May 17 and 18, 2023

We LOVE Singapore. We have been here many times and for these two days, we bought a 2 day MRT ticket so we could use the subway system as often as we wanted to.

We arrived at 1 PM. Here are some pictures of our arrival.

The MRT system is fabulous here. The only issue is that to get a 2 day pass, they don’t take credit cards or US money. Fortunately, our friend Ellen was right next to us in the line and she had Singapore currency so she bought all three tickets. She is always prepared! It saved us from having to leave the line to exchange currency, which we did later.

Our plan was to go to Chinatown to see Ray who was visiting for the two days our ship was in port. We had a quick visit at a restaurant, then went on to find the Laderach chocolate that we bought in Dubai (and is gone now!)

We found the chocolate shop inside the food court on Orchard Road. This is a very high end shopping area with every luxury brand you can imagine in the shops here. We found out that they are connected in the underground tunnels for the MRT. In the heat, we hardly had to walk outdoors.

We did some browsing, then returned to the ship to shower and get ready for dinner. The food court area was quite amazing.

A few other signs and sights we spotted on our way.

We were meeting Erin and Mui at a tapas restaurant. When we got there, they had checked out that restaurant and didn’t really like the looks of it, so they had another one in mind – a Chinese restaurant called Crystal Jade. We were the only non Asian people in there (which is always a great sign!) There were so many selections on the menu, it was difficult to decide. We settled on four entrees when the waiter told us they were large enough to share. Here are our selections.

Our desserts:

And our wine:

We were pretty tired after a long day of shopping, walking and eating. We got back to the ship around 9 PM and it didn’t take long for me to fall asleep!

Today we again set out on the MRT to Chinatown where wanted to buy some mangoes. We were early so many stands were not open but I did manage to get some mangoes after we had a walk through most of Chinatown. I was spoiled by the low prices in other ports though. And last night I saw sunflowers that I wanted to buy and they were $7
Singapore dollars apiece. 1 Singapore dollar is 1.34 US. So I passed those up and am enjoying the flowers I got in Panang.

After Chinatown, we headed to the Marina Bay Sands hotel which is the iconic three towers that are connected on the top by a swimming pool and several restauurants. We had a reservation for lunch at LAVO, an Italian restaurant on the 57th rooftop floor of tower 1. First we walked all through the high end stores in the attached mall. There is even a waterway with boats.

And the most beautiful and large Apple store we have ever seen. It is two stories high and has ceiling to floor glass to maximize the view from the second floor.

The views from Lavo are just as amazing.

The mall had this lovely arrangement of fresh roses.

Another wonderful day in Singapore. We enjoyed the shopping, the food and the ambiance here. Of course, we didn’t have any security issues either. They are very strict here and actually hung two people recently for possessing drugs. No smoking is allowed anywhere, or vaping either. You cannot chew gum or spit. And look at the fines on the MRT. I don’t know what the fine is for durian, but we didn’t have any so we were safe. You don’t see police around, I guess because the fines are so high, people are mostly obedient. And the trains are spotless as is the rest of the country.

Tonight we will have another anniversary dinner in Toscana – they forgot the cake at the first one!

And tomorrow we go to a new port for us – Bintan Island, Indonesia which is a tender port so we will be anchored. We turn the clocks BACK again tonight.