The final chronicles of Rosie....
Friday, 12/31
Last full day in Singapore
We'd set a very busy pace over the last 4 days since Rosie's arrival so, for the first time since she got here, we slept in... because we could. :-)
We both needed to take care of some administration. First, I helped her pack her luggage for the return trip home. I was amazed, since I really hadn't noticed over these past 4 days, how little clothing Rosie had actually come to Singapore with. This fact left her with plenty of room to pack the huge number of mementos we'd purchased during the week. With that done and her travel clothing set apart, she helped me put together my load of laundry for the hotel to take care of.
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| Raffles City sign as viewed from Starbucks |
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| Ahhh, tall skim latte |
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| Alligator Pear on 8th flr and Fairmont Hotel |
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| Duck boat tours |
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| Under Esplanade Drive bridge near Merlion park |
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| Merlion on marina bay |
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| Nice parasol! |
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| Rosie and the Merlion |
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| Science Center, Marina Bay Hotel/Casino, 'wishing balls' |
Went down to the lobby and as we were heading over to Starbucks ran into our new friends from Scotland, Alex and Marilyn. We had a nice chat and shared with them our idea of spending New Year's Eve at the Alligator Pear. They thought that was a good idea and that we may see them there later that evening.
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| Entrance to Fullerton Hotel |
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| Inside Fullerton |
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| Inside Fullerton Hotel |
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| Balloons in Fullerton for New Years |
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| Tea service area in Fullerton Hotel |
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| Rosie and Rolls |
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| Fullerton Hotel on Singapore River |
We left the lobby and strolled over to Raffles City Mall and to the Starbucks there for latte's and lite breakfast. Sat down to actually enjoy our coffees before starting our day out and about.
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| Merchants sculpture |
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| Part of Merchant's sculpture |
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| Boat Quay in the background |
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| First restaurant/pub heading up river on Boat Quay |
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| Rosie enjoying a moment of rest |
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| Another restaurant on Boat Quay |
After coffee exited the Raffles City Mall Starbucks right into the heat and humidity of Singapore. For the first time this week, we have a ton of blue sky overhead. As we started to walk towards the marina and Merlion Park, walked right up to an elderly native Singaporean resting on a bicycle 'rickshaw'. Haven't experienced a rickshaw ride to date so... why not! Negotiated a $20SG price to take us to Merlion Park and off we went in our very cramped buggy seats - more suited to 1 large person (ME) or two smaller folks like Rosie. Ahh, we made do. We were cozy. :-) The bicycle was attached to the right side of the rickshaw. Our driver was quite talkative.
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| Dressed for New Years in Singapore |
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| Marilyn and Rosie at the Alligator Pear |
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| Fuji and Alex |
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| Alex and Marilyn |
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| Rosie & Fuji |
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| !!New Year's 2011!! |
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| Fireworks on Marina Bay... |
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| Viewed from the Alligator Pear on 8th floor of Fairmont |
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| Lots of Fairmont guests watched the display from their South Tower rooms |
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| Fireworks... |
Not the fastest way to travel but peaceful. I was feeling a bit bad about how hard our driver had to work on level ground. As we approached the Esplanade Drive Bridge that takes you over to Merlion Park and the Fullerton Hotel, the road starts to slope up. I knew our 'older' rickshaw driver would have problems negotiating the hill and, what do you know, he ended up jumping off the bike and pushing us up the hill. Well, I wouldn't call it chivalry but, I jumped out and helped him... he appreciated it and I didn't mind. In fact we never got to Merlion Park via the rickshaw, he dropped us off at the start of the bridge - which was fine with Rosie and I - bid him farewell and a Happy New Year and walked across the bridge ourselves to Merlion Park.
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| Fireworks |
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| Fireworks... |
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| Fireworks... |
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| Fireworks... |
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| Fireworks... |
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| Fireworks... |
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| Fireworks... |
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| Fireworks! |
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| Alex and I enjoying a 2011 Tiger beer |
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| Celebrating 2011 with our new friends, Alex & Marilyn |
As I said earlier, the sun was really beating down and Rosie was starting to feel the effects. I had on a hat. First thing we did after we crossed over the bridge was to then go underneath the bridge, where I knew there were a handful of shops that probably sold umbrellas. Found one and paid about $10SG more than we needed to to buy Rosie an umbrella to use as a parasol. Really helped mitigate the sunshine for the rest of our day above ground.
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| Doorman just outside of Prego's |
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| Breakfast in Prego's |
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| Rosie loved the diverse food choices |
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| Tailored to all nationalities |
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| Breakfast choices you just don't see in the US |
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| The pink fruit are 'dragon fruit' |
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| Surprisingly, the dragon fruit flesh is white with tiny black seeds |
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| Fresh persimmons |
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| The juice bar would make you anything - fresh |
Spent about 15 minutes walking around Merlion Park, taking pictures for other tourists, taking a bunch of photos of ourselves and just enjoying the park. It's a good thing we got the bumboat ride done earlier in the week. Because of the firework's area in the marina and the 1,000s of wishing balls floating in the bay, the bumboats couldn't get to Merlion park - which was a shame.
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| Start of our rickshaw ride |
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| End of our rickshaw ride |
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| Underneath the Esplanade Drive bridge |
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| Can't take enough Merlion photos |
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| My most repeatable pose... |
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| Anderson Bridge near Fullerton Hotel |
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| Bumboat racing |
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| English Red Pillar Box |
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| About the Red Pillar Box |
From Merlion Park we crossed back underneath the Esplanade Drive Bridge and went up the stairs on the other side, and walked over to the Fullerton Hotel to check it out. It truly is a grand hotel built in a bygone era... just gorgeous! Huge vaulted ceilings with hints of English royalty all over the place. Made me happy just to know it was still here and virtually unchanged looking. Last time I saw this building was over 25yrs ago when I was a 'nugget' flying off the USS INDEPENDENCE (CV-62) and we pulled in for a 5 day port of call. The Singapore skyline was distinctly different back then.
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| Inside Fullerton Hotel |
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| Outside Fullerton Hotel |
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| Tea Service in Fullerton |
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| Ice Cream vendor - really old guy :-) |
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| He cuts rectangles out of a block of ice cream and sandwiches on waffers |
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| Mine was yummy |
Left the Fullerton Hotel and hugged the Singapore River upstream to Boat Quay, a strip of riverfront lined with tons of eateries/bars featuring almost any cuisine you can think of. Made an attempt to stop at the British Pub at the start of Boat Quay for a cool drink but, service was quite slow and poor so, we moved on. Strolled all the way back over to Clarke's Quay MRT, jumped on the train and headed over 1 stop to Chinatown!
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| Bird sculpture |
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| Statue at the entrance to a restaurant in Boat Quay |
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| Bronze on Singapore River |
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| Yours Truly on the river |
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| Ahhh, a couple of cold, frothy ones |
We thought, what the heck, let's go do a little bit more shopping and catch some late chow and beverages. Didn't do much shopping but we did enjoy one of the Chinese restaurants. Got out of the sun, ordered some food and 2 large Tiger Beers - Rosie decided to have one with me ('course, I ended up helping her finish her bottle... didn't mind a bit. :-) ). We had a nice time.
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| Tiger beer girl |
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| Chinese corner restaurant in Chinatown |
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| Some of the crowd in the restaurant |
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| Good head on this mug |
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| Two's better than one |
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| Singapore's signature dish: chili and pepper crab |
After we finished lunch, did a bit more shopping and headed back to the hotel to chill and catch a nap... was going to be a long New Year's Eve into early New Year's Day. We planned to dress up a bit and spend New Year's Eve at the Alligator Pear on the 8th floor.
The night was warm and partly cloudy. You could feel the cheer and excitement in the air and the voices of throngs of people walking 8 floors below us over to the marina bay area. We walked over to the bar between the 2 pools to order and have our free beverages. As we were starting to enjoy our drinks and take some photos, Rosie spied Alex getting drinks for himself and Marilyn. Picked up and went over to join him and his wife at their table. Spent a very pleasant 1+30 with them just chatting about family, retirement, life, work, travel, etc., and buying each other rounds of drinks.
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| Some art Rosie liked... |
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| Just outside of Fairmont's lobby |
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| At the bar New Year's Eve, Alligator Pear |
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| Looking across the pool at some of the revelers and rooms |
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| Alligator Pear for New Year's |
2011 kinda snuck up on us. Got up just in time to hear tons of folks cheering and the start of the fireworks display. Hugs & Kisses all around - toasting too! :-) I'd pre-written a text message on my Blackberry to most of our family and friends and sent it soon after 2011 hit. The fireworks display lasted about 15 minutes and was great. We all retired back to our table for a final toast before calling it a New Year! Wished Alex and Marilyn all the best with their ongoing vacation, took their e-mail address to send them photos, and bid them adieu and good morning.
Headed back up to the room right at 0100 to get ready for our 0400 taxi ride to the airport... we nearly didn't make it!
That story later...
Saturday, 1/1/11
Rosie returns to New Jersey via Hong Kong
I'd put in a wake-up call for 0400 and a good thing. Both Rosie and I fell asleep! But, woke up quickly with the phone ringing. Since we'd prepped ahead of time we were downstairs by 0415 and queued up with the porters for a taxi ride. Unfortunately, there was a large line of folks outside waiting for taxi's that weren't coming. Turns out that there aren't enough taxi's in Singapore to handle the huge overflow from New Year's Eve festivities. I was hoping things would have cleared out by 0400 but, they had not.
We really needed to be on the road by 0430 to comfortably get to Changi for Rosie's 0630 flight back to the States. I had the porter's calling the 2 taxi services the Fairmont routinely uses but, their calls were not getting through due to the overwhelming call volume going on at that moment... I could hear the busy signals on the phone. A bus, even if I knew where to catch one to the airport at this time of morning, would have taken too long. Any trains to Changi didn't start running until 0600 and would take ~30mins to get there - so, that was out of the question.
Wasn't looking good for getting out and to the airport.
Fortunately, :-), I had a back-up plan. Eight weeks prior when I first arrived in Singapore, I lucked out with a taxi ride in a more upscale cab - a Chrysler 300 - privately owned and operated. I took the driver, Richard's, card and just kept it. Almost threw the card out once but didn't. Pulled it out and had the porter's call the number. Went right through.
Normally, a taxi ride to/fm the airport goes for about $25/SG. I knew I'd pay a premium on this ride but, well worth our peace of mind. Our ride and the exact guy, who remembered me, who picked me up 8 weeks back showed up in 5mins! We were on our way right at 0430! I never let Rosie see I was sweating at all. :-)
Fifty SGs later we're at the International Terminal, terminal 3, climbing out of the taxi right at 0500. Couldn't have worked out better.
We walked in, found the check-in line for United Airlines. Rosie checked in (I was not allowed to accompany her to check in... but I could watch) and we went in search of someplace to grab a coffee. The gates don't actually open up until 0530, so we bought our drinks from the Coffee Bean and took a seat to enjoy a couple of pastries too.
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| Breakfast toast at the Coffee Bean, Changi Airport |
I have mixed emotions. I'm quite sad to see her go but, extremely happy that we were able to get her over here to Singapore for the 5 days she was here. :-) I'm really looking forward to getting back to the States. Leaving on Saturday, 1/15. Almost can't wait.
We had a brief but great holiday together! :-)
After Rosie passed through customs, I headed down to the MRT station and waited 20mins until 0600 when the first train of the day showed up. Rode the East West line back to City Hall station and went back up to my room to take a nap.
This may be my next to last blog... Depends on what happens over the next 2 weeks.
Later!
