Raffles Marina, SIngapore
November 27th, 2019
We arrived at Raffles Marina, on the far western shore of Singapore on Monday November 17th. The Singapore Police stopped us as we were about to reach the CIQP dock (Customs, Immigration, Quarantine), but after assuring them that we had an agent and an appointment to clear in, they untied their launch and let us tie up at the dock. The marina was ready for us and formalities did not take long, and soon we were in our berth. The marina's electrician made necessary adjustments to our power supply, and the step-down transformer we had purchased in Puteri, and soon the air-conditioning was blowing cool air into the cabin.
We have had dinner a number of evenings at the pub and the restaurant at the marina, and the menu is a mix of Asian, Indian and western.
After a day of working on Lady, we were ready for an outing to somewhere. Getting local cash, SIM cards, Internet service and a few groceries were on the list. Dutch cruisers Wietze and Janneke on Anna Caroline had been at Raffles the week before and seen Lady's name on the list of expected yachts and left us their MRT cards with enough deposit on them to get us started on using Singapore's amazing transit system.
The marina has lovely gardens and plantings around, which we admired on our way to the station.
We are certainly in an up-to-date country. Good roads and public trans-portation. The station had super-clean rest-rooms, escalators that worked. Such a treat. We rode the MRT about six stations to the Boon Lay shopping mall. We apparently traveled at a very off-peak time (10:00am!!!).
We admired the scenery as we sped along.
After six months of cruising, we have quite a bit of deferred maintenance and cleaning to do on Lady. We have decided that as we are in no rush to see all of Singapore (Lady will be here until February), we will spend alternate days working on the boat and exploring this country.
Another day we went to the National Museum of Singapore and learnt a lot of the history of the country. Our tour guide was an ex-pat from New Orleans! In four hours we did not see all of it, so another visit may be in our future. This tree was one that has been preserved...the city has grown so much that many trees have been cut down for buildings.
We have been to China-town twice.
Just moseying around we found a tailor who makes beautiful clothes We were not in the market for suits, or dress clothes, but a new silk robe was certainly something Charlie could use...and Christmas is coming, so we spent some money with Jimmy and Monica at Abbas.
Such interesting historical shrines, and local markets.
We found a Michelin starred market restaurant and had a delicious lunch at Hawker Chans for less than $20US.
More boat maintenance and exploration to come!
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