Slept well, up at 07:30 to pack the rest of the gear and get ready to leave.
Headed down to the private lounge to wait to get escorted off.
If you are thinking of going on a cruise, I highly recommend booking a suite – if you book late you can get a really good deal but you do risk missing out so it’s only if you can be flexible.
Song booked ours a couple of months before it sailed which made it about the same cost as a normal balcony room if that was booked early.
With the suite we got a bigger room, the premium drinks package (basically unlimited drinks with a couple of caveats, which usually cost $140 USD a day!), 24 hour room service, access to 2 private lounges, access to a private restaurant, priority boarding and disembarking, room tidied twice a day and a steward on call. It really was good value but only if booked late.
Had some nibbles and a coffee in the lounge and then got off the boat, escorted by a steward who took us to the front of the queue.
Going through immigration my thumb print couldn’t be scanned by the automatic gate so I had to go through the manual processing which took about 30 minutes – Song was through the automatic gate in about a minute and had to wait for me on the other side.
Got out to be greeted by a tropical storm, rain coming down, looked at the taxi queue but decided to get the train, walked about 10 minutes to the station but it was all undercover.
The train took about 40 minutes, got to the airport and went straight to security since I’d checked in online only to get turned back and told to go to the desk for some reason. Luckily the queue for people who had already checked in online was empty and it turned out they had to check our visa and return flight and issue printed boarding passes.
Got through the automated gate this time, my thumb was fine. Song immediately headed to the shops.
Sat down for a coffee ($10.40!!), then walked to the gate.
Singapore used to be the place to pick up electronic stuff and cameras cheaper than at home, but I compared the cost of a MacBook Air just out of curiosity and it’s cheaper in Melbourne (by $25, but still).
Went to the gate only to be told we were too early so sat around and surfed the web. A guy next to me left his phone on the table, so I did the decent thing and kept it so I could try and break into it to get all his banking details. Not really, I chased after him and handed it back.
Flight left on time and actually arrived early, had beef noodles for a meal but it wasn’t very nice so I ate all the beef and gave the noodles to Song.
I’d pre booked a hotel pick up and confirmed it the day before, we came out of the customs area to where the drivers were waiting and ours was nowhere to be seen. I noticed there was another exit so had a look there, nope. Tried to call the number but I needed to enable roaming with the Telstra app but there was no wifi so that didn’t work.
Decided to get a taxi, walked out of the airport to see more guys waiting for people and spotted our names.
The trip to the hotel took about 30 minutes and the driving was appalling – I’ve experienced driving in a lot of places, I rank Vietnam the third worst after the Philippines and Morocco. Almost every car was switching lanes, cutting every one off, tooting horns and driving too close. Our driver took a couple of phone calls.
As we got into the city there were loads of scooters, crossing lanes without looking, carrying 2 or 3 people, I saw a couple of people on their phone, and a baby’s feet sticking out on one. One guy went past us going the wrong way. I’d hate to think what the road toll is here. I changed my mind, this was worse than Morocco, here there were about 50 times the number of vehicles and the traffic rules were non-existent.
We also drove past piles of rubbish just thrown at the side of the road, one of which was on fire.
Went out for dinner, it was raining and hectic – tons of shops, mostly food, coffee, massage and clothes shops. Also a lot of tourists. We changed some money and found a place where I had a pork noodle soup thing and Song had a plate of stuff that she used to make rice paper rolls. Both were nice and it came to $6. So cheap.
The roads were still unbelievably busy, cars and scooters all over the place, tooting their horns and driving where they liked. We didn’t spend too long out but almost managed to get lost, every street looks the same with the same shops. Went to the room to watch TV and sleep.
