Destination –
Singapore & cruising around Indonesia – Legen-(wait for it)-dary!!!
We fly Jetstar
from Manila to Singapore, from Changi Airport we make it all the way to the
hotel, the Eco Inn, in Chinatown, by metro. Singapore continues be to the most tourist-friendly
place ever. The hotel is pretty doable
for one night and the location is perfect.
We find ourselves in the heart of Chinatown, right in the middle of the Chinese
New Year celebrations. Another amazing festival
and here we are again, without even having planned it, awesome. The place is buzzing, so vibrant and pumping,
great food everywhere and lots of people shopping and getting ready to
celebrate the New Year, Chinese style. Some
people think Singapore is boring, I’m definitely not one of them. I’m all for clean, organized, humane and yet fun.
Hey, I’m not talking politics here, just
admiring a place in Southeast Asia, concerned with the wellbeing of its
citizens. Anyway, we check out the shops, eat some really amazing street food
and just walk around, soaking up the vibe, “Gong Xi Fa Cai”!
Next morning,
after walking around Chinatown a bit more and buying some cute Chinese New Year
souvenirs, it’s time to get going. We
walk from the hotel to the metro station and again it takes us all the way to
the port, amazing how everything is mapped out just for your convenience. Respect Singapore!! So it’s time to board our cruise ship,
“Legend of the Seas” for an 8 day cruise around Indonesia. This is our second cruise and if you haven’t
been on a cruise before, it’s pretty much like a floating 4-5 star hotel. They provide you with a lot of ballroom
dancing and buffet food. If you stay
away from both, it can be lots of fun. We’ve
been to Indonesia many times and we quite like the place. Instead of doing the
whole Singapore-Indonesia-Singapore (8 days) route, we arrange with the company,
Royal Caribbean, to do just 6 days and to get off at Lombok and spend some time
in Lombok (and Bali, yeah, we know, right?) We get a bit disappointed as the cruise is not
going to stop at Borobudur, some are saying the waters are a bit shallow in
that part, not sure. Safety suddenly
became a major issue as an enormous cruise ship, the Costa Concordia, just ran
aground in Italy right in the middle of our cruise trip. It’s become all very sensitive and a bit tense
on board as we all watch the rescue operations on TV.
Anyway,
the rest of the cruise however is fantastic, the usual indoor and outdoor pools
and spas, theatre, cinema, casino, a nice restaurant, library, spa, gym, cooking
and dance classes, lots of bars and above all, amazing food and a chilled crowd,
mostly Aussies and Singaporeans. The
crew is always a great bunch of fun young people recruited from all over the
world. It’s always worth it to get to know
some of them. Again, we feel pretty young as most of our fellow travellers are
giving their senior’s discount cards a workout. So, we just cruise along chilling and
thoroughly enjoying being “off the road” for a few days. It feels like sheer luxury. We eat really (and a bit too) well, make new
friends, use the modern gym facilities on board and constantly play “lazy lizard
reading in the sun”, one of our favourite games. 