Container Travel: Singapore, hotel change and Marina Mandarin harbour views

Thursday 24th January 2013 (continued)

In Chinatown I stopped at a small side stall, selling vegetarian dishes. Roy orders a large beer; $9 a bottle instead of SG$15 elsewhere. I have pineapple juice. I select a Herbal Combination soup. There's soy protein, mushrooms, greens, bean curd, and noodles. It is delicious and filling. From a street stall, we select two pashmina shawls for family in UK. 2 for SG$30, nothing for men. Roy wants meat. He goes to a more conventional Chinese foodhall, orders sweet and sour pork with rice. It is very boring. He is not impressed. This has WiFi and I check my email after asking for password. It is unsettling to have to book another day, another move. I have over-done it again. We return by taxi to Swissotel. This Swissotel is fully booked and tell me we can have a late 2pm check out but there's no room available overnight. I let Eddie Khoo, the port agent, know that we must book another hotel. I am not hungry and so after we both sleep till 8:30pm, Roy goes out for a while on his own. I ask him to bring me back an icecream. He is gone a few hours. I eat the HaagenDaz cup he brings but it is very ordinary. We sleep despite uncertainty.

Friday 25th January 2013

Wake at 3am and I feel very stressed. I use ball-in-the-bag to release tension in pelvis. When I try to connect using laptop there's no connection. I ring for help. Reception suggests there might be rooms left online at Expedia, Agoda, or Hotel.com which aren't showing on their system. They show fully booked. I cannot connect and IT suggests using the direct connection in hotel room’s desk. This works well. I check these sites without luck. Now I start searching for good deals. Marina Mandarin shows an executive deluxe suite for $245. After I have booked and paid, all is well. We don't know what we need for extras onboard our container ship. We are directed to a Funan mall, a 10 minutes’ walk. Roy just wants to sit so we order a tea between us: 99 cents. There's a beautiful park across the road but we won't budge. I lie down across two chairs. It is nearly 1pm, we have to walk back. We do get back in time. We had withdrawn an extra SG$300 to get us through until tomorrow. I pack our bags while Roy sleeps. I understand it is hard for him. Yet I need him to manage bags and be the lifting man. When it is time I wake him up. I call for the bags to be taken and we go down and order the taxi. Check out goes smoothly. The drive across town is spectacular. We find the Marina Mandarin hotel overlooks the most amazing Marina views of the water, the huge architectural marvels of Singapore and the Lion of Singapore statue. We check in on the 4th floor. The entrance is so stunning we just gape. The internal well rises 20 floors and it is very beautiful with all rooms having views. We have requested bay views. We refuse to give our credit card details, as we’ve already paid. We insist we will not touch mini bar or order extras. It causes a fuss and despite many explanations they have to agree but will block the mini bar. We must pay cash for everything. Roy insists on ordering a beer. I warn him about the expense, at such a luxury hotel. He does order anyway and is surprised to get a tiny tin of beer. There are snack peanuts and olives. The bill is SG$15. Roy looks sheepish and acknowledges I was right. We go up to our room and it is amazing but still just a room. The view is priceless, absolutely gob smacking. We stand and stare. We can see container ships heading to the port; is one the Thalassa? I have let the agent know our new address. Collection by driver is at 8am tomorrow morning. I have internet password for our stay, 6 hours free. I take images with our camera. Then more images with the smart phone. I need help to connect to WiFi by IT department. Finally I send another email to the kids.

"Thanks everyone for keeping us up to date with what's happening at home. Good luck with your respective endeavours.

We had a trouble-free change of hotel. The architecture of this hotel is awesome. These images are the view from our window on the 12th floor! This hotel is right up there with the best, and the view is just picture perfect. We can even see the ships as they head towards their berths at the Port of Singapore. Unfortunately our Thalassa won't be docking until after midnight so it'll be too dark to check her out with binoculars. We have tried to read the names on the ones passing before our sight. This is perfect!

These images are iconic views of Singapore, you can see all the tourists visiting the buildings, the Lion of Singapore, etc. and we have enjoyed just watching from the comfort of our room. I had no idea when I booked, how special this was. We had a last minute Expedia booking and it is an upgraded executive deluxe room. This is brilliant as we don't need to do the walking. The binoculars are excellent as an alternative to being down on the ground!

This class of hotel, of course, means the drinks etc. are correspondingly expensive and the costs are shocking. We have learnt to go away from the hotel to drink and eat. It has been a learning process and we had a delicious authentic Indian meal in Little India, a popular visitors' market area, today and in Chinatown yesterday.

We will be taken to the ship at 8am tomorrow. We’ll be driven straight to the ship and up to the captain's work office onboard.

I have loads of images of the Jurong Bird Park but cannot access internet on laptop ATM. Using the phone camera and connection for emails.

The inside hotel images are of the central item space with the rooms around the outside with views. There's a piano being played this evening, way down on ground floor, which entertains the whole internal well. Very civilised and a lovely touch.

Very curious how the shipboard life will suit us, what food will be served, will there be other passengers? Will the monsoons come; atm the weather is just perfect. Let's hope it stays the same.

Resting tonight and will keep in touch if I can.

Wish us luck and we will have internet until tomorrow morning when we leave the hotel.

Missing you all atm though we are much happier. We rely heavily on each other when traveling."

We took a taxi ride to Little India again and have selected a recommended restaurant from Trip Advisor. Banana Leaf Apollo. The food is delicious, served in small bowls and one eats off banana leaves. I ordered paneer sag and Roy has pork curry and rice. We walk a little but realise the other day was market day. It is quieter now. Getting a taxi is very difficult but eventually one stops. We arrive back and rest in our room. I set the alarm for 6:30am on my phone and 7am on the hotel clock. Roy watches TV and I listen to piano being played outside in central well. It is a perfect touch. I take some amazing photos. This was a very pleasant and awesome change of venue. I meditate to sleep.

See the video in previous post of this, our last night in Singapore.