The Adventure Begins

Michael and I left Boulder Saturday, March 14 (Pi Day).  We had traveled only as far as the airport before Michael received an alarm signal from our wireless home security system.  Our front door had supposedly been opened and the alarm system had gone off.  The alarm company called, Michael called some friends to come and check out the house.  He called our neighbor to look at the door (locked) and told the alarm people not to call the police.  All in all he spent over an hour on the phone; our friends came and checked the house during a three way call with Michael and the alarm company.  Everything was eventually resolved and the system reset  shortly before time to board our flight to Tokyo.

Twelve relatively uneventful hours went by while we were out of touch.  At Narita airport,Tokyo,  Michael exchanged e-mails with our friends who assured us that everything was under control and told us to relax and have a wonderful trip.  Fortunately, we had no further alarms.

The view we had of Manila, Philippines, from twenty eight thousand feet was the most interesting sight on our flight from Tokyo to Singapore  Clouds obscured the scenery below during most of the trip.  The clouds cleared for about ten minutes, enough time for a fabulous view of millions of city lights spread out around Manila Bay.

More than thirty hours after we left home in Colorado, Michael  and I checked in to the Fairmont Hotel in the heart of downtown Singapore at two am Singapore time.  Even after all those hours trying unsuccessfully to sleep on an airplane, we woke, wide awake after only five hours sleep in a comfortable hotel bed.

Singapore Skyline from our Hotel Balcony

Singapore is a wonderful place to recover from jet-lag.  We visited a number of attractions and walked around various neighborhoods without trying to do too much.  As is typical for us, we took in more sights than we had planned even though we  went back to the hotel to rest from time to time. 

Domed Temperate Greenhouse
Gardens by the Sea

The Gardens by the Sea, the Jurong Bird Park and the Orchids at the Botanic Gardens were wonderful to visit and I took lots of great pictures.  The food, however, was the most memorable part of the experience. 

Michael and I ate twice at a food street in  Chinatown where we bought food from several hawker stands. The pan fried oysters were fantastic. We also had a memorable Japanese meal at a large food court in a vast shopping center under our hotel complex.  The Fairmont Hotel had  spectacular breakfast buffets that changed daily.  We had three days of extraordinary food for very low prices.

Singapore at Night

Shop on Arab Street

The Geylang District

Downtown Singapore from Marina Bay

Singapore is hot and humid year round.  Many underground shopping malls are interconnected with subways and other malls over long distances. Not many people walk far on the surface. Michael and I arrived during the “cool” season.  The temperatures rarely exceeded ninety degrees. The cool season is also the rainy season so the humidity was nearly 100 percent all the time and there were frequent afternoon showers.

Michael and I spent four nights in Singapore which, since we arrived at 2 am the first night, meant that we had three days and part of a fourth morning.  The most notable thing about Singapore in 2015 is that everyone walks around with their smart phones in front of their faces. They frequently walk into one another because their attention is on their phone and not on their surroundings.  I fear this trend will spread to the US where it will be more dangerous since more people drive than walk. 

We made our way to the Silver Wind shortly after 11 AM Thursday and found that we were on the secret early boarding list.  The cruise terminal attendant found our names on the supposedly non-existent list and we were able to board immediately.  There appear to be a number of secret perks for people with large nmbers of days on the cruise line.

It has been several years since we were last on Wind yet it still felt as if we were coming home to a familiar place.  Silver Wind is now a twenty-year-old ship and is starting to show her age.  The ship is still comfortable, the service is superb but the technology is somewhat dated and the interior is due for a remodel.  I have to say that Michael and I were treated like visiting royalty and we had a wonderful time settling into our home for the next thirty-two days.