by Judy Handley | Nov 7, 2008 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Singapore |
Day 16, Year 4: Chinatown
Date: Friday, November 7, 2008
Weather: Beautiful Day, No Rain
Location: One 15 Marina, Sentosa Island, Singapore
My tired feet are testament to the fact that we did DO Chinatown today. Actually we started our day in Little India. Mark wanted to buy a remote microphone for our VHF radio, so we had to return to the Sim Lin Tower. We walked through Little India to get there and I found some great buys on the way. I bought a couple of pair of pants for $10 and then I found some cotton material from Indonesia that looks like Ikat weaving. It will make wonderful gifts, so I bought a couple of pieces of that.
When we got to the Sim Lin Tower, our store was still not open. So we walked down the street and found a great little store with some things that our grandson Sam will enjoy when he arrives in January. After the purchase of the remote microphone, we got back on the MRT and headed for Chinatown. Little India is just street after street of small markets, so we thought Chinatown would be the same. But we were so wrong. Chinatown is upmarket. There is a strip of touristy type small markets, but mostly it is modern malls. I really love Little India and had hoped to have the same type of experience in Chinatown. But regardless of its modern touch, we visited mosques and temples and really enjoyed our time there.
Our first search in Chinatown was for the Chinatown Heritage Center. This took us through the small market area. I had my trusty camera around my neck waiting for a photo op, but instead we were ‘invited’ into a camera shop that had things we didn’t know we needed. The guy was a super salesman and I left with a couple of additions to my Canon Powershot. He assured me that I needed a UV lens to capture better pictures when we are out to sea and sun is shining brightly as well as a polarizing lens that will allow me to take better photos through glass and into the water. Whether I needed them or not, I am now the proud owner of these two new lenses.
We then got back on track to visit the temples and mosques on our list. Our first stop was the Sri Mariamman Temple, the oldest and largest Hindu temple in Singapore. The entrance-tower or gopuram was beautiful and the mammoth wooden entry doors were bedecked with brass bells. We arrived during a noontime ceremony where people worship and are then blessed with holy water and fire, and then they line up to receive food from one of the Hindu monks. Almost next door to this Hindu temple is the Jamae Mosque, not elaborate and quite a contrast with its Hindu neighbor. From here we trekked a few blocks to see the Nagore Durgha Shrine built by Tamil Muslims, the Thian Hock Keng Temple or Buddist Temple of Heavenly Happiness that is dedicated to Ma Chor Por, the Protector of Sailors. This temple has always encouraged teaching of the masses in the Confucius tradition and is a “teaching” temple today. There were many school groups visiting while we were there today. This is the oldest Chinese temple in Singapore and it is a national monument. And right next to this temple is the Al-Abrar Mosque.
We walked on to the Fuk Tak Chi Temple. This is one of the oldest buildings in Singapore and it has been creatively connected to the ultra-modern Far East Mall. We went through the temple to the mall and walked back a couple of city blocks within the mall to get back to the MRT.
It was a good day and we decided to take the monorail back to Sentosa Island to do a little sightseeing there. Sentosa Island has been our home for the past couple of weeks, but we have been isolated from the tourist end of the island. We did a bit of a fast walk-through, enjoyed the fountains, and caught the bus home. Once back at the marina, we did the requisite late afternoon swim in the pool and shower. I came home to do laundry and Mark fixed a curry dinner. We have three more days here and then we are definitely out of here. So we have to make some tough decisions as to what we will see and what we will not. You could spend a couple of months here in Singapore and still not see it all. It is quite a city.
by Judy Handley | Nov 6, 2008 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Singapore |
Day 15, Year 4: A Day at Home
Date: Thursday, November 6, 2008
Weather: Sunny Day with Periods of Rain
Location: One 15 Marina, Sentosa Island, Singapore
I can’t believe it, but we actually stayed here at the marina all day with no trips into Singapore. I’m still trying to recover from this cold and it felt good to just stay on Windbird with trips up to the pool to refresh. We spent our evening visiting with friends and just returned to Windbird to fix a late dinner. Mark filled our fuel tanks today by having the marina golf cart take our jerry jugs to be filled on the fuel dock and then returning them to us. He emptied the first round of jugs
and then called for a second round. The marina staff is so willing to help. We are used to doing all of this ourselves with no help, so having a marina staff willing to do the work for us was great.
Late in the afternoon I cut Mark’s hair while he was sitting in a chair on the gyrating dock. Our neighbors on Wave Runner from New Zealand took pictures and invited us over for drinks. After another run to the pool and showers, we visited with Wave Runner and learned that they might be leaving Phuket in January for the Red Sea. But like us, they are still deciding whether or not to spend another year here in Southeast Asia. So depending on our decisions, we might be traveling with these new
friends from here to the Mediterranean. After our visit with Wave Runner, we headed down to the catamaran world to return a borrowed jerry jug to Rendezvous Cay. We ended up having drinks with Rose and Tim and returned home to find that it was 9 pm. We had no idea it was so late. Today was Robert of Shirena’s 56th birthday. Happy birthday, Robert! He and Tina were having dinner here at the marina and we had invited them for dessert afterwards on Windbird. But we were so late getting home that
it was way past dessert time. We will just have to have that dessert on another night.
Tomorrow will be a tourist day. We will visit China Town and possibly finally visit the other end of the world here on Sentosa Island. It is so comfortable here that you could be tempted to stay for a long, long time, but we know we have to be ready to leave early on Tuesday morning. We have a “date” for a haul-out in Langkawi, Malaysia on November 25, and we have a few miles to cover to get there. So the Singapore countdown is underway.
by Judy Handley | Nov 5, 2008 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Singapore |
Day 14, Year 4: We Were Watching
Date: Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Weather: Rainy, Rainy Day; Sun in Late Afternoon
Location: One 15 Marina, Sentosa Island, Singapore
After months of not seeing or hearing any news other than what we received from family in emails, we sat in front a TV screen for almost five hours this morning watching the US election results. This was after starting our early morning watching CNN Live on one computer and listening to New Hampshire Public Radio on the other. We then moved to the plush lounge located above the pool. Big screen TV, very comfortable chairs, ice water served to our little table at no cost, and the general manager
of the One15 Club visiting to watch the election returns. The GM is a Canadian who was in Hong Kong and has been here for two years. He was an American political science major in college and was very interested in the election returns. So we had a great setting for watching the returns. No matter what your political leanings might be, I would think you would have to have been moved by the fact that Barack Obama has been able to energize the youth of our country. He gives hope to so many people
from all around the world, especially the young, and that is so exciting. The fact that the American people elected an African-American, an African-American with a white mother and a black father from Africa, to its highest office sends the message to the people of the world that the United States really means what it has always said. We do embrace all and we are the melting pot of the world. It is so wonderful that Obama can be claimed by Kenya, by Indonesia, by Hawaii, and by Chicago. He exemplifies
the best and brightest in today’s world and let’s just hope he can continue to energize all American people to meet the challenges ahead. From this side of the world, it was a proud day for the USA.
After watching the election results we hurried to the Immigration Center to extend our Singapore Visa. Otherwise, we would have to leave here in the morning. But we were successful in getting the extension. We also learned that we will not be able to leave here on Monday because we have to check out with Customs twenty-four hours before leaving and that office is not open on the weekend. So Tuesday is the new date of departure which gives us five more days to enjoy Singapore.
While we were in the lounge watching the CNN election coverage this morning, we met a young couple from Essex, Massachusetts. They were as captain and mate on a really big sailboat that came in here yesterday and is the home of twenty college students each semester. They are not connected with SEA in Massachusetts, but their organization is SEAmester. It’s always great to meet people from back home and they invited us to visit their boat for a tour. The boat is only two years old and I’m anxious
to take a look. And when we got home late this afternoon, we saw the boat Matairea on our pier. That boat is also out of New England and is captained by Danika (a woman) and her partner Sten. Danika and Sten worked in Boston but kept their boat in Rhode Island. We met them in Darwin but haven’t seen them since. So tomorrow we will connect with some “fellow Americans.”
by Judy Handley | Nov 4, 2008 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Singapore |
Day 13, Year 4: US Election-Big World News
Date: Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Weather: Sunny Day; Rain Showers in Late Afternoon
Location: One 15 Marina, Sentosa Island, Singapore
It was a busier day on Windbird than we had hoped for, but it was productive. Early in the day Mark was emptying the jerry jugs of diesel on deck into the fuel tanks and discovered a blockage on the starboard side. Fuel just wouldn’t go in. The fuel hose leading from the deck to the tank goes through our main salon closet, so we had to take everything out of it to check for the problem. The problem was an old hose that needs to be replaced as it was collapsing, but the problem led to a major
cleaning and reorganization of “stuff.” So we worked, went to the pool for a swim, and I continued to work on naming photos.
It is now 10 pm here on Tuesday, November 4, but it is 9 am on Tuesday, November 4 for most of you reading this log. It is election day in the US, but this election is of more interest than most for people from around the world. We will be watching the election results starting tomorrow morning at 8 am, your 7 pm, here at the marina. CNN International begins the coverage at 2300 UTC. And we’ll be there! In the meantime, some cruisers have been listening to the BBC and getting the early results.
This evening we went out to the Vivo Center to get some take-home sushi for dinner and to do a little grocery shopping. When we returned, we were informed by our Australian friends on Shirena that the tiny little village of Dixville Notch in New Hampshire, a traditionally republican stronghold, went 15 to 6 for Obama. Hart’s Location, another New Hampshire early voting station also went for Obama; 17 Obama, 10 McCain, and 2 write-in’s for Ron Paul. Mark and I have been in the tiny little room
at The Balsams resort hotel where the folks at Dixville Notch vote in the first few seconds of election day (just after midnight). The Balsams is a grand old resort in the expensive but rustic New England style and the folks there haven’t voted for a Democrat since 1968. We’ll just have to wait and see if their vote is an indicator of the results of this election. We have been overwhelmed with the interest in the election in this part of the world. Everywhere we went in Indonesia, people would
ask us about the upcoming election and about Obama. From our observation, he has become a symbol of hope for the world, so we will certainly be anxious to see the results of this election. I think our son, Justin, summed it up best in an email he wrote this week to friends and family announcing the fact that he’s going to be dad. He wrote a little about becoming a dad and then he wrote a lot about an experience he and Jo had attending an Obama rally in Albuquerque. “It seems funny to write more
about politics in an email than about the fact that I’m about to have my first child, but the fate of the child is out of my hands. Its life will unfold as it is meant to. However, the fate of the country it will be born into is in all of our hands. Here’s to hope!”
by Judy Handley | Nov 3, 2008 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Singapore |
Day 12, Year 4: Another Crazy Day in the Life
Date: Monday, November 3, 2008
Weather: Overcast with Periods of Rain
Location: One 15 Marina, Sentosa Island, Singapore
It’s midnight and once again we just got home. We left at 9 am this morning and what a full day we had. We left this morning intending to go to two places and then return to the boat by noon. When we got to the bus stop, we met up with Dave and Judy of Freebird and they had the same agenda for the morning as us, with just a couple of additions. So we decided to go together. Somehow we constantly underestimate the time things will take and now fifteen hours later we return. But it was fun!
Our initial goal was to visit the Sultan’s Mosque and to do a little shopping on Arab Street. But then we started adding little things to our agenda. Our first stop was the Singapore Post where we were checking on the cost of sending packages home. Ouch! The cost is outrageous, so we will have to think of a more creative way of getting Christmas presents sent to our kids. Next we stopped at McDonalds for breakfast. Then we got on the MRT and made the Sultan’s Mosque our first tourist attraction of the day. The mosque dominates the Arab Street area with its huge golden dome. The prayer hall is also huge. We had on the right combination of clothing today (basically arms and legs were covered), so we got to go inside and actually see the prayer hall. Judy and I were interested in looking at the huge variety of silk materials available on Arab Street and it was really overwhelming. There are Thai silks, Malaysian silks, Japanese silks, Indian silks, and fake silks. We got a lesson from the first shop keeper we visited and will have to return to make purchases. It was just too hard to make the choices in a limited amount of time. We walked around the corner from Arab Street to the Malay Heritage Center and learned a little more about the history of Singapore. By this time it was almost 2 pm, so we gave up all hope of returning to the boat before our trip to the Night Safari. We just kept going full tilt . . . lunch at the Lavendar Food Court, shopping at our favorite boat store in Singapore, Marintex, a second visit to the Temple of a 1,000 Lights in Little India, and a fantastic visit to the Buddist temple across the street where we enjoyed a service of chanting and meditation by the monks.
If you aren’t worn out yet, come with me. We then parted ways with Dave and Judy and got on the MRT and headed out to the Singapore Zoo. We had made prior arrangements to meet Tina and Robert of Shirena there to visit the Night Safari. A 20-minute MRT ride, and 30-minute bus ride later, we arrived, had a Bongo Beef Burger, and went to the performing animal show. We then started our safari trip. We did a combination of tram ride and walking to see animals of the night. We saw tigers, lions, leopards, elephants, water buffalo, Asian rhinoceroses, and a host of other smaller animals in their natural nighttime habitats. It was great fun even at the end of an exhausting day.
We pushed today to see so many things because we were still planning on leaving on Thursday morning, but I came down with a killer cold last night and we still have “must see” things on our list, and a few “must do” items, so we are going to extend our visas and leave a few days later. So tomorrow is definitely a day of rest. The next day (our Wednesday morning, your Tuesday night) we watch the US election returns in the morning and go to extend our Visas in the afternoon. We still plan to leave no later than next Monday, weather cooperating. So Thursday will be our last “touristy” day with a visit to China Town, and Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, we will prepare to leave.
by Judy Handley | Nov 2, 2008 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Singapore |
Day 11, Year 4: We’re Going to be Grandparents, Again!
Date: Sunday, November 2, 2008
Weather: Mostly Sunny Day; Rain Shower Late in the Afternoon
Location: One 15 Marina, Sentosa Island, Singapore
We’ve been bursting at the seams for two and half months with the news that Justin and Jo are going to have a baby. Not just any baby, mind you, but our second grand baby. They actually called us on our cell phone when we were in the Seaworld anchorage on the island of Flores. We were so excited, but were sworn to secrecy until now. This morning we received an email from Justin announcing to friends and family that he is going to be a father, so we called to make sure it was okay for us to finally make the announcement to “our” world. The baby is due near the end of April and that is the reason we have been considering changing our sailing plans. If we went ahead as planned, we would be somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean in April and would not be able to fly home until December when we would reach South Africa. That’s just not going to work for us, so we are still considering the options. But one way or another, we will see that baby before it is a month old. Jo looked great while she was visiting us in Indonesia and you could hardly tell she was pregnant, but she emailed this week saying “the bump is showing.” So “wee gerbil” is starting to grow.
We were able to successfully talk to both of our children for over an hour each today via Skype. We’ve had an awful time with the wireless connection here, but after connecting an old antenna we bought back in Tahiti, we have had a great signal. We can’t believe we didn’t do this sooner, but we’ll take advantage of it now that we have it. Our visas are up on Thursday, so we have been planning to leave then, but as the time grows closer we have begun to think about extending our visa and staying a few more days. We’ll see how much we get done in the next two days and then make our final decision.
So I talked on the phone all morning and then worked on naming photos until mid-afternoon. I’m now working on naming the photos from Bali and that seems like another life ago. Hopefully I’ll get those done in the next day or two, and then I will start working slowly backward from there. When I look through our photos, I am amazed at how much we have seen and experienced this cruising season. But it just doesn’t stop. In the late afternoon we headed out to Little India with Robert and Tina of
Shirena. My goal was to visit some of the wonderful temples and then have dinner. So we did a “temple walk” around Little India. Our first stop was Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple on the main street in Little India. We have walked past it a number of times, but we took time to enter and watch as the devout Hindus were engaged in prayer and worship. We then walked to the other end of Little India passing a mosque on the way that was a hub of activity. We walked past the Temple of 1000 Lights and then around to the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple which is a national monument. We’re not sure what was happening while we were there but it was so special to watch. There was music being played on a type of drum and a flute of sorts. The temple was just full of beautiful carvings, both inside and out, so it was a wonderful place to be this Sunday afternoon. After the temple experience, we walked through the crowds and found a place where only locals were eating in a back alley. We stopped and had a beer and ordered dinner, very cheaply, and then headed back to One 15 Marina by way of the Vivo Center. We made a quick run through the supermarket and bought more paper products and a loaf of bread and made the bus back to Sentosa. Tomorrow morning we plan to make an early morning trip to Arab Street. Since we didn’t make it to Java to buy batik material, I read that they have it on Arab Street. There is also the Sultan Mosque which is the center of Islamic Singapore. We read that its golden dome and massive prayer hall makes it one of Singapore’s most impressive religious buildings. We will then return to Windbird, I’ll work on naming photos, and if the weather is good, we will go to the Night Safari. Another busy day in Singapore!
