Forgap & Rumor, Singapore-Sydney, Feb. 2-20, 2018--LIVE!

[crusin7]

Crisy/Cruisin7, great to have you following along while you continue to make memories of your own at sea. Your wonderful Papeete post earlier today made me a little sentimental, as Papeete was Ginny's and my first date on land almost 41 years ago to this day. We had met only a week earlier, two days into an eight-night, nine-day sail from L.A. to Papeete. I'll be forever grateful for that long stretch at sea It was more than enough time to fall in love.

 

 

Rich, I feel honored to help you recall those beautiful memories. Your blog is delightful. I can't believe you haven't even left yet!

[WesW]

Hi Rich, Ginny, Georges and Jennifer. Safe travels Rich & Ginny. Jennifer & Georges enjoy Singapore. We look forward to tagging along while on board the Mariner. Side note—we now have a new fav Regent ship—Mariner (public spaces preferred over Voyager) and we have the refurb to look forward to when we board the Mariner in December.

 

 

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[RachelG]

Rich, you just made me smile. I will be so happy if Daniela is onboard as F&B manager. She is one of our favorites. Not only is she spectacular at her job, she is beautiful as well.

[Mr Rumor]

Thanks, Crisy and Wes!

 

Jackie and Rachel, I'm happy to confirm that Daniela will be joining the Voyager not in Singapore on February 2 but in Darwin on February 11. My attitude is, half a cruise with Daniela as F&B Director is definitely better than a cruise with no Daniela!

 

Rachel, I think this news merits more than a smile--how about a couple more exclamation points?

 

Rich

Edited January 26, 2018 by Mr Rumor

[RachelG]

Excellent news indeed!!!

[forgap]

DAY TWO IN SINGAPORE - Our routine now is to get up early (we’re still not sleeping well so this is not a hardship), tour in the morning when it’s cooler, then return to the hotel for a shower and a nap. We saw the Gardens by the Bay yesterday morning which is a beautiful park that includes the Super Trees and two domes - one is the Flower Dome, and the other is the Cloud Forest. The Flower Dome was OK although they had some incredible sculptures throughout the exhibit. The star of the show was the Cloud Forest. Imagine a mountain within a Dome, packed with plants from a tropical rain forest. You take an elevator to the top and work your way down through varied habitats. It was very impressive. After this, we walked over to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel because it is like something from another planet. It’s a mega tourist attraction, but fascinating none the less.

 

Actually, all of Singapore is reminiscent of another planet. It’s clean, organized, and civil. For anyone who is anxious about traveling to Asia, Singapore is “Asia Lite” - it’s a bit Disney-esque but still has enough Asian grit to whet your appetite.

 

 

 

 

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[forgap]

DAY TWO IN SINGAPORE, CONTINUED - Our Hotel is well outside of the central business district in a very interesting section of Singapore known for its shophouses and Paranakan culture. We decided to book the Katong culinary tour through SingaBites as an orientation to the area and to be introduced to the culinary traditions of Singapore in general and the Paranakan culture in particular. Our tour leader was born and raised in the neighborhood so we were in very good hands as she led us to various restaurants and landmarks in the area. All the food was remarkable and clearly favorites of the locals. The beauty of this type of food tour is that you get to experience real hole in the wall places with excellent food. These are places you might pass up if you were left to your own devices.

 

We were a small group and we had very congenial tour mates, so it was a very interesting and informative. If you ever do a tour like this, my best advice is to arrive for the tour VERY hungry. We ate and ate and ate some more!

 

Haiwanese Chicken Rice

 

Curry Puffs

 

Katong Laksa

 

Traditional treats for Chinese New Year

 

Gluttonous rice stuffed with something savory!

 

 

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[forgap]

This is my last post for the day for any of you who are interested in lost crafts. Paranakan women have some beautiful clothing traditions. Their dress pulls from various cultures but the common tread is that it is rich with color and texture. Paranakan women used to do intricate bead work that would then be sent out to a cobbler to form a shoe. The beads made from crystals are highly prized, plastic beads less so.

 

The pattern:

 

The beadwork:

 

The finished shoe:

 

 

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[Bigdogwon]

Greetings Rich and Ginny, it has been far to long to say hello to our neighbors. Tom and I moved to Santa Fe almost two year's now.

As I write we are enjoying the beach in Phuket after spending five days in Singapore at the Marina Bay Sands. We absolutely love Singapore!

 

Looking forward to your journey, and wish you both well.

 

We must get together upon your return and share our stories.

 

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[crusin7]

What beautiful pictures! Thank you for taking us along. I would love a pair of those shoes.

[Travelcat2]

Wonderful photos! Love the food in Singapore.

[Gilly]

forgap, thanks so much for the beading pictures which are right up my alley! :hearteyes:

 

We too loved Gardens by the Bay but since our cruise ended in Singapore, we'd just visited Kota Kinabalu a few days previously and the "real" cloud forest was very much in our minds and recent memory. It'll be interesting to see how you relate the constructed to the natural (assuming you get the chance to visit KK on your itinerary?) Dare I say that I felt the Singapore version was rather more of a comfortable experience :rolleyes:

 

We join Navigator in Singapore in a few weeks time. Your lovely posts are whetting my appetite very much indeed! (Dear me...I'm still working on the photos from a few days in Mumbai last week and am already impatient to be off again :cool:)

[forgap]

Thanks, Gilly! When I took the pictures I thought of you. Your ongoing blog has been an inspiration!

[Gilly]

forgap, how sweet of you!! Were you able to see the process of the beading as well? (I'd love a few more details in prep for our trip next month...maybe I could drop you an email?)

[Mudhen]

Hello and thank you again to all of the posters on this thread, for taking the time to take us along....

Beautiful photos and oh, those shoes! Please get me a pair, size 6......haha!

Continue to enjoy and will be watching for the next installment!

Linda

[Mr Rumor]

Jennifer, even though you and Georges may still be dealing with the vestiges of jet lag, you've already in mid-cruise blogging form. Wonderful account of Singapore Day 2. Your photos, as always are terrific! When Ginny and I can settle down together later, I will share your posts with her. Because we'll be flying in the day before and, like last year, will probably have to sleep off a part of the day, your photos may be as close as we get to the Gardens of the Bay and the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. Our main outing was going to be a stroll across the street from the Fairmont to the Raffles for a fling with a couple of Singapore Slings, but that plan was dashed when I learned that the Raffles is closed through at least the first half of this year as it is in the final phase of a "restoration programme." Wahhhh!

 

As we edge closer and closer to our getaway it has been our turn to deal with the seemingly inevitable last minute "wild cards" (your dignified term--we have an earthier way of describing what happens when we're about to take off on a cruise). On late Friday afternoon, we learned from our son and his partner that they just that day entered into a purchase agreement for their first house. We hadn't had a clue that was coming! So, I had to put last minute loose-ends-tying aside to read a raft of real estate documents. Actually it was a pleasure to be of help.

 

What was not a pleasure to behold were the repeated "Your computer is low on memory" messages yesterday morning that appeared on my screen. For most of the day my computer was rendered all but useless as I tried to figure out what had happened (my computer guy didn't respond to my SOS e-mails/calls). Finally last night I had the notion to check out my anti-malware software after receiving the message that my real-time protection had been disabled. That's when I learned that a "malformed" protection update had been eating up customers' RAM and causing computer crashes around the world! I managed to uninstall the program, and, presto, I was back in business.

 

Even with all this last-minute excitement we're in pretty darn good shape for our Tuesday departure and can easily manage the time this afternoon to meet up with Scott and partner and walk the property that they intend to buy. We're excited for them.

 

Rich

 

P.S. Bigdogwon/Larry and Tom, great to hear from you! I'm surprised we haven't run into each other at Trader Joe's or one of our other local haunts--Santa Fe isn't that big. Will definitely connect with you after we return (just located the piece of Regent note paper on which you had written your street and e-mail addresses). Hope your Asia vacation continues to be fab!

[1982CruzStart]

Thanks to all that are and will post on this thread. Loving the commentary and pictures.

[xrvlcruiser]

Looking forward to all of this!

Peggy

[silkismom]

Mr Rumor, we were also on the Apr 2010 unexpected "vacation" in Padua. I think everyone had at least one "breakdown" during that time, tempers were high and many needed to get home for one reason or another, the uncertainty started to grate on nerves.

[forgap]

forgap, how sweet of you!! Were you able to see the process of the beading as well? (I'd love a few more details in prep for our trip next month...maybe I could drop you an email?)

 

Gilly, please feel free to drop me an email! Forgap at bellsouth dot net. This goes for anyone else in this CC community who would like candid details of our travels!

[forgap]

DAY THREE IN SINGAPORE

 

Our hotel has the best breakfasts in the adjoining restaurant, Baba Chew’s. Beside the usual spread of western delights, you can order Asian favorites as well. They usually have two exotic (to us) specials as well as little treats that come to the table in an attempt to expand your palate. My newest obsession Is Kaya toast. Kaya toast is prepared with a coconut jam which is spread on buttered toast. It is then dipped into a bowl of soft-boiled egg with a little dark soy sauce. It sounds funky but the sweet, salty, savory combination is just delicious.

 

I had a little communication snafu with our Indian waiter this morning and a happy surprise when the Asian special noodle dish, Mee Rebus, arrived at the table. I, of course, looked it up on the internet on my return to the room. The dish is made of yellow egg noodles, with a spicy slightly sweet curry-like gravy. The gravy is made from shrimps' broth, shallots, lemongrass, galangal, salam leaf (Indonesian bayleaf), kaffir lime leaf, gula jawa (Indonesian dark palm sugar), salt, water, and corn starch as thickening agent. It was spicy and delicious - more like lunch but I have been awake since 3:30, so an appropriate meal!

 

Our third day in Singapore was a Sunday so we decided to go to the Botanic (not Botanical!) Gardens. If you are a garden lover, this is really a must visit. The grounds are very large and beautifully maintained. It is free, so it is also popular with many Singaporeans who come to exercise, walk their dogs, or just chill with their families. I remember being here when I was a young teenager many (many!) years ago. There were marauding monkeys all over the place. You were warned not to take any food with you as the monkeys were aggressive and would snatch and run or worse if you were unwilling to give up the goods! In the 70’s the garden was in disrepair and under restoration and the decision was made to remove all the monkeys. All we saw this time was a 4 foot lizard crossing the path. He was pretty impressive!

 

 

 

 

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[forgap]

DAY THREE, CONTINUED...

 

There are many pocket gardens featuring themes such as ginger varieties, fragrant plants, and plants used as medicine throughout Asia. The National Orchid Garden is especially wonderful. There is a small fee to enter ($1 for seniors which is 75 cents US - breaks the budget!). I was especially interested in their VIP Garden where they hybridize special orchids to commemorate the visit of World dignitaries.

 

This was for William and Kate (The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge):

 

And, this was for Barack and Michelle Obama:

 

We then amused ourselves looking for a flower for our current US president. These were some possibilities:

 

 

 

 

 

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[forgap]

DAY THREE CONTINUED, AGAIN!

 

After our required afternoon nap during a thunderous electrical storm, we went in search of Chili Crab, a delicacy in Singapore. Within walking distance of our hotel was a restaurant (Roland’s) which is owned by the son of the couple who invented Chili Crab. Imagine a windowless, stripped down banquet hall with a hundred tables under fluorescent lights. We were the only anglos in the place, and, for the first time, we had a bit of a language barrier. The menu was in English but the servers were fresh off the boat. Yesterday, our guide mentioned that there is a scarcity of workers in Singapore so the government imports people for most of the non-professional jobs.

 

We finally placed our order for the crab, some vegetables, and some “black sauce” prawns, a house specialty. A finger bowl, one crab cracker, and two wet naps were placed on the table....no pick, no napkins, no bibs -although halfway through the meal when the waitstaff witnessed the mess we made, they came hurrying up to tie bibs around our necks! The verdict? It was OK. Certainly not as good as what I make at home with Dungeness crab. Although, to be fair, I reminded my sweet husband that he had black pepper crab the last time we were in Singapore (not Chili Crab) so his expectations were off.

 

Singapore is in the midst of preparing for the Lunar New Year in mid-February. Decorations are up already and there are whole popup stores with “must haves” for the celebration. I’m sorry that we will miss the festivities!

 

 

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[RJ2002]

Loving these reports and pictures. Thanks for sharing!

 

Had a chuckle with your reference to the rainstorm. Our last visit to Singapore, we got absolutely drenched in one of those storms during a lunch expedition in Little India.

[RachelG]

Loving your reports. We were in Singapore a year ago, getting ready to embark on Regent, 3 days after my fractured shoulder and subsequent surgery for plate and pins. We went to the botanic garden. It was beautiful and a good distraction from pain.