jpalbny

Go for it! Sounds like a fun cruise and a nice way to visit the region. We have really enjoyed our two Ponant cruises and I'm sure that you will also. The Anglophone group on our most recent cruise was a great mix of Australia/NZ, Great Britain and Ireland, plus a fair number of other Europeans who use English as a second language (German, Dutch, etc). It was a fun group. I also look forward to reading your trip report.

Terry - we had pretty much 3 full days in Singapore but only two nights. We disembarked on Thursday morning, and flew out so late Saturday night that it was actually Sunday morning (1:30AM). We did like the restaurant that Ron and Ann had recommended - Whitegrass. Plenty expensive but the food, service, and cooking were excellent. However that was pretty much the only "formal" restaurant meal that we ate. The next day we had both lunch and dinner in hawker centers. On Saturday we had a late lunch at a riverside open-air spot which was much more informal (but not cheap). So Whitegrass is the only restaurant that we tried (and can recommend) in the whole 3 days we were there. What did we miss? Plenty of course; there's only so much you can do in three days. Regarding big-ticket items - We didn't get to Sentosa Island. We missed one of the two conservatories at Gardens by the Bay (the Cloud Forest). The Ferris Wheel was closed for maintenance, which was OK with us. And we didn't get to the top the the Marina Bay Sands. None of these were high on our list but we would have done them if we'd had the time. But, we enjoyed the sights that we did see and I think we got to enough places to wear ourselves out.

Dinner looks great, but they overcooked the steak!

Agree. Can't log in any more

Welcome aboard! I'm glad the process was so smooth. And congrats on the speedy time from on-board to first drink.

I couldn't find our ship on the schedule in Singapore, for our scheduled arrival there earlier this month. But we ended up disembarking there anyway. 🙂 I've found that port schedules are pretty good but (like everything else), not perfectly reliable.

It's a script, M. Luckily I know a doctor...

Well... Yes and no? When taken regularly in fairly high doses, bismuth subsalicylate will definitely reduce the risk of traveler's diarrhea. At least, some forms thereof. Probably not all of them. Problem is, the doses in the study (2 pills or 30 ml 4x/day) can be hard to tolerate. It's not recommended to use for more than 2 weeks at that high of a dose. In some people that dose can cause salicylate poisoning. Always a fun time. Maybe lower doses, or one-time doses work. Maybe they don't. And I don't know how it works so I won't comment on the proposed mechanism. Me - I just take a big bottle of ciprofloxacin along with me. I had to give all of it away in India but since then, the new bottle hasn't taken too much of a hit.

Glad you made it without too much trouble though the hour-long wait at immigration/customs is just what you don't need after such a long flight! Sleep well and looking forward to following along on your adventure!

Glad you made your connection without too much trouble - but that kind of stress isn't the best way to start your vacation. Enjoy Lisbon! It's a beautiful city.

Some random thoughts on the cruise. Itinerary – this was great. We had some question marks prior to the trip, especially about the stop in Badas. Sometimes these ‘local visits” can seem contrived and uncomfortable. Turns out that we didn’t feel that way at all and we enjoyed that stop. Also in Probolinggo, would there be a real “hike” or just a shuffle? Turns out, it was a nice hike. We’ve found in our two Ponant cruises to date, they tend to work you a little more during excursions than comparable expedition cruises on SS. A positive. Komodo was handled very well. The snorkeling stops were lots of fun. And the orangutan expedition was great. The choice of ports that we visited was very well-done also – not everything was a jungle expedition and we had a great mixture of different types of port calls. Something for everyone. Ship – we really like it. Our second cruise on one of the "explorers" - we haven't tried any other type of Ponant ship yet. The one thing we miss compared to SS is that there isn’t an outdoor walking track. We hate lying around on sea days, especially with all the good food and drink that need to be sampled. So it’s a struggle to burn calories. Other than that, the ships are really nice. The cabin type that we book is small but well-organized. The common areas are very pleasant and everything is close together. The forward observation lounge has a big outdoor area in front for your viewing pleasure. The bar just inside of the pool deck is spacious and was our usual go-to place to hang out, have breakfast/drinks/etc. There are lots of tables outside on the pool deck where you can hang out (as long as it’s not meal time) and most are protected from the sun. And the Blue Eye lounge is such a unique place – I just wish it were open more often! Food – subjective. I think that you can tell from this review that we liked it. If you’re expecting an extensive menu with 10 different choices and multiple specialty restaurants, you will be disappointed. Out of 10d/9n on board there was only one dish that we didn't think was done well. I will say that the included wines this time seemed more repetitive and less varied than I remembered from the Corsica trip. Luckily we had some OBC and we could sample four interesting bottles from the list. Laundry – contrary to what we’ve heard, on this voyage at least the free laundry for Major status was unlimited. We confirmed with the front desk and took advantage of this. When the daytime high is 88 degrees for the entire trip, it’s harder to wear clothes a second day without washing them. We’d put clothes out in the morning at breakfast time and receive them the next day before dinner. Once they came back the same evening. Naturalists – great; comparable to SS. As above, the tours on Ponant are a little more vigorous, which we enjoy. The naturalists really enjoy what they do and their enthusiasm is infectious. Expedition cruises suit us well and Ponant has some great itineraries that we’ll continue to try. Bottom line – Ponant remains an excellent alternative for us. We slightly prefer the on-board experience on SS but that’s nothing negative about Ponant. Consider SS at level “A” and Ponant at level “A-1” perhaps. Ponant has a slight edge with itineraries and excursions. We didn’t book another Ponant cruise yet – we looked long and hard at an Indian Ocean itinerary – but it will happen for sure. Now, 10 weeks until our next (Silversea) cruise to Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Denmark, and Germany. With such short flights, we won't know what to do!

Thanks Ron! We actually found some of this in a wine shop in Tomar. Bought a bottle of the red for €2.99. How could you pass up that bargain? I will await your review.

Yes! There's something special about that plane. And I love being upstairs. With only 24 seats it's like having your own private jet. But you're right, sadly. Not many of them left. Those four engines suck fuel like there's no tomorrow. I'm wondering if the faster cruising speed of the 747 vs the 777 is enough to explain the much faster journey home, compared to the way over. 13h10 is a lot shorter than 14h40. Must have also had some nice tail winds!

Saturday, March 18th. Last Day in Singapore! We had another relaxing morning and an even more leisurely breakfast, before setting out for some more exploration. Since we'd knocked off most of the major items from Chris's list, we had time to take it (somewhat) easy today. Not like we would actually do that, but we could have...in theory! Today we walked upriver from the hotel. Our hotel is on a busy street but there is an elevated walkway through a mall which we can use to cross easily. Once on the other side there is a Metro stop and an easy path to the river bank. So we came out on the other side of the Fullerton Hotel. Looks pretty! The Cavanagh Bridge is in front of it. From here we continued upriver until we reached Boat Quay. Lots of restaurants here, but mostly empty in the mid-morning. Maybe we should have lunch here. These crabs look tasty! We continued upriver, and got tickets for a boat ride. Nice scenery. So, back downriver we went until we reached the Harbor. The Marina Bay Sands is always a familiar sight. But they have duck tours here? Fun! And a different perspective on the Merlion. Glad we weren't fighting the crowds to get a picture today! We passed Boat Quay on the way back to the starting point. Once the boat ride finished we decided to climb back up to Fort Canning Park. We'd been on the other side on Thursday and it had seemed like a big task. But we figured we'd do what we could. Surprisingly it wasn't bad at all, despite the noontime sun. In a few minutes we had climbed up to the Raffles House and were enjoying some nice shade under the large trees. We walked down to the other end of the park and found this not-so-hidden gem - the Underground Staircase or the Tree Tunnel. There was a huge line of people waiting at the bottom, to get their perfect Instagram-worthy shot while posing on the stairs. But if you enter from the top of the staircase, you can walk down and wait at the head of the line, to get a picture as one person leaves and before the next one takes their place. It was still pretty early and we had a few places left to see in Chinatown, so we got the Metro back there and went looking for Blair Road. Some pretty row houses here. Just a small sample. Now back towards the hotel to plan lunch. On the way, this statue of mirror balls caught our attention. And the Cavanagh Bridge. We went back to the hotel for a shower and to check out (we had late checkout at 4PM). We packed up and left the luggage at the hotel, then wandered Boat Quay looking for a place to eat a late lunch. A block away, there were lots of St. Patrick's Day festivities going on, but on the waterfront, it was quiet. We settled in at a seafood restaurant and I ordered the Singapore Chili Crab. I ordered a small one, only 1600g. It was massive! Chris helped me. She had some delicious prawns too. Quite the feast. After lunch we took the Metro to the Marina and walked back inland to Gardens by the Bay for one last look. We got there in the early evening, and hung around in the supertree grove to see if we could catch some of the light show. As it got darker, the trees started glowing. And at 7:45, the real light show started! It was very crowded so we started back towards the hotel after about 10 minutes, to avoid getting caught in the crowd all trying to leave at once. Luckily we could still see some more of the show as we made our escape. Crossing the Dragonfly Bridge again, We made it to the hotel around 8:15 and changed into our airplane clothes. Then we made our way to the Metro station and used our passes one last time, to get to the airport. We were there about 9:20, so we had time for a visit to the Jewel to see the waterfall before it was turned off at 10PM. What a beautiful show! Now to find a bus to our terminal - T4. No problem. We checked in and got our boarding passes then headed to the lounge for a long wait. I sailed through the automated immigration lanes so quickly that I didn't notice Chris was stuck until I was already through. So I waited while she had to go through the staffed lanes. Not sure why. We settled in to the lounge to rest, after 26,000 steps today. Quite the busy 3 days! There was decent food and enough wine to make us happy, though it wasn't the greatest as it was a third-party lounge that KAL has access to. Eventually we headed to the gate for our 1:30AM flight only to find that it was delayed. Not great news since we only had a 70-minute layover in Seoul to begin with. We eventually boarded, but didn't push back until 1:53 and after an interminable taxi, we were finally airborne at 2:25. Maybe we'll be OK - ETA is only about 15 minutes late. So we napped a bit and kept track of the ETA, which kept getting later, then earlier again. The drama! One of the FAs came by and asked if we were connecting to JFK. When we confirmed, she said don't worry, we got some information about that flight, and it's running a little late. Finally we landed at 9:08 and were at the gate 10 minutes later. The doors opened at 9:20 and we were off to see if we could make our 10:00 flight. As we exited the plane there was a signboard which said, "KA 81 JFK - Rush to Gate" - guess it's not delayed after all! We hurried to the transfer area and luckily there was no line at security so we were through very quickly. An employee caught up with us as we were leaving to steer us in the right direction to the gate, and we were there at 9:35. Not bad! We were on the plane sipping bubbly shortly after that. For this leg we were on the upper deck of a 747. It was a very pleasant and fast flight home, just a little over 12h in the air. We ate, napped, ate more, and ended up sleeping a fair amount. We landed early at 10:31 and made it through customs quickly thanks to Global Entry. We were on the air train before 11:00. We had a relatively easy drive home and made it at 2:15, just under 24h from the time we took off from Singapore. Our cat was happy to see us, and we were happy to be safely home as well. Goodbye for now, until the next adventure! It's been fun sharing our journey with you. I'll be back later with some final thoughts about the Ponant experience for this, our second trip with them.

Yikes Ron! That sounds like an unpleasant day for sure. I hope you get an extra glass of wine for your troubles!

A back to back would have been fantastic! Unfortunately the ship is in drydock until March 30th, so it would have been a long wait... I don't think that I could have pulled that off; my partner back here at work would have missed me too much.

Friday, March 17th. St. Patrick's in Singapore. We slept in until after 8 then went for breakfast at the hotel. An amazing buffet! So many different foods to try. And they serve nice strong coffee, which we needed after the late night. We got ready for another day in the equatorial sun but unfortunately we kicked the last tube of sunscreen that we had brought before covering enough of our exposed skin. So we had to find more soon. Out we went into the blazing sun. We walked around the Harbor to get a view of the Fullerton Bay. Found an underground mall (part of a Metro stop) and hopped in to look around. Nice AC and a respite from the sun. We found a drugstore with sunscreen, and bought some. Suitably protected, we continued along the waterfront, passing in front of the huge mall connected to the Marina Bay Sands. So many large buildings! Our hotel (right side of the picture) looks dwarfed by them. The round building in the foreground is an Apple store. Most of the taller buildings are bank buildings. At the far end of the Harbor, the Helix Bridge. Neat structure. Its support beams are twisted into a double helix, like a DNA molecule. We went into the mall, then climbed to the roof and walked around outside, following signs to Gardens by the Bay. We walked nearer the Marina Bay Sands on this approach. The walkway passed through the hotel and after another short skybridge, we were in the Gardens. Here is the Dragonfly Bridge. And our first good view of the supertrees! Gardens by the Bay is free to enter, but for some of the attractions you need to buy tickets. You can take an elevator to the top of the tallest supertree for an overview, so that's what we did first. From here you can see the two glass conservatories, and the top of another shorter supertree. In the distance, the Ferris wheel (which is closed for maintenance at this time). Next we went on the elevated walkway which connects two of the supertrees. The walkway is lower down than the observatory so the views are different. But while we were waiting for the elevator, a couple walked up behind us - and they were one of the couples we'd had dinner with on the cruise! Nice to see them again. The supertrees are interesting structures. Metal frames, tons of plants growing up the "trunks," and solar panels on top. Back on ground level, this odd statue called "Planet" is a baby boy, perfectly balanced on one hand. A leisurely stroll through different groves along the edges of the Gardens. The supertrees are always visible. We made it to the conservatories, and visited the Flower Dome. They had many nice groves within, with flowers and trees from all over the world arranged geographically. And a few surprises - like Pokemon characters. All the kids were posing for pictures with them. A nice cactus garden. This specimen looked beautiful in the sunlight. Fierce! We finished up and decided not to visit the second conservatory for now. Instead, we went back to the hotel to cool off, then took the Metro to Chinatown. Here we went to the Chinatown Complex to try our luck at the hawker center. We needed a little lunch. Found some beef noodles and shared a bowl for S$7. Delicious. Not quite up to the level of yesterday's lunch, but also cost about 1% of the total. No wine, though. At the other side of the complex, the Temple of the Tooth. We slowly wandered the streets from temple to temple. Here's Thian Hock Keng Temple. After a few more temples we were looking for a rest stop, so we found a wine bar and sat inside with a glass of rose. And lots of water! This heat is exhausting. Home for a shower and then dinner. We had arranged to meet one of my former students, who now lives here, for dinner. Since he'd finished training in 2021 during the height of the pandemic, it was the first time I'd seen him without a mask in more than 3 years! He took us to another hawker center and we all shared a bunch of dishes. An amazing variety of food here, and nothing is very expensive. The place was packed on a Friday evening but we enjoyed the atmosphere and had a good chance to catch up. Finished a very enjoyable evening with a drink and a photo opportunity at our rooftop bar before letting him go, since he has to work for a few hours on Saturday morning. So not a bad day - only 24,000 steps today as opposed to yesterday's crazy total of 31,500. I'm going to need a vacation to recover from this trip! Unfortunately it's back to work on Monday for both of us.

Thank you, @Catlover54. Indonesia was indeed beastly hot, mostly high 80s with high humidity and super intense sun. We were right near the equator, and almost at the Spring solstice, so the sun was directly overhead. I actually got some photokeratitis early on in the trip because I must not have worn my sunglasses enough, while lounging in the shade at the resort. My eyes were killing me for a day and then took another day to feel close to normal. The intense sunshine, heat, and humidity in this region are not to be taken lightly. We drank so much water, and still had trouble keeping up. Too bad that wine doesn't count!

Terry - we are on Silver Wind in early June, Helsinki to Hamburg. Expedition cruise with all stops off the beaten path. Tons of daylight. Less than 3 months to go!

Yikes. That's a scrum. Banjo - we like flying through CDG. I've always found it to be straightforward and I've made tight connections there (c. 1h, changing between Schengen and non-Schengen) without difficulty. Things can go wrong anywhere. We flew in and out several times within the last year w/o any problem. If there's a strike planned then all bets are off, I guess. If I were in your shoes, traveling in a time of strikes I'd try to go carry-on only, and I'd hopefully be flying business class or have another way to access the priority lanes (at immigration, security, etc). At CDG they are called "No 1 Access" and they do generally save time. Hope all is smooth!

Oh Mysty. Flattery will get you everywhere! And it's true that I wasn't born in a barn. But I definitely was brought up in one.

Food is subjective. What I like, you may not. You may like what I don't (though that list is very short). I think that the hamburgers that I make at home are better than the ones they serve on board, but if you're craving a hamburger, have one. I do, on occasion, and I enjoy it, if that's what I'm craving. You might like it just fine; you don't know until you try it. Have a great cruise!

I resemble that comment!

Thursday, March 16th. First evening in Singapore. After lunch we grabbed a bus that took us right to the hotel. I should mention that we'd purchased 3-day transport passes for S$30 each, and they are good on buses, trains, and the Metro (called MRT here). Not a bad deal for unlimited transport, including to the airport. So we took the Metro to the Botanical gardens. Nice lighting as the afternoon progressed. We had to get to the zoo around 7:15 for the night safari, but we decided to try to get to the orchid garden first. Of course it was about a 15 minute walk from the Metro station. Should we go for it? Getting closer. So of course we did. If we're a little late to the night safari, no big deal. Quite a jungle here in the orchid garden! Just a few of the amazing selections on display here. The profusion of colors and forms was overwhelming. Some were on display outdoors and others were indoors in a cooler environment. Wait, this isn't an orchid! It's an Oriental Pied-Hornbill! That beak sure looks unwieldy. Now it was time to make haste back to the Metro station. We had to take two trains and then catch a shuttle bus to the zoo. Hope we can make it! We got the trains easily. It was challenging to find the shuttle bus though! Eventually we did (at the third bus stop that we looked at) but we still arrived right on time at 7:15. We saw a gaggle of folks ahead of us following a lollipop - and realized that they were from the Viking Ocean ship that was docked next to us this morning! We made haste, following two local girls who seemed to know what they were doing, and passed the large group before they clogged up the admissions lanes. And we were in! The Night Safari was really cool (despite the hot, humid weather). There are several walking paths and a tram which takes you all around the park and gives you a nice overview in about 25 minutes. We went for the tram first before it got too crowded. No pictures from the tram though, as the dim lighting and motion make that impossible. Once the ride was over we started along the four walking trails. They are laid out so that you can do them fairly sequentially, and end up back at the starting point. A few pics - this Fisher Cat was posing while its partner was prowling the river bank, chasing fish. The fish were all clustered on the opposite bank. The Clouded Leopard was having a nice snooze. So that made for an easy picture. We had seen the spotted hyena from the tram, on the prowl. When we circled back on foot the hyena was chilling out. Despite the nice pose, in the dim lighting this is the best I could get. A very pleasant evening! We spent about 2.5 hours here and could have done a little more. The only animal that we couldn't find was the Fossa, which disappointed Chris greatly. We tried to see one in Madagascar but came up empty there as well. So for now, it remains (to us) the "elusive" Fossa. Back to the shuttle bus then the Metro. Racing against the clock to see if we can get back in time for last call at our rooftop bar at 11:15! Made it with time to spare and even had a minute to shower and change first! Here's the view from our rooftop. With or without the tourist? We had some fries and fried chicken and some NZ Sauv Blanc before calling it a night around midnight. The rooftop pool looks inviting but I doubt we'll have time for that!

Well, we are in the Changi airport getting ready to board in an hour or so. Sadly the trip is almost over. (Edited to add: now it is. I couldn't finish this post before take-off, and there's no Wi-Fi on Korean Air. So I'm home.) We've had a great time in Singapore but we are exhausted after three days of non-stop running around in the 88-90 degree heat. Time to catch up on the rest of the journey! Thursday, March 16th. Disembarkation day. I was up around 5AM and put the suitcases out. We were both up for good by 7 to watch us sailing in from our balcony. We finished packing our backpacks and said goodbye to our suite a little before 8. Breakfast in the restaurant, then we waited outside on the pool deck. Our tags were called about 8:55 and we walked to immigration. The port building was a bit reminiscent of an airport. Lots of walking! About 15 minutes wait to clear immigration, then we walked some more to get our bags and join the customs queue. Another 10 minute wait and we were through. We exited the terminal and found taxis waiting. We were at the hotel before 9:40. A very efficient process! Our room wasn't quite ready of course so we had a coffee and then went out exploring. The hotel looked nice as we headed out. We walked along the marina for views of the Fullerton Hotel, And the very famous Marina Bay Sands. An impressive structure! We meandered slowly along the marina until we got to the Merlion statue. After crossing the Jubilee Bridge, we turned inland and walked by a war memorial. We explored the mall at Raffles City. A little before 11AM we got a message that our room was ready. Great service! On the way back, the Victoria Concert Hall. We checked in and found that we had been upgraded to a Bay view room. Sweet! We basked in the AC for a bit to cool down, then headed out again to explore before our late lunch reservation. We took the Metro to Fort Canning Park and did a brief wander but we'll return there later. Time to eat! Ron and Ann had recommended a restaurant and we were excited to try it. Whitegrass, in a historic old building called "CHIJMES." We arrived right on time at 1:45 and were promptly seated. They serve two fixed menus. We had the executive lunch. There were several amuse bouches. Prawn sashimi and beluga caviar in the first picture. Unagi and a herb Madeleine cookie in the second. Both entrées were served. First, Hokkaido scallops over broccoli rabe with hazelnut sauce. Paired with sparkling sauvignon blanc from South of France. Then the braised beef tongue over red cabbage, with sautéed onions and microgreens with a Marlborough Pinot noir. It was very tasty, but a real challenge to not think about what it was. The market fish was some kind of snapper over Japanese clam and abalone cream sauce and Japanese parsley. Paired with sake. It was a tasty sake, though still not my favorite flavor profile. We had one of each main so they split them in half and served a mixed plate to both of us. Wagyu beef with grainy mustard seed on the left, paired with 2010 Italian red from Pecorino. So rich. Duck breast with port wine sauce and black miso was paired with a baby Amarone. For intermezzo, cola sorbet over pineapple bits. Dessert was fresh strawberries on a biscuit with pistachio sorbet and foam. Rose petals, and raspberry sauce. The dessert wine was a Brachetto d'Acqui. Finally, mignardaises. Almond, honey, browned butter, and coffee cakes. Sweet green tea shortbread cookies. That put us over the top. Time to move before we fall into a food and wine coma! An expensive lunch for sure, even with the favorable exchange rate (the Singapore dollar is about on par with the Canadian dollar so the price looks less painful in USD.