Singapore
08/02/2006 - To 08/07/2006
Another double digit flight duration - 12 hours - and another safe arrival landed us in Singapore. Consumption of media, moderate quantities of alcohol and sleep are the best way to survive these flights. On the way to Singapore, we overdosed on the media consumption. For example, Robin watched two episodes of Extras, two episodes of The Office, Simpsons, Oyster Farmer, Take the Lead, Apprentice and two episodes of Festival. Duncan watched two episodes of Exras, Peep Show, two episodes of The Office, Oyster Farmer, Basic Instinct 2 (that darn Sharon Stone draws in the male audience) and V for Vendetta. Thank goodness for personal media devices on planes.
Singapore is the first Asian (Southeast Asian, specifically) country for us to visit. We now refer to Singapore as beginners Asia. Everyone speaks English, everything is tidy and nothing but the subway is crowded.
The courtyard of the grand old hotel in Singapore -- Raffles. We stayed at the more affordable Raffles Plaza as the original Raffles is a bit out of our price range.
Lots of beautiful, classic English architecture.
We must have a Singapore Sling at the Long Bar at Raffles. Duncan tries local beer instead.
We heard the "electronics shopping" was great in Singapore, so we spent hours trolling the Digital Malls there. Five floors of electronics and computer shops in one mall. Our grand purchase? A tiny Shinco (Chinese) region 0 DVD player and some new "G" wireless cards. Not sure the savings were worth the hours spent shopping, but it was a pleasant diversion.
We stayed at the Raffles Plaza Hotel and enjoyed the comfy bed.
The DHL balloon-ride in the center of Singapore was their version of a sky-tower. Up and down it went all day long packed with tourists.
Another highlight of Singapore is the authentic food in its Chinatown.
The night photography in Singapore was fun, and some of them actually came out okay.
Another night shot.
Duncan ordered and then watched the noodles made-to-order.
Another nice night shot.
It cooled down slightly in the evenings (Singapore is right near the equator), so we got out for walks, dinner, and a few photos almost every night there.
There is actually some attention to detail with exterior lighting.
The popular British Pub along the river.
And another night shot.
And another.
The rooftop pool at the Raffles Plaza.
Look carefully for the ghosts swimming in the pool.
By coincidence, we were there for Singapore's 40th anniversary -- from the time it changed from British rule to its own nation-state.
Several great meals, none of which included pizza thanks to Italian food for three weeks prior, and drinks atop the 72nd floor of the Swissotel Stamford hotel augmented the overall Singapore experience. Electronics galore, fantastic food, clean, beautiful port city, friendly people, fireworks - what a great place!
Well, it was finally time to get home to Auckland and to Whisper. After 63 days, over 60 hours on 10 airplanes, 18 hours on 9 trains, and sleeping in 27 different beds, we arrived back in Auckland. Thanks to all the family and friends that put us up for a night (or several). We really enjoyed seeing everyone.
Apologies for taking 17 months to get this log out here. We needed to save all our pennies for another year, quit work, prepare Whisper, go cruising, and sit in an anchorage on a few rainy days before we had the time to get cracking on it.
And the final goofy self-portrait -- still smiling after 63 days, over 60 hours on 10 airplanes, 18 hours on 9 trains, and sleeping in 27 different beds. That's a wrap on this round the world trip. Perhaps the next circumnavigation completion will be aboard Whisper.
As a quick aside, we took 2090 digital photos on this trip consuming almost 9GB of disk space. With only a 2GB card in one camera and a 1GB card in the other, a method for storing photos without schlepping along a laptop was needed. The solution was a 60GB Video iPod and the USB photo adapter. It not only provided 30GB of music, but a spare 30GB of disk for downloading photos. This was the first-generation solution of both the camera and the iPod (USB 1.1 speeds), so although it is not very fast, it still worked fairly well.