My wife, Bernie, and I no longer exchange presents. We’re old. We have all we need. But last Christmas, in her card, I left a special message: I’m giving you a “trip of your lifetime” back home to Indonesia. Later, I set a very generous budget, with the only requirement being all flights be business class. Her and Elite Voyages did all the planning. Elite Voyages did an excellent job for us! 👍
Monday (9/22): We flew from Phoenix to San Francisco. Then, after a 5-hour layover, on to Singapore. It was a 16-hour United Airlines flight across the central Pacific Ocean: Midway Atoll, the Mariana Islands, over the Phillippines’ Surigao Strait, along the north coast of Borneo, arriving at Singapore Changi Airport on 9/24. (You lose a complete day crossing the International Date Line from east-to-west.)
Wednesday (9/24): After checking in at JW Marriott Singapore South Beach, and grabbing a bite to eat at its Executive Lounge, we took a stroll around the block on Beach Road, Bras Basah Road and Nicoll Highway. The Civilian War Memorial was the highlight.
Thursday (9/25): After a very nice, complimentary, buffet breakfast in the hotel’s Executive Lounge, we met up with our friendly tour guide Mr. Chang, from The Traveller DMC. First stop was Merlion Park, on Marina Bay. The Merlion is a water spouting, lion-headed, fish-bodied statue that is Singapore’s official mascot. I could not get a decent photo of Marina Bay Sands SkyPark, due to haze and backlighting. (It’s the distnctive triple tower, that looks like it has a ship on top.)
Next stop was Thian Hock Keng, a beautiful 200-year old Fujian-style Buddhist temple in Chinatown. No photography allowed: Trust me it is worth a visit. After that, the Singapore Botanic Gardens to look at orchids. Literally thousands of orchid species! I love flowers, and could have spent all day there, but it was so damn hot & humid that sweat had soaked into my iPhone, making photography painful. 🥵
I’m forgetting a few stops. We were just glad to get back to the hotel and its AC. The NCO Club was not open, so we repaired to Tonic, the casual lobby bar, for refreshment, and an early dinner. (Personal size margherita pizza for me.) Tonic is a “gin bar”, with over a hundred gins from around the world.
Friday (9/26): After another delicous Executive Lounge buffet breakfast, we headed out to Marina Bay Sands SkyPark. It’s a little over a one mile walk, across the Helix Bridge, but given the equatorial heat & humidity, instead opted for the MRT subway. The MRT is everything that is good about Singapore: Clean, safe, organized, and well lit. (It helps when you hang heroin traffickers like they did on Wednesday.)
From the MRT Esplanade (CC3) station, we rode the orange Circle Line one stop to Promenade (CC4 / DT15). Switching trains, we rode the blue Downtown Line one more stop to Bayfront (DT 16) — the Marina Bay Sands station. You bank card in & out of the subway, so no idea what it cost. 🤷🏻♂️
The SkyPark Observation Deck currently costs S$35 (~US $27). The views were incredible.
Returning to the MRT, we backtracked to Esplanade (CC3), but got lost exiting the station: The underground is many levels, with shops, restaurants, and even a casino! We emerged on the wrong side of the Formula 1 track, at Memorial Corner (turn 7). Normally, you just cross the street, but the race is next week, so everything was blocked off. Lunch again at Tonic Bar, and dinner at the Executive Lounge.
Saturday (9/27): Yep, you guessed it, another buffet breakfast in the Executive Lounge. Since the cost is built into the room price, might as well eat “free”, rather than pay again to eat at a restaurant. After a late checkout, we chauffeured back to Singapore Changi Airport. After a couple of hours in Singapore Airlines’ SilverKris Business Lounge — much of it spent tweeting — it was off to Indonesia!
