Frugal Bastard's Cruise 2008 - Day 11 - October 14th 2008

Last morning overseas today. Chinatown was our destination before returning home. Quite warm. Quite a bit to see too. One or two shop owners in Chinatown got upset when asked for a discount. One Indian man told us that the price was S$6 for one item but that we shouldn't pay attention to that as he would discount it. It was only S$3 a few doors down and it was quite difficult to tell the shops apart once you'd finally made up your mind what you wanted to buy.

Singapore - old meets new.

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.

Inside Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.

Another shot inside Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.

Chinatown markets.

The Boy got a seat on the MRT. Premium item this.


I bumped into the t-shirt seller from Bugis Junction market who recognised me from a few days ago. Miky found a Chinese antique dealer just outside of the markets and haggled seriously with him for a jewelry box. He discounted below his normal price because it was our last day of shopping and looked in great pain to sell. Further down South Bridge Road we came across the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. [Editor's note - I had to search through my credit card statement to find the jewelry shop name, locate the street, use Google Maps to find the temple so that I could work out what the name was.]

We headed over to Food Republic (where else?) for lunch, and I had delicious Thai food - pad thai, after I called my friend Vanessa who couldn't make it. It was a bit much expecting her to be able to meet us at such short notice.

We decided to buy some luggage and Miky boasted about how well her bag had served her for 10 years. As a freebie we received a pearl for purchasing the bags. Back at the hotel we repacked our luggage and the concierge said that he would dispose of our old bag. They were so helpful at the Concorde.

I got in a little bit of trouble at the airport when my bag was x-rayed and I was told that there was a bottle of water inside. Well, I knew damn well that there wasn't and said so. After looking through my bag the lady official didn't find it and so she rechecked. Right down the bottom at the back was a bottle of water, and a magazine, that had been weighing me down the whole time we'd been walking around Singapore. I rather sheepishly apologised but it was an honest mistake. I had no idea that the bottle was there or had any intention of smuggling it onto the plane.

On the flight we were split up again and I said that I'd swap seats with Miky to play games against Yu-Jin. Following the meal I went to change seats and when I told her that I was sitting next to a fat, smelly older bloke for some strange reason she was happy in her seat and refused to change. Dammit. Watched Indiana Jones and read The Financial Times. The plane, being code-shared between Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic, was pretty well packed and the cabin crew offered great service. As we came into land one of the overhead compartments opened, which is something you don't see too often, and it was a bit shaky. We didn't have any problems with immigration/customs bringing in our wooden jewelry box, coral collected in Thailand and chocolate.

Weight gain for the holiday was 1.5kg. Once we returned home Miky's old luggage pretty much disintegrated. Perfect timing.

Frugal Bastard's Cruise 2008 - Day 10 - October 13th 2008

A friend from uni, Asher, dropped in to see me at the hotel around breakfast time. It was great to see him but he was only able to hang around for 30 mins or so because he was supposed to be working. No rest for the wicked in Singapore. He mentioned that Arab Street was good for fabrics. Our plan was also to visit Little India.

Wet in these parts.

"Hairy" tree.

Singapore tropical downpour.


By the time we arrived in the vicinity there was a tropical downpour. I thought that it might pass relatively soon so we waited a few minutes before deciding to buy an umbrella. We wandered around Little India for some time and the goods throughout certainly weren't cheap. So much was on sale in the markets but it was cheaper when Miky went alone.

Little India - Deepavali Festival time.

Stop your umbrella wetting the floor. These Singaporeans are so consciencious.

Buildings in Little India.

Marketplace in Little India.

Madras Street in Little India.

Rundown buildings in Little India.

Masjid Abdul Gafoor (Temple).

Rochor Centre apartments. Something groovy in Singapore.


We happened across a China shop and bought some dishes. I asked the lady if there were any fabric shops on Arab Street and she said, "No fabric on Arab Street." Undetered we ventured on and one block away found quite a few fabric shops. Miky bought some nice silk.

Sultan Mosque.

Ali Baba fabric shop.

Aladdin's fabric shop.


Journeyed to Food Republic at Wisma Atria again. Lovely food once again. This time I ate some India food. Lunch was at 3:30pm - too busy shopping to eat. Miky kept shopping whilst Yu-Jin and I returned to the hotel to shower before having a dip in the pool.

Taxi driver pranged a Mercedes. That's gonna hurt.

Singlish sign that made me laugh.


Rang an ex-pat friend's sister and she invited us out later to Newton Circus if we weren't too late from the Night Safari that we planned to take later in the evening. We caught a shuttle bus out the back of the hotel and they offered us a $1 discount to the Night Safari if we purchaed the ticket from them. I didn't have enough cash to buy the ticket but he ended up not charging me for Yu-Jin's bus ticket so we saved the $2 anyway.

We should have caught the earlier bus as we just missed out on viewing The Creatures of the Night show. Somebody wanting a blasted cup of coffee wouldn't be the cause, would they?

The tram ride for the Night Safari was very informative and almost all of the animals were on display. Disappointed at the park that we were unable to see anything other than the tram ride - the place needs to be open for another hour or so. All the food was S$13-17 a serve - nothing like you could buy in the city. We arrived back at the hotel around 11pm and The Boy slept whilst we ate something for tea. Asher had left a message if it wasn't too late to ring him and he could take us for a drive. Damn, too late.

Night Safari (rampant commercialisation) - couldn't photograph any of the animals.

Doctor Fish nibbling dead skin off feet.

Tired boy.

Frugal Bastard's Cruise 2008 - Day9 - October 12th 2008

We arrived safely in Singapore. After a late night the 8am deadline to vacate the room was a bit difficult. Didn't have as much breakfast as usual. Perhaps the cruise was just long enough. Disembarkation was done by deck numbers and started at deck 7. We were on deck 3 therefore the second last group to depart. We were separated at the escalator leading to immigration. Our bags were already waiting for us so there was no time wasted.

The Boy with the crew saying goodbye.


We caught a taxi and the driver was quite funny but when he informed us that the Australian dollar had dropped from S$1.13 last week to S$0.98 the laughing was over. He referred to the Singapore PM, an Indian, as a "nigger" which I thought was a bit much, especially as he didn't know us.

The Le Meridien Hotel had had a name change to Concorde so there was some confusion when we arrived. Flight Centre failed to inform us of this little fact. The driver asked me to stop them from unloading the bags just in case it was the wrong hotel. Apparently it is a common theme for Singaporean hotels to change their names and confuse taxi drivers and tourists alike.

Once that was sorted out there was no authorisation for our included breakfasts even though I had a voucher for it. They couldn't find the booking for us either! One of the girls who served us had the name Fence! We took a king-size room on the smoking level. The room wasn't as comfortable as the Holiday Inn Park View however. After a brief rest to freshen up our mission was shopping.

Took the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) from Somerset to Orchard. There are quite a few department stores in the area. First stop was Food Republic at Wisma Atria Shopping Centre where we had Taiwanese food. Then we hit the shops before Miky blew a gasket. She couldn't find exactly what she liked and with the dollar being so low the purchases hurt a bit more. Saw a money exchanger offering S$0.96 to the dollar.

Temple in Singapore.

Closeup of Temple in Singapore.

Another closeup of Temple in Singapore.

Inside Temple in Singapore.

It's busy in Bugis.


We split up with Yu-Jin coming with me to Bugis where there are some markets. An India money exchanger offered S$0.95 and wouldn't go to S$0.96. Over at the Sim Lim Square Building an exchanger had an advertised rate of S$0.975 but he gave me dollar for dollar. I shook his hand afterwards I was so happy. The Boy and I purchased matching t-shirts. The first shop we saw them in wanted S$25 but we got them for S$20. Caught the MRT back to the hotel, showered and had a swim. Miky rang twice while we were swimming. She rang again just after and wanted to meet us at Food Republic but we only wanted to go to the street stalls next to the hotel. She said she'd meet us there.

We waited for quite some time, talked to another family that was on the Superstar Gemini who also had problems with Flight Centre, and went to the supermarket for water before returning to the hotel. Miky showed up half an hour late as she had gotten lost - headed the wrong way on Orchard Road. Went back to the supermarket at 10pm, on a Sunday, and found it was still open. I like this place but it is so crowded. Can't imagine what it is like during the sales Singapore is famous for.

Frugal Bastard's Cruise 2008 - Day8 - October 11th 2008

Ship-bound.

Slept in this morning as there was no port of call for tours. Had a workout on the bike when Yu-Jin went to child care. After meeting Mr Ng and Mr Tan as they disembarked, and we had decided to have a lead pencil drawing done, had lunch followed by a disembarkation information session with a funny English slideshow, which came before a chocolate banquet. Gee, they know how to make you fat on board the cruise ships. Not long after that was the mini Olympics where Yu-Jin took part in quoits and volleyball. I was a participant in quoits with Brad and scored zero after he opened with scoring zero leaving me a score of 30 to beat. We were called for sit-down volleyball which our team won and so I picked up a gold medal.

Dude on ship's CCTV.

Gold medallist sit down volleyball.


Yu-Jin had a swim whilst I had a sauna. After tea we stayed out on deck and Yu-Jin ate six slices of lemon meringue pie! We spoke with Rod and Maz from the Gold Coast whom we’d met in Penang. Took a short walk on deck where we played shuffleboard. You can’t go on a cruise and not play shuffleboard. Back to our room afterwards. I had to collect our passports and pay our bill and then wait for the artists to finish our picture. This didn’t happen until about 11:45pm. Not bad for something they started at lunchtime. I must say the boys worked really hard to get it finished in time. All of our luggage had to be ready for collection at 6:30am so there was much packing to be done.

Ladies night out.

Artist Suriyan Namwong sketching our family.

The two artists who worked on our portrait.

Frugal Bastard's Cruise 2008 - Day 7 - October 10th 2008

We had breakfast in the Ocean Palace Restaurant this morning. It felt a little strange to wear a collared shirt at breakfast. The staff treat you so well that you're not even allowed to carry your own drinks. Yu-Jin had a Danish pastry which must have had nuts in it. We wandered about on shore around the Porto Malai Resort before returning to prepare for our tour to the Langkawi cable car.

Fatso on deck chair at Porto Malai Resort.

Picturesque Porto Malai Resort.

Langkawi Eagle.


Rosalina Ismail was our teacher, er guide, on the bus trip to the Langkawi Cable Car. She was very funny with her, "Aaaah!", and, "Eh?" comments all the time. Taking a tour bus on Langkawi you don't expect the guide to ask you if the anaconda is a reptile or a mammal and then explain to you why your answer is incorrect. She even had maps to teach us from. She was good value though.

The Langkawi Cable Car took us up to 710m above sea level where the view was fantastic. We even saw the clouds rising above us and subsequently dropping a few spots of rain. It was a real pity that the bridge through some of the mountains was undergoing repair as I'd have loved to have walked it. We shared a gondola on the way up with a South African couple.


Langkawi Cable Car.

Mountains on Langkawi.
Walkway on Langkawi at lookout.

View atop Langkawi.

More silly finger gestures.

Liz (who won everything aboard the ship).

Going down on the Langkawi Cable Car.


There was a bit of shopping at the base station where I was told off for spending too much money. Down the bottom we went to collect our water that wasn't allowed in the gondola and were disappointed to discover that somebody had taken our water. Only later when we caught up with Rosalina did we find out that she had taken it back to the bus.

Next stop was Underwater World in the town but we weren't interested in it as we have one back home. Shopping was on the menu and Miky had her sights on the duty free shops. She bought clothes, shoes and cosmetics. We had lunch at a Korean restaurant we stumbled upon after waiting to be served in a grotty Chinese restaurant which we left after being appalled at the way they cleaned the table with a cloth soaked from a bucket of dirty water. We certainly weren't having any of that.

Toilet sign on Langkawi.

Shop doesn't open for long.


Miky met our Malaysian friends, Mr Ng and Mr Tan, in the duty free shop. They had a rental car so we didn't need to worry about paying for a taxi to return to the ship and could shop for a bit longer. After arriving at the ship I wanted to take a few more photos. The crew called Miky to make sure that I was ok as I hadn't boarded with them. Mr Ng lost his duty free cigarettes on the wharf after unloading them from the rental car.

Long way from home.

Fishing village and resort in background.

Superstar Gemini in port.


We all met for dinner at the Mariners' Buffet and it was Asian night where all the crew dressed up in asian dress. Great seafood, cha cha beef and Malaysian Kueh (cake). The mango sticky rice (sago) was great.

Just had time after talking to get to the Galaxy of the Stars for the Broadway musicals. Spoke with Matt James, who was part of a party of 11, about the trip so far. The musical was great and included Cats, Hair, Chicago, Cabaret among others. Later I collected Yu-Jin from child care for the 9pm pool and pizza party on deck. It rained which dampened the spirits somewhat.