Singapore: a fleeting visit

John and Marg with Stanley the bear in Singapore

The city state of Singapore has a reputation amongst us Aussies of a clean, efficiently managed but rigidly ruled city, and thus we knew what to expect.  John had never visited and Margaret was last here in 1971 on her way back from her first visit to the UK and Europe.  Although it was then, and still is a shopping mecca, much else has changed particularly with high rise development and public transport.

Due to his busy medical schedule in the previous three months, John had not been able to do his usual detailed research, so we were relying on what friends had told us and the shipboard destination talk.  We realised there was so much to see and resigned ourselves to having no more than a slight taste, given our short time in port.

A neighbouring much larger ship berthed at Marina Bay Pier

The Sea Princess schedule gave us eight hours, but we knew the port authorities would take their time allowing us on-shore.  Singapore is very well-known for that.  The queue to exit the ship snaked almost twice around the large atrium on Level 7, but it moved fast.  Moving through customs was a different matter for most passengers – some waited 75 minutes – but we were lucky to be ushered through a “mobility impaired” shorter queue along with ship’s crew lucky enough to get a shore pass.

Indian gardeners along the walkway to train - no English

We walked to the previously mentioned SMRT where we queued for help to obtain rail tickets, a return from Marina Bay Pier to Orchard Road was a mere $3.30 Singapore dollar, with the latter being roughly equivalent to AUD.  Great value.  The station platforms are fenced off, something I’ve only seen previously at Atlanta Airport.  The trains stop with doors opening only at the barrier openings – thus preventing accidents or those tempting fate.  I’m sure this is the way of the future.

We caught a redline train to Orchard Road where I bought a swimming costume, having forgotten to pack mine.  I used it in the hot tub yesterday – beautiful.  The underground shopping areas were very busy, as were the streets above.  

Margaret at Orchard Road station

Johnny the dog at Orchard Road

An outsized avocardo at Orchard Road

Marina Bay Sands

The obligatory icecream at Orchard Road - a very humid day

We didn’t stay long, just an hour or so, before catching the SMRT to Bayfront, changing to the Circle Line at Marina Bay.

John said we walked about 14 km that day – fortunately with breaks for me to rest.  It was certainly hot and humid, 31C and about 90% humidity.  A bit different from Sydney this month.  We were back on board before 4:00pm after a satisfying day.

Definitely a place to visit for a week or more.

Some more photos of Gardens at the Bay below.

Singapore: Wheelchair accessibility

John Moxon aboard the SMRT

We’ve decided to plan a holiday in Singapore – fly and stay – since it is impressively accessible.  The trains are wonderful and the stations are plentiful.  The downside of course is the weather.  Being right on the equator, it is hot and oppressively humid.  Despite that, we walked approximately 14 km, according to John’s wheelchair distance monitor.

Driverless train

The SMRT – the driverless underground train system – is wonderfully accessible, as you can see in these photos.  We didn’t try out the buses.  Many of the stations have huge underground shopping arcades and there are adequate lifts to reach these and street level.

We occasionally had to take a longer route to find the barrier-free access, including at street crossings.  At Orchard Road, pedestrians are encouraged to use the underpass – only accessible by escalator or stairs – so we had to walk an extra block to find a street crossing.

Easy access and egress - no ramp required

The Gardens by the Bay – a must see attraction – are also fully wheelchair accessible.  We wandered vast distances in this park and there is much to see.  There are boardwalks and lifts to all features where needed.

Photos of these coming.

We are yet to check out – on another holiday – the access to the many museums, old and new but are confident the Singaporeans have done their best.

Maybe some of our wheelie friend readers can comment?

Komodo Island: Meeting the dragons

Komodo dragon

After six days at sea – since leaving Brisbane – we arrived at Komodo Island which is just 200 miles east of Bali.  It is a volcanic island, one of 17,508 islands which make up the Republic of Indonesia.  It is re-known for the Komodo dragon, the largest lizard on earth.  There are about 2000 people living on Komodo, most of them descendants of nomadic Bajau and Bugis fisherman and/or of felons who were placed on the island by the Sultanate of Bima.  The convicts were left to fend for themselves and many did not survive.

Margaret on tender

Sea Princess anchored around 6:00 am this morning and will be leaving at 4:00 pm.  Those of us who were able – no wheelchair users - or those who were not scared off by the Destination Talk the other day went ashore by tender on either a Princess tour or a private tour.  Going ashore independently is forbidden – humans can be food for these large lizards too and people have been killed or badly injured.  The lizards can run short distances at 15-20 miles per hour and have no predators.  Certainly not humans.  They can swim and climb as well. And they are venomous

Entrance to Komodo National Park

The island is very dry – it has good rain only in January.  Most seedlings we saw on the dusty tracks were shrivelled and brown.  The houses are raised off the ground, not surprisingly.  The Komodo National Park – a UNESCO World Heritage site - was established in 1980 to ensure the Komodo dragons were protected.  The long-time inhabitants (about 300 people in 1930) did not kill these dangerous animals because they believed the Dragons were the reincarnation of their ancestors.

We met our group’s English-speaking ranger and guides after a long walk along a concrete pier. Each guide – front and back of the group had a long two-pronged stick to fend off the dragons.  Any woman having their periods had to notify the guide.  That didn’t affect our group!  All the women were well into retirement!  That’s the nature of our 106-day cruise.  It’s a rare cruiser who isn’t retired.

A baby Komodo dragon

We saw our first Komodo dragon on the beach and using John’s Canon, I was able to film it walking through a sunny patch.  They are hard to see in the shade.  This lizard was about two metres long – a mid-sized dragon.  As directed, we stayed well away, behind the guide.

The dragons eat their young, so the babies instinctively know to climb trees when they hatch, or burrow into the soft insides of fallen palm tree trunks.  Sometimes eagles swoop and take away the baby dragons from the trees.  One must feel sorry for the young Komodo Dragons!  I suppose it’s the only way to keep the population down, since the adults have no predators.   Each adult needs to eat 40 kg at a time, about once a month.

At the top of the hill with our guide

After being given a bottle of water or soft drink – the temperature was about 30C and it was about 10:30 am – our group of about 20 walked for about 2.5 kms along a gravelly, dusty track through shade and sun, not seeing much wildlife.  It was too hot and late in the morning.  We were rather disappointed. We saw a wild boar and some deer and a few birds.

No, I wasn't really that close

Look at those claws!

Back to the Sea Princess 14 June 2018

But all was not lost.  We came upon three large dragons at a shady water-hole and were able to take some good photos.  Here are some of mine.

We found out later that one group was chased – the guide said: “No photos – Run!”

They sure did.

Winding down: a few days at sea

It’s now Day 8 of our Sea Princess cruise and at last we are starting to relax and unwind from our busy-ness of the first half of 2018… I was definitely looking forward to six days straight at sea after Brisbane.  And we’ve left winter behind. All the woollens have been packed away, probably until we reach Iceland. The past two days have been 30C with totally clear skies and brilliant sunshine.  Many people sunbaking, seemingly without worrying about skin cancer. Not us, however.  We were just as pleased to sit in the shade and watch, listen to rock music and chat to many friendly couples – Kiwis, Aussies, Scots, English, Dutch and Italian – residents of New Zealand and Australia all.

Yesterday, we rounded the tip of Cape York and turned west, passing about 100 miles north of Darwin, on our way to Kokodo Island (Indonesia).

Our only port so far has been Brisbane where we met daughter Karen and grand-daughter Amaris (on study vac from Queensland University) for a three-hour lunch at an Italian restaurant just near the port. Amaris is son Ray’s daughter. Ray, Tiffany, Ken and Lysandra (Karen’s daughter) were working, and the others are all down south.

It’s been great having friends on board – Hazel and Deb from Computer Pals, Val from our village (our next-door neighbour in fact) and Computer Pals, Laine (Loraine Melier) from school all those years ago, Sue & Barry, Margaret & Robert, Diane & Paul, and Lynda & Rob (Kiwis) from our 2016 cruise. And we keep bumping into others who were on the 2016 Sea Princess World Cruise.

About accessibility: as we expected, the furniture had to be slightly re-arranged so that John’s wheelchair could be positioned beside the bed.  Although not perfect, the bathroom is usable for John, as is the room itself.  Storage space is adequate for our gear – even for John’s significant medical and equipment supplies.  The disability rooms, of which there are never enough, are larger than other suites.

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary so we invited our friends Hazel, Deb and Val from Computer Pals to join us for “Anytime dining” in the Traviata Restaurant.  anniversary, and awoke to balloons and a big sign on our cabin door yesterday morning.  And during the meal we were presented with a small cake which we duly shared five ways.  It was delicious, and very naughty considering Hazel, Deb and I are all on diets!

Generally, John and I “dine” in the Bistro most evenings but it was nice to enjoy a restaurant meal for a change.  Unlike 2016, we informed the ship about our

Here we go again: boarding the Sea Princess in 42 hours

Rather than starting a new blog for our 2018 travels, I think it's just as easy to extend our two-year-old blog.  You can check our itinerary on the 2018 tab, above.

That blog came to an abrupt end in Amsterdam because that's where John broke his leg, and thereafter, we were too busy.  His leg did not hinder him from exploring the subsequent ports but it did cause him to lose his independence morning and night.  Once he was up and dressed, he could function normally since the broken leg caused him no difficulty getting about in his powered wheelchair.  But it was stressful not knowing for a week whether we'd be forced by the doctor to disembark.  Luckily, we were allowed to complete our cruise.

In 2016, we also cruised on the Sea Princess, but we only did 75% of the world tour, disembarking at New York.  This time, we are staying on the ship from Sydney to Sydney.  No packing up and moving luggage.  Hurrah!