Singapore to Dubai Travel Notes
APR. 24, 2024 – SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE (Day 136)
The first thing of note on this port is that our day here was way too short. We had some delays in getting off the ship by customs and technicalities. Couple that with a 2:30 p.m. All-Aboard time and we knew it would be too short and tough to see all that we wanted.
We walked about 8 minutes to a nearby subway station to catch a ride to The Gardens on the Bay. One thing of note is that every area we walked through was spotless and there was no graffiti of any kind. You see that and realize what you are really missing in our society back home. It was nice to have underground air-conditioned walkways with shops as we transferred trains.
When we got to the gardens we entered the almost 10 story tall dome called The Cloud Forest. It is an enclosed habitat that revealed a rain forest. A huge water fall greeted us on entry and the cool air was sooooo refreshing. The plants and trees were arrayed on the huge “mountain” in the middle and the path wound around the base. All the plants were healthy and vibrant with multiple species and types. We took an elevator to the top and continued touring in the sky as the mist machines created a cloud like atmosphere. It was really well done and you wonder why we can’t have more things like this in our country.
We then went into a neighboring structure nearby called the Flower Dome. The displays were very nice with many types of flowers and plants for you to stroll through. It was great for pictures, but our favorite was the Cloud Forest.
The next item on our itinerary was to visit the Observation Deck of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. This hotel consists of 3 towers connected at the top with a large platform that even has restaurants and a swimming pool. We enjoyed the view at the top but didn’t stay too long because there were not many places to get out of the sun. The restaurant was closed till 4:00 p.m. and the little bar area sold overpriced drinks with no place to sit in the shade.
We came down inside the lobby of the hotel and found a lounge to get drinks and some appetizers. It wasn’t too bad, but still cost around $30 per person. Singapore is one of the more expensive places we have visited in Asia.
We were running out of time, so we headed back to the ship and we all went swimming to cool off. New people were coming on to the ship and it is always fun to watch them get their bearings and figure out how the ship works. Many times, and today was no exception the newcomers will comment on how this cruise just feels different than any other (and this on the first day). They find it odd that the crew and cruisers know each other so well. They think everyone is so laid back!
HALF-WAY POINT
APR. 25, 2024 – PORT KLANG (KUALA LUMPUR) (Day 137)
We docked at Port Klang, which is about 1.5 hours from Kuala Lumpur. I decided to stay on board today, so Gwen went with Doug and Margaret on a Taxi/Tour to the Batu Caves and to see the city.
Gwen:
We went to Batu Caves, an interesting temple inside a cave. To get up to the cave, there were 272 stairs (16 sets of 17 steps), which were very steep. The steps were painted with many different colors. Climbing them made you realize how steep they really were. There were monkeys all around, being the thieves they are known to be. We left the caves and went to some other areas that were really just photo ops.
We went back into town to see the Royal Palace of the Supreme King of Malaysia being our first. We got to see the the changing of the guards, all on horses, at the gates. There are actually 5 kings (royalty with no real power) in the 5 principalities of Malaysia and the kings alternate the residency at this palace every 5 years.
We toured Independence Square, took more photos, then headed to the Central Market for our lunch. We were able to try some of the foods that were recommended by some Malaysians that we met in Tokyo while waiting in a line for a restaurant. We ordered Nasi Lemak, Sate Ayam, and dumplings. We made it back to port just before a huge rainstorm hit.
We had dinner in the dining room and due to a long line, got paired up with two new couples so they could utilize a table for eight. Derek and Gerri from California and Hans and Gertraud from Germany. It was a very interesting evening of conversation after dinner we went to the Halfway There party celebrating our 147th of 274 days. There was a balloon drop with dancing, and everyone wore something to represent their favorite port. Gwen and I wore our Penguin hats, as we really enjoyed Antarctica. It’s hard to believe how long we have been on the ship. Celebrating our accomplishment with our cruise friends was a lot of fun.
APR. 26, 2024 – PENANG, MALAYSIA (Day 138)
Another very hot and humid day! We explored Penang on foot for about 4 hours. Doug and Margaret did not come with us. First, Gwen wanted to walk to the Jetty Villages, which are old homes on stilts over the water. It was a challenge to walk there as they were just off a busy road that really didn’t have a walkway and when there was one it was usually blocked. After walking down a couple of the wharf’s, we crossed the busy road to head towards town and walk down streets that had artwork painted by artists throughout the town. We stopped to browse through some shops and stopped to take pictures of the artwork. We found a tea house that had some interesting soft drinks and snacks. I really wasn’t a fan of the Hibiscus/Pomegranate soda but enjoyed the snacks. While eating, we realized there was a camera museum just around the corner. It seemed interesting so we got to see the cameras that instrumental in Japan becoming a leader in the SLR camera industry. We learned a lot about the history of Japanese photography and innovation.
We we left the museum we decided to take a trishaw back to the ship. We should have paid more attention to the driver that approached us. After negotiating a rate, we realized that our ride really wasn’t made for two people. It made it pretty comical as our driver kept stopping at various spots to take pictures of us.
We rested in the afternoon and looked at our photos. It was another nice dinner with the same couples we met last night and additionally we had another couple from Maryland named Orlando and Joanna join us. We hung out in the Schooner Bar in the evening listening to Wolchik’s guitar playing until after midnight. He is so talented and just a fun person!
APR. 27, 2024 – DAY AT SEA (Day 139)
Typical busy sea day. We had to deal with India immigration in order to participate in the upcoming Taj Mahal tour. We had our Bible study and then attended a cruise meeting to get the details on the Taj Mahal trip. In the afternoon we had choir practice and then worked on website and photos. It was formal night in the dining room and we met up with Derek and Gerri again for dinner. We have enjoyed having different dining options with Anytime Dining as we flexibility for time and a chance to meet new people. We still wanted to visit some more after dinner so the 6 of us went back to the Schooner Bar for short while, then headed off to bed.
APR. 28, 2024 – DAY AT SEA (Day 140)
It was a chill sea day. Another choir practice, but they are getting more exciting now as we draw closer to our performance date. Gwen headed to the solarium to read and swim. I joined her for lunch, and we ate with Roger and Denise, the Brazilian couple that we’ve run into several times. We found out that they have been practicing their English for 1/2 hour every day since coming on the cruise. We’ve noticed the improvement in their English since the first time that we had a conversation with them. We found out a little more about them as a couple and that he was a radiologist.
We had dinner in the dining room with Doug and Margaret and afterwards Gwen and Margaret went to see a show which featured Angus and Matilda, acrobats and comedians. As is sometimes common for this world cruise, they shared the show with a singer named Dan Shigemoto, so they had some songs also.
APR. 29, 2024 – HANBANTOTA, SRI LANKA (Day 141)
We joined a safari tour that was headed up by Anish, a fellow cruiser. Anish is a travel agent and has organized a tour of some type for almost every port. There are some cruisers that tour with him and his wife Rashika, all the time. We have avoided participating because the tours tend to be fairly large groups. We had not set up for today, so we decided to join Anish and friends for a safari type tour at Yala National park. The group ended up needing 5 large vans to transport us an hour away to a nearby town to reach the safari Jeeps. It took time than it should, to get organized into our five buses and leave port. Then when we transferred into 15 Jeeps, it was even more confusing. Doug was getting frustrated and impatient with the transitions. I can’t say that I blamed him as it didn’t seem to be as organized as it should for the price paid. We finally got out to the Park to see the wildlife. This area of Sri Lanka has the highest concentration of leopards but none were to be seen today by any of the groups. We did see monkeys, water buffalo, cows, deer, hogs, and elephants. We were not the only tour to be in the park today as there were vehicles everywhere. There was one time when a line of vehicles got backed up because an elephant was in the road. The elephant approached the lead group and I thought he might try to tip them or something. It turned out that he got up close and reached in to steal a bag of some sort. I figure he smelled the food in the bag.
It was a very hot day. We were dehydrated and worn out as this tour lasted all day long. We spent most of the day sitting or bouncing around in a Jeep. When we got back we decided a quick dinner in the windjammer was best. Gwen went and watched the movie crazy rich Asians while I relaxed in the room. She really enjoyed the movie and we talked about it as I had seen it while on a flight some time ago.
APR. 30, 2024 – COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (Day 142)
We are starting to get used to having hot and humid days, and today was no exception. Colombo was a commercial port so we had to shuttle out of the port to the gate. We had to walk past all the taxi vendors and they were aggressive as has become the norm. We were determined to walk about 1/2 mile away from the port before trying to get a ride. The locals always try to take advantage of the tourists lack of knowledge of local pricing. When they want $20 for an hour tour, it doesn’t seem too bad till you realize that the going local rate is $5 an hour. It’s not about the price, it’s that I hate to have someone take advantage of me. We usually get away from port, then look at Uber, Didi, or some other ride share app and see what the pricing is for where we want to go, then negotiate.
While walking out we met a young man named Ritchie, a local who worked in the port. He was doing the same as us and ended up being very helpful to us. While he walked with us we were not approached by others. We found out a little about his story. His dad had passed away when he was 12 and he had the benefit of being supported by and American couple who he now thought of as a mother and father. They helped to support him through college, which was a life changer for him. He enjoyed helping us Americans and gave us advice on dealing with local travel. Once away from port, he helped get a couple of Tuk-tuks for us. We had wanted to start with a market but he told us that it wouldn’t really open until after noon. We decided to ride down into town central and look around.
Our Tuk-tuk driver spoke more English than the Doug and Margaret’s driver, so we had important sites pointed out to us along the way. The drivers took us to a gem shop parking lot, which we weren’t happy about. They must get a portion for bringing in buyers. We ended up parting ways with the drivers and looked around in a couple of shops. They continued to follow us till we adamantly told them to go.
We called an Uber and left that area to go to the red and white palace. It’s official name is Jami Ul-Alfar mosque. It was very interesting to observe the local people, shops, and markets. It was a very busy area of town with narrow streets and some very interesting smells as the fish markets lined the street. It all seemed so chaotic. Gwen was amazed by the guys that were pulling around metal carts loaded down with boxes out in the middle of the streets. She almost got us run over trying to get pictures of everything.
We had decided to go and eat lunch at a restaurant named Republik. We flagged down Tuk-tuk’s which charged us around $1.50 to go halfway across the city to get to the restaurant. The restaurant was a very quiet place and thankfully had air conditioning. There was only other person in the restaurant that we recognized was the piano player, Mickey, from the Serenade Cruise Band. He was doing taking advantage of the Wifi and air-conditioning while enjoying a beer in his time off.
After lunch we headed back to the ship and spent time at the pool and reading. A violent storm with thunder and lightning came up pretty quickly and cleared the pool deck! Gwen was in the Solarium, so she enjoyed the protected area to watch the storm pass through. We went to the show together and watched Katei, an Asian violinist from Australia. He played rock music for his show and he was very good. After the show we joined Derek and Gerri again for dinner.
MAY. 1, 2024 – COCHIN, INDIA (Day 143)
We won’t be exploring Cochin today as we will be on a travel day to the Taj Mahal. The only real glimpse we got of Cochin was coming into port. We got to see the large fishing nets that used by locals to gather food from the shore. The four of us were in the first bus of the first group to leave for Delhi. It took 1.5 hrs to drive through the city to get to the airport. Traffic was very heavy. We finally reached the airport but because of immigration delays along with the traffic, we ended up taking off two hours behind our scheduled departure for Delhi.
Raj, our guide would be with us for our entire trip all the way till returning to the Serenade of the Seas in Goa. The flight was uneventful and we had a beautiful sunset. After landing we were bussed over to the ITC Maurya Hotel where staff were waiting for us with marigold leis and juice upon arrival. Gwen chose mango and I got cranberry. Both were very good and refreshing. We also had scarves put around our necks as we entered our dining room. The food was Indian cuisine with a variety of different options, spicy and mild. We didn’t eat very much as it was really late, almost midnight and we had to be up around 4:30 a.m. to be at breakfast from 5 a.m. – 6 a.m.
MAY. 2, 2024 – DAY AT SEA (Day 144)
Of course, we got very little sleep as we were up and going at 4:30 a.m. and by 6 a.m. we were headed for the bus. We have a statement that we use a lot that came
from one of our servers in the first couple of weeks while on this cruise.
Marjoree, our assistant waiter, would tell us “no rush, but hurry” which we
always found funny. Since that time we have used it many times in different situations. It seems like this trip exemplifies that saying.
It took a while but we finally got to the train station. We were met with drums and people throwing flower petals on our path down a red carpet. It was very interesting as the people lined up to watch us all board our chartered train coaches. What was supposed to be a 2.5 hour ride to our Agra Fort tour prior to lunch before lunch got “sidetracked”, literally. Our train ride ended up stopping multiple times to allow other trains to pass. Our journey to Agra ended after 6 long hours. One of the vice presidents of shore excursions for Royal Caribbean cruise lines was on the train with us. He came around a couple of times to give us an update of what was happening. We don’t know if it was poor planning or lack of knowledge of train scheduling or if they didn’t pay to have priority. Whatever the reason, the train ride would be removed from the 2nd groups tour coming up. Even though it was a long delay, it turned out to be a very interesting trip for us. We saw the real India pass by our windows. We saw the living conditions for the people in both the city and the country. I think all of us were overwhelmed by the amount of trash. There was so much trash, not only around the tracks, but throughout the living areas overwhelming everything. Every time we would go through a train station you would see people sitting or lying on the ground all over the place. It seemed like they knew that you couldn’t be in a hurry to get anywhere. Some were very curious about us.
We did see some nice farmland along our journey and we also noticed there were a lot of chimneys periodically along the trip. The chimneys were for brick making and there would be bricks stacked up all around the chimney. It must be a booming business. We finally got to Mughal ITC hotel Around 2:30 PM and had a light lunch.
Seeing the Fort was out of the question, due to the delays, so they gave us a short break at the hotel and went straight to Taj Mahal. The building itself is very beautiful and made completely from marble. We’ve talked about this many times but it seemed surreal just to be there. Neither Gwen nor I ever imagined that we would ever have a chance to see this in person. We explored the grounds and took a lot of pictures. We had tickets to take a tour inside, so we put on the required foot coverings and went inside. and went inside as we had a couple of hours. After our tour we headed back to our hotel for dinner and bed as the next morning would be similar to the previous with a very early wake up call to travel back to the ship.
MAY. 3, 2024 – GOA, INDIA (Day 145)
We received a wake up call at 3:15 a.m. that we didn’t ask for or want. We were on the bus at 3:45 a.m. for our 1 hr. bus ride to the Delhi airport. Once on the plane, it was 2.5 hr. uneventful flight to Goa. When you travel on some of these excursions you get a chance to get to know some people a little better. You may end up sitting next to someone on the plane or bus and that leads to deeper discussions than you get on the ship. There is an even greater chance since RCCL just books random plane seats for everyone with no consideration for spouses. Gwen got a chance to visit with Shannon Lake on this trip. Shannon is with us in the choir and is in our Community Group. Here father, Nate Lake Jr. sometimes leads our group. She is also a Tik-Toker along with her sister, Brandy. Gwen also got to sit by a couple of people and visit during the trip back. She started visiting with a young doctor who is on the ship with his family till he traded seats to sit with his wife. Then she sat next to Angie who’s another Tik-Toker. Angie grew up in Portland, OR so they had a lot to talk about with our family connection to Portland. Because of traffic, we didn’t get back to the ship until around 3:00 p.m. I will have to mention that our guide Raj did a great job of relating information to us all along the trip. Not only did he keep us informed of what was going on, but he shared a lot about India’s history and culture. You could tell that he was proud of his country and we have to admit that even with all of the struggles and delays, we still enjoyed the trip tremendously.
MAY. 4, 2024 – MUMBAI, INDIA (Day 146)
Doug had booked a tour for the four of us with Prakash, a
soft spoken Indian man. I bailed on this tour as I was worn out from the trip
to Delhi. So these are Gwen’s observations.
Gwen:
First stop is the Elephanta caves. There is a temple to Shiva
from the 5th or 6th century B.C. We also saw the Gateway of India and Taj Hotel
where Pakistan attacked in 2011. We then ate a local lunch called Thali. It had a little bit of everything in Indian
cuisine. We stopped by Victoria Station, the Colaba Causeway Market. There was mango for sale all over the market as it is currently in season. We then went to marine drive and then a city overlook. We also got to see the rich man’s house which
stood out in its size, and then the world’s biggest laundry. It was such a
surprise with clothing hanging everywhere. After returning from tour we ate in
the windjammer and then went to watch a show with an ancient dance with bells
on ankles called pakiza.
MAY. 5, 2024 – MUMBAI, INDIA (Day 147)
All of us decided not to tour today and stayed on ship. We worked on photos and details of our upcoming trip off the ship. RCCL had everyone wear white in the evening for Cinco de Mayo. They had a celebration and dance party planned for later in the evening. Gwen went to see Julian’s show “South of the Bayou”. It was a high energy show that she really enjoyed. Gwen liked that he got to display not only his talent, but his wide vocal range as well. There were a lot of the choir members in attendance to support Julian as he would soon be singing one of the solos for our cruise choir.
MAY. 6, 2024 – DAY AT SEA (Day 148)
We started the morning with our Bible study group. Andrew led the discussion on Psalm 139 with a much smaller group today. Many were worn out from the Taj Mahal tour and slept in. RCL had two groups to go to Taj Mahal. We were in the first group that left from Cochin, India and returned to Goa. The other half left at Goa and returned yesterday, on the second day in Mumbai. They did cancel the train trip for the second group after our group’s experience. The second group was able to tour the Agra Fort, but they still had a similar timeline as our trip. They too, were up very early every morning.
We had to hurry to choir practice right after our Bible study. Our day was not finished as Gwen and I started packing. It is difficult to pack light for our flight limitations, yet still get clothes for both hot and cold climates. We couldn’t put it off any longer as we leave in 2 days at Abu Dhabi.
I think it’s time to give a complete explanation of our trip interruption.
Because of the lack of security in the Red Sea, RCCL made the decision to change the itinerary on the third section of the world cruise. The cruisers voted to have an intensive port experience as they went around the continent. We did not vote for that option as it took away the Giza pyramids. Petra was out no matter which itinerary was selected. They allowed us to cancel and get a 100% refund for whatever length
of time we wanted. There were some who canceled the rest of the cruise. There
were many, like us, who were canceling and coming back on at a future port. For us, it made more sense for us to come back to the ship in Venice, Italy.
We are going to miss 42 days (two complete legs of the new itinerary). We really wanted to see the Giza pyramids and Petra. So our trip has now morphed into a self led vacation from our vacation. We will now have time to spend 10 days in Egypt. We will spend 3 days in Cairo touring the Giza pyramids and museums, then fly to Luxor to see the Valley of the Kings and start a cruise up the Nile river to Aswan, Egypt. We will fly from Aswan back to Cairo for another day of touring, then fly to Amman Jordan. We have hired a private guide, Ismail, for a three days so we can travel the 3 hours to Petra and get a chance to see The Treasury and The Monastery.
Doug and Margaret are headed to Cyprus after Jordan, while Gwen and I will fly to Geneva, Switzerland. We will have about seven days for exploring Switzerland and some of France and Germany. We will then fly to Dublin Ireland for 12 days. We plan to circumvent the island, seeing Northern Ireland as well as Ireland. After Ireland we plan to fly to Italy, meeting up with Doug and Margaret in Sorrento, a spot we have talked about visiting together since our last trip to Italy in 2017. Wandering across Italy for a week will allow us to meet up with the Serenade of the Seas at Ravenna, Italy (Venice) on June 20th.
MAY. 7, 2024 – DAY AT SEA (Day 149)
We spent the morning working on our website. After lunch our choir finally had its performance of the African songs. I ended up singing the solo parts for Toto’s song, Africa. We then sang Circle of Life as a choir and then finished our performance with Baba Yetu. Baba Yetu (LISTEN) was a song from the video game Civilization 4. It is basically the Lord’s prayer sung in Swahili. We were fortunate to have Julian sing the solo part for this song as it was enough for our choir to learn Swahili for the other parts. He did a great job with it and the people really enjoyed the concert. It’s fun to sing in the Centrum. There were not only people crowded around us on the 4th floor, but many were standing along the rails going up multiple decks.
After the performance we met in the pub and celebrated with the all the performers. These are the fun things that you enjoy about having friends and community on the ship. We even got together and got Dominic an RCCL Asia Segment UWC T-shirt with autographs from all the choir members. Speaking of the pub, we were pleased to hear that Daniel Ondaro will be returning as the pub performer for the remainder of the cruise. He was definitely a crowd favorite and the administration on the ship knew it. This was great news to us as we spent many nights in the pub during the first 90 days of the cruise. After Daniel left we only went to the pub a couple of times as the mood and music were no longer to our liking. It just wasn’t the same atmosphere that we had enjoyed for so long. With us leaving the ship, Daniel will be performing, but we won’t see him again till Ravenna.
I was excited to get a haircut by Ale Kenny as I was enduring the effects of a horrible haircut that I had gotten from the ship spa. We finished off the day with lobster in the dining room and then we played some euchre afterwards. It was tough saying goodbye to some of the staff as their contracts would expire before we got back on.
MAY. 8, 2024 – ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (Day 150)
Today’s the big day! We’re getting off the ship for 42 days. Aimee Meyer picked us up and took us to see the Abrahamic House in Abu Dhabi. It’s an interesting place where the three main religions from the descendants of Abraham were represented. A church, a synagogue, and a mosque are all connected by hallways that serve all three buildings. The hallways feature different displays that highlight some similarities and also display different customs of each religion. A very interesting place for us to see. The Christian church faced the east to represent the sunrise, new beginnings, and resurrection. The Muslim mosque faced Mecca, and the Jewish synagogue faced Jerusalem. There were so many details built into every building to represent and have meaning for those of each religion. These details were reflected in both the decoration and the architecture of each building. The Abrahamic house was built in 2019, which was the Year of Tolerance for UAE. It was designed to foster peace, dialogue and tolerance among the religions. They even found common ground amongst the religions with water and light displays.
The little bit of Abu Dhabi that we saw was nice, but we had to leave and head to the smaller town where Aimee lives. When Aimee had asked what types of snacks we wanted, I had said I would love to have some chips. Upon arrival at her apartment, I found she had gone overboard and had several bags of multiple flavors and types of chips that she wanted us to try. I truthfully didn’t have enough space to pack them all, but we sure had fun trying some interesting flavors.
I got to meet up with one of Aimee’s friends who took me out to a restaurant to get a feel for the men’s social gathering places in town. I then came back to Aimee’s apartment to meet up with Aimee, Gwen and Abi (Aimee’s roommate). Gwen went out with the girls to meet one of their friends who had recently married. They were going to meet the women of her new family. What a treat for Gwen to get to communicate with these women through Aimee and Abi. After they came back, we all stayed up visiting till 1:00 AM. Abi sang for us with her beautiful voice. It was fun to talk music with her and get to catch up with Aimee!
MAY. 9, 2024 – DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (Day 151)
We got up to a very nice breakfast that the girl’s prepared with local foods. Abi decided to hangout with us for the first part of the day. Our first stop was an oasis, where we got to stroll through palm trees and see how water irrigation was used to increase vegetation. All the shade and the water help to bring the temperature down some but it was still very warm. You can understand how people here seek out shade whenever possible no matter how small. We toured around town to see some of the places where Aimee works and where she likes to hang out.
We were headed towards Dubai, so we stopped out in a remote spot in the desert. There were camels at a nearby farm and it was interesting to walk in the sand dunes. We made our way to Baladiya St. in the old town area of Dubai. We walked through the Souks, which is an Arab market or bazaar. There were so many shops trying to get you to buy their goods and Gwen did buy a couple of outfits for our upcoming trips to hot weather areas. The gold jewelry for sale here looks crazy to us, as it is a different weight and color that what we typically see in the States.
We used the water taxi’s (modeled after ancient boats called Abra’s) to get cross the canal to get to more shops and our restaurant. We had chosen The Arabian Tea House in the Shindagha area as we would be able to try some of the traditional Arab dishes for dinner. The food was delicious and it gave us some time just to visit with Aimee about how life was going.
We then drove to the new Dubai area. The buildings were very tall and so unique. Aimee took us to the large mall there. We were so fascinated by the number of people still out shopping at 10:00 p.m. on a Thursday night. This mall had a fountain show area similar to the Belagio in Las Vegas. From the fountain area you can see the tallest building in the world and all the other buildings as they light up.
It was late when we left to go to our hotel. We were staying at The Coral Beach Resort Hotel, but we are not going to get any use of the amenities as we have a morning flight to Cairo. We were concerned for Aimee to make the long trip back home after dropping us off. Gwen did get up and walk the beach before we grabbed a taxi for the ride to the airport.
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