A Long Trip (Part I - to Singapore then Bali, Indonesia then back to Singapore, Jan.31 - Feb.9, 2025)

This might be our last long trip which will be close to 3 months. We will cover New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Bali/Indonesia, Japan, and possibly China, staying for various lengths of time in each country. This is not a photography journey but I hope to take some photos that may qualify as photography shots. We may call it "a trip around the world" because we took advantage of the Star Alliance "around the world" program, and used our mileage to get business class seats for part of the trip.

It certainly has NOT been easy as the airlines impose very strict rules on when you can use your mileage for the tickets. We tried to use ANA the Japanese airline, because we like the Japanese airlines (they are clean) and they require the least mileage. But we were only able to book business seats on the Turkish airline from Boston to Istanbul, then to Singapore, then Singapore airline to Sidney. I am glad we will be in Singapore again (so I get to eat my favorite pepper crabs!). It's our first time on Turkish airline. After hearing bad reviews about having bed bugs on the business class seats, I am very apprehensive ....

We were only able to get econ seats on our return flights, as they would not release mileage tickets until 14 days before departure. This makes it would be very hard to arrange our plan in Japan and put a big burden on my mind ..... Oh well....

Friday, January 31, 2025 - Taking Off

The days leading to this day had been very hectic - in addition to the usual busy preps, I was having trouble with the new OWC disk followed by buying another disk from B&H then FedEx did not do their overnight delivery. I was totally stressed out. Fortunately the disk copying went rather quickly so I was able to send the OWC disk back in time. Ugh!!!

We were up before 7am and were busy with all the last minute stuff until the Uber driver picked us up at 2:30pm. on time. It started raining when we left, and the rain got harder when we arrived at Logan before 3:30. Turkish Airlines counter was supposed to open at 4, but they actually checked our luggage in before 4. Nice. Going through security was very smooth - first time enjoyed our global pass, really made a difference! The TSA people's attitude was a whole lot better than before!! Go figure!....

Turkish Airlines shared its business class lounge with Lufthansa. There were not too many people so that was nice. Food wise there was nothing to write home about. We waited for almost 4 hours, but I'd rather be this way than staying at home and wait till the last minute.

Our flight was supposed to take off shortly after 8, but it was after 8:30 when it finally took off. The air craft was not new and the business class seats were nowhere near the quality of the ANA flights I took. But the service was courteous and the food was better than a lot others. The flight to Istanbul took around 9 hours. I hardly slept any - again watched a few TV movies, including Godfather I and II - enjoyed them even better as I missed a lot of details when I watched before.

The airport at Istanbul was quite large and we walked a long way before we found the lounge. We were in Istanbul once before, during a cruise. Arriving from the ship was quite different from flying into the airport. The city appeared to be a lot more modern than I remembered, even though we did not get out of the airport, just got a glimpse from the plane.

We spent another couple of hours at the lounge. Turkish airlines indeed lived up to their reputation of having good food. The food in the lounge was among the best I've experience - a LOT of choices and really demonstrated its country's cuisine. I was not hungry but I ate more than I should which did not make my tummy feel good.

We boarded the aircraft after 4pm. Still with Turkish airlines but this time the aircraft seemed bigger and newer. The business class seats were similar to the ANA ones. Unfortunately Bob and I sat across the aisle - did not know how they arranged our seats this way. Bob probably did not pay attention. The flight was about 10.5 hours. This time I slept a few hours - really tired! I did not eat their dinner because of my stomach - needed to be more careful. But I ate breakfast - poached eggs, nice.

Sunday, February 2, 2025 - Arrived in Singapore

We arrived in Singapore around 8am. With 2 long flights in different time zones, I was totally messed up about the dates and times. So it feels like we skipped 2/1 and jumped from 1/31 straight to 2/2....

The pilot announced that the temperature was 26 celsius. I packed our vest/fleece away - bob was wearing a short sleeve shirt and I wore a long sleeve one layer blouse. Going through immigration was the most smooth I've ever experienced! Singapore really is doing a great job - Bob had to fill some online stuff so there was no hassle at the airport - simply scan our passports and do a finger print scan and that was it! Pretty amazing.

Then it took me a while to get an esim card at the airport. We definitely overpaid - about $35. I really should have done it at home but I did not know which to get .... This one is supposed to work in Bali as well, through roaming. We will see.

It took us a bit to get to the right floor to get on the taxi. The taxi was not cheap, maybe it's because somehow they got us a van type - we really did not need a car that size. The driver was nice - I had forgotten that people in Singapore all speak Chinese, Mandarin! Communicating with them sometimes is much easier in Chinese than in English.

Even though it was a splurge for us to book into the Fairmont hotel, we're glad we did. We need a good hotel to rest after the long flights!! We both washed (after two nights without washing!) and I repacked the two suitcases so we need to bring only one to Bali tomorrow and store the large one at the hotel. By the time we got all these done it was already 1pm.

The first thing we did was going from the hotel to the shopping/eating area beneath the hotel. That's where we had the delicious sandwich, with squid ink bread and prosciutto, 12 years ago. We took the escalator down - wow the place has changed SO MUCH!! There are so many eating places now and so many stores! Unfortunately we could not find that bakery - we seemed to have found the place but there was no squid ink sandwich .... It was quite crowded and it dawned on us that this is still during the Chinese New Year celebration period!! We walked around - there were SO MANY good eats that I would have loved to try but could not decide which one. Finally we went to Ding Tai Feng - the famous Taiwanese soup dumpling restaurant we knew it was good! We had our soup dumplings plus a couple of small dishes. After that we went back to the sandwich place and asked the lady behind the counter. It turned out that WAS the same bakery, called Tiong Bahru Bakery. They still have the sandwich with squid ink bread!!! We will be back tomorrow!!

Before coming back to the room, we went into the Raffle hotel city which is a shopping mall. The underground area seems to be all connected. But it was rather confusing for us. But we finally found our way to the Fremont hotel without stepping out into the heat!! I found the heat quite unbearable! Just like the taxi driver said, in Singapore the climate has only hot and hotter.

As for where to go for the black pepper crab, I changed my mind - instead of going to the nearbv "low brow" place, I thought we would go to a more reputable restaurant. So we thought we would go to Jumbo Seafood restaurant. We went down to the concierge desk to ask, and ended up taking his suggestion to go to the Chinese seafood place called "Red House Seafood" restaurant that is 10 minutes walk. It turned out the walk was rather short and the place is right by the bay.

As we started walking we noticed it actually rained while we were in the hotel room. And there was still some drops coming down - a few people were using umbrellas! Fortunately the rain did not worsen.

We found the restaurant, ordered 1 pepper crab, 1 prawn dish that looked like what Bob would enjoy, and a vegetable dish, plus two hot and sour soup, and two beers. The dishes all tasted good, but the crab was really really messy to eat. I was not able to eat the legs, and I had the sauce all over my face! Ugh .... I did not remember it was such hard labor! And so messy!! The worst part was, the meal cost us 320 SGD which is $240 USD. Gee!!!! I will not order the crab again! Not worth it! I need to find out where I could buy the sauce~

Back to the hotel room. Will wash soon and go to bed. Really feeling tired now.

Monday, February 3, 2025 - Singapore to Bali, Indonesia

Had a good night's sleep but woke up at 3am and did not go back to sleep.

We were up around 7am and headed out to the under ground mall eager to retaste my squid ink bread sandwich. It took us a while to find that bakery among the mirage of eating places - thank goodness I took picture of the name of the bakery, otherwise we would not have been able to find it!

After breakfast we went to the grocery store inside the mall and got my black pepper crab sauce pouch - that will be as far as I go this trip for my favorite crab dish!

Back to the hotel and continue packing. Bob got a msg that our KLM flight to Bali is delayed for more than one hour. I emailed the hotel in Bali - Bisma 8. We will be there quite late.

We sent the luggage to be left behind to the front desk - all set to store there until we're back on the 8th. Then we checked out of the hotel by 12pm, and stored all our bags until around 2:30 when we would go to the airport. I could not find my long sleeve sun protection shirt so we went to the mall and found a Uniqlo, bought a sun protection light jacket. We finally got a hang of the mall.

The hotel has a hospitality room on the 6th floor, for their guests who need a place to rest before heading to the airport. I am so very glad that we splurged and decided to book Fairmont! It really is one of the best hotels - good facility, good service, good location, really no picks! IF there is a next time visiting Singapore, this would be THE hotel for us!!

We got a taxi and headed to the airport around 2:30. Going through immigration and security were very simple and smooth - I was very impressed with Singapore's efficiency! Then we found out that scanning our carryon's was to be done before we board the plane!

We spent around 2 hours at one of the lounges that AmEx priority pass entitled us to. It was a very disappointing lounge - the worst food I've experienced! And there were some people waiting there, not the kind I would appreciate. We waited for quite a while after getting to the terminal, and did not board until after 6:30. Bob got us econ plus seats which were quite nice. They even served us supper - food was a little better than what that lounge served, but not by much.

Flight was not that long - I had not finished watching the movie "Juror #2" then the plane started landing. A smooth landing.

Going through the Bali airport was by no means a pleasant experience. Bob had applied for the visa online and got charged more than $60 each, but he never got any response. Then it turned out he applied for C visa which would take at least 2 weeks to process. So we had to go to a "supervisor" who smelled of corruption (he was chatting with his colleague and not paying attention to us....) Finally he told us that we should not have applied for the C visa, and we should go back and go online to get a refund. And we should buy the visa at the airport, and we did that. We both doubt we would get the refund ....

After getting the luggage, it was around 11pm. Looking for our Bisma 8 driver took a while but we finally found him. He told us the drive would take about an hour. So he drove on the narrow roads with pretty heavy traffic (mind you, they drive on the "wrong" side!!) He told us that time was the rush hour, as many people who have the second shift were just going home. So we got to the hotel Bisma 8 after midnight. So why the name Bisma 8. He told us the street where the hotel is on is called Bisma, and number 8 is a lucky number. This hotel has two different locations - one is the hotel, the other is the villas. I booked the visa. The two locations are near each other - perhaps 10 minutes walk apart.

We're in the Ubud district which is not by the ocean - I think I knew this when booked, but now I'm not sure if it was the right decision .... This area is in the woods, close to the monkey forest. Then I found out they have mosquitos!!! That is something I did NOT think of!! My heart started sinking ....

We got to our villa - #6. I must admit aside from the weather and the mosquitos, the villa was not bad. Rather spacious, with its own private pool, living room and kitchen on the first floor, then the master suite on the second floor which had air condition (so the temperature was tolerable). The bed had a mosquito net but if there are mosquitos in the room the net would be useless as it has many places the mosquito could come in. The room has been sprayed obviously and the smell is not pleasant. But we noticed the smell less as we stayed in there ....

By the time we washed and went to bed, it was 2am.

Tuesday, February 4, 2025 - First Day in Bali

We were up around 7 - would have liked to sleep more but somehow did not ....

Had breakfast at their Embers dining room/restaurant. Enough choices - tea, coffee, fresh juice, fruit plate, eggs, etc. etc. But the quality of the food was just okay. Service was very friendly though.

On the way back to our villa we chatted with their day time receptionist and found out how to walk to town and the market place. Then we started our first adventure - walking to town.

It was a tiring and unpleasant experience - weather was very hot and extremely humid, and the street was lined with mostly junky stores. There were a few quality ones such as the one selling hand made batik scarf etc. The street was narrow with heavy traffic; the side walk was narrow and full of parked mopads making it hard to walk especially with the cars running right by you. We walked quite a distance to the market place, which sold mostly clothes and crafts - it was so hot that we did not explore much and turned around to head back to the hotel.

I was starting to feel sick - dizzy and about to faint. We stopped at a place that rents mopeds etc and sat down on their steps. They were very nice and offered to send me back on their mopeds. I insisted on paying them so they said 10,000idr (which turned out to be about 60 cents US). The guy was really quite kind and he drove me back - only a couple of minutes ride. I was grateful!

I rested in the lobby for a while before coming back to the room. Originally I was hoping to jump into the pool, but too lazy to change into the swimming suit ....

We booked a private tour to the rice terrace "Jatiluwih Rice Terrace" - we're supposed to meet the drive at 7am and it's supposed to be a 2-hour drive. There is another rice terrace named "Tegallalang" - wonder if we could see both ....

I would also like to see some beaches and famous bars - will see if can do it the day after ....

4pm now - have no idea what to do or where to eat .... The weather has made this Bali trip rather disappointing ....

Feeling very tired so we had dinner at Embers - not bad, I had seared octopus and grilled asparagus, Bob had seared duck breast and a beat salad. The only complaint I had was the walnuts in the beet salad was stale ....

Call it an early night - tired and need to be up at 6 for the drive to the rice terrace starting at 7am.

Wednesday, February 5, 2025 - Jatiluwih Rice Terrace, Ulun Daru Beratan Tample, and the Bird Park.

Had a decent night's sleep but woke up after 2am and got up at 6, to meet our driver at 7am. It was the driver who picked us up at the airport, Risky - a nice 25-year-old kid. The hotel prepared box breakfast for us but forgot to give them to us, so Risky had to turn back to get them - fortunately he did not go too far yet.

The drive to this UNESCO rice terrace took almost 2 hours. But it was a bit disappointing for me, as the place appeared still too touristy, plus I did not have the energy and stability to walk and look for good photo spots .... Perhaps I'll have to go back to China to look for such a place, some day !! .... I was more attracted by the many roaming little dogs - I worry about them and feel bad for them.... Too dangerous to be on the street!!....

After the rice terrace, Risky took us to a place called Ulun Daru Beratan Tample which is a beautiful lake park with beautiful temples in the water. A well maintained beautiful park. What's shocking was the weather - it was very cool!! And the rain sprinkled - I regret we did not bring a jacket. But we did not stay too long. One thing I noticed was the gate to temples - very unique of Indonesia! It is like someone took a cut from the middle of a triangle gate - not sure how to describe it. Risky told us that every family has a temple, of course not all big temples. That's why along the way we saw so many temples!! I asked Risky what was the main religion. He told me it is a derivative from the Hindu religion. I cannot remember the name.

After the lake, I asked if there is a place we get to see the exotic birds, so he took us to the bird park. It was probably another 1.5 hour drive and I'm not sure what district of Bali it was in. There were two parks there - one bird the other reptile, of course we did not do the reptile.

The bird park was nice! Lots of beautiful colored birds! And I even took pictures with those parrots - the photographer used my camera so I did not have to pay. If the weather were not that stifling hot, I would have stayed longer as I do enjoy them!! But it simply was just too hot!!

I did not have any breakfast so by 1pm I was feeling a little hungry. We asked Risky to bring us to an Indonesian restaurant that he liked so the three of us had a late lunch there. The place looked nice. We had our own "room" above the fish pond, with a big table that can seat 8, by the fields with tall grass or something. Bob and I had some crispy duck, Risky had his traditional Indonesian rice and chicken. The food was fine, but I don't think I care that much about Indonesian food - a bit too rich for me. I think from tomorrow on we'll look for noodles, etc. Forget about the carb thing for now ....

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at two supermarkets and I got more mangosteen and passion fruit etc. Happy about that.

Tonight we will go to the central palace of Ubud where they have Balinese dance show from 7:30 to 9pm. The hotel will have paid transport service for us.

Tomorrow we will head to a beach and bar, and watch sunset over the water. Risky said it's better to leave around 1 or 2pm, to avoid the heat. I need to do some research to find out more about the beaches and bars, then talk to the receptionist to get things nailed down. Two more days at this place.

Thursday, February 6, 2025 - To Uluwatu Temple

The dance last night was very interesting - if we bothered to read the introduction we would have understood more. It was some sort of a story, involving human, lion, and monkey, etc. The dance style has a lot of similarity with that of other south east Asian countries such as Thailand, etc. in my opinion, especially the hands movements. But what seemed to be unique was the eyes and eye movement of the ladies. Quite amazing!!

The show started at 7:30. We went in around 6:45 so we were able to get good seating spots. Later the place was full so people were sitting on the ground. The weather was so hot and humid and I felt SO sticky! We left 3/4 of the way as we did not want to deal with the all the crowds exiting. We got a taxi (for 100,000rid) - he wanted more but I said the hotel told us this price and he accepted.

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It turned out that the royal palace where the dance show took place was right next to the market we walked to the first day!!! And the streets around there were much less junky than the monkey forest road we walked the other day. If the weather is not what it is now, I would not mind going through the shops, despite the tourists crowd. But not now!

We slept ok last night after washing and cooling down a bit. I woke up around 2:30 and slept off and on until past 6am. After breakfast at Embers we chatted with the receptionist about our plan with Risky this afternoon. He connected me with Risky on whatsapp and we decided to meet at 12pm at the lobby.

We took a walk to the Bisma 8 hotel - I thought it should be an easy walk but ended up missing it and walked more than needed. But we finally found it and the receptionist (whom we met before at the Villa side) showed us the room and the swimming pool. Quite nice!!! If I had known the weather is like this, I would have booked the hotel because the rooms all have AC, as opposed to the villa here, where the rooms downstairs are open to the air .... Oh well!

We had trouble again with the lock to our villa - it could not be opened. They had to work on it while we took the walk to the hotel side. It turned out that when we leave the villa we do NOT need to lock the door - we should just close it and it locks. And when we tried to lock it from the outside, somehow it got into a deadlock situation. Nobody ever told us that!! I must say even though the service here is super friendly and nice, they need some more rigid training on what to tell the customers. Maybe it's because we arrived past midnight so the receptionist did not know everything? He gave me a small bottle of sanitizer when I asked for some mosquito spray, which I did not find out until the next day when the room service guy told me .... I think it's all good intention but the execution needs more training.

We met Risky at 12pm and nailed down our afternoon itinerary - we would head for Uluwatu temple to watch the sunset and see some beaches, then find a bar for dinner. The drive would be long, probably 3 to 4 hours each way, but that's ok. We met at 1:30pm and took off.

As we left Risky warned us that there were monkeys at the Uluwatu temple and those monkeys are not as well-behaved as the ones near us in the monkey forest. We needed to be careful, not to wear sunglasses, etc. etc. I got really scared and almost wanted to turn back. I had brought my real camera gear .... Then I started googling about monkeys at that temple and confirmed that it really is something we must be careful. I decided I would not take the camera out and will leave all the valuables (passport etc) all in the car. The weather did not look like we would see any sunset today so the iPhone would do for the photos.

We got there almost three hours later. We drove through areas that had wide multiple lane highways, modern buildings, etc. Totally different from Ubud. But one minute we were on the highway, the next minute we were in small alleyways with messy constructions and shabby stores .... could not find the right words to describe ..... Risky said there is an area where all the big hotels are, by the ocean, but we did not see it.

We got to the temple - Risky brought two sarongs for us as we must wear them to go into the temple ground. We did not linger anywhere and headed straight for the cliff view area. The monkeys there must be really smart - they are where the people/visitors are! There are much more monkeys there than what we encountered at Taj Mahal! I was really scared at first, but another visitor told me they were ok which helped. They did not bother us, since I did not have my hat on or sunglasses on. I had my phone in my hand and was consciously holding on to it. It was cloudy today, and somewhat foggy, there was no chance of a sunset scene, and there's no chance for any photography shots. The ocean was quite impressive - strong tides and waves. But they were building a road at the food of the cliff which ruined the scenery. They had to build the road so they could move the material to repair the cliff beneath the temple as that cliff had started to erode!

I think I took more photos of the monkeys than anything else. Some monkeys were indeed quite naughty - they took people's sunglasses, hairpins from girls' hair .... it was funny and scary at the same time. We were told to never make eye contact with the monkeys and we all listened. Thinking back, it was rather funny.

We left the temple, giving up on the sunset watch as there would not be any. Risky asked if we want to see some beach, I'd love to, so he drove us to something called Dreamland beach. It turned out to be a very dumpy place - dirty, messy, rather gross. We spent maybe 5 minutes and left. Risky really is a good kid. He is very young and has not learned to sense what people's desires are in terms of what types of places to visit ....

By that time I had given up the wish to see a bar, and I wanted to have dinner and go back. I suggested Chinese, or Indian, or Thai, or Japanese and eventually found an Indian restaurant not too far away. It's Risky's first time eating Indian food. I think he enjoyed it. The food was ok -not as good as what we have in the US (even the mango lassi came in a bottle and did not taste that great).

The drive back took more than 2.5 hours - better than going. It was a long day of driving for Risky, especially in the forever rush hour situation. We appreciate it! He asked me about the plan for tomorrow - I said his suggestion of going to the smaller rice terrace close by would be good. So we will meet at 8 and go there. He said after that we could see the water park temple and an old Balinese house. So we will do that - really don't have much else to do in this heat! I really regret I did not book an ocean front place!!

After 10pm now. Time to wash and go to bed.

Friday, February 7, 2025 - Tegallalang Rice Terrace, Tirtha Empul Tampaksiring, Umah Bali Kuna, and barbecued pork Indonesian lunch

We were up at 6, had breakfast at 7, and met Risky at 8 to head to the Tegallalang rice terrace. It was much closer to us than the other rice terrace and it is a much much smaller one. It was a very green area amongst the tropical "forest", unfortunately it was almost like a amusement park, with multiple swings, zip lines, etc. If I were 40 years younger, I would have definitely gone on one of those swings!! Always loved swings since I was a kid, but not now. Glad we went and saw it, but really did not need to take out the real camera.

Second stop, the sacred spring temple (not sure if that's the real name). Risky tried to explain to us the importance of this temple but I did not really get it. It has a sping and people would go into the area like a swimming pool with clear spring water coming out of the sculptured spout, cleanse themselves, and pray, etc. Quite a lot of foreign visitors actually joined local people to do that. Bob did not bother to come into the temple - maybe he really did not want to put on the sarong again. I honestly did not have much interest but I did put on the sarong and went in.

Third stop, the traditional old Bali house - I did not think I would be interested but it turned out to be one of today's highlights. This old house sits in the middle of a jungle area, surrounded by lush troipcal vegetation - fruits, spices, vegetable, etc. The girl named "tsi tsi" spoke decent English and was very pleasant. She really knows her stuff and showed us coffee beans still green on the plants, vanilla beans on the plants, jack fruit, duran, ginger, tumeric, etc. etc. The traditional Bali house has a yard with a nice front gate. When you come into the gate, there is a wall-like structure which would protect the family's privacy. At the center of the yard there is a structure for the family's important event ceremonies. The house on the north is the main house where the eldest of the family member llives. The house on the south is the kitchen, and the house on the east are for other family members - more houses can be built on the east as needed. To the east I think is the family temple.

This seems to be also a family business which produces various teas, flavors of coffees, and most importantly the Kopi Luwak - the cat poop coffee! Just like the place we visited in Taiwan. But here the "cats" were wild - they live in the jungle so people had to go and search for their poops! We paid for a cup of the poop coffee, but neither bob and I liked it. We had the complimentary tasting of various teas and flavors of coffee, I ended up buying three flavors of teas: Mangosteen skin tea, ginger tea, and some sort of a flower tea. They all tasted good to me, and have special health benefit, if you believe it. Aside from paying for what we bought, they asked for voluntary donations - I liked "tsi tsi" so we put in 200000ird. This has to be the visit I really enjoyed!!

Then we headed back to the hotel. I really wanted to try the Bali barbecued pork - one of the local specialties. So Risky brought us to barbecue pork restaurant called Babi Guling Bu Oka. Bob and I really enjoyed the simple meal!! I think Risky liked it as well. The only thing is they ran out of the crispy skins - which was my favorite! Oh well ....

The traffic back to the hotel was truly horrendous!! Worse than what we saw in Bankok or anywhere else. Risky said that is the road he takes every day riding his mopad to/from home - don't know how he had the patience to deal with it!!!!!

Back to the hotel around 1pm. No particular plans for the afternoon. Even though it is a bit cooler than the last three days, it is still very hot and humid, otherwise I would have loved to walk out for some window shopping! Risky told us about the local market from around 5am to 8 or 9am - we saw a little of it today. It is how the locals shop for their food. Vendors line up the streets with their produce - very interesting. It is not that far from here - just by the market place (and the royal palace where we watched the dance show), but I am not able to handle the walk in this heat ....

It is our last day here - tomorrow we check out of the hotel at 4 and our flight is after 9pm. In a way I feel relieved to leave this place as the weather makes me miserable; on the other hand, I feel that if we came during the dry season (May through October), I would truly enjoy experiencing this place, with such true, local culture. Shopping on the streets, despite the tourists, could be really fun! Oh well .... don't think there will be a next time for us, unfortunately.

I went downstairs to spend a little time with Bob - the heat downstairs is within his tolerance limit so while I am upstairs in the AC coolness he stays downstairs. I took a nap and we went out to find some food before 7. The other day while in the car I noticed some advertisement for noodles nearby so I wanted to explore, even though I was not hungry at all. The hotel directly across from us has a Japanese restaurant which tempted us, but I wanted to see where the noodles place was. It turned out that is in the Tejaprana Bisma hotel right there. We walked in and found out it was a very nice hotel, much more modern and polished than ours. The restaurant was at the top level, next to the beautiful infinity pool (which looked even nicer than the one at Bisma 8 hotel side. A rich 2nd gen Chinese couple were there with their kid swimming in the pool. From their accent I could tell the guy was one of those men with money but not much class - he tried to smoke in the none smoking section.....

We found the noodles place! But dining is outside and I was surrounded by mosquitos. The young waitress was very nice. She brought me mosquito spray as well as one of those mosquito incense to put under the table. I very much appreciate it!! We ordered the Indonesian fried noodles which was just what I hoped to get. Probably should not have eaten this much carb, but I chose to ignore it for now ....

Back to the villa. Bob is downstairs in the heat, I came up to the bedroom. There is only 1 chair here so unless we lie in bed there was no room for two people to sit ..... I really regret I booked the villa!!!! If I had known better, we would have been much happier to change into the hotel side room!! Sigh .... Too late now!

Oh the sunset view at the infinity pool was absolutely gorgeous!! I took a few photos - among the best of the trip so far, just phone photos. And I checked the price - if I booked through booking.com, only $576 for 2 nights all included .... Sigh ....

Saturday, February 8, 2025 - Return to Singapore

I did not sleep much last night - watched soap on the laptop then woke up before 3, did not sleep much after that. We did not get up till after 8. Had breakfast then back to the room to start packing. Checkout is at 12pm and our ride to the airport leaves at 4. Our flight is after 9 but we need to leave enough time because of the traffic. Don't know how to kill the hours after checking out. Probably just stay in the hotel and rest. Don't feel that good physically.

We ended up not going anywhere outside the villa compound - no energy to fight the heat. The receptionist called us and told us they postponed our checkout to 2pm and the porter will come and pick up our luggage around 1:45p. And that's what we did.

After checking out, they told us about the upstairs space above the reception area, which was new to us. It turned out the cooking classes, yoga and meditation sessions are all conducted there - nobody told us .... Oh well .... As I felt all along, despite the fact that the staff at the hotel/villa were all extremely friendly, they do need some more rigid training on what to inform the guests etc. For the price we paid ($400USD/night we expected more complete services).

So we grabbed a couple of chairs from the outside room and sat in the room for yoga with AC for about 2 hours, then got on the car to the airport about 4pm. I was very surprised to see Risky! He told us Saturday was his day off and one of his colleagues would be driving us to the airport. He showed up! It turned out that his colleague was sick, so he got called in.

We got to the airport around 6pm. Checkin and and security were not as bad as I expected, even though it was more cumbersome for reasons I did not understand (to checkin they needed to see all our itinerary after Singapore ..... why???). Our priority pass via AmEx allowed us to use one of the lounges (Concordian Lounge), which provided more comfortable seating than outside, less crowds, and some food. Definitely not anything worth mentioning, but I was hungry since 9am so I ate whatever I could stomach.

Our flight was at 9:40pm and it took off on schedule (the flight would go on to Amsterdam). The Singapore immigration (as far as you did the online visa stuff which Bob did) and customs were indeed one of the best and we went through smoothly. The taxi took us to the hotel around 1am.

I did not know we had a delux king room which pleased me greatly! 6 days ago we had room 2321 (south towere), this time we have 2630, same south tower. The room is really spacious - large bedroom with king bed and couch, bar, connected to the bathroom which had shower and tub, and next to the walk in closet with plenty of space. The entryway was quite spacious, with plenty of wasted space not sure designed for what. It felt SO GOOD after the 5 nights in the hot and humid villa .... I admit I really appreciate the modern creature comfort better than anything ....

By the time we went to bed it was after 2am. The bed and beddings were very comfortable!

Sunday, February 9, 2025 - Gardens by the Bay in Singapore

I woke up before 5 but went back to sleep until after 8. Tried to figure out what to do with breakfast - wanted to try the hotel offered breakfast (Asian and/or Western, of which I would only go with Asian). We found out where things were and went to check them out - because it is the weekend, the place was quite crowded, so we decided to try it tomorrow then headed to the underground food court at the mall.

All the Chinese eating places were not open yet, so we had something at the bakery we liked. Bob had a full breakfast while I had a latte and part of of an almond croissant which I later regretted ....

We found out that the restaurant DingTaiFeng would open at 11 - it was 10:30 already so we decided to wait - that's the food I would eat and I regret having had that croissant ....

I ordered the soup dumplings, of course, plus a chicken broth with pine mushroom, plus tender pea sprouts with garlic, hundred years old egg and dates stuff with sticky rice. Bob did not eat much since he already had breakfast. I ate as much as I could. Enjoyed everything. We decided that tonight we would come back to the food court and have dinner at a different restaurant.

We want to visit the Gardens by the Bay. I checked their web site and got very confused about the various combinations of ticket offerings. Talked to the concierge who helped us a lot. The taxi driver last night told us that the combination tickets are much less expensive than getting the individual ones, but if I want to see both the domes (the flower dome and the cloud forest and the skywalk - thee is no such combination ....) We will get the ticket when we get there and consult the office hopefully).

Bob could not find the tax related letter he was supposed to mail which annoyed me without end .... Then he did it online, he said.... We will see. It's about SS's tax in Philly. Sigh ....

We took off for the Gardens by the Bay shortly before 3. The taxi ride was only $10SGD - around $7USD? We decided to get the tickets for the flower dome and the cloud forest (which included the "Impressions of Monet"), plus the Supertree Observatory. The whole thing cost us more than $140SGD - not cheap. We were told that if it rains the observatory would be closed due to safety concerns and the tickets are non refundable, so it's best we see that first. That's what we did. The value of going onto the top of the supertree was to get a good view of the surroundings. We stood inline for the elevator - there were quite a lot of people today - Sunday plus still in the Chinese New Year celebration. But as I read in the reviews, it was manageable/tolerable.

Then we visited the flower dome - I was not impressed at all. Did not see many flowers, and more people than I would have liked. Then we visited the Cloud Forest - again not that impressed. On the way out we visited the Impression of Monet which I did enjoy!! I did not know what to expect, and it turned out to be a digitized display and animation of Monet and other impressionist artists' paintings! Very pretty and enjoyable. I tried to take photos and videos - I am sure there must be such shows elsewhere ....

We took a taxi back to the hotel around 5:30. Glad we did the visit, as we would have nowhere else to go, in the heat. And we enjoyed coolness during the visits! If I had to do it over again, I might want to take the hop on and hop off bus to get a better overall view of Singapore.

We had dinner at one of the restaurants in the underground food court - it was a SiChuan restaurant but it also serves delicious steamed meat bund (bao zi). One of the managers there was very aggressive getting people in, I happened to be thinking of going in, so we ate there. Food was good - we ordered a rice soup noodles for me, 3 meat buns (small), one vegetable dish, one shrimp dish, and some sweet and sour ribs. We're stuffed and I did not over eat - only drank the chicken soup of the noodle soup and left the noodles there.

Tomorrow will be another long travel day and night - flight to Sydney around 7pm so we'll leave the hotel around 3 or 3:30. When we get to Sydney on Tuesday morning, we will change flight to Queenstown without getting outside of the airport. Once we get to Queenstown we will start our self-drive journey in New Zealand until we get on the ship on 2/19.