It did so in due course but strangely didn't seem to have any people on board either.
A monster of a ship and to be honest not my cup of tea either.
If we learnt one lesson from this cruise it was that we don't want to go on a large ship again and for several reasons. The likes of the Sapphire Princess is to a greater extent, still a basic ship but it does have a giant cinema screen in the middle of the open top deck which plays loudly from first thing to late at night and judging from the crowded sunbeds in the viewing area it seems to be very popular although I found the noise level deplorable!
The "Genting Dream" seen above has gone a stage further as have many of the more recent ship builds. They are basically floating holiday camps complete with funfair rides and water park.Not what I'm looking for but great if you have kids I imagine. The other problem with these monsters of the sea is finding places for them to berth. Hong Kong and Singapore not a problem, but of our other stops three can be classed as industrial ports in the middle of nowhere and the other two were tender ports and, as we saw in Koh Samui, they bring their own problems.
No give me a smaller boat that can actually take you were they say you are going!
As a cruise port Singapore is actually pretty much perfect.
Yes you have the industrial side not far away.
but the cruise terminal is close to the city centre.
and a not too distant walk to the "Gardens in the Bay"
That's where we decided to head and see what took us from there.
The two domes you can see in the picture have an entry fee but the rest is free to wander.
I'm not that keen on gardens but if there is a chance of wildlife in there it's a different matter all together! I went prepared with my camera.
First we visited the temperate zone garden which was fairly uninspiring if I'm honest. Seen similar elsewhere so it wasn't anything new. The tropical garden is a different matter all together. You can't but fail to be impressed.
The moment you enter you are confronted with this huge waterfall dropping out of the central feature which is covered in exotic plants.
You take a lift up to the top then walk down via the paths suspended in mid air!
It really is an amazing structure.
Most of the plants are real but there was this amazing Lego garden too.All those fly-traps are made of bricks.
The best bit of all though is that on the hour they create a cloud forest too.
A wonderful exhibit that everyone should try and visit. I'm told at night it can be even more spectacular as many parts are illuminated too.
We didn't intend stay that long but we fell among thieves and ended up sitting in an area called "Satay by the Bay" which had various food and drink outlets. Many beers later we headed back to the ship by taxi for our last night on board.
My plans to photograph wildlife fell by the wayside other than this!
A nice little Common Kingfisher and nothing special to me but to the local enthusiasts it was a rarity and there was quite a number of assembled photographers and twitchers all within a few feet of where we were sat drinking. Now that's what I call proper birding!
The following day we were expected to leave the ship as early as possible, they had a new passenger list to prepare for but our tour would continue on with flights to India and the rest of the day there at leisure.
Wrong! Once again the original brochure failed to deliver what was promised. Out flight to Delhi wasn't until around 20.30 so we had all day to kill. When this was highlighted to our tour company they did at least arrange a short trip around Singapore to show us the four distinct quarters but we were still delivered to the airport at around 2.00pm.
Why that early? Because the majority of our party of 69 were flying on a Singapore Airways A380 at 17.30, 17 of us were there for an other three hours waiting to board our flight.
The "rest of the day at leisure" in Delhi was spent in the immigration queue in Delhi airport. and we didn't get to bed until 2.00am.
TBC
No comments:
Post a Comment