Frugal Bastard's Cruise 2008 - Day 2 - October 5th 2008

After going to be past midnight Miky wanted to walk prior to 7am. Upon her return we had a swim then a quick shower before a lovely buffet breakfast. My friend Vanessa was meeting us at 9am to go out. We visited the Raffles Hotel firstly.

The Raffles Hotel in Singapore.

The inside courtyard of the Raffles Hotel.


And then we walked to the Singapore Flyer. The tickets that Vanessa had bought for the previous night were ok to use. What a brilliant attraction. Exciting too. You could see for miles. Well worth the money and definitely a highlight of Singapore.

Singapore is quite a futuristic-looking city.

No sleeping sign in an underpass.

Obviously this is an illiterate Singaporean.

Welcome to the Singapore Flyer.

Amazing soccer pitch in the harbour.

The Singapore Skyline.

Massive works going on in the harbour.

View atop the Singapore Flyer - 42 stories up.

View of the grand prix track.

The Singapore Flyer from below.


We had lunch in a foodhall but not at Famous Amos or Yu Kee. There was a tropical downpour during lunch so it didn't matter that the Boy took a little bit longer to finish his lunch.

Famous Amos - I work with a Singaporean called Amos.

Yu Kee - not a perfect name for a restaurant by any stretch of the imagination.

US Presidential election fever has obviously hit those in Singapore who think they can make a buck out of it.

PISSA health ceatre - marginally better English than in Hong Kong.


The girls went shopping at OG near Bugis Station whilst we boys went to the Sim Lim Square Building which contains six stories of electronic goods. We compared prices for a Nintendo Wii, Wii Fit and a Canon Ixus 90IS digital camera. It was a bit exhausting and there were no fixed prices. One guy offered me the camera for S$390, which was about S$40 more than other shops and when I told him that it was too expensive he dropped the price to S$330. Disgusted that he'd shaved S$60 off the price just like that I walked out. He shouted out to me that he could sell it for S$280! I think it's a disgrace to try to make S$110 profit like that.

Met the girls before going back to the hotel. We grabbed our belongings and checked about 3:30pm, as the Holiday Inn Park View offered a late 4pm checkout, and took a taxi to Harbour Front to check in for the cruise. Arrived at 3:55pm which was only 35 minutes before check-in closed. It had opened at 2:30pm. The travel agent never told us where to go or what time to check-in.

First view of Superstar Gemini.


One of the first things to do on board was take part in a safety drill. Several hundred people with life jackets on was a funny sight. Before tea I checked out the facilities. We had a lovely buffet meal, followed by a tour guide presentation followed by Hot! Hot! Hot! - an entertainment extravaganza with Brazilian dancers, Chinese acrobats and a Belarus ballroom dancing championship winning team. Great stuff. Yu-Jin was able to have a swim in the pool on deck eight and Miky worked out in the gym.

Cool dude in a life jacket.