proved to be both tasty and cheap.There is also a Movie Complex (Cathy) situated almost next door and we took advantage of the very reasonable prices ($8.50) to see Life of Walter Mitty (first viewed by me lots of years ago and starring Danny Kaye) this latest version starred Ben Stiller and was fairly good .We did a quick walk around this very busy Orchard road before retiring to the Hotel.The streets were bright (and clean,chewing gum is banned here thus eliminating the ” Black Snow” look that plagues Australian and British pavements ! Graffiti idiots are treated to lashes of large cane known as a RATTAN.Streets are very safe at nights which is a great comfort to tourists Weather weekly forecast reckoned Storms everyday we never saw any rain !!
Penultimate day we got a Taxi to BUGIS a huge market complex where Annie bought lotsa stuff .Couple of hours to waste SO we went to afternoon movies to see Hobbit 2 (pensioners $4 and a free coffee or tea before 6pm !) On our last day we visited (yet again) more shops and was picked up by arrangement and taken to Changi Airport Singapore & headed for home (7 hr flight) and collect our car parked at the Airport..Signs were bad health wise,Annie has Flu and I had to be rushed to Hospital during the late night on our first day back because my breathing was hard for me ..They did allsorts of tests and we left around 4 am !! It also got me thinking of the lucky,charmed life I have had !
Goodbye Friends… Hello Singapore
Last full day and will be spent at Sea breakfast with other travellors and the usual laugh.Annie went to Front Desk complaining of drinks charged to us that I NEVER drink (Gin) and onto Alan and Junes room searching for a very expensive earring lost in their room Final get togethers throughout the day .Dinner was a disaster for Alan as his food was cold,he ended up with something completely different !(Steak egg n chips!!) and getting our group free wine Final bar was extended till midnight (methinks due to complaints made by fellow travellors ) and we retired around midnight
January 6th 2014 Farewell
Breakfast with our new found friends ended with cheery goodbyes and disembarkation was speedy except the wait for Taxis ! we are now in our Hotel (The Mandarin) food is very expensive at around $30 each,luckily just around the corner is a Food Hall with great,cheap choices.Bed early and no signs of withdrawal due to not having any alcohol today !!
Cruise Friends
First Farewell
Today a lie in and later on played a funny game of scrabble with fellow passengers Hazel,Martin,June and Ann (Ann won!) Chatted with a funny Glenn the Pianist.Lazy day chatting In the main concert room a lady magician and comedian showed the audience a few tricks NOT top class but ( we do the first show) watchable ,apparently second show was a bit of a flop !! 10 of our mob turned up for gossip and booze tomorrow night is the penultimate night and we have all decided to have a GOOD farewell drink..looking forward to that ! As the ship sailed from Port the smog was very evident and seeing other ships in the foggy distant haze was very eerie !
4th January 2014
Up early due to not working toilet .Caught the tender boat to Nathon (Koh Samui ) and this will be our last stop before disembarking in Singapore.The weather is hot and sticky here,but lots of photo shoots I bought Punk Rock luminous shirt ( our business cards state me n Annie as recycled teenagers ! ) One lady was selling carved soaps and they are absolutely beautiful .Back on the boat,quick shower and after linch off to the quiet room to update blog and photo,s Tonights show was pretty good and this time we went straight for the Crows Nest Bar and remained there till 2 am with Jill,Paul.Hazel,Martin,Steve,myself and Annie,others were tired and couldn’t make it .This will be our last Boozy full on night so we can all sleep in in the morning !!
Saigon or Ho Chi Min City
After breakfast we caught the tour bus and took a 2 hour road trip to Saigon ,and what a vibrant,exciting place this is..Streets full of hawkers trying their best to sell cheap tourist artifacts.The markets were amazingly full of anything!!Shoes,shirts,shorts ,figurines of all description,masks which I have bought to add to my home collection.I ccouldnt resist buying a large Vietnamese pointed hat .Going around the very tiny aisles in the market was very funny with young women wanting to rub my belly !! Christmas is still very evident here and the decorations around the streets is truly amazing.We visited the very French orientated Post Office and still has the look an aura of the early 1800,s Next I visited the HUGE Catholic church and a service was in full flow (NO lightening bolts were aimed at me throughout this session!) As we left at night time the town seemed to attract lots more people and the tiny motor bikes were out in force ! All the street Xmas decorations were illuminated and vendors were now selling all shapes and sizes of electrical wares For my daughter Jayne…as we travelled back to the ship street lights went out as the did in Beijing.Because we arrived back late we were treated to a very large Ship BBQ .Our tired boozing group is now reduced to SIX,nevertheless we still managed Happy Hour ( I think at this point the smoggy pollution is getting on my chest .BUT Annie is on top of that shoving more Pills into me!!) session finished at 12.30am
Happy New Year
January 31 is the Chinese New Year and will be The Year of the Horse
Late breakfast and then into the Ships library to catch up on my blog and transfer photo’s from our cameras to this device.New Years Eve and what a day !! Happy Hour (when our gang of twelve turns up for our nightly gathering ) has been changed from to10pm just for tonight to 4 to 5pm BUT being smart we ordered around 50 bottles in the earlier session and held them over till later) We caught an Australian Comedian in the first show the highlight being when all the NYE balloons overhead had accidentally been released ! then onto our nightly session with the Piano Man and onto The Crows Nest for New Year Celebrations and what a great night it was ,the place was ALIVE and we are lucky to have fallen into a great group of people.The night ended for us at 3am ! HAPPY NEW YEAR
Cambodia
Arriving in Cambodia we disembarked and took the shuttle bus to Sihanoukville and as we entered the square still on the bus we were surrounded by street sellers running along with the bus!!We ventured into the market and what a hive of activity! Beggars were sat in the aisles in the crowded place All sorts of wares were on selling including live fish/crabs/yabbi,s/shrimps something that looked like worms,Clothing,jewellery.you name it and it could be bought.Sihanoukville is very dirty and smelly methinks the cleanest places are the rubbish bins IF they can be found !! After lunch we sat in the library while I updated blog material and Annie is reading her Ebooks.The night time show was a DULCIMER Player (allright if you like that stuff for an hour ,we did,nt ) Glenn the pianist was in great form as usual and we finished the night with friends in the Crows Nest
Laem Chabang
Docked in Laem Chabang then we caught a Taxi for 10 (cheaper by the bigger numbers!) into Pattaya in Thailand .Taxis were expensive from the Boat as the Taxi Owners had the dock monopoly BUT was cheaper on the way back as we hired our own.Very hot and we spent the days bargain hunting ( I did not buy BUT Annie did plenty!) Food was cheap and the beach front was very busy and lots of very senior Australians were spotted walking hand in hand (methinks tis the only way these young ladies can escape poverty ! although a few return with their older partners to Australia,where upon they will be granted Australian Citizenship after 2 years ! and hopefully when the older mans leaves this planet all his wordly wealth will stay with his partner ) Bartered the Taxi driver and was charged a minimal fee back to the boat !) The cabin lad has made a magnificent Monkey from towels and hung it from our cabin light,delightful !! Ship docked here for 2 days in the evening had a nice chatty boozy night in the Crows nest with fellow travellors Paul & Jill
Docked at Nah Trang
Better night still a bit off colour tho.After breakfast we took a trip into Nha Trang ,very busy town with lots of hawkers pestering the lives out of us .We eventually took a rickshaw ride long the very misty beach front .The sands dipped very steeply into the sea.Back at the Ship lots of traders were selling their cheap wares and of course Annie bought lots !We unashamedly slept for a couple of hours in the afternoon .Annie yet again walked me for miles around the town looking for more elusive markets. Night time we met up with the other pals and watched Paula (who was guesting in our Group !) in the Theatre Room doing Tina & Cher impressions and she was very good after the show we went onto the Piano Bar and had a good session on trivia with John the Jugggler the nominated Captain and yet another boozy session …Next day was another Sea Day,mooched around the ship generally relaxing and of course lots more eating !! Evening we were entertained by The Opera Boys,John the Juggler he and his lovely partner Annika (apologies if I got that wrong) are now heading home to Germany, and a Chinese classical Pianist who was really good BUT not my idea of a Cruise Entertainer.Some of our group are slowly missing the odd nights boozing and having early nights (saving the strength for NYE)
Day 15
Day at Sea
Had breakfast and attended a very informative computer session learning how to make video/slide shows After dinner we attended a show and it was good fun ,the singer Paula impersonated Cher & Tina Turner.Our group then entered a musical quiz and we scored very well but didn,t win.Late night found us once more in the Crows Nest but I managed just one drink and retired early coz of my cold and left ANNIE in the safe hands of our group..
Watch me play Didgeridoo
Geoffs Life After Work ! 