Day 3, Year 4:Â Third Busy Day in Singapore
Date: Saturday, October 25, 2008
Weather: Partly Overcast Day
Location: One 15 Marina, Sentosa Island, Singapore
It is the beginning of the rainy season here and I don’t think the weather is going to get much better than it was today. There was no rain which was a nice change, but it was partly overcast all day. Once in a while the sun tries to peak through, but as hot as it is without the sun, it is probably a good thing that it is staying in hiding. We did not have the relaxing day today that I thought we would have, but it was a good day. Our friends Jean-Pierre and Collette left around 9 am and then I found out that Mark planned to go back into Little India to buy an AC converter. We looked at them yesterday, but I didn’t know we were really buying one. So instead of relaxing, we did a few chores on the boat and headed into the city. We took the free shuttle bus to the Vivo Center which is just across the bridge on the southern tip of Singapore. It really is only about a ten minute ride and it is great to be out here away from the hustle and bustle of the city but still be able to be there in just ten minutes. At the Vivo Center we checked out the Super Walmart style complex. It is a supermarket called Giant on the bottom floor, with everything else from clothing to automotive parts on the top floor with an adjacent pharmacy and smaller supermarket with fantastic meats and specialty items. I even found pretzels for Mark and that is something we haven’t seen since Australia, and barely there. We went to the bank and got dollar coins for the laundry that I have been putting off, had lunch at the food court, and then hopped on the subway for Little India. One of the boat supply places was closed, but we then walked down to the SimLin Tower, home of all things electronic, and purchased the AC converter. It was going to take an hour or so to get the wiring adapted for us, so then we went across the street to SimLin Square. This is like Best Buy times four. There are five, maybe six floors of cameras, computers, sound systems, you name it. We found the 320 Gigabyte hard drives we were looking for about $100US each, so we bought two. We will use those to back up our computers and to serve as a second back-up for all our photos and videos.
We hurried back to the Vivo Center to catch the 3:53 pm free shuttle back to the marina, but we missed it by a few seconds. We were both worn out, so we hailed a taxi and paid the $5.00 Singapore to get back to the marina. Mark has been working to get the AC converter working with our system, but he has been unsuccessful so far. The converter is working but the convoluted adaptations from US to NZ to Singpore plugs is confusing the issue. This is one of the travails of traveling around a world where nothing is standard.
Maybe tomorrow will be our day to enjoy the marina facilities. I finally took a shower in the marina facilities this morning and enjoyed the complimentary towel, the huge shower stall with a shower head that is at least a foot in diameter and liquid body soap in a dispenser. After the shower, I used one of the provided hair dryers, the Q-tips and deodorant, and even got to watch CNN news on a big screen TV while doing this. We still haven’t made it to the pool. Maybe tomorrow.
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| 081025 Day 3 Singapore–Safina Leaves & Shopping at Sim Lin |
