Once our Vietnamese adventure came to an end it was back to Singapore for some clean streets, high end luxury stores and a self serve laundry which cost $8!!! Ridiculous pricing.

We then set forth on our next journey aboard the Royal Caribbean Spectrum of the Seas.

A large sized ship that currently runs 3 and 4 night cruises from Singapore for predominately Singaporean, Malaysian and Indian families.  During the Singapore lockdown these cruises went to “nowhere” and so were the only way to get out of Singapore and so were very popular. 

There were a ton of kids and some really large family groups travelling together on the ship. Apart from us the only other westerners we encountered were a family from Australia who we met at the bar. Cruises we have done previously from out of America, means that every seat at the bar is taken. Every sun lounger is claimed the minute you get on board and it’s hard to find a spot in the sun or at the bar. Not so much out of Singapore. The bars are empty. The sun loungers are empty. No one wants to drink or sunbath. Instead they want to play ping pong and badminton and ride the wave machine. They want to swim in the pools and eat all the food and basically have a great family time. That’s why it was just us and the Australians in the bar. 

We had an awesome time for five days, balcony sitting, cocktail drinking (try the floating colada) ,blackjack at the casino (came out even) and wandering about in the two ports we stopped at, Port Klang, the closest port to Kuala Lumpur and Penang a tourist mecca for short trips to Malaysia. Hot though, far out! Mid 30’s with 100% humidity is pretty gnarly when you are out walking.  

Days before we arrived to Singapore they had removed a mask requirement indoors and had also removed a requirement for a negative RAT before traveling.  The requirements around covid were changing daily so we never knew what we were going to get, masks or no masks and you never know what online health declarations you need to fill out before you arrive.

 After five days on the ship we left to go directly to the airport for our flight to Philippines. New country! Country number 83 for Jen and 85 for Nigel.  Let’s see how it goes!