February 26 -- All Ashore, What's Going Ashore!

This was the day to leave the ship. We awoke early, about 6:50am, to get ourselves washed up, dressed, do our final room check, then head to the Gold Lounge for a quick bite of breakfast before going to the disembarkation meeting are, the Royal Theatre. We were greeted by the early dawn and the many ships in Singapore's harbor. Without full light, we could not see many of them, but by the twinkling of the ship lights, we could sense they were out there.

We did all we had to do, to leave the room with all of our belongings and to leave it as orderly as possible for Sena. Then we headed to the Gold Lounge, hoping to print our airplane boarding passes, while also eating a light breakfast, We were not able to print the boarding passes; we didn't have enough time. We could not finish our breakfast of yogurt there; we didn't have enough time. We opted for take out cups to carry the yogurt, bid Xinyi, Juan and Jen a farewell and a hearty thanks, then headed for the Royal Theatre.

(Xinyi, our wonderful and compassionate Gold Lounge waitress throughout the entire voyage. She's taking our final order.)

Once in the Royal Theatre, we waited until 8:35am,. at which time, all of the Our Gang travel group was asked to disembark. The disembarkation had a some glitches, First, both of our Singapore Guest Arrival Cards (SGACs) had errors: Patrise's had the wrong date for arrival, while mine had my nationality listed as "Unknown." Now both of these mistakes were attributable to me, as I was the one who filled out both applications. I swore that I had completed them correctly: furthermore, both of us had received emails with electronic copies of completed and approved SGAC cards; still, the system at the port flagged both of us as having incomplete applications. Go figure. Well, the immigration officials decided we were sufficiently trustworthy that they made manual corrections and admitted us into the country.

The next glitch was that when Patrise went to log of the ship -- you have to use your electronic SeaPass card (like a debit card for all things pertaining to ship processes -- the system flagged her as needing medical clearance. I suppose the ship's medical team had a legal and ethical duty to insure they were not discharging someone into the general population of Singapore, who served as a potential contagion vector. We had to wait around about five or six minutes, before the security team was given the okay from the medical team for her to depart. After both the glitches, it was smooth sailing -- pun intended -- to get landslide, find and claim our luggage, then head outside of the terminal to find and board our tour buses. We would have the same drivers and tour guides that we had our first two days in Singapore, before departing on the cruise. For me and Patrise, that meant we would be led by Jeremy again. We liked him. He was full of information about Singapore's history, culture, people, and traditions. And he was funny. He really could have been a stand up comedian.

We were on board the tour buses about 9:30-9:45am. We needed to arrive at the airport at 5pm, so we had a lot of time to kill. Our tour of Singapore continued with a trip up to Mt. Faber, the second tallest mountain on the island. It was a great lookout point, to see much of the city. Also, I had a conversation with a man who was working as a park customer service representative. He said his name was August, and he was a retired mechanical engineer. (Hmmm, that sounds familiar.) the two of us talked about the state of politics in the U.S., where is Georgia, what I thought about the border problems, and more.

(Views from Mt. Faber, Singapore's second highest peak. Row 2, middle pic, August, a retired mechanical engineer.)

We then went to the Gardens By the Bay on Sentosa Island. (Sentosa Island used to be called the "Island of Death", because pirates would launch raids from there on passing trade ships. Sentosa is in a strategic location for world shipping. In the 1970's, the government decided to turn it into a location for tourist attractions. They renamed it "sentosa" island meaning "tranquility" in Malay.) Gardens By the Bay is a major attraction that Patrise and I had seen the first day in Singapore before the cruise began. We had gone there by ourselves at night, to catch the famous light show and it was quite a sight. This time, seeing in the daytime with the group, it was still attractive. Jeremy explained that one of the three supertrees actually served as an exhaust stack for combusted fuel. All of the tress have a solar-powered system that pumps water collected in and around the grounds. The water is pumped up to the top of each stack, then is channeled down to feed the thousands of real plants which constitute the supertrees. For me, that made the whole exhibit that much more impressive.

When we left GBTB and headed to lunch at the Red House Seafood in the Esplanade Mall on the marina. The lunch was plentiful and apparently the restaurant had been reserved for our group, as we took up most of the tables and seats. It was a prix fixe menu of various seafood, chicken, and vegetable dishes, including Singapore's favorite, chili crab. I was heartened to see Patrise feeling well enough to venture eating some of most of the food items. That was an indication that the doctor's medicine was working, or that the illness was running its course, or a bit of both. Whatever the cause, it was a welcomed sight for me to witness.

(The photo in the middle is Singapore's popular dish, chili crab.)

Having had our fill at lunch, the tour continued with a trip to Chinatown and a visit of the

oldest Buddhist temple in Singapore, which used to be on the city's riverfront. However, past and ongoing efforts to reclaim land from the sea and establish new ground for development have resulted in the temple site now being several block away from the shoreline. It is a bit misleading to call it a Buddhist temple, because it was actually four shrines in one building: a shrine for Taoism, a shrine for ancestor worship, a shrine for Buddhism (but not The Buddha himself), and a shrine for Confucianism. In that order, rotating clockwise in the outer perimeter of the building. The building was built as a square inside of a square. Jeremy told us that a square is the Chinese character for mouth or eating, whereas a square inside of a square is the character for home. The temple was in fact built as a square inside of a square.

(Row 1: The outside of the temple; inside the temple, but not in the inner sanctum where no photography is allowed; looking at the guardians of the doors of the temple.

Row 2: A glimpse of the inner sanctum from outside of it; the ancestor worship area; a bodhisattva, a deity a step below the Buddha.

Row 3: Wishing well area; two of the bells in the wishing area, representing good health and business success; a shrine to Confucius.)

From the temple, the tour wandered through other parts of Chinatown, then Little India, then Malay town...

...and then stopping at a location for final shopping opportunities. Patrise and I had completed our shopping, so she stayed on the bus, while I went into a local mall in search of a bathroom. It felt as though everyone was now getting tire of the touring and feeling anxious about getting to the airport and starting our homeward journeys. I know that this is how Patrise and I felt for sure. Here are more phots of our last hours in Singapore, before taking off on our flight for Los Angeles and then Atlanta.

We had a three hour wait before our plane for Los Angeles would take off. We passed the time relaxing in Singapore Airlines' SilverKris Lounge. If you ever get the opportunity to do so, take advantage of it. It's a great location to while away time in an airport.

Tomorrow, we will be back in Atlanta and we will develop and post some final thoughts and reflections about our trip.