After leaving Thailand, we had our last day at sea before arriving in Singapore early on the morning of March 29th. We had never been to the bridge of a ship before so we were happy to have the opportunity of watching the officers do their job in driving the ship.
There were plaques all over the walls of the observation room commemorating the many ports where the Jewel has docked.
The evening entertainment featured a male quartet, The Other Guys, that was absolutely FANTASTIC!
Below we pose with our favorite waiter from Indonesia!
This exercise instructor kept us hopping and laughing. He was from Brazil.
This young lady from Croatia taught an exercise class where all the exercises were done while sitting in a chair. It doesn't sound like much, but she really got us working up a sweat.
After the final show, Norwegian does a thank you and final farewell presentation which includes the officers and many of the staff members.
We were able to disembark from the ship right away with our own luggage. Then we caught a taxi to the ferry terminal. Taylor had arranged for our business class tickets to take the early ferry to Bintan, Indonesia a little over an hour away. Because we were traveling to a different country we had to go through all of the government security checks etc. We appreciated Taylor setting things up for us as it was all new to us. Here I wait with my paperwork to board the ferry.
The ferry was totally packed due to the big Gran Fondo bicycle races in Bintan. We had very nice seats. As we waited, Taylor messaged us that his friend, Gus, might be on the same ferry.
A few minutes later, Gus popped by to visit with us. We chatted the entire trip while his wife and son napped in their seats. They had just returned from a trip to Canada and were jet lagged. They are all riding in the big race. The things people do for fun! It was over 95 degrees with the same humidity. Just attending the event had us feeling sorry for ourselves.
When we arrived in Bintan, Taylor had given us directions how to catch the bus to the resort where all of us would be staying. We made it with a little time to spare before Taylor's race.
He and some of his racing buddies were staying in a villa on the property which was actually cheaper per person than our hotel room. They had this little golf cart to ride around in.
When it was time to head out to the race, Taylor and his teammates rode their bikes. We rode in an air conditioned shuttle bus.
We met this pretty young lady on the bus. She and her husband moved to Singapore five months before and she told us that he was the best and he would win the race. He did win the age group just younger than Taylor's, but he didn't beat Taylor. They were both surprised since we didn't brag about Taylor at all.
Taylor won his age group and the right to wear the yellow jersey! It was so fun to be there and watch him perform and come out the winner. His overall time was second for the day which we thought was excellent. He didn't like being 2 seconds behind a seasoned competitor.
Another one of his teammates won the yellow jersey for his age group.
We loved having our photo taken with Taylor on the winner's podium! So fun!
This is the view of the resort from our balcony. Behind the building is the beach.
This is the courtyard of our section of the hotel.
Hotel lobby
Father and son relaxing after a hot day in the sun.
This is the view of the pool area from the restaurant.
The beach we walked on the next morning.
Taylor heads out in his yellow jersey for another day of racing. The first day was the time trial which he won and qualified for the World Championships later this year in Poland. The next several days are the stage races.
We had a goodbye hug from Taylor and he rode off to the beginning of his race several miles away.
We boarded our shuttle bus shortly thereafter to ride the ferry back to Singapore so we could spend the day with Jen and the kids who are meeting us there.
They served these little bananas which were the size of my thumb.
While driving to the ferry terminal, it started to rain. It was absolutely pouring buckets. We were concerned about Taylor's safety while riding in the rain. It definitely made the whole experience more hazardous and continued on and off throughout his race.
Since the races were continuing for several more days, the ferry had very few riders.
When we arrived at the Airbnb, we were happy to see Jen and the kids. They had arrived about 9:30 the night before. Jen is amazing how she manages to get three young kids, luggage and all to the places she needs to be all while traveling in a foreign country. I believe it was her first time to be in Singapore too. Hooray for Jen!
After we dropped off our luggage, we all loaded up in a car arranged by Taylor and drove across town to visit a friend of Jen's who used to live in Shanghai. We spent several hours with her, walked down the street for lunch at a "hawker" and then the kids swam in their pool. It was interesting to listen to her comparisons between Singapore and Shanghai. She actually prefers Shanghai.
I got wet when I jumped into the pool to retrieve Preston who wanted to join in the fun.
It reminded of us the time Tom Uriona jumped into Aunt Raylene's pool with his clothes on to retrieve Taylor when he was about the same age. Like father, like son.
Sunday morning we attended Church in a chapel about 4 stories tall. We met a senior missionary couple at the front door and we were happy to see them. They escorted us up to the 4th floor for the English speaking ward. The Chinese speaking ward met on the 1st floor.
Behind the chapel is the mission office and I believe some missionary apartments.
After a delightful visit at sacrament meeting, we met up with Jen on the Island of Sentosa to a venue called Kidzania. Inside, they have miniature career stations where the kids can experience the work done by various professions. The popular options had lines and each experience lasted from 20-40 minutes. It was an interesting concept but was very frustrating when you pay a lot for entrance and then can't even do a lot of the stuff. Between Jen, Steve and I, we ran around finding the shortest lines, etc. so that they were able to at least do some options. We weren't allowed to wait in any lines for the kids.
It was fun to be with the kids and we were glad we could help with Preston. Let's just say things are expensive in Singapore and some things are over-rated!
After we left Kidzania, we walked a bit to get to one of the famous beaches on Sentosa. It was beautiful. We just wanted to say we had been to the beach in Singapore. The kids got a slushy treat and then we contacted our "Grab" drivers and headed back to our apartment. Most cars weren't big enough for all of us, so ended up using two but it was still less expensive than regular cabs. Everyone uses Grab in Singapore. It's kind of like Uber but don't call ahead. Just text when you need one and they arrive in a couple of minutes. It works very well.
Taylor finally arrived that evening after facing in hot and then rainy weather. He finished a very respectable 4th overall amongst about 2,000 riders. Taylor's family leaves for Australia early in the morning so we weren't able to do as much celebrating as I had hoped.
We did find a cheesecake so we could celebrate his 35th birthday which was the next day.
Happy Birthday, Taylor!
After we got Taylor's family out of the door and off to the airport, we checked out of the apartment and took a Grab to the airport hotel. Since our flight leaves very early the next morning, we used points and stayed in the hotel connected to the airport. It was less stressful. We left our bags and walked through our plans for the next morning, locating our check-in area, etc.
Then we took the MRT, the local train, to explore Singapore for the day. I had to find a cheap tourist market and I did.
Then we went to the spectacular Gardens by the Bay. We could have spent a lot of time there, but thunderstorms rolled in and they closed the bridge, etc. We got a nice overview of the area and the beautiful gardens.
Gardens By the Bay is famous for these spectacular manmade towering "Supertrees" with large canopies and colorful lights at night.
This is the Singapore skyline from the Gardens.
This is the bridge that they closed off due to thunderstorms. The spectacular hotel is in the background.
We were able to enter the hotel from the gardens and look down into the lobby. Gorgeous!
This is the walkway from the gardens to the hotel. The manmade trees which are lighted at night are in the background.
There are many sculptures in the Gardens By the Bay. One of the most famous is this "Planet" which is a seven ton floating white bronze baby.
Before we were totally soaked from the rain, we returned to the hotel/airport/mall via the MRT. There is a big mall with more activities and interesting foods in the basement of the airport. After exploring a lot of food interesting food options, we finally found an affordable Chinese restaurant on the top floor of the airport with very tasty food.
We had a beautiful hotel room. This was the view from our window.
We went to bed early to prepare for a long travel day early in the morning. We were so ready to go HOME.
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